MINOT, N.D. — It’s been a circuitous route to the ballot for a ballot measure implementing term limits for North Dakota’s lawmakers and governor. State officials maintain that the signature collection process behind it was riddled with fraud, but the state Supreme Court put it on the ballot on a legal technicality, finding that the…
Cayler Ellingson deserves better than to be an avatar for cheap political talking points
MINOT, N.D. — Law enforcement officials investigating the death of 18-year-old Cayler Ellingson are saying they’ve found no evidence of political motivation in the killing. What worries me now is that law enforcement will be harassed by the political demagogues — people emotionally invested in the idea that this death has its roots in President Joe Biden’s divisive rhetoric…
Online idiocy takes over a small-town tragedy
MINOT, N.D. — In the early hours of Sunday, Sept.18, a 41-year-old man named Shannon Brandt allegedly ran over 18-year-old Cayler Ellingson. Ellingson is dead. Brandt has been charged with vehicular homicide . The story, as tragic and sad as it is, would have been nothing more than a regional headline but for a claim Brandt made…
Plain Talk: In second debate, Democratic-NPL ag commissioner candidate says vote for the Republican
MINOT, N.D. — Work around politics long enough, and you’ll hear everything. Including a Democratic candidate for statewide office saying you ought to vote for the Republican. Fintan Dooley, who was endorsed by the North Dakota Democratic-NPL this spring to take on three-term Republican incumbent Doug Goehring for agriculture commissioner, says you ought to vote…
Port: Wouldn’t it be nice if political leaders respected both immigrants and the need for border security?
MINOT, N.D. — The largely unserious demagogues who, at least nominally, are our leaders at the national level have been locked in a bit of political theater over illegal immigration. Border states with Republican leadership like Texas, Arizona, and Florida, the loci of our struggles with illegal immigration, have begun ostentatiously shipping illegal immigrants from…
Port: North Dakota’s open records laws, election conspiracies, and the tyranny of the confidently incorrect
MINOT, N.D. — A week ago I wrote about the legions of dopes and dupes who are flooding North Dakota election officials, at the state and local level, with open records requests for election data. Now comes reporter Michael Standaert with a deeper dive into the sorry situation . These dim bulbs have been led down the primrose path…
Port: As Trump embraces the Qanon movement, when are North Dakota’s Republicans going to turn away?
MINOT, N.D. — “What is the downside for humoring him for this little bit of time?” Those were the words of a Republican official, speaking about disgraced former President Donald Trump after his 2020 election loss but before the Jan. 6 riots, as quoted by the Washington Post . “It’s not like he’s plotting how to prevent…
Port: Let’s acknowledge the deceit at the heart of Cara Mund’s US House campaign
MINOT, N.D. — I like Cara Mund. I’m impressed by her political acumen. But there is something fundamentally deceptive about her U.S. House campaign. This self-proclaimed “independent” is trying to put one over on us. What we are being asked to believe is that Mund is a sort of moderate Republican and not a closet…
Plain Talk: Gov. Burgum says North Dakota’s baby boom is driving a need for new child care policy
MINOT, N.D. — When I began my writing career 20 years ago, North Dakota had an aging, shrinking population. Our young people were leaving. New people weren’t moving here. When we debated education, much of it was focused on what to do about declining enrollment. School closures and consolidation were a sad reality. Things have…
Port: Congratulations to Mac Schneider, but we need to pick up the pace with these appointments
MINOT, N.D. — I was happy to hear that Mac Schneider, a former leader of the Democratic-NPL caucus in the state Legislature, and a long-time lawyer with a strong reputation, was finally nominated to fill the position as North Dakota’s U.S. attorney . That I might disagree with Schneider’s approach to that job at times is irrelevant.…