Say Anything Blog

Over the next few days I'm going to be posting interviews I've done with three candidates for the Republican nomination to run for the U.S. Congress. Today is Hose candidate Duane DeKrey. Tomorrow is his opponent Matthew Mechtel and Thursday I'm hoping to have an interview up (I'm still hammering out the details) with Senate challenger Dwight Groteberg, who is running unopposed.

After I post all three interviews I'll put up a post about my reactions to each candidate and my preference for the nomination to run against Earl Pomeroy.

Here is the audio of my interview with him. Below you will find a full transcript. (more...)

Congressional Quarterly has downgraded its estimation of Earl Pomeroy's safety as ND's lone Representative upon learning of Duane DeKrey's candidacy.

Democratic Rep. Earl Pomeroy earned a career-high 60 percent of the vote in the 2004 contest for the only House seat in Republican-leaning North Dakota — even as President Bush was taking 60 percent himself at the top of the GOP ticket. The Republican nominee, Navy veteran Duane Sand, had fallen far short in a 2000 challenge to Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad, and the 2004 House result was similar. .

This year, though, GOP recruiters moved earlier and more aggressively. And their efforts produced a bid by veteran state Rep. Duane DeKrey, who they are touting as a top-tier challenger.

DeKrey still has much to prove to merit that designation in a congressional contest, but he does provide the Republicans with a candidate who could turn this race competitive. As a result, CQPolitics.com has changed its rating on the race to Democrat Favored from Safe Democratic.

That is a significant change, especially in light of the fact that DeKrey has not even gotten the state GOP's endorsement to run yet.

I just got an email from Republican House Candidate Ian Karvo's campaign manager (and Say Anything reader) Dustin Gawrylow stating that an announcement will be forhcoming on the campaign's blog.

My guess, due to the fact that the campaign website is now mostly blank, is that Karvo is pulling out. I also tried to interview Karvo over the weekend for a series of posts I'm doing on the NDGOP candidates for the House and both Karvo and his campaign manager stood me up. This lends further credence to my theory. I am also being told that "something" happened recently to make Karvo decide to pull out. What that "something" is isn't clear that this point, but maybe we'll find out.

Honestly, if Karvo did pull out it would be a good move. DeKrey and Mechtel are two great candidates, while Karvo is young, relatively unknown and (up to this point) has run a very amateurish campaign. Karvo may be a great addition to the North Dakota political scene down the road, but before he takes a stab at something like ND's only seat in the House of Reprsentatives he needs to get some more experience under his belt.

That goes for his campaign manager as well.

Update:

It is official:

In the best interest of my family, my own future in politics, as well as the party, I've decided to step aside at this time and no longer pursue the endorsement, nor will I seek a Primary campaign.

I appreciate the support that I have received from all involved, but I have realized just why so few people get involved in politics, and feel its better left to the professionals who can play the game without regret.

I wish the eventual nominee luck in November and will assist the eventual candidate if that is asked of me.

I still believe in my issues and positions, but at this time I am not the best ambassador for those issues or for the party.

Thank you again for all your support.

Like I said, this was a good choice.

CleanTheCapitol.org, which I pointed out belongs to Mike Liffrig a week ago, has gone live and Liffrig himself has confirmed that he isn't seeking the NDGOP's nomination for a Senate run.

That, of course, was a foregone conclusion with his good friend Dwight Grotberg running for the nomination.

The website is pretty slick. Lots of great information. I have one complaint though: No blog. The best way for Liffrig to get his message out and establish a presence on the web is to have a blog.

...and it isn't Mike Liffrig this time around.

I have a name, but it was told to me off the record. I can tell you that it is a male and a farmer from the southeast part of the state, but that's about it right now.

Given the difficulty the NDGOP has had in finding a challenger for Conrad (and the fact that a Liffrig candidacy hasn't exactly been enthusiastically endorsed by state Republicans) I'm guess Mr. Anonymous Candidate will probably end up with the nomination.

Update:

Well, since Dakota Huseby is publishing the name of the candidate I might as well too. His name is Dwight Grotberg. I am told that he is 39 years old and a farmer from Sanford, ND with 7 children.

According to SurveyUSA, North Dakota Governor John Hoeven is the most popular governor in the nation.

Given how things have been going in the state, with a $270 million (and growing) budget surplus and state-wide unemployment hovering at about 2.5%, this really isn't all that surprising.

(via reader Tom Dennis)

North Dakota State Rep. Duane DeKrey (R - Pettibone) may have a "chink in the armor" as he campaigns for the NDGOP nomination to run for ND's seat in the house against current Rep. Earl Pomeroy.

According to this political scorecard put out by North Dakota Outdoors Rep. Duane DeKrey got an "F" for his votes on legislation concerning hunting and outdoor sports.

Given that North Dakota has a vast number of citizens who are very active in the outdoors with activities like hunting and fishing this low-score for DeKrey could come back to haunt him. It will be interesting to see how he handles it.

This is what passes for an editorial at the Fargo Forum? In depth analysis like this:

Our president says we are making progress and stay the course. What planet is he living on? If this administration’s political strength is based on national security and fighting terrorism, then I am really worried.

And this?

We don’t know who is really in charge in Washington or if our leaders are intellectually capable to handle all the complex problems we face today.

Give me a break.

The Forum wonders if our leaders are "intellectually capable" to handle the "complex problems" we face today? Why don't they come right out and call Bush stupid rather than dancing around the issue?

And speaking of issues, what does this editorial really tell us? Oh sure it hits all the usual left talking points - Pointless war, tax cuts for the rich, Bush disconnected from reality, blah, blah, blah - but it doesn't go into much depth.

All I'm getting from this editorial is that some on the editorial board at the Forum hate President Bush, have bought into all the liberal talking points, but aren't capable of mustering anything more convincing than this limp-wristed re-hashing of a MoveOn.org press release.

The editorial calls for an abandonment of party loyalty and an embrace of reality. Perhaps the folks at the Forum ought to look in the mirror before they go about offering advice like that.

Update:

According to reader Tom Dennis it appears as though my criticism of the Forum may have been misdirected.

A quick observation: The Forum item you found is not an editorial. It's a letter to the editor that the Forum's Web process apparently failed to label as such.

I got suspcious when I saw the "editorial" starting with the words "I have a difficult time understanding ..." Take it from an editorial writer: It's very rare for an editorial to use the word "I" as the subject for a sentence. That's because editorials are supposed to be the consensus view of an editorial board, rather than the view of just one writer.

So, the word "We" makes it in, sometimes, as in, "We believe the governor should do XYZ"; but almost never will you find, "I".

The Forum's actual editorial for today is here: http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=121230§ion=Opinion

Note the tagline that reads, "Forum editorials represent the opinion of Forum management and the newspaper’s Editorial Board."

To confirm all this, I looked at the dead-tree version of the Forum that we get here in the newsroom, and sure enough, there's a letter on today's editorial page by one Lyle Peterson of Hope, N.D., and he's the one who writes "I have a difficult time understanding ..." etc.

So it's Mr. Peterson who's the sadly misguided one, not the Forum's editorial board! Although their Webmaster might need a talking-to ...

The letter came across my feed reader, and when I clicked through it was marked as an editorial.

I'm glad to hear this isn't the output of the Forum's editorial board as that would have been a sad commentary on the state of that newspaper.

Bismarck Tribune - Basketball and swimming are two of the main reasons state Rep. RaeAnn Kelsch, R-Mandan, won't be running against Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., this year.

Kelsch isn't trying out for the WNBA or the Olympic swimming team, it's her daughter's participation in those sports she doesn't want to miss.

Her daughter, Cassandra, a junior at Mandan High School, was part of the the Mandan High basketball team that won its fourth state championship in a row this year.

Kelsh said she considered running, but she decided not to because she wants to have the time next year to attend her daughter's sporting events.

This from Kelsh ties in with rumors I've heard before about possible ND candidates for Senate not wanting to run because, frankly, they're happy living in North Dakota with their families and don't really want to disrupt that.

Anyway, only Mike Liffrig (who I am convinced is running) has come out as a challenger to Kent Conrad, and he (I have heard through the grapevine) isn't exactly running with the state GOP's blessing.

Wow...

BISMARCK - North Dakota's state government budget surplus is often reported at just over $100 million, a healthy sum by historical standards - but less than half of what the surplus really is. It's more than $270 million, and climbing. . . .

The number compares the Legislature's tax collection estimates in March 2005 with actual numbers. Lawmakers used the estimates to finish writing the state's two-year budget.

In the March 2005 estimates, the Legislature guessed the state's general fund would have $593.7 million in tax and fee collections by February 2006. The treasury actually collected $703 million, or $109.3 million more, an increase of 18 percent.

The extra money is commonly referred to as the treasury's budget surplus. However, it doesn't include two large reserve funds, a $99.5 million "budget stabilization fund" and a $71 million permanent oil tax trust fund, which legislators have often used to cover current state spending.

The stabilization fund, established in 1987, was intended to protect state programs from across-the-board budget cuts if state tax collections fell short of expectations.

It had nothing until last year, when extra tax collections quickly pushed its balance to its maximum of $99.5 million. State law caps the stabilization fund's balance at 5 percent of North Dakota's general budget fund, which almost is $2 billion for the 2005-07 budget period.

The oil fund was intended to stash extra oil taxes during industry booms, and carry them over for leaner times. Its $71 million limit will be reached this month, said Pam Sharp, the state budget director.

That's a big surplus for a little state. Of course, the big surplus is bringing the bureaucrats and big-government types out of the woodwork with ideas on how to spend it.

Lawmakers say the treasury's robust health will ratchet up budget demands during the 2007 Legislature, because local school administrators, college officials, nursing homes, state workers and other constituencies expect the state can afford to spend more.

"Obviously, there will be all kinds of people who would like to have increased funding for whatever program that they're interested in," said Sen. Bob Stenehjem, R-Bismarck, the Senate majority leader.

That is such nonsense. North Dakota is doing well. Our citizens are employed (our unemployment rate is rock-bottom low, any lower and we'd start having problems with inflation), our schools are performing well (and spending more on education doesn't mean performance will come up anyway) and the state's infrastructure is adequate. Plus, as the article points out, the state already has money set aside in two separate funds for lean times.

The only responsible thing to do with this budget surplus is to give it back to North Dakotans in the form of a rebate (the surplus is about $420 for every man, woman and child in the state but a rebate would be more as it would only go to taxpayers) and then cut taxes to be more in keeping with government need. This rebate/tax cut would ensure that North Dakota's economy continued to grow at the robust pace we've seen and would likely result in even more tax receipts for the government in subsequent years.

The only question is whether or not our state legislators have the cojones to stand up to demands from the state's bureaucrats and do the right thing.

This is just plain lazy, but sadly it is about par for the course for my hometown newspaper.

The excuse given from the editor of the paper is that they don't always "have time" to write their own editorials. That's pretty lame, though coming from a newspaper that spends so much time cribbing news reporting from the state's other large newspapers that Minot citizens often find themselves reading about local stories from an out-of-town perspective, it is probably about par for the course.

If they want editorials they should just ask me. I'm full of opinions.

Good job to Ryan Gustafson at Flickertail Journal for picking up on this, though I'm not sure that somebody who deletes all of their far-left blog posts right before announcing candidacy for the state legislature should be lecturing anybody about "trust" and "accountability."

So says Dakota Huseby.

Pretty funny, actually. The resemblance hadn't dawned on me before.

Well, it would appear as though someone out there is ready to take on ND Senator Kent Conrad that election cycle. Trouble is that we don't have a name yet.

I do have a guess, though, and I think it's a pretty good one: Mike Liffrig, who ran against ND Senator Byron Dorgan in 2004.

I have it on pretty good authority that North Dakota state Representative Duane DeKrey of Pettibone will be announcing his intention to seek the NDGOP's nomination to run against Earl Pomeroy on Friday.

Just a rumor at this point, but I'm about 90% positive that's what will be happening.

From what I know of DeKrey he'll make a much better candidate than Ian Karvo who is also seeking the nomination. Nothing against Karvo personally, I just get the feeling that he's all talk and no substance. The "issues" portion of his website reads like nothing more than a bunch of strung together buzzwords and his campaign, on the whole, has made me think of the words "amateur hour" more than anything else.

DeKrey is an experienced politician and will make a much better challenger for Pomeroy. Karvo will hopefully get some experience under his belt and try again in the future.

Weird...

WASHINGTON - A spokeswoman for Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., says she has no idea why the Justice Department took a look at Pomeroy's financial disclosure forms last year.

"These are public records that were looked at over seven months ago," Pomeroy spokeswoman Stephanie Craig said. "We haven't heard from anyone on this matter and don't expect to."

A woman who worked for the Department of Justice looked at Pomeroy's financial disclosure records, which are public, last August, according to Senate records.

The woman, Tonya Walker, logged into the public records system without identifying her employer when she viewed Pomeroy's records. Two months later, she pulled records for several other lawmakers, logging in as a legal assistant for Justice Department.

In October, Walker looked at financial disclosure forms for former Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and several other members and staffers who have been connected to controversial lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Abramoff pleaded guilty to corruption charges last January and is cooperating with the department in a congressional influence-peddling probe.

Craig said Pomeroy has no connection with Abramoff.

Like many members of Congress, Pomeroy returned almost $7,000 in campaign contributions linked to Abramoff earlier this month. Otherwise, he has not been linked to the scandal.

The Justice Department did not return a call for comment Tuesday.

Hard to say what they were looking for. As the article indicates the records are public. With the Abramoff scandal going on I assume that a lot of financial disclosure records have been reviewed.