Conrad And Dorgan, Writing From Washington DC, Support Heidi Heitkamp

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Written By:
Rob Port

Oct 19, 2012
12:07pm

It’s been interesting to me that Senators Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan haven’t been spending a lot of time on the campaign trail supporting the federal campaigns of Senate candidate Heidi Heitkamp and House candidate Pam Gulleson. For the most part, outside of a few mentions in interviews and a few fundraising pitches, they’ve been non-entities on the campaign trail.

And perhaps for good reason. While Senators Conrad and Dorgan were known for being part of the “Team Dakota” triumvirate, with former Rep. Earl Pomeroy, who had a strangle hold on North Dakota’s federal offices for decades, I think Democrats know the political winds have shifted in the state. I don’t think Conrad and Dorgan are nearly the assets to a candidate in North Dakota they may have been once upon a time for the same reason why both, in recent years, chose retirement rather than re-election.

As I wrote earlier this week, if Conrad and Dorgan had thought they could get re-elected in North Dakota they would have ran again.

Anyway, for what it’s worth Conrad and Dorgan do have a short letter to the editor in the Grand Forks Herald today supporting Heitamp. It’s really short, and rather bland, making it seem like a not-so-enthusiastic endorsement, but what made me laugh was the headline over the letter:

That’s a letter from Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan not of North Dakota, but of Washington DC.

That’s fitting given that neither man has truly had a residence in North Dakota for years, choosing instead to claim sham apartments in a complex Conrad financed with a “VIP loan” as their official residences in North Dakota. In truth, Conrad lives in his $3.1 million Delaware beach house and Dorgan lives in his $1.1 million Virginia mansion.