Democrat PSC Candidate Brad Crabtree Proves That He’s A Dunce

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Written By:
Rob Port

Jun 20, 2012
4:27pm

Earlier today Republican PSC candidate Randy Christmann announced that he’d rather be elected to the PSC than appointed to it by Governor Dalrymple who had to pick someone to replace Commissioner Tony Clark who was appointed by President Obama to FERC.

Given Christmann’s decision, Governor Dalrymple chose to put Judge Bonny Fetch in as an interim commissioner until the election settles things between Christmann and Democrat challenger Brad Crabtree. But in response to Fetch’s appointment, Mr. Crabtree dropped this press release which proves the old proverb, “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.”

Via Teri Finneman’s Facebook page:

Just so we’re clear, Crabtree is a partisan candidate who received the Democrat party nomination to run for the PSC, and he’s complaining that the PSC is too partisan.

I think we can assume he means “too Republican,” and it is true that the PSC is very Republican. The PSC has only ever had one Democrat elected to it, Bruce Hagen, who served from 1961 – 2000. Outside of that every single commissioner elected since the PSC’s creation in 1941 has been a Republican.

But those are decisions voters made. Maybe Crabtree can turn that trend around, but given his large-margin loss to Kevin Cramer in 2010 and silly press releases like this, that’s doubtful.

As for PSC members taking contributions from people they regulate, it’s worth noting that claim is the subject of a lawsuit filed by Mr. Crabtree’s friends in the environmentalist movement (including the taxpayer-funded Dakota Resource Council), but Crabtree himself wasn’t all that worried about contributions from energy industry interests back when he first ran for the PSC in 2010.

Crabtrees concern only manifested itself when he decided he needed a hook for the 2012 election cycle.

Which means Crabtree is not only a dunce, but a hypocrite to boot.