Say Anything Blog

BISMARCK – Five Republican legislators’ trip to Antigua early this month shows why the state needs stricter disclosure laws, North Dakota Democratic-NPL lawmakers said Tuesday.

Rep. Jim Kasper of Fargo led the trip to the Caribbean island nation to talk about Internet gambling and trade possibilities between the state and Antiguan officials. The others were Rep. Bette Grande, Rep. Ron Iverson and Rep. Blair Thoreson, all of Fargo, and Rep. Mark Dosch of Bismarck.

Sen. April Fairfield, D-Eldridge, and other Democrats introduced a bill in the 2005 Legislature that strengthened gift disclosure laws, but it was stripped of most of its new language by the Republican majority and then passed over Fairfield’s objections.

Fairfield proposed barring legislators from accepting gifts from lobbyists, with a list of exceptions. That was taken out and the $50 threshold for lobbyists to report expenditures was raised to $60.

“Perhaps now we have a fuller understanding of why Senate Bill 2303 was weakened,” Fairfield said Tuesday. “The question is not whether there are legitimate reasons for legislative travel.”

There are. The question is whether, in the interest of good government, all gifts that may influence public policy should be disclosed.”

Ok, here's where I'm at with this issue:

Kasper and his fellow legislators who traveled with him on this trip to Antigua handled the situation badly. They did not do anything wrong or illegal, but they should have made an announcement about the trip before they left. Because they didn't, the lefty demagogues in the state now have a large arrow in their quiver to aim at Republicans during the legislative session. This was a tactical blunder, not an ethical or legal blunder.

But that's not how it's being played.



It's easy for state Democrats to twist a perfectly legal and acceptable legislative trip to a beautiful place like Antigua into some sort of shady, under-the-table dealing and then cast aspersions about it. Especially when you've got a mouthpiece like the Fargo Forum available to trumpet the innuendo. Were this, say, a free trip to Siberia I doubt we'd be hearing much about it. After all, it's hard to insinuate a picture of greed and corruption with free trips to Siberia.

But, since this wasn't a trip to Siberia, that's exactly what is happening right now. The Forum starts this bouhaha with a rather misleading article about the trip, slams the Republicans with an editorial, and then hands over most of an article (the one above) to quotes from Democrats while burying Republican responses at the bottom of the article.

It seems as though the Forum is only really interested in one side of this story.

Also, this quote from Rep. Fairfield in the article is more than a little misleading:

“Perhaps now we have a fuller understanding of why Senate Bill 2303 was weakened,” Fairfield said Tuesday.

That's right. The Republicans obviously weakened the Senate Bill so they could make shady trips to Antigua.

Give me a break. Fairfield's propsed law, which addressed gifts from lobbyists, wouldn't even have applied in this situation (from the same article):

Secretary of State Al Jaeger said Tuesday that a foreign government is not considered a lobbyist.

Anyway, all that aside, I do think North Dakota needs to reform it's lobbying laws. Here's my proposal:

We place no limits on the amount of money lobbyists can spend on legislators, but we require that details on all money that is spent be made readily available to the public.

See, I have no problem with lobbying. I think it's a normal part of the political process and that when we limit it we risk also limiting political advocacy. That's not a healthy thing. So let's keep the system open, but also keep it transparent.

As for state Democrats, if they want to whine about this sort of thing perhaps they should first direct some questions their Senator Conrad and his relationship with "Aspen Group."