Heidi Heitkamp Needs North Dakota Voters To Ignore The Issues And Hate Rick Berg

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Written By:
Rob Port

Sep 27, 2012
12:18pm

“The first thing that needs to happen is everyone needs to climb out of the sandbox and start behaving like adults,” said Heidi Heitkamp in an interview given at the beginning of her campaign for the US Senate. “Every race that I’ve ever run, I don’t run against anyone; I run for the office. That’s my first priority, to tell people what I will do if they elect me.”

Things sure have changed since then. Heitkamp’s latest race in her US Senate race isn’t about issues at all, but is rather a very personal attack on Rep. Rick Berg’s association with a company that has a history of…fire code violations?

The issue of Berg’s involvement with Goldmark Property Management, which was cited for fire code violations after Berg left that wing of the company, has become a central issue in the race for North Dakota’s Senate seat. Both Heitkamp and Berg are relatively well-liked, so the effort now, on the part of Democrats, remains to portray Berg as a Republican extremist out to support his own interests with his work in the real estate sector.

It’s perplexing how Berg’s long-time association with Goldmark Property Management has become a “central issue” in the Senate race. And to be sure, the Berg campaign hasn’t handled it well, choosing to try and distance themselves from the company rather than questioning why Heitkamp is attacking a private business rather than talking about the issues.

The answer to that question, if the Berg campaign would ask it, isn’t a comfortable one for Heitkamp. Despite what the liberal candidate may have said in media interviews early in her campaign, this race can’t be about the issues. If it’s about spending and the national debt and the Obamacare policy and President Obama’s economic record then Heitkamp will lose. Because Heitkamp was (before she began backtracking during her campaign) a staunch supporter of President Obama and his policies, and that puts her far to the left of the North Dakota electorate.

So, rather than talk about the issues, Heitkamp must make North Dakotans hate Rick Berg. Which explains the attacks on Berg’s admirable business record and his personal wealth.

The only path to victory for Heidi Heitkamp is to tear down Rick Berg personally, and hope North Dakotans don’t remember that Heidi Heitkamp doesn’t stand with them on the issues.