In New Television Ad, Ryan Taylor Claims Oil Boom Is Hurting Children And Our Safety

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Written By:
Rob Port

Aug 28, 2012
4:11pm

“What would you give up for money?” asks liberal governor candidate Ryan Taylor in his new television ad. “Your child’s education? Your safety? Would you give up what makes us so special?”

He’s talking about North Dakota’s oil boom and the river of revenue it is pouring into not just the state treasury but into the pockets of individual citizens too. Taylor’s campaign has always been tinged with a hint of anti-oil rhetoric, but Taylor has always vehemently denied that he’s anti-oil.

Yet as the campaign rolls on, and it becomes clear that Taylor isn’t gaining a lot of traction, his message is getting more and more shrill:

Here’s the full text of Taylor’s ad:

What would you give up for money? Your child’s education? Your safety? Would you give up what makes us so special? North Dakota’s budget surplus is not what defines us. How we help those affected, and how we protect the quality of life all North Dakotans cherish will define us for generations to come. We’ve got a budget surplus, but a deficit of leadership. It’s time for real leadership.

Clearly Taylor doesn’t think the oil boom is a positive for North Dakota. Even given the challenges spiking oil production has presented for the state, it’s hard to imagine how anyone but the most myopic of ideologues could believe that.

But to the point, what exactly is Taylor proposing to do? Shut down oil production? Hamstring it with regulation and taxation? What do we tell to the mineral rights owners, property owners, workers and business owners out west? That we’re going to impede production so that it falls to some level that Taylor deems appropriate?

Taylor talks about leadership. Let me tell you that leadership isn’t choking the oil boom to death. Leadership is figuring out how to grow with the oil boom.

Taylor, it seems, is no leader.

Update: A reader emails, “Would you give up an unemployment check in Alabama for a paycheck in North Dakota? Would you give up a quiet night at your restraunt in Williston for one with the seets full? Do people seriously believe this? I havn’t given up anything for my prosperity here in the Bakken.”

Good points.