Is Kent Conrad Going To Let Jack Dalrymple Appoint A Republican Replacement?

Update: Apparently Senator Kent Conrad told the Fargo Forum this morning that the OMB appointment was a “no.”

There have been rumors for weeks now that Senator Kent Conrad is being considered by the Obama administration for position at OMB vacated by Jack Lew who, in turn, replaced Bill Daley as Chief of Staff. I dismissed the rumors at the time because it wasn’t the first time Conrad was rumored for such a gig, and the idea of Conrad accepting seemed far-fetched.

But now there smoke is getting a little thicker, and it makes me think there may be some fire. Accordind to the Hill, Conrad’s office is clamming up when asked about the OMB gig:

Retiring Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) refused to comment when asked by his hometown newspaper whether he would be a candidate to take over the Office of Management and Budget.

Jack Lew, the current OMB director, is taking over as White House chief of staff following the retirement of William Daley earlier this month. Conrad plans to retire from the Senate at the end of the year after 26 years in the chamber.

The North Dakota senator’s name has been floated as a potential replacement atop the OMB.

This is interesting because, if Conrad steps down to work for the Obama administration, that means Governor Jack Dalrymple gets to appoint his replacement to serve from the point of vacancy until the next regularly scheduled general election.

With Conrad gone, Dalrymple could appoint Rick Berg (it’s safe to assume that would be his pick) who would then campaign against Heidi Heitkamp with the advantage of already being in office. Heitkamp, already a long shot to win, would face an even steeper climb to victory.

Berg’s vacancy in the House would then, I’m pretty sure, remain vacant until the election seeing as how the Constitution requires all House vacancies be filled by election and the vacancy would have occurred in the second year of Berg’s term.

This would be a big, big blow to Democrats if it happened (still a long shot, I think) but I wouldn’t put it past Conrad. His interests in North Dakota are minimal – his only tie to the state is a small, vacant apartment in Bismarck he maintains for official citizenship requirements – and he’s got an enormous ego that would no doubt be served well by service in his close friend Barack Obama’s administration. Plus, his colleague former Senator Byron Dorgan had no qualms about hanging the state party out to dry with a hasty retirement announcement made just before the 2010 cycle which left Democrats pitting cream puff candidate Tracy Potter up against Senator Hoeven.

Potter ultimately got less than 30% of the vote.