North Dakota Democrat National Committeeman Calls Tea Party Organizers “Crackpot Smorgasboard”
Recently I gave an extensive interview to the Bismack Tribune for a feature article they’ve now published about the tea party movement in North Dakota. Several other tea party organizers/conservative leaders around the state were interviewed for the article, and overall it was a balanced insight into the state of the movement.
Frankly, I’m a little surprised that the Tribune is even interested. The photo accompanying their article is of a tea party event I helped organize on the steps of the state capitol in Bismarck. It was an event the Tribune didn’t even bother to send a reporter to.
Times have changed, no?
Regardless, perhaps more interesting than the article is the reaction to it on Facebook from the North Dakota Democrat Party’s new national committeeman Chad Nodland:
It’s nice to see that the left’s snooty attitude toward the tea party movement continues. Because it’s served them so well. As more and more Americans grow skeptical of the path Democrats have this country on, they continue to dismiss and deride the Americans expressing that skepticism.
Nodland’s arrogance, though, should be particularly troubling for North Dakota Democrats. During the 2008 election cycle they held a statewide convention that saw 16,000 attendees. Now, roughly two years later, they had just 300 registered delegates at the first day of their convention. One of their highest-ranking elected candidates, Senator Byron Dorgan, ran away from a race against Republican John Hoeven who now leads Dorgan’s replacement in the race by some 54 points.
Another, Rep. Earl Pomeroy, tried to run away into the life insurance industry before finally making up his mind to run against challenger Rick Berg (who currently leads Pomeroy by 9 points in the polls).
The ND Dems left their statewide convention without having found candidates for all of the statewide races. And while, after what was undoubtedly some strenuous behind-the-scenes arm-twisting, they have managed to fill all their statewide candidate slots, statewide they’re leaving more Republican candidates unchallenged (17!) than perhaps any time in modern ND politics.
In the recent primary elections held in the state, Democrat voter turnout was down 32.7%. Republican turnout, on the other hand, was up 27.7%.
The precipitous fall for the ND Democrats, from the height of the 2008 election, to the low of barely being able to scrape enough names to put on the statewide ballot, was brought on by the party’s shift left both in North Dakota and nationally. It’s going to be an ugly election year for Democrats nationally, and especially in North Dakota.
And now a far-left, arrogant liberal like Nodland is part of their party’s leadership.
Meaning it will be more of the same, I think, for Democrats in the future.
Tags: bismarck tribune, chad nodland, election 2010, North Dakota News, Tea Parties
