North Dakota Democrats Have Picked Their Sacrificial Lamb To Replace Byron Dorgan

And he’s no stranger to the Say Anything audience. It’s none other than state Senator Tracy Potter. The man behind the National Heritage Area scandal we’ve followed so closely on the blog.
Potter (who has been known to refer to himself openly as a socialist), had to step down from the Northern Plains Heritage Foundation board, the unelected organization tasked with “managing” the 4.7 million acre federal NHA land grab, after his presence on the board became too much of a lightning rod for critics. And rightfully so.
Local government officials have accused Potter of being something less than truthful in his testimony to Congress in favor of the NHA land grab in which he suggested that it had the support of the local governments it encompassed. Indeed, according to an investigation by the North Dakota Policy Council, Potter claimed in testimony before Congress that “In public hearings before city and county commissions the meaning of such a program has been discussed and the commissions have unanimously provided their encouragement.” A search of the meeting minutes for the governing entities involved proves that this isn’t true.
Meaning that Potter lied. Under oath. Before Congress.
What’s more, Potter is almost certainly guilty of illegally using our federal tax dollars to lobby for this land grab.

In 2005, the NPHF Board began as a sub-group of the Fort Abraham Lincoln Foundation, which is also administered by Potter. In 2007, the NPHF received a $62,000 federal grant and split away from the Fort Abraham Lincoln Foundation. In fact, the NPHF filed its own Form 990 – the tax return filed by non-profit organizations – which revealed that a portion of the federal funds ($8,446.22 – Page 2) were used to pay for Potter’s trip to testify at the subcommittee hearing in Washington, D.C. And the Fort Abraham Lincoln Foundation hired lobbyists to urge the passage of the NHA.
The Greystone Group, a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying organization which also does work for a handful of North Dakota colleges, filed a 2007 lobbying report for the work that was done on behalf of the Fort Abraham Lincoln Foundation in support of the NHA designation. However, the Fort Abraham Lincoln Foundation reported on its Form 990 that it did not lobby. Clearly, however, the non-profits were attempting to influence legislation.
According to the Greystone Group’s disclosure reports, both the Fort Abraham Lincoln Foundation and the NPHF lobbied for the Northern Plains National Heritage Area Act, in 2008. And in 2009, the NPHF lobbied for S. 22 – a bill which included the NPHA designation.

The NPHF’s only income was the $62,000 grant from the federal government. Yet, the group paid a lobbying group to lobby for the 4.7 million acre NHA land designation.
In summary, Potter apparently lobbied. With our tax dollars. Which is illegal.
And as the cherry on top of this ice-cream-sundae of scandal, remember that this federal land designation was put in place, giving Potter and his cronies “planning” authority over all the land it encompasses, without notifying a single land owner.
So why would Democrats pick someone like Potter to run to replace Dorgan? It makes a perverse sort of sense. Potter is tainted goods. He wasn’t likely to win re-election to his state Senate seat thanks to the above detailed misdeeds, and he certainly isn’t going to best Governor John Hoeven. So he’s…expendable.
They send him up to get shellacked in the Senate race, and then he can quietly move behind the scenes of liberal politics in this state making a comfortable living from sitting on the various boards he’s set up which are funded by endless grants of our tax dollars.