Say Anything Blog

From the New York Times, which decided to run an article about contributions to Presidential primary campaigns for some odd reason:

By far, this state has trailed the nation in large donations per capita to the presidential candidates, an analysis of the candidates’ early contributions of $200 or more shows. While donors in New York gave more than $48 million (or more than $2.50 a person, if every person in the state gave) and California gave more than $51 million (or more than $1.40 for each person), North Dakotans offered up a grand total of $57,613.

That amounts to 9 cents a person.

I think many North Dakotans would like to believe that this paucity of contributions has to do with North Dakotans being frugal, but it probably has more to do with the fact that North Dakota only has three electoral votes and few delegates to send to either of the two political party’s conventions.  Plus, North Dakota isn’t exactly a convenient campaign stop for any national candidate.  Looking at it from a cost/benefit stand point, it’s not surprising that the state goes largely ignored on the national stage.

I’m sure most North Dakotans would like more attention from national candidates, and would be happy to contribute more money if they got that attention, but reality is what it is.

The real problem, as Secretary of State Al Jaeger notes, isn’t the lack of campaign funds from North Dakotans to national campaigns but rather national interests (particularly of the liberal persuasion) influencing North Dakota elections:

“You have to remember, in North Dakota, $100,000 goes a long ways,” said Al Jaeger, the secretary of state and a Republican. “Frankly, I think most of us think that there’s an out-of-whack amount of money from special interests and other places trying to buy elections in North Dakota. We’re more concerned about stopping people from buying elections in North Dakota than whether people here should be trying to buy elections elsewhere.”

North Dakota’s two Democrat Senators, Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan, each got over 90% of their political contributions from out of state during the 2006 election cycle.  North Dakota’s one Democrat Representative, Earl Pomeroy, got nearly 70% of his political contributions from out of state.  The state Democrat Party, which calls itself the North Dakota Democrat Non-Partisan League, got less than 1/3 of its political contributions from actual North Dakotans.

That’s the real story the New York Times should be covering, as none of the media outlets actually in this state are interested in it. 

“North Dakota elections being bought by liberal out of state money” would make a good headline.