Shane Goettle Needs To Tell North Dakotans Where He Stands On Economic Development

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Written By:
Rob Port

Feb 22, 2012
12:27am

The other day I wrote that Republican House candidate Shane Goettle shouldn’t be calling himself a constitutional conservative after he spent most of his political career working in the Obamanomics wings of the state and federal governments. My post inspired Goettle to call me and talk about some of my concerns (and also correct me on one of my facts which I have since corrected).

He told me that it wasn’t necessarily fair to judge him by the jobs he did for his bosses in the Bush administration in the federal government, and in the Hoeven administration in the state government. This, to some degree, is true I suppose. Goettle didn’t set the policy he administered. He just, you know, administered it.

And when I hear him say stuff like this, I want to believe that he’s more conservative than his work history in government indicates:

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota Republican U.S. House candidate Shane Goettle says the federal government shouldn’t be telling people “what kind of light bulbs to buy or cars to drive.”

That is exactly what I want to hear from a candidate. But from Goettle, given that he’s got no track record in government as a policy maker, I need more.

I want to hear Goettle talk specifically about his back ground in government-run economic development. I want to know if he believes the government can create jobs through “investments” and special tax loopholes and benefits for businesses, or if that sort of thing amounts to government picking winners and losers in the free market.

After four years of bailouts and stimulus disasters like Solyndra, this is an important question Goettle needs to answer for voters, and I don’t think he’s answered it yet.

Goettle is a formidable candidate. He’s smart, competent and politically well connected. A lot of very conservative people who I know and respect a great deal are supporting him for the House. But before he could be a candidate conservatives could support for higher office, he needs to speak candidly about his track record in government.