Say Anything Blog

Today on AM1100 my good friend Scott Hennen played audio of a number of North Dakota political leaders saying that Governor John Hoeven has plenty of time yet to announce a run against Senator Byron Dorgan.  The new spin among these Republicans seems to be that Hoeven is playing a delay game not unlike what challenger John Thune did to then-Democrat Senate Leader Tom Daschle.

The problem?  Dorgan is no Tom Daschle.  And John Hoeven is no Thune.

Thune, in moving from the House to the Senate, was making good on a promise he made on term limits.  Thune was also running against Daschle who had become quite shrill during his time as the leader of Senate Democrats.  Dorgan, on the other hand, has no such target on his back.  And Hoeven, though still enjoying big approval numbers and coming of an unprecedented election to a third term in office, has presided over big spending increases over the last few legislative sessions and even opposed tax cuts on the last ballot.  In the view of a lot of conservatives in the state, he’s overstayed his welcome.

But even setting aside ideological objections to a run from Hoeven, tactically his delays make no sense.  Dorgan is an entrenched incumbent with a war chest full of political money that’s getting bigger by the day.  The only way to unseat Dorgan is to challenge him.  And the time to challenge him, with no small number of hot political topics to hit him on from health care nationally to the National Heritage Area controversy locally, is right now.

Yet the indecisive John Hoeven continues to sit on the fence.

The latest political rumors I’m hearing in Republican circles is that Hoeven would rather run against Conrad because, with the Countrywide scandal, he views Conrad as being weaker.  Further, there’s some unsubstantiated rumors allegedly sourced to Hoeven’s political staff which has it that the recordings of Conrad negotiating his VIP loans with Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo (the ones thought to be destroyed) do actually exist.

But even if those rumors are true, and if Hoeven is going to run against Conrad rather than Dorgan, he should do us all a favor and announce his intentions with this race now so that the campaign can begin either with Hoeven or with another candidate from the state.