James Kerian: North Dakota Democrat Contributor Calls Republican Senator A "Bitch"
Politics is a messy business. It’s full of insults, smears and money. But even in the mud pit that is American politics it can be instructive to see where one group or party most intensely focuses its contempt.
The Democrats have eighteen candidates for the ND State Senate in this election. They have raised a total of $138,500 for those eighteen races. Nearly half of that money ($65,000) has been dedicated to the race against Senator Margaret Sitte (R-35). That’s a pretty striking focus on one particular race. What could be causing that type of focus?
As Vice-Chairman of the Judiciary Committee Senator Sitte is an influential senator but she certainly isn’t the most influential Republican on the ballot this fall. District 35 is not a deep red district but with an R+1.97 rating it’s hard to believe that the Democrats see this as their easiest opportunity to pick up a seat. Sitte is a staunch and outspoken conservative but she is certainly not the only conservative senator that the Democrats are running against this fall.
What makes Sitte unique is that she’s the only conservative woman in the senate that the Democrats are running against this year. Her opponent is a woman, I’m not suggesting that sexism is the sole reason the Democrats oppose Sitte. Liberals these days don’t just oppose conservatives, they hate them, that’s just kind of the way it works. But a conservative woman does draw particularly passionate hatred from today’s leftists and there really isn’t any other explanation for the money that has been poured into this race against an incumbent Republican senator in a Republican leaning district.
Prominent liberal donor Sam McQuade Jr was not content to merely put a few thousand dollars into the race against Sitte. He also felt the need to share his feelings about her on facebook with the following post:
To my knowledge no Democrat candidate or official has called for McQuade to apologize and his donations have not been returned. No one in the party seems to be at all concerned about being associated with this behavior.
Senator Sitte is not the only conservative woman drawing disproportionate opposition from the state’s leftists. The Democrats have thirty-five candidates for the ND House of Representatives. They have raised $137,200 for these races. They have poured over 20% of that ($30,000) into District 41 where they are running against two incumbent Republicans. One is Representative Al Carlson, the House Majority Leader, who is almost certain to be re-elected. The other is Representative Bette Grande who is, again, an outspoken and unapologetic conservative woman.
The Democrats running against Grande are women. I’m not suggesting that ND Democrats simply want to keep women out of office. Judging by their political contributions, however, Democrats do seem to be far more focused on removing conservative women from office than on removing conservative men.
You don’t see ND Republicans dedicating 50% of their senate-race donations to defeating Senator Carolyn Nelson (D-21). Nor will you see ND Republicans dedicating 20% of their house-race donations to defeating Representative Lois Delmore (D-43). Conservatives in this state campaign against liberals without letting the gender of their opponent dictate which races receive the most focus.
There is a clear lesson to be learned from the way ND Democrats have focused both their money and their rhetorical vitriol. The only thing that liberals hate more than conservatism is the brave, outspoken women who choose to champion conservatism.
