Plain Talk: How do you screw up term limits?

MINOT, N.D. — A ballot measure aimed at implementing term limits in North Dakota for the governor and members of the Legislature hit the skids when the Secretary of State’s Office disqualified tens of thousands of signatures.

The state Bureau of Criminal Investigation is continuing to review the matter for possible criminal charges .

How did a political campaign screw up an issue that, all else aside, is almost certainly popular with most North Dakotans?

My co-host Chad Oban and I talked about it on this episode of Plain Talk with House Minority Leader Josh Boschee, a Democrat from Fargo. Boschee said he’s against term limits, but is more disappointed in what this ballot measure campaign has done to the credibility of the initiated measure process.

Boschee also talked about his party’s upcoming state convention in Minot and what the next legislative session might look like.

Boschee is the only one of the Legislature’s four leaders who is returning. House Majority Leader Chet Pollert, Senate Majority Leader Rich Wardner, and Senate Minority Leader Joan Heckaman are all retiring.

“I don’t know who I’ll be working with,” Boschee said. He gave credit to past Republican leadership in the legislature, noting that they were pragmatic and often willing to work with the Democratic minority, but expressed concerns over that sort of approach to legislating taking a back seat as the NDGOP grows more extreme.