Podcast: Senate Candidate Paul Schaffner Has Little to Say About Conviction for Soliciting a Prostitute

U.S. Senate candidate Paul Schaffner was on my radio show today. You may remember me writing about Schaffner announcing, and then withdrawing, a similar campaign late last month. In that post I noted Schaffner’s conviction last year for soliciting a prostitute.

I asked him about it today, but he said he couldn’t talk about it “out of respect out to the system” saying he was appealing the matter, a Class B Misdemeanor, to the state Supreme Court. “In his brief to the court, Schaffner said the state ‘did not meet its burden proving elements of offense at trial,'” my colleague John Hageman reports this afternoon.

[mks_pullquote align=”left” width=”300″ size=”24″ bg_color=”#ffffff” txt_color=”#000000″]”I know my grandma wouldn’t have wanted to see that, ” Schaffner told me of the conviction today, but added that she’d want voters to know that he has a “good heart.”[/mks_pullquote]

“I know my grandma wouldn’t have wanted to see that, ” Schaffner told me of the conviction today, but added that she’d want voters to know that he has a “good heart.”

Hageman also notes that the state Supreme Court declined last year to terminate a domestic violence protection order against Schaffner. The order was obtained by his ex-wife who described him as a “credible threat.”

In addition to the solicitation conviction, Schaffner also has two convictions for reckless driving which he attributed to a “diabetic situation” in our interview.

Also joining me was Jamal Omar, the co-chair of the College Republicans in North Dakota, who last week said that Senate candidate Gary Emineth’s controversial social media postings were “flat out racist.”

During our interview Omar said he has since spoken to Emineth. “I was very impressed,” he said of the conversation adding that he’d like to “take the statement that he’s not fit for office back.”

Finally Scott Nodland was on. He’s one of the organizers behind that ballot measure to raise North Dakota’s minimum wage to $15 per hour.

Here’s the full audio:

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