Republicans Say Anti-Dakota Access Pipeline Ad in Newspapers Wasn’t From Them

Recently a full-page newspaper ad which ran in the Fargo Forum and the Bismarck Tribune on Sunday caused quite a stir. Not so much for the content, which is blatantly anti-law enforcement and anti-pipeline, but because of the group identified as paying for the ad. According to a disclaimer at the bottom of the ad, it was paid for by the Republican Women’s Club.

This is how it appeared in the Forum:

Here’s how the whole ad showed up in the paper. I’ll post some screen captures showing a readable version of the text below.

A dozen or so of you readers have reached out to me about the ad, confused that it was apparently paid for by some Republican group. But it wasn’t. At least, not a group affiliated with the Republican Party.

I reached out to Roz Leighton, executive director of the North Dakota Republican Party, who confirmed that to me.

“The Republican Women’s Club is in no way, shape, or form affiliated with the North Dakota Republican Party,” she said. “It’s also not affiliated with the Republican National Committee which we’ve confirmed.”

“We have no idea who they are,” NDGOP Chairman Kelly Armstrong added when I inquired with him about the ad.

So who paid for it? It’s hard to say. The only thing web searches pulls up is a few local Republican party-affiliated groups scattered around the country which don’t have a dog in the pipeline fight.

I suspect the ad was paid for by anti-pipeline activists who are being cute with the name of their “group.” But for those of you confused, I can at least confirm that this most definitely was not something paid for by any group officially affiliated with either the state or national GOP.

Here’s the text of the ad (click for a larger view):