Audio: North Dakota Supreme Court Candidate Says He’s Not for the Fargo “Silk Stocking People”

Yesterday reporter Mike Nowatzki wrote about an incident at a candidate forum hosted by the Cass County Bar Association where state Supreme Court candidate Robert Bolinske allegedly challenged his opponent Jerod Tufte to a fight.

“It was entirely unbecoming of a judicial candidate,” Fargo attorney Nick Thornton told Nowatzki.

I had Bolinske on my radio show yesterday, and he denied challenging Tufte to a fight, but conceded that he lost his cool a bit. “I did get heated,” he told me.

[mks_pullquote align=”left” width=”300″ size=”24″ bg_color=”#ffffff” txt_color=”#000000″]Bolinske described himself to me as a “brawler” and a candidate who isn’t likely to make friends with the Fargo “silk stocking people.” Whatever the heck that means.[/mks_pullquote]

“Mr. Tufte challenged me with a fraudulent poll,” he continued. “I said ‘let’s get it on.'”

Bolinske described himself to me as a “brawler” and a candidate who isn’t likely to make friends with the Fargo “silk stocking people.” Whatever the heck that means.

The survey in question was one set around by the State Bar Association of North Dakota asking attorneys to rate the various judicial candidates (see it here). In the survey Boinske scored significantly lower than Tufte did in categories like professional competence, integrity, and judicial temperament.

That last perhaps isn’t surprising given Bolinske’s personality. For his part, Bolinske said Tufte “contacted all his buddies and had them vote in it” and suggested that the survey was “juiced.”

As for why Bolinske is running for a seat on the state’s highest court? “I don’t think the regular people are getting justice,” he said.

He said the state has some “lazy” and “complacent” judges.

“If you don’t clean the barn once in a while that manure is going to rise up,” he added.

Here’s the audio. I’ll have Tufte on my show today at 1:00pm.