On Television: Polling, Measure 1, Measure 5, And Oil Prices

Last night I was on a 6:30 Point of View roundtable discussion with Nathan Berseth (how has fantastic hair), Scott Hennen, and Chris Berg.

Our discussion was the recent polling released by SAB and Valley News Live, Measure 1, Measure 5, and oil prices.

On Measure 1, as much as I think it’s sound policy that would be good to pass, I’m afraid the “no” side has done an excellent job of creating doubt. I think the measure may fail (our polling showed a plurality opposed), and the reason why is that Measure 3 – the religious liberty amendment – failed in 2012 thanks to a similar campaign of doubt-mongering.

As I said in the segment, when it comes to ballot measures it’s a lot easier to convince someone to vote “no” then it is to get them to vote “yes.” You have to give people a lot of reasons to vote for something. They just need one reason to vote no.

I think Measure 5 is going down in flames, and the measures supporters are going out in a blaze of mud-slinging and social media tantrums.

As for oil prices, who knows. A lot of people claim to know what will happen, and a lot of them disagree with one another. But I do know that North Dakota is out on a limb, supporting a lot of spending from tax revenues based on the production of commodities, and it might be time to consider that eventually the bottom might fall out of this market.