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North Dakota's primary elecitons this year were brutal. Attack ads and dirty tricks are endemic to politics, but I think most people would admit that, by the standards of our state, the Republican campaigns in this cycle were rough.
In legislative races, we saw ads suggesting that some incumbent lawmakers promote pornography to children, or that they would be unsafe to allow your children around. In the U.S. House primary, some unknown entity supporting Rick Becker's campaign was sending out text messages trying to fool voters into thinking Julie Fedorchak, who ultimately won that race, had pulled out. And in the gubernatorial race, Tammy Miller's campaign ran ads accusing Kelly Armstrong of enriching himself by helping child molesters avoid justice.
But when Armstrong appeared on this episode of Plain Talk to recap the race, he shrugged the attacks off. "You can't take these things seriously," he told me and my co-host Corey Mock.
Armstrong now faces Democratic-NPL candidate Merrill Piepkorn in the general election, but we asked him, if he should win in November, what the top priorities of his administration would be.
"Property taxes," he said, pointing out that consternation about those tax bills are running so high that a ballot measure to abolish them, which may appear on the November ballot as well, could well pass. "If it passes, you have a real problem," he said.
Armstrong said another problem is access to labor. He said past political leaders in North Dakota have campaigned on creating jobs, but that doesn't make a lot of sense right now. "We have 30,000 open jobs," he said. "Campaigning on jobs is great...trying to figure out how to get people here to take them is a harder conversation."
Also, in this episode, Mock and I discussed the seemingly intractable problem of property taxes, and what the primary election results mean for the future of the divide in the North Dakota Republican Party.
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"We knew we wanted to stay positive and above board," Republican U.S. House nominee Julie Fedorchak said on this episode of Plain Talk.
Fedorchak just emerged from a bruising competition against former state lawmaker Rick Becker and three other candidates with a resounding victory. She received nearly 50% of the vote in a five-way race.
The race was a nasty one. In the final days text messages in support of Becker (thought he candidate has denied involvement) disseminated false information, including the bogus claim that Fedorchak had withdraw from the race. Fedorchak told me and co-host Chad Oban that she heard reports from poll workers saying voters were showing up thinking she wasn't still a valid candidate on the ballot.
Fedorchak says her campaign plans to pursue their complaint with the Federal Election Commission over what she described as "election fraud," as well as possible legal action.
That sort of campaigning is "bad for your overall cause," Fedorchak told us. "It's bad for conservatism."
Also on this episode, Oban and I talk about Kelly Armstrong's resounding victory over Tammy Miller in the gubernatorial primary, as well as victories for traditional Republican candidates in legislative primaries around the state. Our conclusion? Last night, voters rejected ugly, populist, culture war campaigning, and it was an act of civic hygiene.
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Will a ballot measure putting age limits on North Dakota's congressional delegation, and printing candidate ages on the ballot, be approved by voters?
Will MAGA-aligned populists gain ground against traditional Republican legislators in the North Dakota Republican party's primaries?
Who will win the NDGOP's primaries for governor and U.S. House?
Can Democratic-NPL candidates across the state build enough momentum to be competitive in the general election?
My co-host Chad Oban and I make our predictions on this episode of Plain Talk. On our next show, on Wednesday, we'll either be gloating because we were right, or eating our hats.
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Due to a scheduling mix-up with Attorney General Drew Wrigley -- he was coming on to discuss North Dakota's legal position in redistricting lawsuits -- this episode of Plain Talk was truncated.
Still, despite the shorter show, we covered some good ground. Me and my co-host Chad Oban talked about the top election official in one of North Dakota's most populous counties winning a gift from U.S. House candidate Rick Becker's campaign.
We also had Bismarck resident Lance Hagen on to discuss his FEC complaint against state Rep. Brandon Prichard and his federal political action committee Citizens Alliance of North Dakota, which has been running some wildly inaccurate ads and, Hagen alleges, may be violating federal rules on independent candidates colluding with candidates.
Hagen also said he's concerned about Rep. Prichard shuffling money between political committees he's founded, arguing that money may be used for purposes the donors didn't intend.
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When we booked U.S. Rep. Kelly Armstrong for this episode of Plain Talk, we weren't planning on talking about Donald Trump. The plan was to get Armstrong's reactions to polls showing a prohibitive lead for him over Lt. Gov. Tammy Miller in the Republican gubernatorial primary. The plan was to discuss the debate the Greater North Dakota Chamber of Commerce just hosted between him and Miller.
But then a New York jury convicted Trump on 34 criminal counts, and we were obliged to talk to Armstrong about it. All the more so because, just hours before the jury handed down that verdict, Trump had endorsed Armstrong in the primary.
It was a respectful but heated conversation -- neither I nor my co-host Chad Oban are Trump fans -- but I'm glad we had it. And one thing I appreciate about Armstrong is that you can have vigorous disagreements with him, and it's never personal.
Armstrong, a former criminal defense attorney, addressed some of the legal arguments around the case. My argument? I'm worried that the particulars of the legal arguments cause us to gloss over the grotesque behavior from Trump that's at the heart of the case. Namely, the fact that he paid off multiple porn stars to cover up extra-marital affairs, and colluded with a notorious tabloid to capture and kill negative stories about him.
We didn't just talk about Trump, though. We also covered the debate, property taxes, and child care.
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U.S. House candidate Alex Balazs is still set on winning. On this episode of Plain Talk, he told me and co-host Chad Oban that he plans to finish the last two weeks of his primary campaign strong. There will be ads and billboards and travel, and the candidate, who received the North Dakota Republican Party's convention endorsement in April, thinks he can win, despite polls showing him in a distant 4th place.
But if he doesn't, would he stay involved in politics? "I just don't know," he said.
Balazs also took questions about Donald Trump's criminal trial in New York, with its looming verdict, and the level of assistance he's received from the North Dakota Republican Party. "They've been really good at helping," he said.
Also on this episode, Chad and I discuss the recent polling in the Republican House and gubernatorial primaries, dirty campaigning in legislative races, and more.
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