Plain Talk

Should people who aren't from North Dakota be allowed to help put proposed laws on North Dakota's ballot?

That's the question asked in a lawsuit filed by proponents of a constitutional amendment implementing age limits for North Dakota's congressional delegation.

That measure, if passed, was probably already headed for litigation as U.S. Supreme Court precedent has held that state-level requirements for service in Congress are unconstitutional. But, apparently, the proponents want to use their measure to try and remove North Dakota's limitations on who can circulate petitions for signatures.

Sec. of State Michael Howe, whose office oversees the ballot measure process, joined this episode of Plain Talk to discuss.

Also on this episode, co-hosts Chad Oban and Ben Hanson join me to analyze and react to the GOP's second presidential debate, where Gov. Doug Burgum had a tough time getting a word in edgewise.

Earlier this year, the Legislature passed a bill to outlaw gender care — both surgeries and medicinal treatments — for minor children who are transitioning.

Now, a group of North Dakota parents are working with a group called Gender Justice to sue over the legislation, arguing that it's illegal.

Devon Dolney, a Fargo parent to a trans son, and Brittany Stewart, an attorney for Gender Justice, joined this Plain Talk episode to discuss their case.

Stewart said the legislation presents equal protection issues, as well as constitutional protections for life, liberty, and parental rights.

Also, on this episode, Sen. Kevin Cramer joined to discuss the Senate dress code and a potential federal shutdown.

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The North Dakota Republican Party, without quesiton the dominant political organization in state politics, is currently charting its way through some choppy waters.

Controversial new leadership has alienated some of the party's donors. Local NDGOP district leaders are targeting their own incumbent Republican lawmakers. The party's fundraising is showing signs of cratering.

Now the party's executive director, Samantha Holly, who has only served in that position since January, has resigned. "I've always prided myself on being fair to everyone," she said on this episode of Plain Talk, telling me and my co-host Ben Hanson that she didn't see it as her job to be involved in ideological debates. "I am happy to work with whoever," she said.

But things under new party chair Sandi Sanford, who was narrowly elected with support from the aforementioned populists, became untenable. "You can call for unity all you want," Holly said, referencing Sanford's calls to unite the party even as her supporters work against elected Republicans. "They only want it when it works in their favor."

One of the trends under Sanford's leadership has been struggles with fundraising. She's only been in charge of the party for a few months, and Holly pointed out that it isn't unusual for political parties to run in the red for short periods, particularly in non-election years.

Still, she said, there are troubling signs. "It worries me that it's September and not of the major donors have been contacted," she said.

Adding to the party's financial challenges were contribution refunds requested by several large-dollar donors shortly after Sanford's election. "Even knowing that they probably won't give," Holly said in the context of those refunds, "they should still be contacted," she said. The implication being that the party isn't even bothering to ask for support from donors who aren't perceived as being on Sanford's team.

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"I'm not interested in doing this simply to make our base happy," Congressman Kelly Armstrong said of new efforts to impeach President Joe Biden over his involvement with his son's business deals and other matters.

Armstrong talked at length about the dichotomy among Republicans in their push for accountability for Biden, while simultaneously attacking efforts to bring the same to former President Donald Trump. He acknowledged that much of it is caught up in partisan politics, with people evaluating the legitimacy of an inquiry based on how they feel about its subject.

When will that end? "No side is going to unilaterally disarm," he said. "That's just not how partisan politics works.

Armstrong also spoke about his work on a deal to avoid a government shutdown. He noted that he's one of the few members of the House of Representatives who have remained in Washington D.C. to get something done, though he was tight-lipped about what's being discussed. Speaking out about it now could make a deal more difficult. "Everybody wants to see their names in a Politico story or a Punchbowl story," he said. "I just don't care about that."

How likely is a deal to get done? "I'm more optimistic this morning than I was yesterday morning," he said, though he tempered optimism later in the interview with this: "I'm not confident we don't end up in some sort of a shutdown."

Armstrong was also asked about Gov. Doug Burgum's campaign for the presidency, which hasn't gained much traction since he announced it. Should the governor pull out? "The longer his voice is in this conversation the better it is for the country," Armstrong said.

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If constructed, the Midwest Carbon Express, a carbon pipeline project pursued by Summit Carbon Solutions, would gather carbon emissions from ethanol plants across the upper midwest and bring it to North Dakota for storage.

Controversy around the pipeline, particularly from some landowners and farmers who say their land will be stolen through eminent domain, or that the pipeline itself is dangerous, has made headlines. But two North Dakota lawmakers with deep ties to agriculture in the state are pushing back.

Sen. Terry Wanzek and Rep. Mike Brandenburg, both Republican members of the North Dakota legislature, recently wrote a letter to the editor arguing that "the future is here, and it demands that we incorporate innovative solutions like carbon capture and storage to ensure the continued prosperity of our leading industries."

Rep. Brandenburg joined this episode of Plain Talk to explain his argument. "It's time we start talking about the positive things with this pipeline," he said.

Brandenburg says 100 miles of Summit's pipeline run through his legislative district, where he also farms. He initially didn't like the way Summit approached landowners. He said they hired contractors who bullied landowners. "We had a meeting with them and told them they have a bunch of crooks out here," Brandenburg said. Summit has since fired those contractors and fixed the problems, he continued.

Meanwhile, he argued, new economic realities are setting in.

Canada, a major importer of American ethanol, has implemented new emissions standards, and without carbon capture, American farmers and ethanol producers will be at a disadvantage. "A year ago this time, corn was $2 higher," he said, attributing to fall to competition from farmers in places like Brazil which he says are ahead of the curb on capturing carbon.

Brandenburg also said that North Dakota farmers are being misled by people such as Darryl Lies, the president of the North Dakota Farm Bureau who uses his Bismarck-based talk radio show to inveigh against carbon capture and Summit's pipeline.

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When it comes to criminal justice policy, and more specifically, the sort of policy that deals with incarcerating people, the most important thing for us to remember is that most people who are put in prison will eventually get out.

According to a public-facing data dashboard from the North Dakota Department of Corrections, about 64% of people incarcerated in our state spend less than a year there.

About 92% spend 3 years or less behind bars.

If those folks are eventually going to be in our communities again, if they're going to be our neighbors and customers and coworkers, then shouldn't we want to make sure we're doing everything we can to ensure they're ready to be out of prison again?

That's what we talked about on this episode of Plain Talk. The data dashboard I just used to bring you those statistics was developed by a nonprofit called Recidiviz. They were founded by Google engineers, and developed for North Dakota a criminal justice data system that allows our state to better organize our corrections resources.

In fact, North Dakota was the first state the organization worked with.

Dave Krabbenhoft, the director of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and Lily Fielding, a state engagement director for Recidiviz, joined this episode of Plain Talk to talk about the cutting-edge work they're doing.

Also on this episode, co-host Ben Hanson and I talk about how North Dakota taxes are always going up, and never down, and what that might mean for our debate about eliminating property taxes.

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MINOT — As North Dakota braces itself for another debate about abolishing property taxes - a new ballot measure to do so is being circulated for signatures, and it will likely be on the ballot next year - local governments are busy raising property taxes.

It almost seem like the locals want to get rid of property taxes. One local leader, Grand Forks Mayor Brandon Bochenski, joined this episode of Plain Talk to discuss it.

Bochenski pointed out that his jurisdiction has been cutting taxes, not raising them. He said his city has just completed its fourth straight cut in property taxes mills, but that's also one of the most confounding things about property taxes. Even if one local government is keeping taxes down, that can be overshadowed by other local governments. When people in Grand Forks get a property tax bill, they aren't just paying the City of Grand Forks. They're also paying Grand Forks County, and their school district, and the park district, etc.

It's that way all over the state. But would Bochenski vote to abolish property taxes? He says he's undecided - "I don't think there's enough information" - but on the whole he seems largely against it. He doesn't like the idea of putting local governments relying so much more on state lawmakers in Bismarck to fund their needs, especially with a new term limits amendment ensuring that the folks serving in Bismarck aren't very experienced.

Also joining this episode was U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer, who talked with co-host Chad Oban and I about everything from Donald Trump's legal problems to Gov. Doug Burgum's presidential campaign Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's health struggles.

Asked if he feels Burgum, who has struggled to gain traction in national polls, should drop out of the race, Cramer said, "Doug maybe along with some others."

Cramer said that consolidating the non-Trump candidates is going to be "important" for those looking to move on from the former president. Still, that doesn't mean Cramer isn't behind Burgum.

"I'm with him until he makes the decision himself," Cramer said.

Grand Farms is an agriculture research site west of Fargo, and on today's episode of Plain Talk, we talked about what a big deal it is with Grand Farms board chair Greg Tehven and state Rep. Cindy Schreiber-Beck.

It's a big deal, because I'm not sure how many non-farming citizens understand how much bleeding-edge technology is involved in modern farming. From drones and autonomous machinery to planting techniques, human ingenuity is pushing to keep farmers in a position to feed the world even as the world's population gets bigger.

Also on this episode, Wednesday co-host Ben Hanson and I break down a new ballot measure that would do a lot of harm to North Dakota's political process, from opening up elections to endless audits and objections to turning the initiated measure process into a completely unaccountable process through which anyone with some money can put their issue on the ballot.

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Perrie Schafer likes Gov. Doug Burgum. He says they worked together in recent years "hand in hand" during his stint as chair of the North Dakota Republican Party.

But on this episode of Plain Talk, he said Burgum didn't make a big impression during the first presidential debate. "I think Doug is going to have to make a decision," Schafer said during the show with co-hosts Chad Oban and Ben Hanson chiming in as well.

"There's a point where there's good money after bad," he added, saying the candidate has to ask himself of saying in a crowded GOP field, "Is it worth doing?"

He said Burgum's recent injury, playing basketball the day before the debate, isn't helpful. "He's got an Achilles problem as well," Schafer said.

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Gov. Doug Burgum was injured in a pick-up basketball game just hours ahead of a pivotal national debate where he desperately needs to make a good impression with a national audience that, for the most part, doesn't know him.

So of course we spent this episode of Plain Talk discussing a parking dispute in West Fargo.

I'm kidding. Sort of.

We talked about Burgum's injury, but we also interviewed West Fargo City Commissioner Mark Simmons about the controversy around the city's West Fargo Events non-profit and the parking dispute between two of the city's major developers.

We were also joined by Sen. John Hoeven for an update about the potential for the Dakota Access Pipeline being shutdown, and the struggle to build pipeline infrastructure.

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