"The problem we've gotten into are the tactics being used," says former North Dakota Governor Ed Schafer. Schafer will be delivering a speech at what is expected to be an NDGOP state convention marked by factionalism and resentments, and his hope is to inspire delegates to find a sense of unity. This year marks the 30 year anniversary of Schafer's election, which ushered in the era of Republican dominance that thousands and thousands of North Dakotans grew up with. On this episode of Plain Talk,...
Apr 01, 2022•31 min
"There are some problems within the Democratic party in North Dakota that we need to fix." That's according to Trygve Hammer, a Marine veteran from Velva who just accepted the Democratic-NPL's endorsement to campaign for a seat on the Public Service Commission. He spoke about his candidacy on this episode of Plain Talk - he'll be running against Republican Sheri Haugen-Hoffart who was just appointed by Gov. Doug Burgum - and he doesn't sound like your typical Democratic candidate. He's pro-oil, ...
Mar 30, 2022•1 hr 1 min
The Sierra Club in other states, such as Iowa, is opposed to the Carbon Express pipeline, but not in North Dakota. They're not against it. They're also not for it. "If we voted, we would probably vote to oppose it," Dr. Dexter Perkins, a member of the North Dakota chapter of the high-profile environmental activist group, told me on this Plain Talk. Perkins, who is also a geologist at the University of North Dakota, says he's skeptical that the pipeline will work, but he and his group are hoping ...
Mar 28, 2022•38 min
It's over folks. The North Dakota Democrats have selected candidates for two Public Service Commission seats, Attorney General, U.S. House and U.S. Senate. They left campaigns for Tax Commissioner and Secretary of State unfilled. On this episode of Plain Talk, I talk with my regular co-host Chad Oban, a former executive director of the party, about the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Mar 26, 2022•23 min
Minot, N.D. — It was a busy episode of Plain Talk today. Sen. Kevin Cramer joined to discuss everything from the reason why he endorsed incumbent Sen. John Hoeven over challenger Rick Becker (he said Hoeven was not only his colleague but also his "mentor), the war in Ukraine (he says Biden is doing many of the right things, only he's doing them too late), energy (there's "nothing moral" about exporting our climate guilt), and the Supreme Court nomination battle. On that last issue, Cramer said h...
Mar 25, 2022•43 min
A ballot measure aimed at implementing term limits in North Dakota for the governor and members of the legislature hit the skids when the Secretary of State's office disqualified tens of thousands of signatures. How did a political campaign screw up an issue that, all else aside, is almost certainly popular with most North Dakotans? My co-host Chad Oban and I talked about it on this episode of Plain Talk with House Minority Leader Josh Boschee, a Democrat from Fargo. Boschee said he's against te...
Mar 23, 2022•1 hr 2 min
Thanks to Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine, and politics that are largely hostile to oil and gas development here in America, our energy prices are skyrocketing. You know it. You've been to a fuel pump lately. You've seen the prices at the grocery store. Oil touches nearly every part of our lives, and when its price goes up, our lives get more expensive a lot faster than most of us can make more money. On this episode of Plain Talk the president of North Dakota's oil industry group argues that Am...
Mar 21, 2022•30 min
In 2020, Shelley Lenz ran for governor, and received the endorsement of the North Dakota Democratic-NPL to do so. But in 2022, Lenz is running for the state Senate, only she's doing so as an independent. Why the switch? Neither party is doing right by the people, Lenz argued on this episode of Plain Talk. Lenz is hoping to be elected to the legislature in Dickinson-area District 37, where Republican Senate Majority Leader Rich Wardner is retiring. She says the issues around the Legacy Fund's inv...
Mar 18, 2022•40 min
During their 2021 regular session, North Dakota's lawmakers did something they hadn't ever done before in state history. They expelled one of their own. Luke Simons, then an elected member of the House from Dickinson, was expelled after my reporting exposed documents detailing years of harassment of people who work in and around the Legislature, including two of his fellow lawmakers, Rep. Emily O'Brien from Grand Forks and Rep. Brandy Pyle of Casselton. Now, during their interim between sessions...
Mar 16, 2022•1 hr 7 min
The politics around local development were already a fraught exercise before the cloud of geopolitical issues cast a shadow over them. Things like economic incentives, zoning ordinances, traffic, smells, noise, and infrastructure loads have never been easy to navigate. But add in growing concerns over the presence, in our local economies, of businesses based in places like China? The process becomes positively byzantine. The Fufeng Group would like to build a corn milling plant near Grand Forks,...
Mar 14, 2022•27 min
In 1977, Jimmy Carter was taking over the White House. Art Link was governor of North Dakota. "You Light Up My Life" by Debbie Boon was at the top of the charts, and movies like "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," and "Smokey and the Bandit" were drawing audiences to theaters. Also, Sen. Ray Holmberg also took his seat in North Dakota's legislature for the first time. Now, 46 years later, this constant in our state's politics is calling it a career. On this ...
Mar 11, 2022•37 min
How do you report the news, and in particular political news, fairly and faithfully in an environment where so many people can find sources on social media and talk radio and cable news who are willing to tell them only what they want to hear? Matthew von Pinnon, the editor of the Forum of Fargo-Moorhead, talks about that on this issue of Plain Talk. He says the bias many imagine, where newspaper editors and publishers sit around a table in a smoky room to decide what the news will be, simply do...
Mar 09, 2022•35 min
The North Dakota Republican Party has had a dominant, three-decades-long run in state politics, but former Governor Ed Schafer, whose election in 1992 was the dawn of that era of success, says the sunset could be upon us. It doesn't have to be, he said on this episode of Plain Talk. Things can still be corrected. But the path the party is on right now isn't one that leads to sustained success, he argues. That was part of the reason why he endorsed incumbent U.S. Senator John Hoeven. "A lot of it...
Mar 07, 2022•37 min
The officials overseeing North Dakota's investments are acting quickly to divest from investments in Russia in the wake of the terrible invasion of Ukraine. Already about 37 percent of the investments overseen by the State Investment Board have been pulled. It will take some time to pull the rest out - the investments are complicated, and officials are trying to limit the financial hit North Dakotans will take - but there's a plan in place to make it happen. But should our strategy about investi...
Mar 04, 2022•34 min
Is U.S. Senator John Hoeven too wealthy to be in touch with North Dakota voters? Katrina Christiansen, a candidate for the Democratic-NPL's endorsement in North Dakota's Senate race, made that argument on this episode of Plain Talk. Joining Wednesday co-host Chad Oban and I, Christiansen said Hoeven is too busy living up to Republican talking points from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to focus on North Dakota's values. On this episode Oban and I also talk about the theatrics at President...
Mar 02, 2022•1 hr 7 min
If there is any lesson to be learned from the last few years of tumultuous international politics, and the crippling pandemic, it's that we need our supply lines to get shorter. For a long time, Americans have been content to see industry, from value-added agriculture to mining and manufacturing - move out of sight and out of mind. It's clear that we need to bring that stuff back to the United States. That's not always as easy as it seems. There is a local political fight in Cass County over a s...
Feb 28, 2022•32 min
In an development I wouldn't have predicted a year ago, popular incumbent Senator John Hoeven, facing a primary challenge from state Rep. Rick Becker, may skip the NDGOP's endorsing convention. Why? Because it's not a sure thing that he'll win the endorsement, despite never receiving less than 70 percent in any statewide election since 2000. He also may be afraid that the turbulence within the NDGOP could manifest itself at the convention in embarrassing ways. Can you imagine the headlines if Ho...
Feb 23, 2022•1 hr 4 min
North Dakota's oil production has "matured." Another term for it might be "plateaued." That's the estimate of Lynn Helms, who is the director of the oil and gas division of North Dakota's Department of Mineral Resources. On this episode of Plain Talk, he said the state has about a decade of steady production driving plenty of revenue - "this is a great time" for tax revenues from oil production, Helms says - but that we shouldn't expect a lot of growth. That might sound like sobering news in a s...
Feb 21, 2022•30 min
Since Governor Doug Burgum announced a goal of making North Dakota's economy carbon neutral by the year 2030, the state has seen about $30 billion worth of investment in things like carbon capture project. James Leiman, who serves in Burgum's administration as commerce commissioner, said on this episode of Plain Talk that these investments can "add to every single sector of our economy." "We are going to grow every single one of these things," Leiman said, referring to agriculture, coal, oil, ga...
Feb 18, 2022•47 min
On this episode of Plain Talk, we spent more time talking about gazpacho than I ever imagined I would on an episode of a politically-themed podcast. Columnist Tony Bender joined Wednesday co-host Chad Oban and I talking about the struggle North Dakota's Democrats have recruiting candidates, the term limits ballot measure which will almost certainly be on the November ballot, the initiated measure process, and the U.S. Senate primary race between state Rep. Rick Becker and incumbent Senator John ...
Feb 16, 2022•1 hr 2 min
Minot, N.D. — There is only one Democrat elected to public office in western North Dakota, and she's retiring. State Senator Erin Oban announced last year that she won't be running for another term in office. Two Republican candidates, Ryan Eckroth and Sean Cleary, have announced campaigns for that seat. Tracy Potter, who served a term in that Senate seat previously after getting elected in 2006, has also announced his candidacy as a Democrat. He joined this episode of Plain Talk to discuss what...
Feb 14, 2022•45 min
What started as a small protest of truckers upset about the Canadian government's vaccine mandates has turned into a full-on international movement. Now demonstrators have blocked multiple crossings between the United States and Canada, and it's having a deleterious impact on commerce between our nations at a time when we hardly need it. Not one of us needs prices to go any higher, do we? On this episode of Plain Talk, Senator Kevin Cramer talks about the protests, why they're happening, and how...
Feb 11, 2022•45 min
State Rep. Rick Becker, the founder of the Bastiat Caucus in the North Dakota legislature which claims that they, and not the much larger majority of their Republican colleagues, represent actual Republicanism, has announced a primary challenge to incumbent U.S. Senator John Hoeven. What does Hoeven think about it? He answered questions about that on today's Plain Talk, co-hosted Chad Oban who joins the show on Wednesdays. He said that he'll campaign against Becker the same way he campaigns ever...
Feb 09, 2022•1 hr
What is 30 by 30 ? It's an agreement, pushed by the global environmental movement, that would see participating countries place 30 percent of their land mass and controlled waters into conservation by the year 2030. For some, this is setting off alarm bells. On this episode of Plain Talk, radio host, farming/ranching activist, and 6th generation Nebraska farmer Trent Loos talks about the proposal and what he sees as a risk to food security. To be clear, the government already controls a lot of A...
Feb 07, 2022•30 min
Senator Kevin Cramer, one of former President Donald Trump's earliest and most consistent supporters, does not support the RNC's censure of Rep. Liz Cheney and Rep. Adam Kinzinger. Trump supporters in the RNC are pushing the censure because Cheney and Kinzinger have been critical of Trump and have participated in the congressional inquiry into the January 6th riot. "We don't have the luxury of kicking people out of our party," Cramer said of the resolution. That doesn't mean he's supportive of t...
Feb 04, 2022•1 hr 1 min
In any sufficiently large group of people, you're going to have some undesirables. Whether it's a church congregation or a political party or a sports team fan base, if you look hard enough you'll find some people who just aren't very good people. But what happens when a certain type of behavior becomes the defining characteristic of a group of people? Robert Wheeler as a representative of the very Trumpy Bastiat Caucus faction of North Dakota Republicans, ran for chairman of the NDGOP last year...
Feb 02, 2022•1 hr 4 min
When the Capstone Classical Academy project was announced for Fargo, some people immediately looked at it through a political lens. It was called "Trumpy," by some. But is it? On this episode of Plain Talk, headmaster Paul Q. Fisher describes the philosophy behind the school's mission. They're hoping to provide the people of the region with an education rooted in classical education. That means the Greeks. The Romans. And, yes, the kids will be learning Latin. But Fisher stresses that it's not a...
Jan 31, 2022•38 min
This week Governor Doug Burgum helped announce a nearly $2 billion investment in developing a datacenter in western North Dakota that would primarily be used to mine cryptocurrency. But that announcement was overshadowed, somewhat, by the extensive criminal record of the man who heads up the construction company that would build it. Jamie Selzler, the former executive director of the North Dakota Democrat Party, who has spent years working in online commerce, joins this episode of Plain Talk to ...
Jan 28, 2022•1 hr 5 min
A new survey from North Dakota United, the state's combined public worker and teacher union, finds strong evidence that teachers are feeling burned out. Why? A lot of the same reasons many of us are feeling burned out. It's politics and the pandemic and shifting attitudes about compensation levels. On this episode of Plain Talk, co-host Chad Oban and I interview Nick Archuleta, the president of North Dakota United, about the survey's findings. And, as Fargo looks to become home to a new private ...
Jan 26, 2022•1 hr 9 min
I'll admit, I wanted to use this interview to push Congressman Kelly Armstrong, a fellow baseball nut, to pass legislation to end Major League Baseball's ongoing lockout. But I controlled myself. After all, what kind of conservative would I be if I was pushing for that sort of federal intervention? Principle must trump emotion. What Armstrong and I did talk about was President Joe Biden's first year in office. As you might expect, this Republican congressman isn't impressed. He's also not impres...
Jan 24, 2022•41 min
