I don't make a habit of referencing things Plain Talk podcast guests say off the air, but Deb McDaniel, the director of the gaming division in Attorney General Drew Wrigley's office, casually mentioned this jaw-dropping statistic on co-host Chad Oban and I after our interview on today's episode. In October 2024, electronic pull-tab machines in North Dakota saw over 200 million button pushes. The machines saw $80 million in cash run through them that month. That's one month, a state with just ove...
Dec 04, 2024•1 hr 13 min
Chad Oban and I are off for the holiday, so today's podcast is a rerun. This is an interview I recorded with columnist Tony Bender three years ago this month, in November of 2021. In it, we discuss divides in the North Dakota Republican Party that were apparent at the time, and still are today. We also discussed the tribalism of American politics in 2021, redistricting, and the special session of the Legislature in Bismarck. Tony was a good friend of mine, and passed away recently. Missing him, ...
Nov 29, 2024•43 min
Plain Talk co-host Chad Oban says North Dakota's campaign finance laws are a joke. They're not transparent, he argues, and there's little in the way of consequence for those who flout them. Sen. Sean Cleary, a Republican from Bismarck, wants to change that. He joined this episode of Plain Talk to discuss his idea for putting more information about campaigns and candidates before the voters, and creating some stiffer penalties for those who don't comply. Legislation Cleary is drafting for the upc...
Nov 27, 2024•1 hr 5 min
When reporter Adam Willis set out to profile the debate in North Dakota over Summit's Midwest Carbon Express pipeline for Bloomberg, he wanted to focus on the people who are for it, rather than against it. Much of the reporting on that topic, to date, has focused on the naysayers, he told Chad Oban and I on this episode of Plain Talk. During out interview, Willis described what he learned about the people who are working to make carbon capture projects, including Summit's, a reality in North Dak...
Nov 22, 2024•1 hr 6 min
Heading into their 2025 legislative session, which starts in January, North Dakota lawmakers will consider dozens and dozens of bills dealing with property taxes. That makes sense because despite a ballot measure aimed at abolishing property taxes face planting on the statewide ballot, North Dakotans are not satisfied with the status quo. What property tax reform and relief will look like coming out of this legislative session is an open question, but Senate Majority Leader David Hogue told Chad...
Nov 20, 2024•1 hr 10 min
In this episode of Plain Talk , guest hosts Corey Mock and Jessica Unruh Bell are joined by Minot Representative Scott Louser. Together, they dive deep into the complexities of North Dakota's property tax system, dissecting the legislative response to the failed Measure 4 and exploring innovative proposals for property tax relief and reform. Mock and Bell close the episode with their perspectives on upcoming legislative priorities and the latest developments in President Trump’s cabinet appointm...
Nov 15, 2024•1 hr 8 min
In this special episode of Plain Talk , guest hosts Corey Mock and Jessica Unruh Bell welcome Senator Dick Dever from District 32 for a candid conversation on legislative insights and challenges. Senator Dever shares reflections on his experience in the legislature, discussing the impact of term limits, the significance of interim committees, and his personal goal to restore honor and civility in North Dakota politics. The discussion also covers the evolving responsibilities of policy advisory r...
Nov 13, 2024•1 hr 9 min
Governor-elect Kelly Armstrong, fresh off a landslide victory on the statewide ballot, is coming in hot. He's still got a term in Congress to finish out -- he's said he'll resign shortly before midnight the day before he's sworn in as governor on December 15 -- but he's got big plans for his time in Bismarck. "I don't give platitudes," he told me and Chad Oban on this episode of Plain Talk. Armstrong campaigned on property tax reform. He opposed Measure 4 -- he said in a previous Plain Talk inte...
Nov 08, 2024•1 hr 1 min
The vote is in, and despite weeks of polling gurus telling us it was going to be a close election, it wasn't particularly close. It wasn't a Reaganesque national landslide, either, but former President Donald Trump won not only the Electoral College vote but the national popular vote as well. Legendary North Dakota political operative Pat Finken joined me and Chad Oban on this episode of Plain Talk to discuss the national election, as well as local elections, where Finken, through his Brighter F...
Nov 06, 2024•1 hr 7 min
The legislative races in the Grand Forks area have gotten ugly. Incumbent state Sen. Scott Meyer, a Republican from District 18, sent his opponent threatening social media messages. Incumbent state Rep. Emily O'Brien from District 42 has been accused of not living in her district. Now Sarah Grossbauer, a Democratic-NPL candidate in District 42 -- one of O'Brien's opponents -- is dodging questions about drug use after a Republican (and former friend) leaked a photo of her allegedly using cocaine ...
Nov 01, 2024•1 hr 19 min
We live in an age of misinformation. The internet is chock full of false narratives and egregious bunkum that can seem plausible to some if for no other reason than the sheer volume of it orr, perhaps, because it confirms certain biases and attitudes the audience already has. Recently a website called the Gateway Pundit, which was forced to print a retraction as a part of a settlement in a defamation lawsuit brought by Georgia election workers published what it purports to be a news story about ...
Oct 30, 2024•1 hr 7 min
"Even the most extreme ends of our legislature vote the same way 60+ percent of the time," a Plain Talk listener and sitting state lawmaker texted me recently. He was making a point about the way we talk about politics, where we emphasize our disagreements more than our agreements. "Difference in ideology is great. We need more civil debate and strengthening ideas through discourse," he said. "But the gap between left and right is much narrower than most people realize." He's right, and the voti...
Oct 25, 2024•1 hr 1 min
Chad Oban and I have a lot of disagreements while hosting the Plain Talk podcast, which is what you'd expect. He's left-of-center; I'm right-of-center. Today, however, we were singing from the same choirbook. Sen. Scott Meyer, a Republican running for re-election in Grand Forks-area District 18, who admitted to me that he got drunk and sent threatening messages to his opponent, Democratic-NPL candidate Kyle Thorson, should resign. We each made our case for why on today's episode of Plain Talk. A...
Oct 23, 2024•1 hr 21 min
The Legacy Fund was launched in 2010 when North Dakota voters approved a legislatively-initiated constitutional amendment to create it. Now, thanks to the share of oil tax revenues it receives, as well as the investment returns its generated, it sits with a balance of about $10.7 billion. And it's become something of a political football. It can seem as though we are endlessly debating how the fund is invested and what we should do with the fund and its earnings. On this episode of Plain Talk, a...
Oct 18, 2024•1 hr 9 min
People who are familiar with my body of work probably aren't inclined to think of me when they have an appetite for warm, fuzzy, feel-good stories, and yet that's precisely the sort of story we began today's episode of Plain Talk with. Which is a good thing, because as we survey the political landscape, there's not a lot to feel positive about. Joe Kolosky works for the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction. He says one of the favorite parts of his job is overseeing a program through whi...
Oct 16, 2024•57 min
By the time her current term ends, Kirsten Baesler will have been the Superintendent of Public Schools in North Dakota for 12 years, having first been elected in 2012. She's currently running against Jason Heitkamp, a distant relative of former U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp and a former lawmaker who served one abbreviated, two-term in the state Senate as a Republican from 2021 to 2022 (redistricting forced him to run for re-election after two years, a campaign he lost). Heitkamp and Baesler met on...
Oct 11, 2024•1 hr 4 min
On this episode of Plain Talk, Chad Oban and I spent some time talking about the column in which I outed myself as a Kamala Harris voter. Or, more accurately, I spent some time expanding on my explanation, and Chad listened. But the more important part of this episode was our conversation with Sen. Michelle Axtman, a Republican from Bismarck who is something of a rising star in her party (she was transparent about her ambitions during our off-air conversation, saying her goal is to be elected go...
Oct 09, 2024•1 hr 7 min
We are 31 days away from election day and, here in North Dakota, the hottest race in the state probably isn't for the U.S. Senate, or the U.S. House, or even the governor's seat. It is, arguably, Measure 4 which, if passed, would eliminate taxes on property values and order the Legislature to compensate local governments for that loss of revenue at 2024 levels. It's such a hot issue that when Prairie Public recently hosted a debate between U.S. Senate candidates Kevin Cramer and Katrina Christia...
Oct 04, 2024•1 hr 7 min
Todd Reisenauer says he'd like to get elected to the North Dakota House of Representatives so that he can take Fargo-area District 46 in a new direction. He said he'd like to focus on issues like housing, healthcare, childcare, and property taxes. What he doesn't want to do, he says, is emulate the approach taken by one of incumbents in that district, state Rep. Jim Kasper, who has been in the center of debates over social issues like book bans and issues surrounding our transgender neighbors. "...
Oct 02, 2024•1 hr 3 min
Steve Bakken is the former mayor of Bismarck, and the chair of the committee backing Measure 5, which seeks to legalize recreational marijuana in North Dakota. Pat Finken is a long-time advertising professional and political activist. He's a part of the coalition opposing Measure 5. These gentleman came together on Plain Talk to make their respective cases. The contrasts in their arguments, as you might expect, were sharp. Bakken says Measure 5 is a "very conservative" legalization that gives st...
Sep 27, 2024•1 hr 1 min
Is Attorney General Drew Wrigley's office wasting money on unnecessary litigation? Is North Dakota's Republican majority in the Legislature being something less than good stewards of our fiscal resources by passing controversial bills that invite litigation? House Minority Leader Zac Ista, who led his caucus in voting against approving attitional litigation funds for Wrigley's office at a recent meeting of the Legislature's Budget Section committee, joined this episode of Plain Talk to discuss i...
Sep 25, 2024•1 hr 10 min
If you read the ballot language for Measure 3 and still didn't understand just what it is the proposed constitutional amendment does, I wouldn't blame you. I don't think that's anyone's fault. It's just a somewhat arcane topic, but that doesn't mean it's not important. State Rep. Corey Mock joined us on this episode of Plain Talk to discuss the proposal, which would make some changes around the Legacy Fund, which these days is sporting a balance of around $11 billion. Currently, lawmakers have t...
Sep 20, 2024•1 hr 10 min
Are the proponents of Measure 2 "elite and out of touch?" Are they "condescending" and "disrespectful" to the electorate? Or do they view North Dakota's initiated measure process -- particularly when it comes to amending the state constitution -- as flawed and needing reform? Measure 2 is a constitutional amendment placed on the ballot by the Legislature, which would prohibit people who aren't North Dakota residents from collecting petition signatures for initiated measures. It would limit measu...
Sep 18, 2024•1 hr 6 min
In November, North Dakota voters will be asked to decide the fate of Measure 4. If approved, it would amend the state constitution to prohibit taxes on property values. It would also lock in an obligation for the state legislature to replace current property tax revenues to local government with other revenues, but only at 2024 levels, with no mechanism to change that level in the future. On this episode of Plain Talk, we had a debate about that proposal. Making the affirmative case for it is fo...
Sep 13, 2024•1 hr 2 min
"The property tax is a good tax," Jared Walczak told Chad Oban and I on this episode of Plain Talk. "You may not love it, but you will not like the alternatives better." Walczak is the state projects director for the Tax Foundation, a right-of-center think tank that focuses on -- you guessed it -- tax policy. His organization recently published an article critical of Measure 4, a constitutional amendment that would prohibit taxes on property values. Walczak has also presented his group's argumen...
Sep 11, 2024•1 hr 2 min
North Dakota's gubernatorial race features to affable, well-liked candidates, who clearly like one another as well. Republican Kelly Armstrong was first elected to the North Dakota Senate in 2012, and served there until the 2018 election cycle, when he campaigned successfully for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. That's where he's currently finishing out a term, while also campaigning for governor. Democratic-NPL candidate Merrill Piepkorn has also served in the state Senate. He's bee...
Sep 06, 2024•1 hr 2 min
We all know the old saying. You don't talk about religion and politics in polite company. Only, does that advice make sense in a society like ours, where we practice self-governance? How can we govern ourselves if we can't talk to one another about politics? And, more pertinent to this episode of Plain Talk, how do we teach our kids how to participate in discourse over challenging issues like abortion or gun control if teachers are afraid to tackle politics in the classroom? Lindsey Galvao is a ...
Sep 04, 2024•1 hr 6 min
When U.S. House candidates Julie Fedorchak (a Republican) and Trygve Hammer (a Democrat) sat down for a debate on the Plain Talk podcast with me and my co-host Chad Oban, one of the first questions I asked them was why they wanted to be elected to Congress. Hammer, a Marine Corps veteran, said it's because less than 80 of the current 435 members of the House of Representatives have served in the military. He also said he wants to promote an atmosphere where leaders talk to one another instead of...
Aug 30, 2024•59 min
"This is the best job I could ever imagine," North Dakota U.S. Attorney Mac Schneider said on this episode of Plain Talk. Schneider was appointed to that position by President Joe Biden. Later this year, when America elects a new president, he may be out of a job, depending on how the country casts its ballots. A Republican president isn't likely to keep a Democratic appointee, but if Vice President Kamala Harris wins, would Schneider want another term in the office? He says yes. "I'm grateful f...
Aug 28, 2024•1 hr 2 min
When we organize candidate debates on the Plain Talk podcast, our intent is to foster a competition that's not bogged down by a lot of rules and restrictive formatting, nor plagued by shouting and candidates talking over one another. We don't really even want a competition. We want a conversation. A thoughtful discussion between two candidates on important issues of interest to the voters. I think we achieved that with the debate my co-host Chad Oban and I hosted between incumbent U.S. Sen. Kevi...
Aug 23, 2024•1 hr
