Dakota Beacon

It is election eve.  We have come a long way since the GOP convention in March.  We saw one conservative candidate for governor go head-to-head with near-incumbent Wayne Stenehjem, the party pick, and nearly depose him as the anointed leader.  After a rousing campaign, conservative Rick Becker garnered just over 30% of the convention vote . . . and HELD IT through a second ballot, sending the Stenehjem team into near panic.  This displayed a strong disposition among party voters for a change.  No wonder.  The official incumbent, Jack Dalrymple, stepped aside for mysterious reasons amid a great deal of speculation as to what they were.  The immediate presumed heir apparent, Drew Wrigley, surprised some by stepping aside as well, ostensibly due to personal scandal, but that, too, remains shrouded in mystery.  The next in line to wear the party mantle was Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem.  Much of the corruption hinted at in the neighborhood of Dalrymple and Wrigley, by extension, casts a shadow on Stenehjem as well.  Stenehjem is the chief law enforcement officer in the state.

Becker, despite a powerful grassroots show of strength at the convention, kept a promise to abide by the decision of the convention.  (One wonders why these candidates make promises like this.) Another challenger, Doug Burgum, who had little support at the GOP convention, did play an important role in the outcome – he went from 15% support down to 9%, which gave Stenehjem the TWO VOTES he needed to win.  So, with a 2-vote margin of victory under his belt, Stenehjem went about assuming ultimate success.

Burgum, whose nearly unlimited wealth has provided a colorful advertising campaign, is with us all day and all night.  If we go to the mailbox, there he is!  If we turn on the radio or TV, there he is!  If we check our email or go to YouTube, there he is!!!  And why not?  He can afford the ride. 

So we have one candidate with a 40-year history of good ol’ boy networking, and a family dynasty to boot, in one camp and a wealthy tycoon with a taste for spending on lavish advertising in the other.  Trouble is, debates have revealed the fact that these two candidates have everything in common but their names.  Stenehjem relies on his state government ties and his family’s influence while Burgum relies instead upon an energetic career of wealth-building and connections with such celebrities as Bill Gates (which many North Dakota voters would find dubious). 

The candidate everyone should be watching is neither of these two look-alikes.  Paul Sorum is, both by his own self-description and the bare facts, the ONLY REAL CONSERVATIVE in this race.  Sorum was the first one to be certified on the ballot, as a matter of fact, and he has not had to re-invent himself or side-step any issues to offer a refreshing option.  Sorum has run before – the first time it was for the nomination for the US Senate seat vacated by Kent Conrad.  He ran against another party regular from their “A” list – John Hoeven.  It was his first foray into politics and although Hoeven took the prize, Sorum won 21% of the votes at the convention against a sitting North Dakota Governor. 

Following Hoeven’s victory, Sorum redirected his attention to matters of North Dakota politics.  He said he felt at that point that there was really more that could be done at home than in Washington.  He ran for the nomination for governor in 2012 against a sitting Republican governor, Jack Dalrymple.  This time – two years later – he won 31% of the vote.  It has become apparent that whether you are Rick Becker, Kevin Cramer or Paul Sorum, that if you have not already been chosen by the GOP leadership you will not be nominated at their convention.  The logical home this year for Becker supporters should be with Paul Sorum!  Becker has indicated that he is interested in the Senate next time.  It would certainly be an advantage to run in a party led by another conservative.

So this time, Sorum, running for Governor again, chose to follow the political example of Congressman Kevin Cramer – he elected to run in the primary instead, and take the choice to the voters.  But in North Dakota the insiders also control the media.  There have been four debates among candidates for governor.  One held in Crosby was hosted by the North Dakota Newspaper Association.  Sorum was belatedly invited to this debate due to the accidental discovery of the event by a supporter.  Now, ask yourself, why would a NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION not know that there were three candidates, not two?  But at least they somewhat redeemed their honor by allowing Sorum to participate when asked.  Unofficial report has it that Sorum cleaned the other two’s clocks for them.  It will have to be unofficial, though, because unless you were a fly on the wall in that debate hall, you will never know what any of the three said.  Oddly enough, there was no coverage in the press of the press’s own debate event.  I wonder why that could be.

There have been three more debates since that event in early May:  one hosted by Matt Olien of Prairie Public Broadcasting, who, while living on your tax dollars, decided you would not be smart enough to process the input of three candidates, so he limited the debate to the two he preferred – Stenehjem and Burgum.  Why these two?  Because Olien decided that these two were the “leading candidates”. Why?  We would need to question Olien on this – logic cannot have been a part of that decision.  He did not want you to be “confused”, apparently.  A recent debate was between these two “leaders” in Fargo, hosted by the Fargo Chamber of Commerce.  This writer questioned the Chamber on their decision, pointing out that this is a program of disservice to the voters.  The lady who answered the phone said she was “just part-time” and asked if the “person in charge” could call back.  He never did.  She suggested something like “maybe there was a scheduling problem”.  A fact check with Sorum revealed that he was never invited, and when he asked to be allowed to participate he was denied.

Another debate that has taken place was a little event on the FLAG radio station, “mediated” as it were, by host Scott Hennen.  It was between the two “leading” candidates for Lt. Governor.  Guess who they were?  Wayne Stenehjem’s running mate, Nicole Poolman and Doug Burgum’s running mate, Brent Sanford.  For some strange reason, Paul Sorum’s running mate, Michael Coachman, was deliberately excluded.  The excuse is always, “we want the listeners to hear the leading candidates and not take up THEIR time with a candidate that we’ve decided will not win.”  A final attempt to corral you was staged on that station on Friday, June 10, just prior to your vote on Tuesday.  Another ho-hum non-debate between (you guessed it) Stenehjem and Burgum and . . . not Sorum.  Hennen took another opportunity to manage your opinion and your vote.  Because he is smarter than you or me.

If this were not enough, Hennen undertook to provide an hour a week on his regular morning radio show to Stenehjem (every Tuesday) and Burgum (every Thursday) for the past couple of months.  He threw a dry bone to Paul Sorum by having him as a guest on Monday morning – MEMORIAL DAY.  Obviously, the intention was that no one would be glued to the radio on their day off, but entertaining friends and family or traveling that day.  What are these media gurus afraid of?  It is way beyond disingenuous to claim that the voters of North Dakota cannot process more than two opinions or voices.  It has to be something else.  I leave it to you.  But a candidate who instills such fear in the media that they behave like Cinderella’s Wicked Stepmother and attempt to keep you from hearing his voice, does seem like just the kind of guy you SHOULD hear.

I think I know something about the people of North Dakota.  I was born and raised here.  I have worked here and raised a family here.  I have owned a home here.  I have been involved in political discussion in North Dakota and been an active official in Republican politics here going back decades. 

I believe that the people of North Dakota want a pro-life, pro-traditional marriage, pro-religious liberty governor.  Both Stenehjem and Burgum are pro-gay marriage and disparage religious liberty.  Burgum is openly pro-choice while Stenehjem just says, “I don’t like the term, ‘pro-life’.”

Sorum is pro-life, and believes in religious liberty under the Constitution and that marriage is an institution between one man and one woman.

The people of North Dakota are interested in the education system.  Stenehjem owns whatever is status-quo; Burgum is envisioning great technological advances, probably involving his old business partner Bill Gates (just my own speculation).  Where the insiders have clung to Common Core, making little feints at dropping it and then walking them back, Sorum has made a commitment to getting rid of every vestige of Common Core.  

North Dakota’s colleges and universities are also in trouble.  Here are a couple of facts:  UND and NDSU are graduating only 22% of students after four years.  One problem seems to be that a lot of them can’t read when they enter.  We might well say, “WHAT??!!!” After 12 years of formal “education” in our public schools they need remedial reading.  Great.  Those who DO graduate have significantly higher school debt than students across the country, with an average (based on 2011 figures) of over $45,000. 

Sorum wants to slash the cost of college tuition in-state to about half.  He has ideas on getting the students up to speed academically before they enter.  What’s not to like here?  Wouldn’t you, a voter, like to hear his ideas on this?  Well, tell your talk show hosts and debate hosts.  Because they don’t think you should be allowed to hear them.

Sorum has called for a performance audit of our Gas and Oil Division.  He has charged that oil companies are possibly using unethical and/or illegal practices and in addition that there are major spills that are being ignored.  All of this is detrimental to North Dakota.  Why shouldn’t we support Sorum in this?  Why, in fact, does not Stenehjem call for this as well?  Why does not Gas and Oil director Lynn Helms himself call for it to clear the air?  Do you want to know what is really going on?  Or do you prefer to have Scott Hennen or Matt Olien filter it for you? 

North Dakota is becoming increasingly important nationally due to both our agriculture and our energy industries.  It is time to move away from the comfort zone of the good ol’ boy network and closely examine the alternatives to Wayne Stenehjem.  After all, whatever is status quo he owns.  Burgum, too, owns a piece of it – he was Jack Dalrymple’s campaign chairman and a major donor to the incumbent.  Now he needs to re-invent himself.  He has chosen the costume of a conservative.  Sometimes it doesn’t fit too well.  Sorum has been the same man for years.  He has not swerved from his stand on social issues.  He has doubled down on his challenge to corruption.  He has a vision for a brighter future in North Dakota – higher standards in education, lower cost and smaller size of government. 

We need to defy the media on this one.  They are not right to attempt to cover up Sorum’s campaign.  The media owes you more.  You owe yourself more.  Take the initiative.  Look up each candidate’s website and find out what they say they stand for and then look up their history and find out if they mean it.  What I see are an entrenched, old wood Establishment Republican with 40 years of public “service” to protect and a pseudo-conservative summer soldier who is attempting to position himself as a “challenger”.  Trouble is, he isn’t challenging anything.  They both agree.  And they come from the same political place.  Then there is the “other guy”.  Paul Sorum is running against the status quo that these two represent.  He brings fresh ideas and some tried-and-true principles of free markets, choice in education, respect for marriage, reverence for life and a duty to uphold justice and law in North Dakota, regardless of whether it impacts “insiders” or “outsiders”. 

I am supporting Paul Sorum.  North Dakota deserves better than the status quo.  We are at a pivotal point in history in North Dakota – we have a tremendous opportunity to capitalize on powerful energy resources.  We can’t have a governor who tosses the ball back to the federal government with an off-hand “it’s the law of the land” to EPA threats.  We can’t look the other way when corruption threatens to destroy our success.  We don’t need a Bill Gates alter ego to sell us “technology” when what we really need is to cut the fat out of the system.  We need to diversify our economy now, while we have an advantage for once - not through recycled, tax-funded “renaissance” zone thinking, but rather by means of the three-legged stool of 1. Lower taxes, 2. Less unnecessary regulation and 3. A well-educated workforce.  If we have these, business and industry will be breaking the doors down to get into North Dakota.  And it won’t be on your tax bill, either. 

North Dakota can lead the nation in returning to the principles that have made this a great nation, the principles enshrined in the Constitution.  So far, about the only man running who cites the Constitution is Paul Sorum. 

If you like the status quo in North Dakota and really believe it can never be better for you and your family, take your pick – either Stenehjem or Burgum will do that for you.  If you think North Dakota can be better and you want to see what would happen with the dynamic of liberty and fiscal responsibility, cast your vote for Paul Sorum for governor on June 14.  I am offering the websites for these three candidates.  I challenge you to visit them and make up your own mind.  No one is “unelectable” if YOU vote for him!

Paul Sorum:  sorum2016.webs.com

Wayne Stenehjem: www.stenehjemforgovernor.com

Doug Burgum: dougburgum.com

Sally Morris is a writer, musician and member of Americans for Constitutional Government.