Tag: north dakota

North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple’s retirement puts Sen. Heidi Heitkamp in quite the pickle.

Short version: Gov. Jack Dalrymple, a Republican, will not seek another term (North Dakota is one of the states that elects Governors in Presidential election years). Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat, wants to be governor of North Dakota. This, then, would be a heavy temptation for her.

Two ‘problems,’ however*: one, North Dakota is a heavily Republican state, so she might lose. That will make her 2018 re-election… interesting. Sen. Heitkamp barely won in a squeaker in 2012; she has absolutely no margin whatsoever. But if Heidi Heitkamp wins the gubernatorial election, then the Democrats have an immediate headache: North Dakota passed a law earlier this year that dictates that all Senate vacancies must be filled via special election.  Given that the Democratic bench is as devastated in North Dakota as it is everywhere else in the United States, this effectively means that she’d be replaced with a Republican. Continue reading North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple’s retirement puts Sen. Heidi Heitkamp in quite the pickle.

Tweet of the Day, This Is The #Obamacare Disaster In A Nutshell edition.

It’s pretty straightfoward:

 

The full title of that post is “In North Dakota, 30 People Sign Up for Obamacare and 35,000 Lose Health Insurance.”

:pause:

:hands upraised in a shrug:

This is what happens when you let the current Democratic leadership run the government by themselves for too long.  I can only suggest that the voters keep this in mind in November of 2014.

North Dakotan woman hates Halloween, and apparently small children.

Is this woman utterly mad?

A North Dakota woman said she’s not planning on handing out candy to children she believes are “moderately obese.” Instead she’s giving them letters.

The woman’s plan to take childhood obesity in her own hands is sparking much controversy after she called into a Fargo, N.D. radio station early Tuesday morning.

Somebody should explain to said woman the reason for the season. Continue reading North Dakotan woman hates Halloween, and apparently small children.

Minnesota cigarette taxes have a predictable effect: increased sales in North Dakota.

This would be less interesting…

If you’re a smoker living in Minnesota near the North Dakota border, you’ve undoubtedly discovered that you can save a lot by driving a little. Since Minnesota’s cigarette tax jumped by around $1.50 a pack on July 1st, tobacco wholesalers have noticed a dramatic drop in sales.

…if it didn’t illustrate the fact that tax enthusiasts simply do not seem to understand that the linked American traits of casual physical mobility and nigh-genetic tendency to go look for loopholes reliably act as a potent counter to busybodies.  I mean, I could have easily told you that a buck-fifty per pack price difference would be enough to encourage people to hop across the state border and buy their smokes there: this sort of thing happens everywhere that’s within half an hour of a state border. Cigarettes, booze, fireworks, gambling… I assume that if another state ever formally legalizes brothels the establishment will end up setting up shop as close to the state line (while being accessible via the interstate) as is humanly possible. Continue reading Minnesota cigarette taxes have a predictable effect: increased sales in North Dakota.

Need a job? Go. To. North. Dakota.

After reading this plaintive essay by the New York Times about young voters discovering what happens when they vote against their class interests by voting Democratic (short version: they end up on the street), my first reaction was simply to shrug. But that’s not nice. What is nice is offering these people actual advice, because passages like this:

Two months ago, Mr. Tano gave up an apartment in his native Dallas after losing his job. He sold his Toyota and sought opportunities in the Pacific Northwest.

Continue reading Need a job? Go. To. North. Dakota.

#rsrh Heidi Heitkamp (D CAND, ND-SEN): not yet ready for prime-time.

There are a number of unkind things that I could say about Ms. Heitkamp’s appearance and manner in this video, but I shall refrain and merely note: this is not really a great way to present your message. From Revealing Politics:

You know, I saw a lot of Democratic candidates and legislators in 2010 hunker down and stolidly ignore questions and inquiries from folks with cameras. And I’d like to note that whichever consultants counseled said candidates and legislators to pursue that strategy should be fired, because as it turned out, so were a lot of the people that the consultants were so counseling. Because – as the above video shows – there’s no way to physically look good while running away.

Via @BenHowe.

Moe Lane

PS: Rick Berg for Senate.

Sen. Kent Conrad (D-LAME DUCK, ND): We did too pass a budget!

No, Sparky, you didn’t.

The Democratic Senator from North Dakota is taking the position that The Budget Control Act (the formal name for the agreement that raised the debt ceiling) totally counts as a budget.  While the idea of a federal budget that only takes twenty-eight pages to describe is actually kind of intriguing to me, the fact remains that the summary tables of an actual federal budget are larger.  More to the point, in a budget you get an idea of:

  • How much money is coming in;
  • From where it’s coming in;
  • How much money is going out;
  • And where the money is going.

Guess which of the two documents has that information?  Spoiler warning: it’s not the document that Senator Conrad is touting as being a budget. Continue reading Sen. Kent Conrad (D-LAME DUCK, ND): We did too pass a budget!

BREAKING: Kent Conrad (D, ND) to retire.

Admittedly, this revelation is coming from Chris Cillizzia, so take it with a grain of salt – but it’s hardly unexpected news; the Senator almost certainly feels like he has a target on his back these days*. This immediately makes the seat a strong Republican pickup prospect: Senator Conrad was in that seat largely out of personal popularity, and is unlikely to pass that popularity along.

Still, this is a bit of a pity: I was looking forward to having Senator Conrad explain why he took that sweet, sweet Countrywide mortgage deal. We never got a good answer on that, after all. Unless this retirement news is meant to explain things, to those skilled at reading between the lines?

Via @davidhauptmann.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Continue reading BREAKING: Kent Conrad (D, ND) to retire.

Lots of Primaries today.

According to RCP, we’ve got primaries in California, Iowa, Maine, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Virginia.  The news has been dominated by California’s, Nevada’s, and of course South Carolina’s – but they’re all important, so if you’re a voter in that state, hie yourselves and any reliable Republican voters within reach to a polling station.  You can let the Democrats in your life sleep in, particularly in New Jersey and Virginia.

Also: KEEP YOUR VIDEO CAMERAS HANDY, PARTICULARLY IF YOU LIVE IN SOUTH CAROLINA.  Anti-reform opponents of Nikki Haley and Bill Connor may be now past the point where their shenanigans can shape public opinion in time for the actual primary election, but there’s plenty of things that you can do to illicitly affect an election.  Fortunately, sunlight is an excellent disinfectant – and, remember: as Mark Steyn notes here, Helen Thomas was taken down by a flipcam.  There’s a reason that both Instapundit and I keep harping on this…

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.