625: Voters need to be responsible for who they're voting for

On this episode of Plain Talk, my co-host Chad Oban and I talk about the crazy Minot mayoral race, evidence of extremism in the North Dakota Young Republicans, and the controversy over bonuses paid to Commerce Department employees.

The Minot race, in some ways, is an important bellwether for North Dakota politics, taking place as it is in one of the most partisan Republican communities in the state. The race is officially nonpartisan, but pits two candidates from the far right against two mainstream, traditional, right-of-center candidates.

Can one of the far-right candidates win, and take over leadership of one of North Dakota's largest communities? A lot of it depends on who turns up at an oddball, off-year, August 5 special election. "There's real statewide ramifications for this," Oban said.

We also discussed evidence that the North Dakota Young Republicans, an independent group loosely affiliated with the North Dakota Republican Party, are aligning themselves with a bigoted Holocaust denier. At the very least, association with people who believe and say some truly despicable things doesn't seem to be much of a drawback for Republicans in 2025. This stuff is "increasingly mainstream," I argue, and Oban says it's "a frightening proposition for 10, 15 years from now," as it shapes the next generation of Republican leaders.

Voters need to be cognizant of the individuals they're voting for. This is a time of political transition, and increasingly, party labels don't mean what they once did.

As for the Commerce Department controversy, after we recorded this episode, Commerce Commissioner Chris Schilken said they wouldn't be issuing the bonuses, and apologized to lawmakers for issuing them. I argued that paying bonuses like this through irregular budget practices can "hide the football a little bit" from taxpayers when it comes to how much public employees are getting paid. If you were to look up Schilken's annual salary, or that of any of the other top Commerce Department officials who received the bonuses, it likely wouldn't take into account the additional pay.

That's not very transparent.

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