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Posted on 05/15/2012 4:32:33 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued
The Washington Post has put North Dakota atop its list of “The 10 House districts that might surprise you.”
The report today aims to showcase 10 House races that are “surprisingly competitive” in an election year, where not only is partisan control at stake but where redistricting has changed the game for seats across the country.
North Dakota is the only state on the list where redistricting wasn’t a factor in the competitive nature of its House race. (North Dakota is a single at-large district, so there is no redistricting here.)
Republican Rep. Rick Berg won North Dakota’s House seat less than two years ago, after unseating longtime Democrat Earl Pomeroy.
But Berg’s decision to seek the U.S. Senate this year means “Democrats appear to have a fighting chance to win (the seat) back,” the Post reports.
North Dakota’s U.S. House race officially has three mainstream candidates and one third-party contender: Democrat Pam Gulleson, Republicans Brian Kalk and Kevin Cramer and libertarian Eric Olson.
Kalk is the Republicans’ endorsed candidate in the race. Cramer is challenging him in the June 12 primary, which will determine the official GOP candidate in the November election.
The Post’s report says Gulleson seems to have the advantage so far, citing her comparatively successful fundraising reports and the appearance of “a very strong campaign.”
“This is still a conservative state, but she’s on the right path,” The Post wrote.
(Excerpt) Read more at ndpolitics.areavoices.com ...
I know very little about any of the candidates running. North Dakota Freepers would be extremely helpful if they learned all they could about the candidates and gave us their input.
North Dakota voters need to remember that no matter what the Democrat candidate says about protecting oil drilling rights. Once this woman is elected she will march in lock-step with Pelosi’s environmental wacko agenda.
BTW, we just passed Alaska as the second highest oil producer. Woot!
“BTW, we just passed Alaska as the second highest oil producer.”
Congratulations and thanks for the input.
Does the influx from the liberal states alter any of that, though?
I went and looked up info on that infamous 1970 Senate contest, which was actually a rematch of 1964. Tom Kleppe won his 2 House races by an unimpressively narrow margin (defeating freshman Democrat Rolland Redlin by less than 4,000 votes, 52-48% and in a rematch where he won by a plurality of 49% in 1968). Kleppe was wealthy and decided to wage a new style of campaign in 1970 by literally bombarding the airwaves on just how far-left Quentin Burdick was (Barone pointed out in the first edition of the Almanac of American politics that $32 or so would buy you a tv ad, and Kleppe dropped several hundred grand).
It ended up backfiring, but only because the voters couldn’t understand how that “nice” Burdick fella, longtime former Congressman Usher Burdick’s beloved son, was the ultraleft monster portrayed in Kleppe’s ads (’cept he was), and Kleppe lost by an even wider margin than his 1964 race. The fallout undoubtedly also harmed the GOP nominee, Robert McCarney, in the ND 2nd District (the seat Kleppe was vacating), as he lost to Democrat Arthur Link by about 500 votes (a 50-50% tie)).
To add to the strangeness, ANOTHER candidate named Kleppe (Russell Kleppe) ran as a 3rd party Conservative (he also ran in the 1968 race, almost costing Tom Kleppe the seat).
I find it odd that the DemocRAT has raised more money than both Republican candidates combined. Republican donors seem to be waiting for the June primary before opening their wallets. Also, it’s not typical for convention winners to be challenged in the primary. That doesn’t mean we’ll lose it, but the elements for an upset are there. Also, in sparsely populated states, local issues have a way of impacting the results without the national press corps knowing it. This is why I’ve been asking about the candidates, trying to see if they’ve said or done something to alienate them.
I’ll bet if you stood outside of a shopping mall in Fargo and ask, only 2 in 10 would know who Pam Gulleson is.
Sadly, Cass county (where Fargo is) chose Obama in the last election. So perhaps we see some influx affecting certain counties, but not really enough to affect statewide votes. Central and Western North Dakota are still very conservative, and the oil boom money is a gravey train that no one here wants to stop.
1 reason I didn’t want Berg to run was to not open up the House seat again and maybe give them an opening. But it’s not like Kalk or Cramer aren’t first tier opponents. I’m not too worried.
Gulleson will have to contend with the top of ticket getting maybe 40% tops (Obama) and 45% tops (Heitkamp).
“ANOTHER candidate named Kleppe (Russell Kleppe) ran as a 3rd party Conservative (he also ran in the 1968 race, almost costing Tom Kleppe the seat).”
When did he change his name to Sam Garst and move to Minnesota?
Who but a scumbag Democrat could write that line?
This single sentence, and especially the words "still" and "but", say all you need to know about the author and the newspaper, and I'm positive they would read this very post and not have a clue what I'm talking about.
More than a few people are still ticked off about that.
I only donate directly to a candidate, and then not often.
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