Monday, April 7, 2008

ND Dem-NPL Convention Wrap-up

By BlackJack

What an incredible weekend! In the past I've stood on the sidelines and let others, who know the candidates better, make the decisions and then join the team as a foot soldier with door knocking and phone calls. This year I made the decision to get involved early and I became a delegate to the North Dakota Democrat-Non Partisan League Convention. Boy, did I pick a great year to get more involved!

Although the highlight of the weekend had to be sitting front and center in row 10 to see Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the real take-away moment has to be the nomination of Tim Mathern for Governor and his nomination of his opponent, Merle Boucher, as Lt. Governor. I'd never experienced anything like it and I'm sure many who were in the room would agree it was an amazing moment.

In the only contested race of the convention, the vote for Governor candidate came down to a difference of only a few percentage points in Mathern's favor. The next few minutes were unique in my brief electoral experience. First Merle Boucher asked for the floor and conceded the nomination to Tim Mathern. Next, Mathern asked to suspend the rules and not wait until the following morning to vote for Lt. Gov. and then nominated his opponent Boucher. The floor went wild with applause and there were many choked-up delegates who admired both these great state leaders.

The ND Democrats will have some fantastic candidates on the ticket this cycle. Jasper Schneider, a young lawyer from Fargo with a beautiful family, will be running for Insurance Commissioner this fall. In his acceptance speech Jasper said "The No. 1 role of the insurance department is for consumer protections. People work hard, they pay good money for premiums and they deserve to be timely and fully compensated when disaster strikes." He also said that he believes the ND Workforce Safety and Insurance (WSI) is lacking oversight and he intends to bring reforms to that department.

Cheryl Bergian is running for a post with the North Dakota Public Service Commission. Cheryl has run before but much has changed since her last run. The western part of the state is seeing oil money rolling in and it will be an interesting time for the PSC who oversees public utilities. In her acceptance speech Cheryl said the PSC needs to concentrate on improved cellular coverage, railroad safety, and the regulation of power utilities.

Let the campaigning begin! It's going to be a great summer and fall for Democrats in North Dakota and I can't wait to get the buzz going about this great slate of Dems.

Inform yourself - ND Democratic Candidate Sites:

1 comments:

JoeC said...

Wow...that's pretty cool to see two opponents come together in the governor/lt. governor race. Hats off to both of them.