Area Democrats undecided
North Dakota Sen. Tracy Potter said if elected, he will challenge the leadership — not only the Republican party but his own, adding he “won’t go along to get along.”
- U.S. Senate hopeful Sen. Tracy Potter
- Great Plains Institute policy director Brad Crabtree
North Dakota Sen. Tracy Potter said if elected, he will challenge the leadership — not only the Republican party but his own, adding he “won’t go along to get along.”
Potter, who intends to seek the Democrat’s endorsement for U.S. Sentate, attended the state Democratic-NPL District 37, District 36 and District 39 convention, held Saturday at the Eagles Club in Dickinson.
“My district (35) is just like North Dakota,” Potter said. “It has more Republicans than Democrats, it has more Independents than either one. By appealing to Independents, and peeling off those moderate Republicans who don’t really like the far right of their party — they’re a little concerned with how far their party is drifting to the right — and then winning the Democrats, I was able to squeak out a victory.
“That’s exactly how I’m going to win United States Senate.”
Potter said it’s a “daunting” task to beat Gov. John Hoeven.
“I think I can do it,” Potter said.
Potter said following Hoeven’s announcement of intention to run for U.S. Senate on the Republican ticket, he “took a hard right turn.”
“He built his popularity as governor by implementing our platforms. 70 percent funding for education, property tax relief, even economic development,” Potter said, adding Hoeven is a “political chameleon.”
Potter said the country is broken.
“The reason the country is broken is because the Senate can’t get anything done, the Senate is broken,” Potter said.
Public Service Commission candidate Brad Crabtree also spoke a few words at the convention.
“Obviously a major responsibility of the commission is to regulate public utilities and protect the rates of consumers for electricity and gas,” Crabtree said. “I’ll take that role very seriously. Like I said, I think we need to bring back the consumer perspective to the commission.”
Following the speeches, delegations broke up into groups, allowing them to discuss issues regarding their districts.
Districts 36, 37 and 39 have held their convention together for several years, said Cindy Klein, District 37 Democrat-NPL chairwoman.
“It just seems with District 39 being so big, and District 36 right around the city of Dickinson, it makes sense for our three districts to just come together,” Klein said Saturday. “Today is one of the steps of our political system, today we will possibly endorse our candidates for the legislature, discuss what we want on our platform. We will elect delegates to carry out our wishes on the next level, which is the state convention.”
Klein and District 39 Chairwoman Jeri Lynn Bakken said neither district endorsed any candidates during Saturday’s convention, but expect to at some point during the next few weeks.
The Democratic-NPL State Convention is slated for March 26, 27 and 28 in Fargo.
The North Dakota Republican Party Convention is slated for March 19-21 in Grand Forks.
Tags: news, local, potter, crabtree, democrats
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