The death of the legislator gives the civil war of NDGOP new intensity

Minot-and the death of Rep. Cindy Schreiber-Beck, a generally respected Republican from District 25, was terrible news.

She “embodied what it means, an official, a volunteer and someone who returns to her community, industry and profession,” said Governor Kelly Armstrong in a published explanation that died through her. “Your care and compassion for our farmers, students and northern Dakotainers from every area of ​​life showed up in everything they did in the legislative chambers and in the private sector, and their heir remains in every classroom and at every airport in North Dakota.”

I only knew Schreiber-Beck professionally, but that was also my impression of her.

Now it has to be replaced, but this process is complicated by the fights in Schreiber-Beck's local political party, which I wrote about a week ago.

Section 44-02-03.1 of the Code of the North Dakota Century rules on how legislative vacancies are filled, and transfers the local political party of the previously elected legislator. That would be the NDGop of District 25, only nobody can say who the elected leaders of this district are.

The process works as follows: Foreign Minister Michael Howe notifies the chairman of the legislative management (currently majority leader David Hogue) over the vacancy, the chairman notifies the district committee, and from this point on the district committee has 21 days to agree. If no appointment is made after 21 days, the legislative management committee takes the appointment.

But what happens if there is no chair that is informed about the position? “The law is silent,” Howe told me.

Where are things in District 25, one of the few politically mixed legislative districts of North Dakota?

On April 26, the Republicans of the District gathered a woman from the traditional Republican faction called Ann Smith, but their procedure enabled the representatives of the voting rights, in which the people who participated in the meeting voted votes for district delegates who were not present. This was a practice in D25 for a long time, but the local participants told me that in the past every proxy contained only one or maybe two votes. This time some deputies have given 10 or 20 votes.

The chairwoman of the NDGOP, Sandi Sanford, told me that this achieved an invalid result, and she asked the outgoing chairman of District 25, Erik Nygren, who did not seek any other term in this position to organize a new meeting. This took place on May 10 by the party's populist parliamentary group as chairman of Matt Evans.

I should point out that Evans was an enthusiastic participant in a now notorious chat for young Republicans in North Dakota Republicans, which was widespread with non-excused homophobia and anti-Semitic tropics.

But this meeting was also invalid, Sanford told me, because it did not meet the notification requirements. The state law requires the announcements for party meetings to be published 10 days before the meeting. That didn't happen for the meeting on May 10th.

Now we have not yet held the deadline on May 15th in state law for local party committees for restructuring and district 25.

“Cindy said to me, 'they can't put it on,” Smith said to me when I talked to her about the situation. She had spoken to Scheiber-Beck, which she described as a long-time girlfriend, about a week before her death.

“We have never had this problem,” added Smith. “I'm as confused as everyone else.”

A district 25 controlled by Smith will probably choose a candidate who, like Schreiber-Beck, who was very moderate. One of Evans controlled by Evans is probably a different direction.

When I reached Sanford for a comment, she repeated what she told me when I said to her a week ago: she stops Nygren as the acting chairman of the district and expects that the NDGOP state committee, which consists of district leaders from the whole state, will regulate the matter at her next meeting.

When will that be? Sanford was not sure, but said: “It will take before June 14th.”

Assuming that the NDGOP can solve this matter before June 14 (Sanford has increased the possibility of a legal dispute, which would obviously be significantly delay), the schedule could work. The legislator is now in the meantime and the law does not find a schedule if Hogue has to notify the district. At the beginning of this year, when Rep. Josh Christy died, the majority of the majority majority, Mike Lefor, who at that time the chairman of the legislative management, needed about a week to inform the district.

Hogue was also able to take the time to determine the name at the district level.

However, what the voters remain is a spectacle in which the Republican Party of North Dakota is obliged to select managers and candidates in a process, which has been spoiled by various factions that were ripped off for control, is so dysfunctional that it can hardly regulate itself.