In terms of population, the state of North Dakota is small.  It has only one congressional representative.  It also has voted in larger percentages for third-party/independent presidential candidates than the nation as a whole.  It would appear to be friendly territory for us.

    Senior Democratic Senator Kent Conrad has shown sympathy with ARP positions on several issues.  He voted for across-the-board freezes in some discretionary spending, he has voted for spending cut amendments while serving on the Senate Budget Committee, he voted for and supported the bipartisan Chafee-Breaux balanced budget plan of which I have spoken highly before, and he opposed NAFTA.  On entitlement reform, he supports both afluence testing and raising eligibility/retirement age.  In addition, he has taken positions at variance with the Democratic orthodoxy on welfare reform, where he supported block grants, and on abortion, where he voted to override President Clinton's veto of the partial birth abortion ban.

    On the debit side, from ARP's point of view, he supports most favored nation status for China.

    On balance, I believe this Senator is a logical candidate to receive ARP's endorsement in 2000.  His fiscal sense of responsibility, coupled with his willingness to depart from his party's dogma, make him the sort of independent centrist thinker our party should encourage.

    The junior North Dakota Democratic Senator, Byron Dorgan, is often thought of as a carbon copy of his senior colleague.  They both are considered moderates, with streaks of fiscal prudence and fair trade tendencies.  However, when one examines their records more closely it becomes apparent that there are significant differences.  Yes, they both opposed NAFTA.  But there are significant differences.  Conrad supported the Chafee-Breaux balanced budget plan; Dorgan opposed it.  Conrad supported major entitlement reform, like affluence testing and raising eligibility/retirement age; Dorgan opposed it.  About the only area where Dorgan was more in the ARP camp was the question of whether or not to count Social Security assets as part of the overall federal budget.  Conrad supported the unified budget; Dorgan was one of the initial promoters "of the move not to count" those "revenues or outlays in the balanced budget," according to the Almanac of American Politics.

    On balance, however, we do feel Dorgan warrants the endorsement of the
ARP. Despite Dorgan's lack of enthusiasm and support for some of the
ARP's core issues, he remains a conscientious centrist in the mold of
other endorsed "Trojan Horses". It is to be hoped that Dorgan will see
fit to throw an even larger centrist political "shadow" in the future,
perhaps with additional inspiration supplied by his Senate colleague
Kent Conrad. There don't appear to be many other high-visibility figures on the
horizon in North Dakota who display a penchant for championing our ARP
core issues. One such figure, Earl Pomeroy, the state's At Large
Congressional Representative, shows no interest in challenging either
incumbent now or in the near future. Therefore, ARP endorsement of
Dorgan seems to promise greater return on our investment than waging a
"flag-planting" campaign in 2004.
 

    North Dakota also has only one Representative, who serves at large, representing the entire state in the House.  The incumbent, Earl Pomeroy(D), has, up until now, had a perfect record on all our issues.  He supported the Blue Dog budget, opposed NAFTA, supported the across-the-board Penny-Kasich cuts, and formed his own bipartisan retirement pension reform group.  He has conducted himself meticulously as a potential Trojan horse, and it was into that category that I had put him.

    --until Sunday, November 9, 1997, when he shocked everyone by announcing he would be voting for Fast Track.  Since push never came to shove there, and the vote was never actually taken, I've decided it's reasonable to overlook that blemish considering his otherwise blameless record.  It is therefore my recommendation that we give him a pass in '98.  I feel he has always been up to now a solid Trojan horse, and it is my hope and my expectation that that will continue to be the case in the future.  In addition, his margin of victory has never averaged higher than the low to mid-fifties; this district is competitive and I believe Pomeroy would be grateful for any help.