A tale of two Daves: Shared name prompts jokes for Stutsman commissioner over marijuana campaign
Searching for “Dave Schwartz” yields more than 11 million results online — a weathercaster, a sports reporter, a banker, a chiropractor and a Fargo-based director of a campaign to legalize medical marijuana.By: Kari Lucin, The Jamestown Sun
Searching for “Dave Schwartz” yields more than 11 million results online — a weathercaster, a sports reporter, a banker, a chiropractor and a Fargo-based director of a campaign to legalize medical marijuana.
Not one of those Dave Schwartzes is County Commissioner Dave Paul Schwartz of rural Jamestown, who has been getting dozens of calls from people joking about his stance on marijuana.
“Most of the responses I’ve gotten, they know that it’s not me,” Dave P. Schwartz said.
The name “Dave Schwartz” appeared on the front page of Aug. 8 edition of The Sun, along with a quote about petitions for a North Dakota measure on medical marijuana and an article, “Paid petition circulators behind some new N.D. measures.”
But that Dave Schwartz — the campaign director of North Dakotans for Compassionate Care, an organization dedicated to passing a North Dakota medical marijuana act — is not the same person as Commissioner Dave P. Schwartz.
The campaign director resides in Fargo, and according to his LinkedIn profile, was educated at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, and is currently a partner at KMB Consulting. His middle name is Michael.
Dave Paul Schwartz, of rural Jamestown, first heard of the campaign director when a member of the county’s highway department called him up to jokingly ask if it was all right if he had marijuana, since Schwartz was in apparently in favor of it.
“‘Your name’s on the front page saying you’re promoting medical marijuana,’ (he said) and I said ‘It is?’” the commissioner recalled.
Since then, many people have called the commissioner to tease him a bit about the other Dave Schwartz.
As far as Commissioner Dave P. Schwartz knows, no one has actually thought he was the same person as the campaign director.
“I think it’s a little bit comical that it just works out that way — that there’s two Dave Schwartzes, and there’s one in favor of medical marijuana,” the Jamestown Schwartz said. “Most people probably know it’s not me, but people get confused. I just don’t want the mix-up, is all.”
Schwartz is a common German surname from the word “schwarz,” meaning “black.” A Yahoo! search for the name shows more than 15 million results, and googling the name results in 11 million results.
Associated Press writer Dale Wetzel said he typically identifies the campaign director as being “of Fargo.”
“There’s more than one Dave Schwartz, of course, in the country,” said the commissioner, noting it is not the first time he’s been confused with somebody else with the same name.
Another of his name-doppelgangers resides in Windom, Minn., and both the Dave Schwartzes have to be careful when they use their charge accounts at CarQuest, because they’ve had some mix-ups in the past.
“I’m not taking a stand for or against medical marijuana,” the commissioner said. “I have enough issues to deal with right now, I don’t want to deal with that too.”
The campaign director said he’s not related to the commissioner, as far as he knows, but has been confused with other Schwartzes in the past. Sometimes he uses a middle name to help differentiate himself from the others with that name.
Dave M. Schwartz hadn’t realized there was a sitting official sharing his first and last names, either.
“If he decides to become supportive, let me know and I’ll be glad to talk to him,” the campaign manager said with a laugh.
Sun reporter Kari Lucin can be reached at 701-952-8453
or by email at klucin@jamestownsun.com
Tags: local news, news, odd, local
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