Letter to the editor: Republicans incorrectly claim they seek re-election

The local Republican campaign is trying to fool you into voting for their local District 12 candidates by asking you to “re-elect” them into office. Some slick campaign postcards that may have arrived in your mailbox around Oct. 27 and Oct. 30 state: “Re-elect Satrom, Hall & Looysen.” Trouble of it is, these candidates are not incumbents to be re-elected; they are challengers.

However, Rep. Lyle Hanson, D-Jamestown, is an incumbent with seniority in the North Dakota House of Representatives whose exemplary service should rightfully rewarded by re-election.

Hanson has been a great productive public servant who has served District 12 with honor and distinction because of his high standard of ethics, honesty, and integrity. To have these candidates come along and try to use someone else’s flame to make theirs shine more brightly is just not right. It’s an ethics issue built around truth and trust and they seem to have walked away from both.

This unethical behavior also disrespects and takes away from the campaigns of John Grabinger and Jessica Haak. We all know that Grabinger stands with the people for good government. We also know Haak worked three jobs while putting herself through Jamestown College. As a young professional, Haak volunteers for Special Olympics, United Way, Safe Shelter, Meals on Wheels and much more while holding down an important job at North Dakota Farmers Union.

Grabinger, Hanson and Haak have been supporting the popular idea of the formation of a bipartisan ethics committee in the North Dakota Legislature to deal with unethical behavior — an idea the other side so soundly rejected last week in a Cable Services Inc. Channel 10 forum.

Our democracy is only as good as the ethics we demand in those we elect to serve. Good government is built on trust. I’m confident that the voters in District 12 will reject this kind of “broken trust” because I know most of us can tell the difference between flyspecks and pepper.

Dean Remboldt

Jamestown

(Remboldt is the Democratic-NPL District 12 chair)

Tags: opinion, elections, politics, letters