BISMARCK -- Sixty-seven percent of the bills produced by the North Dakota Legislature's 2005-06 interim study committees were enacted, indicating such work is worthwhile, the chairman of the Legislative Council told the newest interim committee chairmen at a meeting at the Capitol on Tuesday.
"The point is, there is value here," said Rep. Al Carlson, R-Fargo.
He urged them to keep focused on the actual subjects assigned to them as they meet between now and the fall of 2008.
"If we don't expect anything, that is what we're going to get," he said.
FARGOBAMA-ORAMA
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Fargo-Moorhead folks who support Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign are holding monthly meetings, with next one at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Atomic Coffee in south Moorhead. It's called the "FargObama" and Dan Hannaher is the contact, at dhannaher@hannahers.com
GOP PAIR TOGETHER AGAIN
North Dakota Republican Chairman Gary Emineth says he and the party's new executive director, Mike Schatz, have a political connection from nearly 20 years ago. The year that Schatz won election to the state House, 1988, was during Emineth's four-year stint as the party's executive director.
Schatz's election was one of the bright spots for the party in an otherwise very mixed year. He and running mate Richard Kouba swept old District 35's two House seats, knocking off incumbent Democrats Ray Meyer and Emil Riehl. That was also the year George H.W. Bush crushed Michael Dukakis in the presidential race.
But it was also the year North Dakota Democrats took control of the state Senate and swept all the statewide races, but one, the state auditor's office.
Counting holdovers, the GOP was left with three of its own in the Capitol tower: Public Service Commissioners Dale Sandstrom and Leo Reinbold, and state Auditor Robert Peterson.
The Schatz-Kouba tenure was short-lived. Democrats won back the District 35 seats two years later. Schatz, a renowned gridiron coach, had been elected the same autumn his football team, the New England, N.D., High School Tigers, won their first state Class B championship.
KENT CONRAD, BASKETBALL STAR
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Sen. Kent Conrad's departing chief of staff, fellow Bismarck native Bob Van Heuvelen, said one of his strongest memories of growing up as a contemporary of Conrad was when they attended rival junior high schools. Conrad was the star point guard for Hughes Junior High, much to the horror of Van Heuvelen and the other kids at Simle Junior High, he said.
"He was not just the opposition. He was the best player on the opposition. A Bob Cousy-type player, Van Heuvelen said, a reference to the legendary Boston Celtics player of the 1950s and '60s.
RUDY'S MAN HAS N.D. STREET CRED
Rudy Giuliani's national campaign director may be from New York, but he's no stranger to North Dakota, he explained during his trip to the state last week. That's in part because when his sons--ages 5 and 7--discovered NCAA hockey a while back, they became Fighting Sioux fans.
Campbell has been to the state about 10 times, including to Grand Forks, Medora, Fargo, Bismarck, and fishing in Devils Lake, he said.
A couple of the trips were hockey related, he said, and he also proudly touts a polo shirt he bought at "the Ralph" that plugs the upcoming 2008 World Men's Curling Championship next April.
SEN. NELSON GETS NATIONAL POST
Sen. Carolyn Nelson, D-Fargo, has a national distinction as of last month, though it has to do with her life outside the Legislature, where she is assistant minority leader.
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She was elected first vice president of the National Federation of Music Clubs, a post that also makes her president-elect of the organization, during the group's biennial convention in Salt Lake City.
Cole works for Forum
Communications Co., which owns The Jamestown Sun
