Shane Anderson Response to Rep. Dwight Kiefert's Comments

Posted By: Steve Urness
April 21, 2021 @ 7:07 am
News

VALLEY CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – District 24 Republicans passed a resolution to censure Representative Dwight Kiefert during a re-organizational meeting on Saturday, April 17th.

District 24 Republican Party Treasurer Shane Anderson submitted the resolution, and it passed overwhelmingly on a voice vote. He said there was some opposition to the resolution but none felt it was close enough to call for a division of the house.

According to the resolution, Representative Kiefert’s vote to remove and expel fellow legislator Representative Luke Simons earlier this year without due process goes against established legislative rules, the North Dakota Republican Platform, the constitution of North Dakota and the United States.

The District 24 Republicans respectfully requested that Representative Kiefert resign from his position for failing to uphold the adopted legislative rules of procedure without due process when voting and representing District 24 Republicans.

Representative Kiefert said he would not resign and plans to run for re-election in the next primary. Kiefert also said some people in the Republican Party are Libertarians posing as Republican’s. He questioned why anyone would defend the behavior of Rep. Simons who was expelled by the North Dakota House earlier this year.

Shane Anderson said in the Kiefert interview he said he felt justified voting to expel Luke Simons because he had been “sexually assaulting” people. The allegations against Mr. Simons never crossed into any physical contact and so such a claim is way out of line.

Anderson said another point of interest is that the alleged conversation with an intern about underwear was originally reported by one of the representatives, but that intern later came forward to testify that the entire thing was a fabrication.

Here is the rebuttal of Representative Kiefert’s comments by District 24 Republican Treasurer Shane Anderson.