VALLEY CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – Vangstad Auditorium on the VCSU campus was the venue for the Candidate & Measure Forum held on October 6. The Forum was sponsored by “What in the World Is Going On?” a Community-College group that addresses issues of local, national, and international importance. It is a non-partisan organization.

The following is a summary of the event provided by Sharon Buhr:

Moderator Dr. Anthony Dutton, chair of the Department of Social Science at VCSU introduced Dr. Ellen Chaffee, former president of VCSU who discussed the two measures on the ballot.

Measure 1 would enlarge the Board of Higher Ed from 8 members to 15, and extend their terms from 4 to 6 years, along with other minor changes. She pointed out that who is on the board, why they decided to serve, how well they understand governance best practices, and other qualitative matters are as important as the board’s size and term length.

Measure 2 would change the process for finalizing approval of citizen-initiated constitutional measures. Instead of going into effect shortly after majority approval in an election, a measure would require approval by the legislature as well. If not approved there, the citizens could take it to another election to possibly over-ride the legislature’s rejection. Chaffee explained why many legislators dislike citizen law-making. She believes that measure 2, which came from the legislature, if passed, would be the end of citizen-based law.

Dutton then introduced the District 24 Democratic/NPL candidates: Senator Larry Robinson running for re-election, Bradley Edin and Naomi Muscha running for the House of Representatives.

District 24 Republican candidates Mike Wobbema and Cole Christensen did not attend the forum. Republican Representative Dwight Kiefert was unable to attend because he was harvesting and provided written information as to why he is running.

Initially each candidate shared information about themselves. Larry Robinson noted that he cares about this community and he wants to give back because his sons were raised here and now his grandchildren are. He emphasized how important it is to spend time outside of the legislative session, which he has done repeatedly, to work on committee assignments, and that he is on numerous committees including the Senate Appropriations Committee, which is a powerful committee.

Naomi Muscha explained that she previously had represented District 24 from 2012-16 and feels she has a variety of assets to represent the constituents of the district. She emphasized that she is a good listener, and that legislators of both political parties asked her to run again for office. She enjoys hunting as a pastime and is excited about the ‘once in a lifetime elk tag’ that she just drew.

Bradly Edin has deep roots in the area, with 25 years as a resident of Barnes County. This has given him a solid knowledge of the challenges that are faced by residents. An example he gave was water. There is great difficulty in mediating water disputes. He pledges to use all of his experience and skills to solve difficult legislative problems such as water, through integrity, compassion, and thoughtful judgement.

Dwight Kiefert’s written statement: “I ran for office mostly because I have a genuine concern for people. I have developed a strong working relationship on both sides of the aisle to be able to make sure our district receives it’s fair share of funding. It has been an honor to serve our district and hope to be re-elected to do what I can to uphold the life we enjoy in North Dakota for future generations.”

Questions from the audience covered a variety of topics including paid family leave, K-12 education, equality, freedom of speech, taxes and more. Robinson, Muscha and Edin agreed that systemic racism exists here in North Dakota and the U.S. and that it causes us to lose good people, and that we are better and richer because of diversity.

All three candidates also agreed that we need to listen to science and trust the evidence-based data that shows us that climate change is a real threat to the livelihoods that are dominant in North Dakotan—agriculture and oil. Personal changes matter but our representatives will need to make laws to support our environment for future generations.

The feature photo is District 24 candidates speaking at the October 7th forum held at the Vangstad Auditorium on the VCSU campus.