A House committee is studying a bill that would make candidates for local offices declare a party – or declare as an independent.
Right now, those offices are considered to be non-partisan.
The supporters of the bill say voters have a right to know how local candidates’ ideologies would translate into votes. They say it’s a matter of transparency.
One of the bill's sponsors, Rep. Mike Nathe (R-Bismarck) told the House Government and Veterans Affairs committee local elected officials need to be held to the same standards as legislators and statewide office-holders.
"We (legislators) set policy," Nathe said. "We set tax policy, we collect tax money, we spend tax money -- no different from people in the counties and cities. My question is -- why are they exempt from the transparency and openness we are held at?"
A number of city and county officials testified against the measure. Minot city councilman Shannon Straight told the Committee he was part of an effort – dubbed “Make Minot” – that made substantial changes to the form of Minot’s city government – such as reducing the size of the Council, and giving the mayor a vote on the Council.
Straight said he thinks party labels would get in the way of engaging his city’s voters.
"Party affiliation tends to place people in political camps that have little to do with local decision-making," Straight said. "This bill would only further exacerbate political division, and the skepticism of government. The success of 'Make Minot' was less about 'R' and 'D' or 'I,' but 'We' and 'Us.'"
The chairman of the committee, Rep. Jim Kasper (R-Fargo), said there has already been party involvement in local elections.
Kasper said the United Republican Committee, which includes all the Legislative districts in Fargo and Cass County, struggled for years on whether it should be involved in local elections, by endorsing local candidates. He said up until the last election, all that committee did was talk about it. Then, in the last election, the URC did endorse candidates.
"The process that was used was to send a survey to each candidate for each office, asking then to complete the survey, and asking if they wanted the endorsement of the URC," Kasper said. "Surprisingly, that really engaged a lot of people running, and we had a lot of surveys come back."
Kasper said based upon those surveys, and how the URC people felt, the Republican Party did endorse local office candidates for the first time."
The main sponsor of the bill, Rep. Scott Louser (R-Minot), said his bill does not have any formal endorsement procedure spelled out.
The executive director of the North Dakota League of Cities said he found Kasper’s comments “disconcerting.”
"I do believe that this idea of having locally elected officials declare a political party is actually being driven by a national, out-of-state entity," Blake Crosby said in an interview. "That entity is very much concerned about the political swing they're seeing."
The committee hasn’t taken action on the bill.
