Millions of dollars from national and in-state groups have gone into campaigns telling North Dakotans how they should vote this fall on whether to make it harder to change the state constitution and provide free meals to school children.
Campaign finance reports recently filed with the secretary of state brought into better focus who is spending money to support or defeat the general election’s two statewide ballot measures. Both are constitutional amendments. Measure 1 would require at least 60% of voter support to amend the state constitution. Measure 2 would provide free school meals to K-12 students.
Together for School Meals, the group behind Measure 2, reported nearly $1.1 million in monetary contributions this year. There does not appear to be organized financial opposition to Measure 2.
Protect the North Dakota Constitution, which opposes Measure 1, has reported more than $1.2 million of donations. StrongND Fund, a group aligned with Gov. Kelly Armstrong, has spent $978,000 in support of Measure 1.
National groups such as the Fairness Project and the National Education Association have given to both groups. The Fairness Project has spent more than $1.12 million against Measure 1 and $600,000 to support Measure 2. The National Education Association gave $50,000 to Protect the North Dakota Constitution and $250,000 to Together for School Meals.
Supporters of Measure 1 say the state constitution needs a higher threshold than a simple majority to change it. Opponents say the measure takes power away from voters to enact changes they want. Measure 2 backers say free school meals would ease costs for parents and keep kids fed and focused during the school day. Opponents say the mandated spending should not go into the state constitution.
Both measures are part of national movements, but in the context of other states, $1 million is paltry, said Mark Jendrysik, a professor of political science and public administration at the University of North Dakota.
“A million dollars in North Dakota goes a fair way,” he said. It’s not a huge amount of money, but “it’s enough to get certain things done,” such as mail and television ads, he said.
The Fairness Project “fights for policies voters want when politicians fail them,” and provides funding and expertise to help measure campaigns, Executive Director Hannah Ledford said in emailed comments.
The D.C.-based organization lists measures in Michigan, Missouri, Montana and Virginia on its website among campaigns it supports, in addition to North Dakota’s Measure 2. Some of those other measures deal with protecting reproductive rights in Virginia, cementing Montana judicial races as nonpartisan and redrawing Missouri congressional districts.
The Fairness Project supports Measure 2 because “politicians in Bismarck failed three times” to enact free school meals, leading supporters to drive the ballot initiative, a power the organization doesn’t want Measure 1 to weaken, Ledford said.
“Our work brings us together with local organizations and advocates who want to improve their communities through ballot measures. Together for School Meals and Protect the North Dakota Constitution reflect both parts of that mission: helping voters deliver policies their families need and defending their right to do so,” Ledford said.
Together for School Meals is spending money on in-person events and digital and mail ads, Measure 2 spokesperson Amy Jacobson said. She said the campaign has been funded by “a lot of different organizations who are value-aligned with us” or worked with partners in the state for years.
“Really it’s about feeding kids and making sure kids get breakfast and lunch at school at no cost to families, and we are working with national groups as well as locals to make sure that that happens,” Jacobson said.
Jacobson is executive director of Prairie Action ND, a progressive policy group. She said she has worked with the Fairness Project for many years on different projects. “Grassroots groups” approached the Fairness Project for assistance to get Measure 2 on the ballot after the Legislature “had rejected it multiple times,” she said.
“We knew that ballot measures require quite a bit of investment, and so we used those longtime partnerships to help make this a reality for us,” Jacobson said.
The measure’s biggest in-state donor appears to be North Dakota United, the state’s teachers and public employees union, at $135,000.
All of the monetary donations to Protect the North Dakota Constitution have come from outside of the state, according to a North Dakota Monitor analysis of filings. Nearly all of the group’s $1.22 million of contributions, but for $100,000, has come from the Fairness Project.
“Most average North Dakotans don’t have the personal wealth to reach every voter or educate them on critical issues. Measure 1 is a threat to North Dakota’s future, and we welcome support from all who value democracy and protecting our constitution,” Protect the North Dakota Constitution Chair Sargianna Wutzke said in emailed comments. Wutzke lives in Bismarck.
She noted two other groups, ProtectND and Respect ND Voters, that have similar aims. Only ProtectND appears to have raised any money – none since June and not at the same level as Wutzke’s group, according to filings.
Wutzke blasted StrongND Fund, which supports Measure 1, as a “dark money group” that has funded ads “to support politicians’ power grab and to rip up our constitution all without disclosing the source of a single dollar.”
StrongND Treasurer Nick Hacker said, “We just don’t think special interests should have that much ability to effectuate constitutional change. We’re not arguing against ballot measures. That’s not it at all.”
StrongND’s video ads urge voters to vote yes on Measure 1, citing California’s constitution as “a grab bag of spending mandates and special-interest carveouts.”
North Dakota’s foundational document needs more than a simple majority vote to be amended, said Hacker, who lives in Mandan and has served in the North Dakota Senate and on the State Board of Higher Education. North Dakota has a cheap media market and an easy process to change the state constitution, he said.
StrongND is following the law, and its donors are not required to be disclosed, he added. The vast majority of donors are in the state or have interests in North Dakota, he said.
Hacker called the Fairness Project “a far-left leaning organization” and “a pro-abortion group” with “fingerprints all over far-left causes.”
Both measures need a simple majority to pass.