The Democratic nominee for Governor says Doug Burgum’s winning the Republican nomination in the primary won’t change his campaign strategy.
Burgum – a Fargo businessman – defeated Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem in the June 14th primary.
"He (Burgum) changed himself again," said Rep. Marvin Nelson (D-Rolla). "He is the status quo, mainline-Republican, after he ran against all that."
Nelson says he expects to keep with the main issues of his campaign – including better regulation of the energy industry, and a change in how the state’s budget is handled. Nelson says unlike his opponent, he understands that a Governor is not a CEO.
"A CEO could decide where to make the budget cuts now," Nelson said. "The Governor is very limited in what he can do -- he has to do across-the-board allotments."
Nelson says a Governor is much more of a consensus-builder.
"And I would actually argue that having been a member of the minority party in the Legislature is excellent training," Nelson said. "You can't dictate to people what you're going to do. You have to convince them."
During the 2013 Legislative session, Nelson had proposed a Constitutional amendment to directly give money back to North Dakota taxpayers, if there was a big budget surplus.
"The problem comes that if you cut tax rates, at that point, you're guaranteed to eventually go in the hole," Nelson said. "Instead of cutting taxesto nothing, and then trying to raise them later, you would give a payment directly from the surplus. If there is one thing I have learned from the 1980s, it was that if people weren't paying taxes when times were good, they sure didn't want to pay taxes when times were bad."
Nelson says North Dakota is a “weak Governor” state, where a Governor proposes a budget, the Legislature makes the final decisions, and a Governor has very few options if the economy sours.
