FARGO — It was quite a year for the North Dakota Republican Party in 2023. Its elected leader in the state, Gov. Doug Burgum, ran for president and generated as much heat as Pembina in January while spending as much time not being in the state as is possible for a governor. Its legislative leaders had their budget bill ruled unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court, forcing a taxpayer-funded special session, and had their legislative redistricting map tossed by a federal judge because it violated the Voting Rights Act, a ruling they ignored.
The party hired an executive director from South Dakota who resigned after one week because of anti-women, anti-Black social media posts. It elected a state party chair who is an anti-LGBTQ, anti-vaccine book banner.
Burgum sent National Guard troops to the southern border as a presidential campaign stunt. State Sen. Mike Wobbema said children going hungry is "a personal responsibility issue," before doubting children going hungry is really a thing. The governor lopped heads after a fight with the state pension board, which had the audacity to question his genius. Wobbema and fellow far-right loon Sen. Janna Myrdal turned their backs on a pastor who preached — checks notes — unity.
State Rep. Brandon Prichard used a social media account to rail against homosexuals and non-Christians and was cheered on by other GOP legislators, with minimal blowback.
Surely we're missing some.
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Some might say being the supermajority party in a glowing red state that continues somehow to veer rightward is all fun and games, but being a politically incestuous echo-chamber with no checks and balances has its drawbacks, too. Example: None of the previously listed snafus (if Republicans even view them as that) are in the top five scandals of 2023 for the NDGOP.
That's impressive, in a politically incestuous echo-chamber sort of way. What we have going here is a kind of North Mississippi when it comes to political corruption. Brett Favre helping the Republican governor loot $77 million in government money for his rich buddies ain't got nothing on North Dakota, where a longtime powerful GOPer is accused of using taxpayer dollars to travel overseas to rape children.
And, in a miracle equal to that of anything Jesus performed, not one other Republican who worked closely or spent personal time with the GOPer knew one thing about, or had any hint of, his proclivities. Turning water into wine is an easier trick than that.
That's next-level unscrupulousness, tragically.
We present to you the top five NDGOP scandals of 2023, in reverse order for the dramatic buildup (even though we already gave away No. 1):
Contributed / Williston Police Department
5. Don't you know who Nico Rios is?
You do now, because the GOP legislator from Williston was stopped under suspicion of drunk driving and proceeded to drunkenly rant to police officers using homophobic, anti-immigrant, racist slurs. Booze is the ultimate truth serum, it's been said, revealing what an utter piece of human trash Rios is.
He was caught on video saying to an officer who moved to North Dakota from England: "You’re arresting me for driving home. But people come into your country and rape your women. And I’m the (expletive) bad guy? I’m going to fight for the people of England more than you ever would, you little (expletive)."
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And, yes, Rios dropped a real "don't you know who I am" on the cops. "You guys are going to regret picking on me because you don’t know who the (expletive) I am," he said. They do now. So does everybody.
Prediction: Rios pays zero price for his misdeed.
Ryan Longnecker / WDAY News
4. Fufenged Beyond All Recognition
Rising Republican star Brandon Bochenski, former UND hockey player and mayor of Grand Forks, was among state GOPers touting a new corn-milling plant to be built in his city. Burgum was on board. Burgum's head of the state Department of Commerce, failed Minnesota politician James Leiman, was key to the deal. This was North Dakota Republicans drawing an international company to the state. Win! Dinners were had, press releases were sent, backs were slapped.
And then citizens of Grand Forks found out the details: It had the potential to be an environmental disaster and, whoops, the corn plant was going to be owned by a Chinese company. Fufeng was its name and, opponents said, spying on America was its game.
Whatever you think of the accusations made by Fufeng opponents — there's no doubt racism played a part in the opposition, as did misinformation and conspiracy theories — for NDGOPers to so utterly misread public sentiment and to be so unaware of the international suspicion of China was stunning.
Eventually, North Dakota's congressional delegation got involved and Bochenski was given cover to blame the federal government for his screwup. In the end, the U.S. military ended up nixing the project.
It gave new meaning to the acronym FUBAR.
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3. Look up the definition of 'sweetheart deal' in the dictionary and ...
Rep. Jason Dockter is a Republican from Bismarck who was a friend to former state Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, serving as a high-level aide in Stenehjem's political campaigns. Dockter is also a businessman who owns properties in Bismarck. In 2022, it became public that a building Dockter co-owned was given a cozy lease deal with the attorney general's office, costing state taxpayers more than $1.5 million in overruns.
In 2023, an independent investigation by the Montana Department of Justice corroborated and expanded on findings by North Dakota's state auditor that the deal between Stenehjem's office and Dockter was "organized not for the benefit of the attorney general's office and the public, but rather for businesses owned by or affiliated with a well-connected state lawmaker who had a personal relationship with the attorney general," according to Forum Communications Co. writer Rob Port.
The Montana investigation lays out insider, good-old-boy patronage politics — the spoils system — operating right here in North Dakota. The report also outlined obstruction from state officials wanting to keep the lid on the Stenehjem-Dockter dealings.
There couldn't be a clearer, simpler political scandal for the public to digest.
News of the scandal first became public in June 2022, with heavy statewide media coverage, after Stenehjem's unexpected death in January 2022.
Dockter was reelected, running unopposed, in November 2022.
WDAY file image
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2. Liz 'The Fixer' Brocker
Donald Trump had Michael Cohen. Stenehjem had Liz Brocker.
And while most of this scandal happened in 2022, it continued into 2023. Forum Communications Co. reported in November that the attorney general's office was cleaned out, stripped to nothing, shortly after Stenehjem died and before others had access to his office.
Wrote Rob Port: "... the efforts to hinder access to public records may have been more extensive than deleting Stenehjem's email account."
This was on top of Brocker ordering Stenehjem's emails, and later those of his right-hand man Troy Seibel, deleted from the state's IT system shortly after the AG's death in January 2022.
Brocker's actions are tied to the Stenehjem-Dockter scandal.
Tied to, yes, but so scummy that it deserves its own standing.
Again, there couldn't be a more straightforward scandal. It's like watching a corrupt version of "Sesame Street." Brocker, Stenehjem's longtime executive assistant, ordered her boss's emails scrubbed two days after his death. She later, without authorization, ordered the deletion of Seibel's emails.
Brocker's infamous email about deleting Stenehjem's emails said, "We want to make sure no one has an opportunity to make an Open Record request for his emails, especially as he kept EVERYTHING."
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"EVERYTHING" sort of makes you wonder, no?
Emails of state officials on state servers are public records. They belong to the citizens of the state, not the attorney general's secretary. It's against state law to knowingly destroy public records, but this being North Dakota the scandal has vanished like the emails.
It's likely Stenehjem's emails contained information about the Dockter scandal. But did they include other damaging information Brocker was fixin' to keep from the public eye? And what was taken from the AG's office when it was cleared out?
Nothing has happened to Brocker. In fact, she resigned her position at the AG's office and is currently employed by the Burleigh County state's attorney.
David Samson / The Forum
1. Ray Holmberg
We don't even want to have a snarky lead-in to the top NDGOP scandal of 2023 because of the gravity of the accusations against former state Sen. Ray Holmberg. The longtime legislator from Grand Forks was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of child sex tourism and child pornography.
The charges allege Holmberg traveled to Prague, Czech Republic, for the purpose of engaging in sex acts with a person under the age of 18. That is child rape, since children cannot give consent to have sex.
Holmberg has pleaded not guilty.
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Further, Holmberg used taxpayer dollars to make some of the trips to Prague. To allegedly rape children.
Holmberg was long one of the most powerful legislators in Bismarck as chair of the Senate appropriations committee. He steered dollars where he wanted them to go.
Holmberg resigned after The Forum revealed he exchanged 72 text messages with a man who has since pleaded guilty to multiple charges of receiving, possessing and distributing child pornography. When he resigned, Holmberg was lauded by many, including Burgum.
Holmberg was in the legislature for 45 years. He was as well-connected as any legislator could be. A Grand Forks Herald profile in 2021 that named him the newspaper's "Person of the Year" said, "Close observers describe Holmberg's sway within the party as rivaling that of a majority leader."
And yet ...
And yet nobody in the North Dakota Republican Party knew Holmberg's personal inclinations? They didn't attend parties with Holmberg where perhaps things were said, or hinted at? There was no clue? Nobody knew?
Nobody?
That's odd.
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