North Dakota/Burleigh County elections and local stuff

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Might as well do a thread on this, as I sorted of voted in these...twice. My parents were mailed ballots, as was I described here: https://talkelections.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=374069.0 No I didn't vote myself as I'm not risking a felony as unlikely as prosecution is. The deadline and election day is June 7. Anyway:

Superintendent of Public Instruction
This is an elected position in ND, basically head of the state's entire education and university system. Thought a statewide office it's non-partisan, however there are three candidates, all seeking the Republican endorsement, although that has been delayed until after election day. The incumbent is Kirsten Baesler, who is a typical GOP machine party hack, and has some notable legal issues, she was pulled over and arrested for a DUI a few months ago and tried to threaten the cop based on her position, she later avoided jail time with a plea bargain. I'm pretty sure her license is still suspended. She was also arrested in 2015 for a domestic violence incident against her former fiance (needless to say they were not married) but the charges were dismissed. Court documents from her divorce also indicate that she had issues with alcohol and drug abuse and tried to cover up an affair that led to it. Her opponents are Charles Tuttle, a far right candidate who ran as an independent for US House in 2018 running to the right of the Republican candidate and was cited for illegally handing out pro-Trump literature near a voting booth. The third candidate is Brandt Dick, a former elementary school principal and now superintendent of a rural school district in north central ND.

While all are Republicans, Dick is the least bad, and got my parents' votes. Amazingly enough this office was held by a Democrat until 2013 (a guy who had held it since the 80s and as a former Lt. Gov. in the 70s, basically had been in office for decades), so notable how no Democrat is even running. The top two will go to a runoff in November.

South Central Judicial District Judgeship No. 7
While multiple judges in this district are running, this is the only non-unopposed one and an open seat. The candidates are Morton County assistant prosecutor Gabrielle Gotor, former state Labor board director Bonnie Storbakken, and Burleigh County assistant prosecutor Scott Miller. Storbakken is a GOP hack who was appointed by Gov. Dalrymple to previous positions, so she sucks and is the worst. Gotor and Miller seem pretty bland and unideological, although Miller is far more experienced and qualified (he's previously worked as a law clerk for federal courts too), so I went with recommending him. As with above, the top two will have a November runoff.

Burleigh County Commission
There are two at-large seats up for vote. Two incumbents are also running, Jerry Woodcox and Brian Bitner. Woodcox voted down the proposed refugee settlement ban in Burleigh County, while Bitner supported it. So my parents voted for Woodcox. The other candidates are construction company owner Brian Geloff and social worker Becky Matthews. I got my parents to vote Woodcox and Matthews.

However the amazing thing is....this election is absolutely meaningless! Because there are two spots, the November runoff will consist of four candidates. And as only four candidates have filed, all will advance to the runoff. So it's only useful to get a preliminary idea of where they stand...which is still interesting to us nerds.

County Auditor/Treasurer
This office was actually elected in 2018 but the resignation of the incumbent means there's an election for the remaining two years. This is the only election where I couldn't get my parents to vote for my preferred candidate. That being Tracy Potter, a former Democratic State Senator and my dad's former boss. Which is why, they didn't like him as a boss or that he runs for office basically every election trying to win something. Physician and Department of Environmental Quality manager Dale Patrick and Leo Vetter, another construction company owner are the other candidates. They voted for Patrick. Once again the top two will face each other in a runoff. There's also a referendum on the ballot to make this an appointed instead of elected position so this might be the last election for it.

Bismarck City Commission
North Dakota has "city commissions" instead of "city councils". This is another set of two at-large seats. There is only one incumbent running, Steve Marquardt. I figured out he sucked after he bragged about his endorsement from a realtors organization and confirmed it upon seeing his sign in front of the state Republican Party HQ. His opponents are Michael Connelly, Brandi Jude and Mark Splonskowski. Connelly seems to be one of those right wing Generation Xers who nonetheless is still fond of absurd Boomer political memes and talking points and just sucks in general. Jude is a Democrat, she actually ran for a State Senate seat in 2018 and lost by about 2:1 (it's a very Republican district even by the standards of Burleigh County, consisting of new developments on the north side of Bismarck.) She's one of those Amy McGrath/MJ Hegar-type female combat veterans now running for political office as a Democrat and helped found and manage an anti-human trafficking organization after her military career (which gave me a bit of a pause because "anti-human trafficking" is often just a cover for "anti-sex work/ers", but her organization seems to work with actual trafficking victims in the state and do good.) She would also be the first openly LGBT person elected in Burleigh County if elected. Alas for that reason she probably won't be but I got my parents to vote for. The other choice was Splonskowski. I could find nothing about this guy other than that he's a tax assessor of some type and seems to be a total blank slate, but he won by default as the other two options are so terrible.

And for who knows what reason Bismarck doesn't do runoffs for municipal elections even though they are done for state ones and required by state law for county offices, so the top two here will win.

Also some local referendums, the aforementioned one on the auditor position, a sales tax one to fund a new recreation center on the north side of town which my parents vigorously oppose (for two reasons: 1-the city already has plenty of recreation centers and sporting event stadiums and this is basically so that the people on those northside new developments don't have to drive an extra 5-10 minutes to go to one and 2-while it states the tax will be discontinued upon the raising of $108 million, this promise was also made for a referendum on taxes for prison renovations, and yet remained afterwards, so they don't trust that.) and also two on requiring that local meetings of various boards transcripts be published in the Bismarck Tribune. This requirement existed for decades but was quietly repealed only to have the repeal challenged via signatures.

So yeah there you go if you want to look for something on June 7. As far as the actual primary goes the only thing I found notable is one of the Democrats running for House as actually a Libertarian candidate in 2018, so I got them to vote for the other guy besides him.