McFeely: Now the two-bit hustler hired by North Dakota is flat-out lying about Moorhead

MOORHEAD — Take a bow, little ol’ Moorhead. As I, a longtime resident, will. We’re within the crosshairs of North Dakota state authorities and its employed two-bit hustler.

After taking an affordable shot at us final week, now their spokesman is mendacity about us.

Should be determined to make themselves look good.

Jealousy is a b-word, no?

And the Fargo elected officers who ought to know higher, and work intently with Moorhead frequently, stay silent and too scared to say something in our protection. Mayor Tim Mahoney, one thing acquired your tongue? Commissioners John Strand, Arlette Preston, Denise Kolpack? Anyone?

Thanks for talking up. How gutless of you.

A few days after evaluating Moorhead to Cuba,

North Dakota spokesman and “celeb” investor Kevin O’Leary of TV’s “Shark Tank” fame continued his try at making an attempt to attract enterprise to the state by … blatantly mendacity about our small Minnesota metropolis.

That is the important thing, after all. Moorhead is in Minnesota. So O’Leary and his enablers look east and see 16 Fortune 500 firms headquartered in Minnesota, bolstering a dynamic multi-faceted economic system, with a well-educated and educated work power — a state led by a Democratic governor, ARRRGGGHHH — they usually determine they should bash little ol’ Moorhead.

One minute we’re minding our personal enterprise, constructing new faculties and libraries, completely satisfied to be Fargo’s quiet neighbor watching the right-wing lunatics within the North Dakota Legislature driving away potential companies and employees with their actions and phrases … and the subsequent factor O’Leary is taking a swing at us.

You give a man $45 million of any individual else’s cash and he thinks he owns the place.

We’re flattered, I suppose. Think about being so insecure about your skill to promote North Dakota by itself that it’s important to decide a battle with the twenty first largest metropolis in Minnesota.

Not that we’re backing down from a fraudulent weasel like O’Leary. We’ll be nice.

However North Dakotans ought to know that O’Leary’s native Canada has him found out, not like the mind wizards in Bismarck like Gov. Doug Burgum and commerce division head Josh Teigen.

“Like Donald Trump, he tries to challenge a picture that means each enterprise he is touched is wildly profitable,”

wrote the Toronto Globe and Mail.

“As we uncovered … the truth is way much less rosy.”

One other publication checked out O’Leary’s lengthy historical past of self-promotion outstripping his enterprise acumen

and concluded: “These stunts overshadow a historical past of ineptitude as a businessman.”

Possibly that is why he felt the necessity to lie about Moorhead.

After his temporary go to to North Dakota to pump his personal tires, O’Leary made an look on Fox Enterprise — speaking on TV is his largest talent — on which he informed host Larry Kudlow how nice Fargo is (fact) by evaluating it to Moorhead utilizing phony numbers (lies).

As succinctly identified by InForum letter author Ted Dettman,

this is the BS O’Leary was slinging:

O’Leary: “Twenty-five years in the past, each cities had 50,000 individuals in them.”

Actuality: 2000 Census, 90,599 individuals in Fargo, and 32,177 in Moorhead.

O’Leary: “Twenty-five years later, have a look at Fargo — 1 / 4 of 1,000,000 individuals.”

Actuality: 2020 Census, 125,990 individuals in Fargo.

O’Leary: “There’s solely 30,000 individuals residing in Moorhead now.”

Actuality: 2020 Census, 44,505 individuals in Moorhead.

It is all made-up trash, a fantasy meant to indicate that Minnesota’s Democratic insurance policies are inflicting our honest little metropolis to wither and die.

Lies meant to make O’Leary appear good and North Dakota extra enticing.

The very fact is Moorhead has seen booming development since its inception within the late 1800s, apart from a slowdown within the Nineteen Eighties and ’90s. We had 18% development from 2000-2010 and 17% development from 2010-2020.

Our estimated inhabitants as we speak is north of 46,000. The expansion continues.

In 2015, Moorhead was named the perfect small metropolis in America by the Nerdwallet

web site. Our low unemployment charge and inexpensive housing was famous, as have been brief commute occasions and shut proximity to our greater neighbor to the west.

However sufficient about us. Again to the huckster O’Leary, whose worth to North Dakota has been questioned by others. That features former state treasurer Kelly Schmidt and authorities watchdog Dustin Gawrylow.

In a Bismarck Tribune article, Schmidt questioned why O’Leary’s firm was the one one to bid

on managing the $45 million if it is such an excellent alternative.

Gawrylow in a weblog publish suggests the bidding course of was rigged

to permit O’Leary to win.

Anyone have the North Dakota auditor’s electronic mail handle? This Josh Gallion fellow has a approach of attending to the underside of issues.

Mike McFeely is a columnist for The Discussion board of Fargo-Moorhead. He started working for The Discussion board within the Nineteen Eighties whereas he was a scholar finding out journalism at Minnesota State College Moorhead. He is been with The Discussion board full time since 1990, minus a six-year hiatus when he hosted a neighborhood radio talk-show.