Shaw: Defeat the most extreme North Dakota Legislators

It’s time for North Dakota voters to defeat the most extreme members of the Legislature. These Republicans shamefully support book bans, bash and discriminate against the LGBTQ community and require girls who have been raped to give birth to babies fathered by the rapists. Here are some of the extremists who should go, with more disturbing information about them.

Rep. Jim Kasper of District 46 in Fargo. Kasper had racist, sexist and anti-Islam posts on his Facebook page, apparently failed to report a $5,000 campaign contribution, falsely claimed critical race theory was being taught in North Dakota, tried to gut the Ethics Commission and term limits measures approved by state voters, tried to make it much tougher to vote early and read about masturbation on the House floor.

Kasper is running with extremist Republican Desiree Morton and against Democrats Todd Reisenauer and Will Thompson.

Reps. Ben Koppelman and Andrew Marschall, along with Sen. David Clemens. All three are from District 16 in West Fargo. Koppelman introduced one of the craziest bills of the last session. Namely, he wants to allow guns in bars. What could go wrong? He also opposes local control of elections.

Clemens also introduced an insane bill. Namely, he tried to ban all North Dakotans from receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. His attacks against transgender people are cruel and ignorant.

Democrats running in District 16 are Julie West, Phil Weiss and Heather Tyulyandin.

Rep. Claire Cory, who is now running for the Senate from District 42 in Grand Forks. Cory has repeatedly spread false and dangerous information about COVID-19 and tried to abolish common sense preventative measures against the potentially deadly disease. She also wants to make it virtually impossible for voters to approve changes to the state constitution.

Cory was recently charged with drunk driving, as her blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit. She didn’t want the public to know about this and pleaded guilty to reckless driving.

Her Democratic opponent is Rodney Gigstad.

Rep. Dan Ruby of District 38 in Minot. Ruby was chair of the loony and fringe Bastiat Caucus, but refused to identify other legislators in that caucus. He was one of three House members who voted against increasing retirement benefits for law enforcement officers.

In voting against child care assistance, Ruby said his answer to the child care crisis is for working people not to have kids. Ruby has 10 children.

Ruby is running with Republican Christina Wolff and against Democrat Lisa Hermosillo.

Sen. Mike Wobbema of District 24 in Valley City. Wobbema disgracefully turned his back on a prayer in the Senate chamber led by a Presbyterian pastor, who preached love and unity. He also said it’s not the state’s responsibility to feed hungry children from low-income families, and astonishingly questioned whether they really want to eat.

Wobbema’s opponent is Democrat Knut (Pete) Gjovik.

InForum columnist Jim Shaw is a former WDAY TV reporter and former KVRR TV news director.