And how great would it be to have help in your corner to fend off the cooks of the world fritz...... a large percentage of north dakotans who have in the past carried a symbiotic alliance and sometimes sympathic view with the farm community..... i dont know, possibly like sportsmen and women perhaps...........
You're exactly right Trip,
I liked Boondoggles first post ever because it brings into view things that happened to get to where we are now.
Everyone thinks the legislature is trying to take away a citizens right to petition an initiated measure. But first we should go back and take a closer look at these recent measures.
No. 1 In 2006 Land Tawney (national wildlife federation) traveled from Montana to ND to kick off the fair chase initiative. A handful of ND fair chasers introduced one Senate Bill in 2007 which failed, an initiated measure failed to get the signatures 2008, a second initiated measure that did get the signatures 2010 with the help of Humane Society of the United States.
No. 2 In 2008 and 2010 David Pauli (regional director for the HSUS) traveled from Montana to meet with the fair chasers and other community organizers to create a team under the direction of Karen Thunshell in ND to collect signatures.
The farmed elk and deer producers spent $300,000 dollars advertising against, the fair chasers only had $18,000 but these elite sportsmen did hop in bed with HSUS and accept $150,000 dollars. Everyone remembers the ads with Karen Thunshell's niece in them wearing camo. Voters got turned off and turned down the measure.
Everyone knows this and may say redundant. There is way more. David Pauli and Karen Thunshell now had a team operating in ND and wanted more. Karen Thunshell's niece signed into nodakoutdoors as camo queen and said come on fair chasers, let's go again. The moderators who had thrown dozens of people off the site, didn't throw her off. Hmm
No. 3 In 2012 David Pauli from Montana and Karen Thunshell of ND and their team of young urbanites were eager to get out there and circulate a petition for a felony animal cruelty measure. After two years of collecting signatures for the fair chasers they were getting very proficient at it. They got the signatures on their first attempt for their cruelty measure.
Fighting that measure cost the livestock industry over $200,000 while HSUS kicked in over $600,000. It failed.
No. 4 Also in 2012 David Detloff (national wildlife federation) traveled from Montana to North Dakota to file the clean water land heritage whatever they called it. I called it the 5 % oil revenue rip off. There was the NDSU football player scandal the first go around. After hiring enough petitioners they made the count the second go around. The voters rejected it 80-20.
But it cost State organizations like chamber of commerce, League of Cities and farm orgs over $900,000 dollars against Ducks Unlimited $5.4 million.
And now the ND wildlife federation has brought aboard John Bradley from the Montana wildlife federation.
North Dakota better get serious about bolstering up the rules concerning initiated measures.
So there you have it Trip, look at all the alliances. Not against sportsmen, against fake sportsmen.
