KFGO Gubernatorial Debate between Merrill Piepkorn and Kelly Armstrong
In the last 20 years of being in the media, I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Merrill Piepkorn. Merrill is full of life and understands what this region loves, and it’s why everyone likes him. He’s a folksy person with the power to make people smile. That’s why it didn’t surprise me when he was elected to the North Dakota State Senate. Merrill is a personality.
The question now is whether that personality is enough to get him elected to be our next governor.
Merrill Piepkorn had an opportunity to debate his opponent for Governor, Congressman Kelly Armstrong, on my show this week. The debate was moderated by KFGO’s News Director, Paul Jurgens. Jim Shaw from Forum Communications and Amy Dalrymple from the North Dakota Monitor were also on the panel asking questions. The type of questions that gave Piepkorn an opportunity to point out the differences between the two of them. Differences on topics like hot lunches, guns, book banning, and abortion. The differences are clear and it was a perfect time to show that. And Piepkorn didn’t take the opportunity.
While he did point out that he voted against turning a semi-automatic weapon into the equivalent of an automatic weapon, he never said that it was well within the rights of our Constitution. The type of limits that anyone with common sense would not only understand, but agree to.
When Armstrong went directly to the Second Amendment, Piepkorn never pushed back.
When it came to North Dakota’s six-week abortion ban, Piepkorn made it perfectly clear that he felt any decision was between a woman and her doctor. Armstrong took the position that six weeks was plenty of time for a woman to know she’s pregnant, despite what some experts and women have said.
Again, Piepkorn never pushed back.
One more example I’ll give was when the candidates were asked about ethics. Two examples were given of clear ethical breaches, one being the case of Republican State Representative Jason Dockter. To remind you, he’s a man convicted of taking $2 million worth of taxpayer money for a lease of his property from the late Attorney General, Wayne Stenehjem. He knew he was in violation of the law. The other case referred to was about North Dakota State Representative Nico Rios, a racist drunk driver.
There was no mention of the lack of care for taxpayer money. There was no mention of the corruption a supermajority can bring and how electing Piepkorn would fix that issue.
It was another lost opportunity.
I’m not a candidate for Governor, so it’s easy for me to criticize. My name isn’t on a ballot and I’m not doing all the work that I see Piepkorn doing. I do however, debate for a living. I do know how to get the attention of an audience.
I do know when an opportunity is lost.
Good riding with you,
Joel
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