Some Things Never Change

It’s true what they say, some things just don’t change. The latest example is the conduct of Kevin Cramer during a North Dakota campaign. In a letter printed in the Fargo Forum, Katherine Satrom explained how Cramer and his campaign used her photo in a “deliberate and dishonest” way. This isn’t the first time Cramer has used people for political purposes without their consent.

In 2014, during his campaign against State Senator George Sinner, Kevin Cramer unethically filmed a campaign ad in the North Dakota Veterans Cemetery. As reported in 2014, the Cemetery is run by the “North Dakota National Guard, but it receives some funding from the federal Department of Veterans Affairs, which specifically prohibits political activities at cemeteries.” The political ad used veterans’ headstones as political props and threatened funding for the cemetery. Cramer eventually took down the ad from TV after increased pressure but would not apologize for his distasteful act.

Four years later and here he goes again using imagery without consent. Typically, I don’t write about or follow-up to letters to the editor. This one stuck out. I know the Satroms. Joe and Katherine have shared coffee and conversations with me during my time in elected office. They’re good and honest people. Anybody that has been seriously involved with North Dakota politics knows where they are politically. That includes Kevin Cramer.

Cramer’s campaign and its right-wing media surrogates have already pushed a distasteful ad from an out-of-state Republican PAC that used Syrian children to attack Heitkamp. Now they’re using real North Dakotans who have honorably served this state and do not support his candidacy in a misleading way in campaign material. It makes the absurd claim that Heitkamp’s campaign must be “desperate” even more laughable. It is only April folks. Buckle up for a long election year if this is going to be the conduct of Cramer’s campaign.