MINOT, N.D. — If someone asked you to buy a raffle ticket, saying that the proceeds would go to support Republican candidates, you would assume that the revenues would go to some committee or bank account controlled by the Republican party.
But last year, a raffle, the tickets for which claimed the proceeds would support Republicans in the Minot area, was actually sponsored by an independent political action committee that is completely separate from the North Dakota Republican Party and its Minot-area district committees.
Tickets sold for the 2022 raffle indicated that the tickets were for the "Minot Area Republicans 20-gun Raffle," but in the small print, the ticket indicates that raffle was "organized by the Dakota Patriot PAC."
I was able to obtain a raffle ticket from a Minot-area reader concerned about how the money was spent. It was provided on condition of anonymity, and I obscured the ticket number to protect my source's identity.
I obtained a copy of the raffle permit application from Ward County Auditor/Treasurer Marisa Haman. It was filled out by Travis Zablotney, the chairman of the District 5 Republicans.
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On the form filed with the county he identified the purpose of the raffle proceeds as "political campaign purposes to save our state and country." An odd statement for a Republican party official to make given that every Minot-area legislative seat is held by Republicans, as well as every statewide elected office, and every federal office, in North Dakota.
If your purpose is electing Republicans, and every office around you is already filled with Republicans, who exactly are you saving the state and the country from?
Mr. Zablotney did not respond to my inquiry about the raffle.
According to business filings with the Secretary of State, the Dakota Patriot PAC LLC was formed in September, 2022, as a nonprofit. Mike Blessum, the vice chair of the District 5 Republicans, is the registered agent for the LLC.
The group's year-end campaign disclosure indicates that it raised $142,578.38 in 2022, a figure that includes $54,200 in itemized donations over $200, and $88,378.38 in unitemized donations of less than $200.
The raffle ticket purchases would fall under that latter category.
That's not a small fundraising total, by North Dakota political standards, and brings to mind an important question: Who is actually in control of this money that's being raised under the Republican brand if it's not the Republican party itself?
The PAC didn't disclose any expenditures over $200, which almost certainly has to be an error. The District 3 Republicans, for instance, reported a $14,706.04 donation from the Dakota Patriot PAC in December 2022. It's unclear why that disclosure
was made by the local district committee and not the PAC.
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The PAC did report $66,857.89 in expenditures under $200, which aren't itemized.
I attempted to speak to Mr. Blessum about the PAC, wanting to ask questions about how it was related to the NDGOP, and who is involved in deciding how its money is spent, but when reached by phone and asked about the raffle, he told me he had "nothing to say" to me, and that I have "nothing to offer" him, at which point ended the call.
One possible explanation for why this PAC was created lies in a law passed by the state legislature in 2021. Senate Bill 2251, introduced by Sen. David Hogue, himself a Minot-area Republican, made it legal for political action committees to use raffles to raise funds. It added "political purpose" to the definition of the "public-spirited" causes raffles must support.
Which, I must say, is a move worthy of scrutiny on its own merits. But that's a topic for a different sort of column.
An additional wrinkle is that Blessum, just days ago on July 21, filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission so that the PAC can support or oppose federal candidates. Why would a political action committee, ostensibly formed to support Minot-area Republicans, need to support or oppose federal candidates?
It's one of the questions I would have asked Blessum had he spoken to me.
What this information reveals, I believe, is yet another fissure in the North Dakota Republican Party. After more than three decades of electoral success, the party is cracking up along fault lines created by the rise of Donald Trump and his style of belligerent populism that marks a sharp departure from the traditional conservative values of the past.
The NDGOP was recently taken over by book-banning, LGBTQ-hating, Trump-style populists. Recently-elected party chair Sandi Sanford, who proudly describes herself as a culture warrior, was supported in her bid by people like Blessum and Zablotney, who think our state needs to be saved from the moderate Republicans the party has been successfully electing for 30 years.
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An anecdote illustrating this point: Consider that one of the significant donors to the Dakota Patriot PAC, who is listed in the report above, was NDGOP District 40 chairman Jay Lundeen, who also led the effort to censure long-time Republican state Sen. Karen Krebsbach, a woman who has been winning elections for Republicans in District 40 since the Reagan administration but was dismissed by Lundeen as a "Democrat."
But, as a practical matter, this raffle stuff isn't really about all of that. It's about honesty and integrity.
If you buy a raffle ticket to support your local Republicans, you should have confidence that your money will actually go to support those Republicans, and not some independent political committee that may use it to defeat incumbent Republicans.
North Dakotans should beware. The Republicans you give money to might be out to defeat the Republicans you've been voting for.
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Port: Revenues from raffle tickets sold to support Republicans went to an independent PAC, not the party - INFORUM
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