Kevin Cramer and Rob Port today are making serious hay about "news" that's come out about Pam Gulleson's previous financial difficulties.  What it shows is more that they have no idea what they're talking about, and that Kevin Cramer must be getting worried that his chances aren't as solid as they seem...

From what I've found, it looks like in the late 80s(a period that, from what I understand, was bad for many farmers in North Dakota), Gulleson's family farm ran into tough times and wound up behind on their property taxes. The difficulty lasted for many years, but in 2005/2006, they finally paid off the last of the back taxes.  They have remained current ever since.

All sorts of accusations are being launched against Gulleson and Democrats, but here's the bottom line:Pam and her family went through tough times, like many farmers do.  They worked hard, they fought, they kept making payments, far as I can tell Gulleson never asked for any special treatment, and over 8 years ago, paid off the debt in full, including all interest and fees associated with the taxes. The farm has remained current on its taxes ever since.  This is really ancient history as far as I'm concerned.  Its not like she just paid off the debt a month before she announced she was running for Congress.  In fact, throughout this entire time, almost, Gulleson was a sitting member of the legislature and her constituents continued to send her there.  

Now there are howls of hipocrisy saying that Democratic criticisms of Rae-Ann Kelsh should apply here.  I've never been one to argue strongly that claims about politicians not paying taxes have a ton of merit.  So long as a person has made an honest effort to file, keep current, and work toward resolution of their issues in good faith(particularly if doing so doesn't coincide with a run for higher office), I usually give a candidate the benefit of the doubt.  Unless there's some measure of incompetence or evidence of actual malice or intent to defraud, the fact that a candidate made a mistake of fell on tough times doesn't disqualify someone for higher office.  Rae-Ann Kelsh, however, not only didn't pay, she didn't even file her income taxes for years.  That is just plain incompetent.  You are responsible for your finances, even if somebody else is managing them. You at least file, even if you can't pay.  As unfortunate as the situation was with her husband, you do have a responsibility to yourself to be aware of your finances, and to make sure that deadlines are met and that checks get written.  I still don't consider Kelsh's sin unforgivable, but if there is an issue, incompetence and inability to ask tough questions and keep an eye on your bank statements is the issue I would have, not the debt itself.

Plenty of people go through tough times, farmers in particular.  What matters to me in terms of honesty is that you make an effort, take responsibility, and stay on top of it as best as you can.  I think those folks that go through things like that can sometimes (not always, but sometimes) wind up as better politicians in the end having gone through that experience and knowing what it's like.

Kevin Cramer, who now seems to be shying away from the attack prior to touting the story (they appear to have removed the story from their Facebook page despite blasting out the story in an email earlier today), has way more issues in making taxpayers hire expensive out of state lawyers to defend his corrupt actions as a public service commissioner, than Pam has with this story. Cramer has yet to adequately address his corruption problem(while Pam immediately confronted this story personally in an interview with Mike McFeely today), and that is the real act of corruption in this race, not taxes that were paid off nearly a decade ago. 

Seriously, move along.  Nothing to see here.  Pay no attention to that corrupt Public Service Commissioner behind the curtain though...

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