CROOKED CRAMER’S CHRONICLES – SKIPPING AG FORUM TO FUNDRAISE – DECLINING DEBATES

Welcome to Cramer’s Chronicles where, every Friday, we’ll break down the latest and greatest weekly hits about Cramer’s crooked, self-serving, extreme, and gaffe-prone behavior that puts himself and his partisan politics ahead of North Dakotans.

CRAMER SKIPS AG FORUM TO FUNDRAISE. 💰Kevin Cramer made his priorities clear when he chose to hobnob with donors at an up to $50,000 closed-door fundraiser in Texas rather than discuss important ag issues with North Dakotans at Big Iron, the largest farm show in the upper Midwest. But of course Cramer wouldn’t want to attend, he would’ve been forced to discuss “topics [on which he] has a relatively weak position,” including “trade where he has backed the President’s actions and the farm bill where he is limited in what he can do because he chose not to be on the House Agriculture Committee.”

WATCH WDAY’s coverage of the event: “WDAY reached out to Cramer’s campaign to see if the congressman had a response. The congressman is traveling today, and could not be reached before the show.”

Our take: Not only is Kevin Cramer too cowardly to face farmers and manufacturers attending Big Iron after he repeatedly kowtowed to the administration on the trade war, but he’s using the opportunity to seek financial gain. Unfortunately, that’s typical behavior for Cramer – North Dakotans have come to expect nothing more from the same politician who puts his finances above all else.

DECLINING DEBATES. As Tyler Axness points out, Cramer’s “snub” of the ag issues forum “is the latest in a growing list” of debates and forums Cramer has refused to participate in. So far, Cramer has declined six events with Senator Heitkamp. What is he afraid of? Perhaps it’s his health care agenda that threatens coverage for many folks in North Dakota, including individuals with a pre-existing condition. Or maybe it’s his reckless embrace of the administration’s trade war that’s hurting North Dakota’s farmers, manufacturers, and producers. Or maybe it’s his repeated calls to cut Social Security or Medicare. Since he’s turning down debates left and right, we may never know.

“MR. CRAMER… YOU DON’T SEEM TO CARE.” Be sure to watch Heidi for North Dakota’s newest ad, “Blame,” in which a Carrington soybean farmer calls out Cramer for not caring about the havoc-wreaking consequences this trade war is having on the state.

ICYMI: CRAMER TRADE WAR GOES “FROM BAD TO WORSE IN CAVALIER COUNTY.”

• With no end in sight to the current trade war with China, projected lower yields, and limited ways to store the beans that are harvested long term, the once cash crop is now a cash flop.
• In years prior, soybean growers in the area could expect around $8.50 to $8.75 per bushel. This year’s prices have been completely different, with prices hanging close to $6.75 per bushel. Since July, the basis for soybeans has dropped about 70 cents.
• “Farmers didn’t have anything to do with the tariffs; we were simply a pawn in the game which makes it difficult,” [Nancy Johnson, Executive Director of the North Dakota Soybean Growers Association] said. “We certainly are not getting any indications that the trade with China will be resolved. Farmers are looking at long-term storage and hoping for better prices in Spring.
• Johnson explained that after nearly four decades of creating a market in China that takes 70 percent of U.S. soybeans and streamlining the transportation process in North Dakota to expedited the shipping, the lack of foresight into how the tariffs would effect producers is frustrating. “We did the work, and now we are being punished,” Johnson stated.
• Senator Heidi Heitkamp has been working diligently to support farmers amid the ongoing trade war.

OUT OF TOUCH WITH ND: EXAMPLE ∞ . Cramer once again proved that he’s out of touch with North Dakotans, claiming that, in today’s economy, $1,000 “isn’t really that high a price” in reference to his fundraiser last week.

READ OF THE WEEK: “WHAT DO NATIVE AMERICANS HAVE TO LOSE WITH CRAMER? A LOT.” Mike McFeely lays out what exactly Native Americans have to lose by voting for Cramer. The answer? “A hell of a lot.”

• What the hell do they have to lose? An advocate in the Senate for starters. A voice. An ally. Somebody who has made Native American issues one of the centerpieces of her stay in the Senate.
• Heitkamp has kept Native American issues at the forefront. She’s a member of the Indian Affairs Committee, an assignment she’s held since shortly after being elected in 2012. The first bill Heitkamp introduced, a bipartisan one, called for a commission on Native children. She worked with Republican Sen. John McCain to expand AMBER Alerts to reservations. She recently introduced Savanna’s Act to protect missing and murdered Native women in the wake of the horrific murder of Fargo’s Savanna Greywind. Heitkamp supported greater protections for Native American women in the Violence Against Women Act. She’s fought for better federal law enforcement presence in Indian Country.
• And Cramer? He’s so sympathetic to Native Americans that he told a gathering at Spirit Lake he didn’t feel safe on the reservation because he’s white, in the midst of lecturing a domestic abuse survivor on the constitutionality of tribal provisions in the Violence Against Women Act.

TWEET OF THE WEEK.