Duane Sand Was Ready to Stand Up for North Dakota

Yesterday the people of North Dakota decided to send Earl Pomeroy, a liberal democrat, back to the US Congress where he will serve his ninth term. Despite the single digit approval ratings given to the Democrat-led Congress almost immediately after the 2006 elections, instead of voting for new representation and new ideas, North Dakotans voted for the tired, out-of-touch philosophies of Earl Pomeroy. Earl voted himself a six-week vacation in July of 2008, voted to redeploy troops out of Iraq in 2007, has voted to give illegal immigrants social security benefits, and voted against a bill that would have required that parents be notified by the abortion clinic when their child seeks an abortion. Are those votes a good indicator of "North Dakota values"? Earl Pomeroy apparently thinks so.

Duane Sand was ready to fix what he called "the most broken body of Government" anywhere in the world - the United States Congress. A congress where corruption is king and where people like Earl Pomeroy take upwards of $20,000 in campaign contributions in the few days before voting to bail out those very institutions with $700 billion taxpayer dollars. Duane Sand was ready to stand up for limited government and lower taxes, defend the lives of unborn children, and support our soldiers as they secure victory in Iraq. Duane Sand was ready to expand domestic energy production and free us from foreign oil. But most importantly, Duane Sand was ready to stand up for the true beliefs of North Dakotans, not the special interests of Washington.

It is unfortunate that incumbency is so powerful in this country that it can prevent those with new and innovative ideas from going into Washington and making necessary changes. It is astonishing that despite recognizing that we have a failed Congress, when given the chance to make a change at the polls, the voters send the same people back for another term. I long for the day when North Dakota will awaken and recognize the need for new representation in Washington.

Sand Raises Record Campaign Funds

Duane Sand has raised incredible amounts of money for his campaign against entrenched liberal Earl Pomeroy this election season, even managing to raise more than Pomeroy himself. His $1.62 million raised this cycle is the most money that any challenger has raised for a run against Pomeroy, far outpacing even Rick Clayburgh in 2002 who nearly beat Pomeroy and raised $1.08 million. Only a tiny fraction, 1%, of Sand's money has come from Political Action Committees (PACs), while Earl Pomeroy has relied on PACs to deliver 75% of his funds. Over 14,000 people have donated to Duane's campaign, and Sand has out-paced Pomeroy in his fundraising for every quarter in 2008. These final days are critical, visit DuaneSand.com to help out, or call the campaign office at 701-751-2530.

Newt Gingrich Endorses Sand

Duane Sand has a new endorsement to add to his campaign in the form of former House speaker Newt Gingrich. You can hear the ad in the video below. Both Gingrich and Sand realize that domestic energy production is a critical step in freeing ourselves from foreign oil. They realize that we don't have time for people like Earl Pomeroy to continually vote against expansion of oil shale drilling here in America. Duane's message is "Drill Here, Drill Now", and it is resonating across the state. Please visit Duane's website to make a contribution or volunteer some of your time to the campaign during these last two critical weeks.

Duane Sand to Debate Pomeroy on October 20th

Duane Sand will be debating incumbent Earl Pomeroy for the second time on October 20th. You can catch this debate, which is sure to be intense, on NBC at 7PM. Recently Earl has become more and more desperate to find an issue to attack Duane on. He decided to make the false claim that Duane takes his paycheck from a "radical Washington special interest group". It turns out that this "radical group" is American's for Prosperity, one of the nation's largest limited government, low taxes minded-groups, a group supported by former Governor and current Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer. It's also important to note that Earl Pomeroy's campaign "takes its check", or at least 76% ($1.1 million) of it from special interest groups.

Earl Pomeroy is running out of things to say, and this is evidenced by the fact that any given sentence from his campaign is bound to contain one of the following phrases: "fighting for North Dakota", "North Dakota values at work", "Powerful Ways and Means Committee", and the classic "out of state partisans". Let's first take a look at one of Earl's favorite catch phrases - "fighting for North Dakota". The phrase is so vague that it hardly warrants a response, but it's clear that if Earl really wanted to fight for North Dakota, and the entire country for that matter, he wouldn't have voted himself a six week vacation this summer when we were struggling with high gas prices.

Another phrase that Earl likes to throw into all of his radio and television ads is "North Dakota values at work". Maybe he has forgotten that North Dakota is a pro-life state, and that his 16% rating from the National Right to Life Committee doesn't exactly fit with "North Dakota values". His pro-abortion voting record is something that Earl is always trying to hide from, but it is finally starting to come out this election year. Perhaps the most outrageous statement from the Pomeroy campaign is found on his website where it states that every two years, Earl is attacked by "out of state partisans". I'm not sure how Earl Pomeroy can describe Navy veteran and North Dakota native Duane Sand as an out of state partisan while still being a member of the Pelosi crowd in Congress. Earl represents San Francisco values, not North Dakota values.

I hope that next Monday's debate will give voters the chance to see that North Dakota has a great opportunity to elect Duane Sand, a true North Dakotan with a commitment to the taxpayer and a desire to serve the state and bring a refreshing change to Washington.

Palin Delivers Powerful Punch in St. Paul

Tonight it became very clear why John McCain chose Sarah Palin to be his running mate when the 44-year-old Alaska Governor took the stage at the Republican Convention and delivered one of the greatest Vice Presidential speeches in history. Palin effectively appealed to the audience's emotions while still delivering powerful blows to Barack Obama's campaign. She introduced America to her family, her struggles, and most importantly her strong record of fighting corruption and being a strong leader, not a "community organizer". One of the most memorable quotes of the evening was when Palin told the crowd that unlike Obama, who spoke to a wealthy San Francisco crowd about Americans "clinging to guns and religion", John McCain gives the same speech and is the same man whether he's in San Francisco or in Syracuse.

Tonight was truly an amazing night for the McCain-Palin ticket with powerful speeches from Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, and of course Governor Palin. Obama's massive flaws were exposed, and America was given a clear alternative in Senator John McCain.

Earl Pomeroy Launches Attack Ads on Duane Sand

Incumbent Congressman Earl Pomeroy unleashed his first serious attack ads against his opponent, Republican Duane Sand, today. The first part of the radio ad runs like this:

"Every four years we see it: the competition, the back & forth drama.

No, not the Olympics.

It’s Duane Sand in North Dakota, running for political office and twisting the truth."

In the remainder of the ad, Earl claims to have voted for "15 different measures to reduce both gas prices and our dependence on foreign oil with more drilling, and investments in alternative energy." This is simply not the truth, however. Earl Pomeroy has a consistent anti-drilling record built by his votes against domestic drilling both in Alaska and in the Gulf of Mexico. Instead of trying to solve the problem by fostering more energy domestic energy development, Earl was part of the 213-212 vote in Congress for a five week vacation.

It's worth mentioning that rarely has Earl Pomeroy been forced to be on offense this early in the year. It's only August, and yet the Sand campaign has already exposed one of Earl's biggest weaknesses - his complete lack of common sense and courage when it comes to energy policy.

Unconfirmed: McCain picks Romney as VP

Has John McCain selected Mitt Romney to be his running mate? Time Magazine seems to think so. Apparently many news talk shows are already buzzing with this news, and the Boston Globe is reporting that: "Mark Halperin of Time magazine set the buzz going again Thursday night with a one-sentence report on his website that John McCain had settled on Romney." You can read the full story here.

I will post more as this develops.