North Dakota Rep. Jeff Magrum joined Townsquare Media KLXX 1270AM’s Talk of the Town with Steve Bakken and special guest host Jason Spiess.
Rep. Magrum represented a group of bipartisan legislators who are urging the North Dakota Industrial Commission to reconsider spending $300K in carbon pipeline education. Furthermore, Rep. Magrum is encouraging more transparency and “keep an eye” on the groups given the contract.
“I think it's just ridiculous when we have so much infrastructure, whether it's roads, bridges, whatever that need updating from way back in the day, we got bridges from 1940 that should be replaced and we're spending a bunch of money on, on this,” Rep. Magrum said.
He continued citing examples of special interest grifting and injecting swamp juice into the media.
“And I'm very sad that I voted for the bill in the end because now they're using this money as a weapon and to interfere with what's going on right now with the public hearings and the court cases we've just had,” Rep. Magrum said. “And so I would rather the state doesn't get involved in promoting a leftist agenda.”
Rep. Jeff Magrum was first elected to the ND House of Representatives in 2016 in the 28th District, and re-elected in 2020. After the 2021 redistricting cycle, he was placed into the new boundaries of District 8. He is running for the Senate seat in 2022.
Here is the press release sent to the media:
Today, a group of legislators released the following statement in response to bids submitted to the Industrial Commission by AE2S Communications and The Public Affairs Company:
"The North Dakota legislature should re-evaluate the discretion it grants the North Dakota Industrial Commission to spend money promoting certain business interests over the interests of North Dakota citizens. Such promotional activities in the name of "education" effectively amount to an endorsement of a particular company and a particular project over the rights and concerns of many citizens. Certainly, every main street business would appreciate the State advertising the virtues of its business across the state without having to spend its own money to do so.
We, the undersigned, do not approve of the use of taxpayers' dollars to develop public relations and campaign materials promoting carbon dioxide pipelines and sequestration projects when such projects are currently under regulatory review by any ND state agency.
We call on the ND State Industrial Commission members to halt this grant as an entirely inappropriate use of taxpayer dollars.
We urge our fellow legislators to watch this situation carefully and keep it in mind during the next legislative session.
Senator Jeff Magrum
Senator Bob Paulson
Senator David Clemens
Senator Judy Estenson
Senator Kent Weston
Senator Tim Mathern
Senator Kathy Hogan
Representative SuAnn Olson
Representative Brandon Prichard
Representative Mathew Heilman
Representative Kelby Timmons
Representative Jeff Hoverson
Representative Lori VanWinckle
Representative Donna Henderson
Representative Nico Rios
Representative Scott Dyk
Representative Kathy Frelich
Representative Karen Anderson
Former Representative Cole Christensen
Click here to read Forum Communication’s article
State Sponsored Propaganda, Carbon Pipeline are the Talk of the Town