Blogs : JASPER SCHNEIDER, INSURANCE COMMISSIONER RACE, AND CAMPAIGN MONEY
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Sunday night on Dakota Talk Rob and I interviewed Democrat Fargo attorney Jasper Schneider. He seems like a very bright and personable young guy, it is nearly impossible for me not to like someone named Jasper. It is great that we have this caliber of young North Dakotan getting involved in the public arena.
That said, I started to think about his qualifications. During the interview he explained as to his qualifications, that he had been paying insurance premiums for years, which caused me to momentarily consider running for the office myself (Thankfully the thought came and went in less than a nanosecond). He told us that he finished law school in 2004 and that he has been involved insurance work. Our exchange on the program was:
Steve: "You’ve been in law practice for the, what, since, for, five or six years?"
Jasper: "2004 I graduated from law school."
He actually passed the North Dakota Bar in February 2005.
The question about familiarity with insurance was:
Steve: "What specific cases have you been lead attorney on regarding insurance and insurance claims?"
Jasper: "Multiple ones, Steve."
Jasper has apparently been going petal to the metal to get “multiple ones” working insurance cases during the 34 months since he was admitted to the bar if you consider that during that period, he must have campaigned some in the summer and fall of 2006 and then served in the state legislature for four months in early 2007.
Jasper was then challenged to campaign for the office of ND Insurance Commissioner with only money from North Dakota citizens. He has no comment about using over 90% of out-of-state money for his campaign. The exchange can be savored by listening to the program between the times of 34:54 - 42:00 at:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sayanything
Jasper’s seeming reluctance to depend completely on the citizens and taxpayers of ND for campaign money is not surprising upon consideration of his 2006 house race contributions. If we consider money from DAC PAC, NoDak PAC, and ND House Dem-NPL Caucus as essentially out of state money (likely over 95%) the number work out to:
ND Schneiders - $2,280
Out of state Schneiders - $1,475
Instate not Schneiders - $ 850
Out of State - $4,900
So, as a percentage of all contributions, his in-state-not-a-relative percentage is 10.57% which is outstanding for a Democrat. This all seems very timely as Rob Port posts about the ND Democrats getting over $140,000 from big-time out of state lawyers during 2006.
http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/north_dakota_democrats_love_that_trial_lawyer_money/
Now for the public declaration: I will put a large campaign sign at the end of my driveway and vote for Jasper if he will agree to take NO out of state money for his campaign!
I really enjoyed our interview, and he seems like a real nice young man. I am though, a little concerned, as I hear him periodically co-hosting with Joel Heitkamp which hopefully will not bring into question his veracity.
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