501: Anti-Becker mailers and governor's race polling

Pat Finken is a long-time political consultant in North Dakota who now heads up an independent political action committee called the Brighter Future Alliance. Finken and his group have come under fire from U.S. House candidate Rick Becker and his allies for mailers attacking Becker and his voting record.

Finken joined this episode of Plain Talk my me and my co-host Chad Oban, and said his goal is to reveal for the public that Becker is a "show pony."

"He is not a serious legislator," Finken added. As for Becker's response to his group's mailers? "This is what all politicians do when someone criticizes them," Finken said. "They play the victim."

Becker has disputed Finken's assertions that, by voting against budgets for the North Dakota Highway Patrol and the North Dakota National Guard, he opposes law enforcement and the military. He argues that it's possible to object to a budget without objecting to what that budget funds.

But Finken says the difference is that Becker was only voting no, not working to improve those budgets. "He didn't come back with an alternative," Finken said.

"If he was a serious legislator he would have worked to make changes," he added.

Also, on this episode, Oban and I discuss the recent polling released in the Republican guberantorial primary showing U.S. Rep. Kelly Armstrong with a massive lead over Lt. Gov. Tammy Miller.

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