In the weeks after those fateful days in April 1997, when Grand Forks was in ruins, Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., held an important meeting in his Washington, D.C., office.
A quarter-century after the flood, former Grand Forks Mayor Mike Brown, the longest-tenured mayor in city history, remembers residents’ anger when they looked to city leaders for answers about recovery.
So in 2022 the Dem-NPL is now groping for candidates in the face of a dominant Republican Party that passes voting laws that will shrink the Dem-NPL even more.
Omdahl writes, "It is time for the Dem-NPL to look at the limited options. The only one that makes sense is use of the citizens’ right to initiate and refer laws. Lacking in cognitive flexibility, the organization hasn’t been able to get out of the conventional rut."