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In 1889, Dakota Territory, which had been created
in 1861, was divided into the states of
North and South Dakota. From earliest statehood,
North Dakota was strongly Republican.
The delegates to the Constitutional Convention
in 1889 were overwhelmingly so. The
Republican machine run by railroad lobbyist
Alexander McKenzie was challenged by the
Farmers Alliance and by reform Republicans
and Democrats who were able to elect Gov. Eli
Shortridge, a Populist, in 1892, and Gov. John
Burke, a Democrat, in 1906, 1908, and 1910.
North Dakota became the spawning ground
for the Nonpartisan League (NPL), a populistreform
organization that was able to capture
the legislature and statewide offices in 1918 and
pass a platform including state-owned enterprises
such as a state bank, flour mill, and hail
insurance program. The NPL was nonpartisan
in name only: it filed its candidates on the
Republican primary ballot, and the primaries
became key to control of state government.
The two Republican factions, the npl and the
Independent Voters Association, while bitter
foes, would meet to select national party committeemen
and divide the delegates selected
for the National Republican Convention.
The NPL's dominance lasted only until 1921,
when the Independent Voters Association was
able to bring about a voter recall of the NPL
governor, attorney general, and commissioner
of agriculture. The decade of the 1920s was a
period of political chameleons who changed
political affiliation to run as Democrats if they
lost in the Republican primaries. The NPL was
not able to regain control of state government
until 1932. It refurbished its populist image,
adopting diversity rules guaranteeing delegates
for women, labor, Native Americans,
and veterans. It elected Bill Langer as governor
and won complete control of the legislature.
After Langer's conspiracy conviction and removal
from office in 1934, the state had four
governors in seven months. The year 1938 saw
a Democrat governor, John Moses, elected
with Republican crossover votes. Moses and a
conservative Republican-Democrat coalition
controlled state politics until 1944.
In 1946 the lines were drawn between the
npl and the Republican Organizing Committee
(ROC). The ROC swept state elections, and
the NPL faded in influence.
From 1947 until 1956 a movement of "NPL
insurgents," along with the Farmers Union
and Democrats, worked to move the npl into
filing in the Democratic column. In 1956 the
npl voted to merge with the Democrats, but it
took until 1962 before they held a unified convention.
They slowly emerged as a competitive
party whose candidates won a U.S. Senate seat
and the governorship in 1960. The 1980s represented
the high-water mark of Democratic
Party influence, with election of Govs. Art
Link and George Sinner, election of the congressional
delegation, a majority of statewide
offices, and control of at least one house of the
legislature in 1983, 1987, and 1989.
After 1992 the Republicans regained the
governorship under Ed Schafer and elected
large majorities in the legislature. Majority
party leaders in the legislature asserted their
dominance over policy vis-à-vis their own
governor and moved to establish more legislative
checks on executive branch action. Democrats
have held onto the state's congressional
delegation, but that represents a tendency of
state voters to focus on personalities over parties
and to favor incumbents efficacious in defending
the state's interests in Washington.
The swings of power between the NPL and ROC
and Republicans and Democrats did not affect
some trusted and popular officeholders who
were able to serve for decades.
North Dakota politics is an expression of a participatory political culture with high levels of voter turnout. Voters also actively employ the initiative and referendum in their politics. From 1918 to 1998 the state put some 222 constitutional amendments (41 by petition), 65 referrals, and 141 initiatives on the ballot. Signature requirements to put measures on the ballot are quite low (2 percent of population for initiative or referendum, 4 percent for constitutional amendment). Ballot measures have become a vehicle to overturn tax laws and to legislate morality issues (liquor, gambling, Sunday opening) that the legislature seeks to avoid. These mechanisms have also been the sounding board for political mavericks who express their distrust of elected officials and seek to legislate around the legislature. One of the preeminent "referral kings" was Robert P. McCarney, who spent over a decade challenging the legislature in this manner. Until 1998, at least, ultraconservative groups that have had success in putting their agenda on popular initiatives in other states had been unsuccessful in co-opting the North Dakota electorate.
See also PROTEST AND DISSENT: Nonpartisan League.