​Medenwald vs. Carlson: Fargo’s political battleground

FARGO – On the hottest of summer days, Brandon Medenwald hit the pavement. Comfortably dressed in shorts and a no-sweat polo shirt, he carried brochures in one hand.

In his other hand he carried a mobile phone, frequently pushed buttons while keeping track of how many homes he’d visited since he began his campaign for the state’s legislature. On Monday night, he knocked on door number 1,000. No one answered, so the house didn’t count. He quickly moved on to the next residence along 23rd Avenue for he only has roughly 16,000 more homes to hit, and he plans on reaching every single one.

Many along his routes are receptive to his message, telling him as long as he isn’t Al Carlson, they’ll vote for him, a Democrat. Some aren’t political. A few say they’re voting Republican all the way down the ballot come November.

“Don’t let the name Dem-NPL scare you at all,” Medenwald told one person who planned to vote the Republican ticket. “I’m here to listen to your issues.”

Returning to the sidewalk, his fingers scrolled and pushed the appropriate buttons on his cell phone’s Votebuilder app, notifying administrators which house was leaning “red.”

Medenwald’s grassroots campaign to oust long-running House Majority leader Al Carlson from his legislative seat isn’t piles of paperwork and pencil stubs, it’s tech savvy, and records voting demographics along every street. The only technology he’s missing is one for the legwork. Never before elected for public office, he’s now running for the North Dakota House of Representatives District 41 in South Fargo.

While the nation focuses its eyes on the U.S. Senate race between Democrat Heidi Heitkamp and Republican Kevin Cramer, Medenwald’s race for District 41 is just as important, on perhaps a smaller scale. Carlson has wielded a heavy hand against citizen grand jury rights, ethics commissions, all while supporting lower taxes for the oil industry and taking the occasional pleasure trip to London, funded by GOPAC, a Republican state and local political training organization. Medenwald believes it’s time for Carlson to go.

During the June primaries, Carlson received the fewest votes of four candidates, 100 votes less than newcomer Medenwald.

Weeks ago, at first door knock, Medenwald was nervous. He isn’t a natural extrovert, but he’s self-trained in the art of the sale from working his parent’s restaurant as a teenager. He’s also a founder of Simply Made Apps, a Fargo app developing company that started in 2011.

His dive into politics was slow, more like dipping his toe into turbulent waters when he testified about archaic “blue laws” before state legislature. The bill to reform opening hours on Sunday was later narrowly rejected.

Medenwald waded into the political arena a little deeper with his initiated measure campaign to strike down the same “blue laws.” The measure didn’t make the initiated ballot, but he plans to reintroduce the Sunday Close Law Repeal bill in 2019 legislative session. Not long after that, Medenwald began to swim in the deep end over net neutrality issues.

“We’re not sending our best and brightest to the legislature,” Medenwald said. “The more and more I got involved the more I knew it had to be me.”

After ringing the doorbell to a blue house and receiving no answer, he rapped “Shave and a Haircut” on the door frame, and Tim and Marie Donahue answered. Their 10-year-old dogs, Chester and Gunnar, followed.

“I love it when dogs come to the door,” Medenwald said. “For one, I’m a dog guy.”

He slipped some treats from his right-side pocket and waited while Gunnar sniffed before tentatively taking a bite.

“Hi, I’m Brandon Medenwald. I just came by to say hi to everyone and introduce myself. At the end of the day this is a job interview. You’re the boss, and I work for you.”

“First thing on your list: lower property taxes,” Tim Donahue said.

“Yep,” Medenwald said. “We should all feel the pain, it shouldn’t just be property owners.”

Medenwald related easily to people, asked what their issues were instead of purporting his platform, which includes diversifying the state’s economy, lowering property taxes, modernizing government, net neutrality issues, ending the blue laws, and stopping politicians from playing political games in Bismarck.

“Removing net neutrality laws risk stifling North Dakota’s technology ecosystem and that of the greater Silicon Prairie,” Medenwald said in his website.

As for property taxes, state legislature has been reducing corporate and personal tax rates since 2009, while offering temporary solutions to increased property taxes. He’s against the recently reduced oil extraction tax rate originally set by North Dakotans in the 1980s, and believes that as oil prices rebound, the reduction – which was heavily influenced by oil lobbyists – will cost the state untold millions.

“The House should concentrate on lowering burdens for local government, so that they can lower our property taxes,” Medenwald said in his website.

Government needs more transparency, an ethics commission, and gerrymandering has to come to an end, Medenwald said.

“Politicians should never be choosing their voters. Voters should be choosing their politicians.”

And despite the fact that medical marijuana passed an initiated measure by an overwhelming majority, today we still don’t have access to the natural medicines some people need.

“The House hasn’t listened on medical marijuana, first rejecting it and even after North Dakotans approved it without them, they’ve still managed to mangle the people’s intentions further. All the while, people with severe and chronic pain issues have been forgotten.”

Before Medenwald ended his door knocking for the night, he paused at a streetlight, saying the race so far has been far more difficult than he imagined. Besides running his business, he walks the sidewalks approximately 20 hours a week handing out his fliers and learning what issues are bothering people most.

“It’s like going to bed at night knowing you have ten things to do and realizing you only got two things done,” Medenwald said. “One thing I’ve noticed though is that running against Al Carlson has made fundraising easier.”