Investigation Update: Should The State Spend Public Dollars To Create A Special Interest Group?

A deep analysis shows that the State of North Dakota is spending public dollars to create a special interest group, that then lobbies for and approves more public dollars for its own members.

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about the clear-cut conflicts of interest that State Representative Emily O’Brien appears to have with her role as Chief Operating Officer of the Bioscience Association of North Dakota.

Obtaining Details Has Been A Process

Earlier this week, an ethics complaint was filed by an unknown filer and publicized by a group ***NOT*** associated with the North Dakota Watchdog Network. (For the record, I was ***NOT*** the person who filed the complaint.)

Within a hour of that complaint being publicized, I was sent a PDF dossier by an anonymous email source outlining the legislative record of Representative Emily O’Brien. You can read that here:

Emily's Bills Copy

6.48MB ∙ PDF file

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I had to do some due diligence to verify the veracity and authenticity of these documents (there was a question for a while, but I am confident that the substance of the documents is factually accurate.)

I then made an Open Record Request to the North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner’s office asking for more information regarding …