Northern Valley Democrats report record turnout as they elect new leaders
Mar. 3—GRAND FORKS — Area Democrats elected new leadership Saturday while reporting record turnout during the biennial meeting.
The Northern Valley Democratic-NPL elected new party chairs for three of the five North Dakota districts represented by the group, chair Sarah Grossbauer told the Herald.
More than 140 people attended Saturday's meeting, which Grossbauer said was the highest turnout for the meeting she'd seen in her time with the party.
Attendance at "reorganization" meetings is usually closer to 80, she said.
"People we've never engaged before were getting engaged," Grossbauer said. "It was really powerful to see that people are willing to step up and push back on what's going on in our state and nationally."
In North Dakota, Democrats and Republicans are required by state law to hold party caucuses in each legislative district and elect leaders every two years.
Democrats in five legislative districts in and around Grand Forks — districts 17, 18, 20, 42 and 43 — hold these reorganization meetings all at once, under the banner of the Northern Valley Democrats.
Catherine Benton was elected as the Democratic chair of District 17, while Kyle Thorson was elected chair for District 18 and Mark Patterson was elected to chair District 43.
District 20 Chair Phyllis Kadrmas and District 42 Chair Melissa Gjelltad retained their respective seats.
Among the Northern Valley districts, Democrats currently hold one seat in the Legislature, the District 43 House seat occupied by Minority Leader Zac Ista.
Grand Forks' GOP leadership does not appear to have scheduled reorganization meetings for their district parties yet.
Unlike the Democrats, local Republicans hold their district caucuses separately, according to Bruce Gjovig, who chairs District 18 Republicans.
Gjovig said his district party had not yet scheduled a meeting and he was unaware of any other GOP district leader scheduling their caucus.
A review of public notices in the Herald and on the North Dakota Newspaper Association's public notice database did not turn up notices for caucuses issued by GOP district parties in the last two months.
District parties are required by law to provide 10 days' public notice of a planned caucus in a local newspaper.
Gjovig said his caucus is looking for a weekend in March or April to hold a reorganization meeting, "where all the legislators can be here" amid the legislative session.
Legislative district parties must hold their caucus by May 15, under state law.
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