Tue, Jan 16th, 2024 - 3:00pm
December 16, 2022 - 3:56pm | By Tom Tucker
(Fargo, ND) -- North Dakota's longest-serving state senator is speaking out against the recently voter-approved term limits for state officials serving in Bismarck.
"This term limit thing for me was shortsighted. Again, it's related to a national issue. Our real problem in North Dakota is we can't find enough candidates whether its republicans or democrats. We had 17 senators without any competition and this is not just because of incumbency. We had districts where there were no incumbents where the parties couldn't fill the slot," said Tim Mathern.
Mathern says he believes term limits in the state will benefit democrats as the great majority of current incumbents are republicans.
Mathern appeared on "Thursdays with Tony" on WDAY AM 970.
The state senator was also asked what he believes contributes to the divisive nature of today's political discourse.
"I think our culture has changed too where the pace of family life, the pace of work life, the pace of politics, is dramatically faster and that then creates this situation where short, outlier statements almost go to the top where slow, reasoned conversation sort of gets ditched," said Mathern.
