"The mechanics of how we’ve done things in North Dakota don’t really make sense from an ethics standpoint."
—Scott Skokos, executive director of Dakota Resource Council

When Republican #Kelly #Armstrong filed his federal financial disclosure after being elected to Congress in 2018, he revealed his extensive ties to the oil and gas industry in his home state of North Dakota.
It detailed his income from hundreds of oil wells and his financial relationship with two of the state’s largest oil producers.
Those ties will matter a great deal if, as is likely, he’s elected as North Dakota’s governor next month.
Under North Dakota’s system, he will automatically chair two state bodies that regulate the energy industry, meaning Armstrong would be expected to preside over decisions that directly impact companies in which he has financial or familial ties.
As head of both the North Dakota Industrial Commission and the Land Board, Armstrong would have a nearly unmatched level of control and oversight compared with leaders in other states.

The former state senator would help set policy at a time when North Dakota
— the No. 3 oil producer in the nation
— is entering a new phase of energy development.
The Industrial Commission has faced criticism in recent years from landowners and legislators, including for being too supportive of corporate interests.

Armstrong wrote in an email, in response to questions from the North Dakota Monitor and ProPublica, that he earns nearly all of his personal income from the oil and gas industry.
In 2022, Armstrong received up to $50,000 in royalty income from Hess Corp.
— a company that has been the subject of 14 votes by one of those bodies in recent years and is likely to be discussed by the boards in the years to come.
Similarly, an oil and gas company run by Armstrong’s father had been part of a yearslong, multicompany dispute with the Land Board, which oversees state-owned lands and minerals.
Most entities, including his father’s company, have reached negotiated settlements.
The man Armstrong seeks to succeed, Gov. #Doug #Burgum, has voted about 20 times on issues related to companies with which he has a financial relationship, according to a review of minutes from the Industrial Commission, which is responsible for energy regulation and oversight of state-owned businesses.
That includes Continental Resources, one of the region’s largest producers.

️These votes were made under North Dakota’s ethics rules, which are significantly weaker than those in other states.

Board members have discretion to decide whether they have a conflict of interest, and the boards are effectively self-policing on this front.

The state’s Ethics Commission has created conflict-of-interest rules, but it can only take action if a complaint is filed;
it also has not implemented consequences for violating those rules.

Most ethics experts contacted for this article said that royalty owners voting on matters involving companies they receive income from is problematic.

https://www.propublica.org/article/north-dakota-governor-candidate-kelly-armstrong-oil-gas-ethics-conflict

Much of the cardboard and paper goods strewn about our homes
— the mail-order boxes and grocery store bags
— are sold by a single private company, with its name, #Uline, stamped on the bottom.

Few Americans know that a multibillion-dollar fortune made on those ubiquitous products is now
fueling election deniers and other far-right candidates across the country.

#Dick and #Liz #Uihlein of Illinois are the largest contributors to Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate #Doug #Mastriano, who attended the Jan. 6 rally and was linked to a prominent antisemite, and have given to #Jim #Marchant, the Nevada Secretary of State nominee who says he opposed the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory in 2020.

They are major funders to groups spreading #election #falsehoods, including "Restoration of America", which, according to an internal document obtained by ProPublica, aims to “get on God’s side of the issues and stay there” and
“punish leftists.”

Flush with profits from their shipping supply company, the Uihleins have emerged as
️the No. 1 federal campaign donors for Republicans ahead of the November elections, and
️the No. 2 donors overall behind liberal financier George Soros.

The couple has spent at least $121 million on state and federal politics in the last two years alone,
fighting taxes, unions, abortion rights and marijuana legalization.

The German-American clan made their original fortune in the 19th century as owners of the Milwaukee brewery Schlitz.

Family members were staples of the Chicago Tribune society pages.

In 1917, Dick’s grandfather was identified as a millionaire in a Chicago Tribune humor item about how the wealthy man had fired an unqualified chauffeur.

When Dick and Liz Uihlein donated millions in recent years to the pro-Trump super PAC "America First Action", they were following in a family tradition.

Edgar J. Uihlein of Chicago was among the handful of largest donors to the original "America First Committee", the aviator Charles Lindbergh’s group that opposed the United States’ entry into World War II.
(It’s unclear whether that was Edgar Sr., Dick’s grandfather, or Edgar Jr., his father, who had just graduated from college.)

While "America First" drew supporters from across the political spectrum, it was most associated with rightists.

Uihlein’s donation was disclosed in 1941.

Later that year, Lindbergh gave an openly #antisemitic #speech assailing Jewish influence.

When Edgar Uihlein Sr. died in 1956, his estate was valued at $4.8 million
— more than $50 million in today’s dollars
— and the money was left in a trust for his heirs, newspapers reported at the time.

Dick’s father, #Edgar Uihlein Jr., who had started a plastics company after serving in the Navy during World War II, established himself as an important funder of far-right political groups in the 1960s.

A document from 1963 identifies Edgar Uihlein Jr. as on the National Finance Committee of the #John #Birch #Society.

Founded a few years earlier, the group quickly became a significant force to the right of the Republican Party, known for its obsessively anti-communist politics.

The Birchers combined hostility to New Deal social programs with lurid conspiracies, famously campaigning against “the horrors of #fluoridation,” a supposed Red plot.

The group fiercely opposed civil rights.

An entry in one 1963 Birch newsletter railed against the upcoming March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where Martin Luther King would give his
“I Have a Dream” speech:
“the only good Americans who should have anything to do with this Communist-instigated mob in any way, or pay any attention to it in Washington, are the police required to maintain law and order.”

Edgar Uihlein Jr. supported politicians who embraced #segregation.

In early 1962, he sponsored a speech that brought to Chicago a former U.S. Army general named #Edwin #Walker.

Walker toured the country attacking supposed communist conspiracies and civil rights, while celebrating the Southern defeat of Reconstruction, which he labeled “the tyranny within our own white race.”

The Anti-Defamation League,
which tracked far-right figures in the period,
has archives showing Edgar Uihlein Jr.’s involvement with several other groups and campaigns,
including a $1,000 contribution to the presidential campaign of segregationist #George #Wallace in 1968.

It’s not clear when, if ever, Uihlein’s association with the John Birch Society ended.

As late as 1977, the founder of the group wrote a long letter to him asking for money.

https://www.propublica.org/article/uline-uihlein-election-denial?utm_campaign=propublica-sprout&utm_content=1724992559&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook,threads,twitter