I have concerns about Rep. Jim Kasper, R-Fargo, and the other representatives who went on an all-expenses-paid trip to Antigua, financed by the Internet gambling interests there.
It is extremely disappointing that an elected official would completely discount anybody's worries about undue influence by blowing it off as political fodder. Legislators should be working in the best interests of North Dakota. Taking unofficial Internet gambling-discussion trips to Caribbean countries on a foreign government's tab is not the way to express your loyalties - especially if you don't publicize the trip, don't want to talk about it afterwards, and even refuse to acknowledge it at first.
They're not in the talking stage. They've done nothing officially, remember? The trip was taken on the down-low, unseen and unheard. All they did was talk, and they didn't publicize the trip because, according to them, they didn't want to get anyone's hopes up.
They're still trying to say it was about "trade," an ambiguous and intentionally vague term. The Antiguan government believed it was paying for them to come down and talk about Internet gambling. Were the Antiguans just too inept to convey that to the legislators, who believed they were going down for agricultural trade talks?
I find it hard to believe that agricultural trade dominated the legislators' meetings with the Antiguan government officials. We export about $190 million of spring wheat a year to Japan, our top importer of North Dakota wheat. Antigua has about 68,000 residents. The legislators seem to be hyping the benefit of trade with Antigua when it doesn't seem possible we could really get all that much out of any future agreement - except for Internet gambling.
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Don't forget that Kasper took previous Internet gambling-related trips to Montreal and Las Vegas, both paid for by non-North Dakota organizations. He won't say who paid for one of his trips, saying, "That's confidential."
I really don't believe that Kasper went to Las Vegas, the gambling capital of America, to discuss exporting agricultural goods; why would Antigua, the online gambling capital of the world, be any different?
I don't believe Kasper and the other representatives involved have fully addressed the issues involved with their trip. It's really not a question of legality, but trust and morality. Can we trust these representatives to work for us? Or are the government of Antigua, the lobbyists in Las Vegas, and the unknown benefactor in Montreal exerting undue influence over our legislators?
Public disclosure laws are needed to make sure our legislators remain ours. It's sad that Kasper and the other representatives all voted for amendments on legislation in 2005 that killed the bill which would have required stricter standards for lobbyists and gift-giving.
Gustafson lives in Bismarck, N.D. E-mail rmgustaf@gmail.com
