By: Soo Asheim
Born in August of 1946, Ed Schafer grew up attending schools in Bismarck, North Dakota until he entered college at the University of North Dakota. Ed Schafer graduated in 1969 with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from UND, then attended the University of Denver, earning his MBA in 1970.
After graduation in Denver, Schafer joined his father’s company, Gold Seal, where he held management and marketing positions for eight years prior to becoming the CEO of Gold Seal in 1978. During his leadership at Gold Seal, Ed Schafer led the Gold Seal Company through several acquisitions and introduced many new products, tripling The Gold Seal Company’s net worth. In 1986 The Gold Seal Company was sold to Air Wick.
As a life-long conservationist and with a devotion to North Dakota and Medora, Ed Schafer helped the U.S. Forest Service in 1987 to purchase the Elkhorn ranch, once President Theodore Roosevelt’s home and cattle ranch. Medora and Roosevelt National Park are North Dakota’s main draw for tourism.
In 1990 Ed Schafer decided to run for the only seat North Dakota holds in the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. against Byron Dorgan. Governor Schafer lost his bid to represent North Dakota at that time. In 1992 Ed Schafer won his first election to the office of Governor of North Dakota, where he stayed until 2000.
During his eight years serving as North Dakota’s 30th Governor he managed a state workforce of 12,000, and maintained a budget of $4.6 billion. Keeping to his goals and promises during the election years, Schafer brokered trading relations with China, in turn developing export markets for North Dakota farm products. Another goal he was determined to meet was reducing the cost of government within the state of North Dakota and upgrading North Dakota’s rural areas with advanced technology and better communication infrastructure so rural farmers and ranchers would have advantages only high speed internet could provide them.
In 1995 Governor Schafer was named as the Chair of the Western Governors Association. He spoke often to many groups and organizations in his effort to spread the word about how the many benefits of hi-tech technology would improve efficiency while lowering the cost of delivering both government services and medical services to those living in rural communities.
RETIRED AND RE-ENLISTED
In 2008, Governor Ed Schafer was named as the United States Secretary of Agriculture. Secretary Schafer served under President George Bush from 2008 until 2009.
After retiring from public office, Governor Schafer co-founded Extend America, a venture capital-backed company that provides wireless voice and hi-speed data service to residential and commercial customers in several Midwestern states.
He is very active in citizen advocacy groups in North Dakota today, one of which has him hot on the trail promoting lowering taxes for oil companies which are presently drilling for oil in North Dakota’s Baakken Formation.
As Governor Schafer is still very immersed in politics both locally and nationally, I felt a few questions regarding what he is doing and trying to accomplish would give insight as to who Ed Schafer the person, politician and leader is today, better than any reporter’s attempt at translating his feelings and words.
SA: Governor Schafer, what do you consider are the five most pressing issues and concerns the North Dakota Legislature needs to address and find a permanent solution for?
ES: Not in any particular order, here are five:
• Sustainable funding and the size and scope of Higher Education.
• The relationship between property taxes and state funding for local governments.
• What is the proper size of government as a percentage of personal income.
• Water management which includes: maintaining clean and safe municipal resources; flood control and water movement from where it is to where we need it!
• Affordable and preventable health care programs for those citizens who can’t get insurance on their own. Did you know that ND has the highest per capita incidence of diabetes? And the majority of complications can be prevented with proper diet and exercise programs.
SA: As a University of North Dakota alumnus, are you in agreement with continuing the fight with the NCAA regarding changing the “Fighting Sioux” logo and nickname, or do you agree with the North Dakota Senate’s vote for UND to keep the Fighting Sioux nickname and logo?
ES: I am really torn on this issue. I am disappointed with the politically correct “do gooders” from outside our state who know nothing about the relationships between the people who live in North Dakota. From that standpoint, I am a champion of keeping the name and logo. UND has the finest Indian focused higher education programs in the country, how can that be hostile and abusive?
I am the proud recipient of the Sioux Award from my Alma Mater and hold this highest honor as a most important recognition. How can that be hostile and abusive? I know passions run strong on the athletic field and once in a while things get said that are not appropriate—I’ve done it myself. But it isn’t hostile and abusive.
The next issue I am concerned about is the settlement with the NCAA which stipulates that with approval with two tribes in our state the Conference will allow the use of the name and logo. The North Dakota citizens who live on the Spirit Lake Nation voted overwhelmingly to approve the use of the logo. The ND citizens who live on the Standing Rock were not allowed to vote. The elected leaders there are mostly against the use of the logo but stand in the way of letting the people speak. This is not a government by the people and for the people and it is disappointing to me that the people are not allowed to speak. I believe the Governor should call a special election and let all the citizens of North Dakota speak on the issue.
On the other hand, I also feel that the NCAA, as bad as they are, is not likely to change their position and therefore we need to move on and change the logo and name. That is the pragmatist in me.
SA: Aside from lowering the North Dakota oil extraction tax to oil companies, what other ways could North Dakota offer the oil companies (now paying 11.5 percent) a better deal to continue their interest in drilling for North Dakota oil?
ES: Provide incentives to build a pipeline from western ND to the oil terminal in Cushing, OK. This would lower the cost of transportation for our producers and also build some permanence into the oil play here. Generate a vision (like my Badlands 2020 Vision) for oil exploration and recovery in our state. A well thought out production plan would give the producers the knowledge of where the state is going to be with tax, siting and regulation which allows them to plot a return on investment. This secures investment from oil companies and also builds the relationship with the producers and the people of North Dakota. Our citizens will know what is expected, too.
SA: You served as a Republican Party Governor and as Agriculture Secretary in President George Bush’s cabinet from 2008-2009. Recently you were on the Scott Hennen radio show and spoke of your dissatisfaction with Senator John Hoeven’s policies when he served as a Republican governor for North Dakota as not being “Republican.” In your opinion, do you think there is a fracturing going on between the “old guard” Republicans and the “new” Republicans who lean toward the Tea Party conservatives? What do you see as the major differences between the two, and which side do you stand with today?
ES: I worked hard to build the Republican Party in North Dakota. When I was elected, I became only the third state-wide Republican office-holder. The Legislature was composed of a 10-seat Republican majority in the House and the Democrats were the majority in the Senate. When I was elected, our team set a goal to get Republicans elected and eventually see Republicans in Federal offices in D.C. We recruited candidates, helped them raise money, appeared in their brochures and commercials, went door to door with them and counseled them on election issues. When candidates lost, we supported them and figured out ways to increase their profile and credibility so they could run again. We developed a terrific farm team of high quality, credible and electable leaders who wear the Republican banner.
When I left office we held all but one of the state-wide offices and had a super-majority in both houses. And finally, eighteen years later we elected not one, but two Republicans to Federal office. The important work was to provide credible Republican leadership that voters trust. And we did that by actually lowering the cost of government as a percent of personal income while at the same time increased the funding for the education and health and safety programs that people expect from our government. Importantly, the Schafer Administration recognized that it is not Government that generates the economy, but the private sector. We set about to build what I called the arena of performance for the private sector so they would invest in our state. We lowered taxes and cleaned up regulations, the two costs that Government puts on business. Business responded by investing, and our economy started to move. We reversed the out-migration of our population and watched over a solid, growing and diversified economy. When I first started to get involved in the public sector, Democrats and Republicans alike said that my policies wouldn’t work. But in fact they did, and I believe the work we did in the 1990s is the foundation that spurred the economy we enjoy today. As Governor, I carried Republican principles, but I didn’t represent Republicans or Democrats — I represented all the people of North Dakota and my driving effort was to do what is right for the people of this state.
During our interview I also asked Governor Schafer whether he thought he might run for another political office. Answering immediately with a look that said “ARE YOU KIDDING?” then, answering vocally, Governor Schafer said no, he seriously didn’t think he would. Having remarried Nancy Jones Schafer while still in the office of Governor of North Dakota, moving on with prior committed projects after leaving the Governor’s mansion and then serving as Secretary of Agriculture for a year, he and Mrs. Schafer are busy a lot but are truly enjoying their private time, family and life together these days.
Ed Schafer may have very well been born with “a silver spoon in his mouth,” but it is hard to fault anyone for what his background is, especially when he has worked hard to accomplish as many achievements as Ed Schafer has. There are wealthy people all around who never bother to get involved or make things better except for themselves.
North Dakota has benefited much from Governor Schafer’s terms in office and his continued insistence in finding a way to harvest the “liquid gold” sitting beneath the surface in the western half of North Dakota. The majority of North Dakota businesses and citizens have not felt the recession that nearly half the rest of the country is still climbing out of. Much of North Dakota’s good fortune and their billion plus dollar surplus is in large part due to oil revenues. For that the citizens and state of North Dakota can thank Ed Schafer and his vision of a better tomorrow for all the people who live in the state he loves so very much.