Free Republic

North Dakota's Senate majority leader, Bob Stenehjem, was not wearing a seat belt and was thrown from the sport utility vehicle he was driving when he was killed in an Alaskan highway crash, authorities said Tuesday.

<p>State Sen. Bob Stenehjem, who was North Dakota’s Senate Republican majority leader for a decade, was killed Monday in a one-vehicle accident in Alaska, family members said.</p> <p>Stenehjem, 59, had been on a halibut fishing vacation near the Alaska community of Homer on the state’s south coast...Spokeswoman Megan Peters said the accident occurred on the Sterling highway, about five miles south of Soldotna.</p>

An old political adage advises, "You can't beat somebody with nobody." Actually, it's more of a truism. In every election year there are races that are won or lost well before the contest begins. Candidate recruitment is often a prickly process. When the proverbial blood of an incumbent is in the water, political pets, party favorites and pretenders to a particular office dance around each other for weeks or even months, waiting for someone to make the first move. When an incumbent is strong it is often difficult to find someone credible who is willing to put their name on...