BISMARCK (KFGO) – North Dakota’s attorney general says Gov. Doug Burgum has no authority to appoint a coal company executive to fill a state House seat won by a Republican candidate who died before the election.
Burgum announced that he was appointing BNI Energy President Wade Boeshans to the seat won Tuesday by David Andahl, who died last month from COVID-19.
Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem says Burgum’s appointment of Boeshans on the day following the election was “inaccurate and untimely.”
Andahl and Dave Nehring were top vote-getters for the two open House seats Tuesday over a pair of Democratic candidates.