The Grand Forks Herald has more , including comments from incumbent Jaeger. It was an impressive feat, coming as it did over long-term incumbent Al Jaeger who was first elected to that office in My colleague Tu-Uyen Tran reports that in Gardner was observed by law enforcement to be peering into the windows of a dormitory at North Dakota State University were female students lived. Gardner, for his part, has made it sound as though he peeped only on one woman. He also denies that his pants were undone.
I would say that Gardner, at this point, does not deserve the benefit of the doubt on those details. A related fact worth noting, according to weather archives it was a typically chilly January evening in Fargo the date the incident happened. He left that job shortly after. It was stupid. He was 29 years old when it happened. Had Gardner been convicted of that charge he would likely have had to register as a sex offender.
Instead he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct which is a class B misdemeanor. He got a 30 day jail sentence which was suspended if he committed new additional criminal acts.
Gardner was working at NDSU at the time of the incident. Based on this information β which apparently is not in dispute by Gardner, outside of the aforementioned details β he should suspend his campaign immediately and withdraw from the race. He is not fit for public office. I spoke with Gardner briefly yesterday. He has agreed to an interview on my radio show at 1pm tomorrow. When I asked him then if he intended to resign he declined to comment. It did not come up during his hotly contested competition with Jaeger.
If Republicans in the state had been aware of it, it would have been an issue in that race. It was not. What Gardner does is up to Gardner. Republicans cannot force him off the ballot. The decision is his, and his alone, to make. But the party has some options. One outlandish possibility is that Gardner could be asked to take up residency in another state.
