MINOT — Once, a long time ago, I was having a conversation with Sen. Kevin Cramer (who was then an elected member of the Public Service Commission), and he told me about a prank he plotted as a young Republican. He wanted to start a "reroute the Red" campaign, aimed at shifting the Red River of the North to flow around to the west of Fargo.

The joke was this would essentially give Fargo, one of the few communities in North Dakota that, then and now, reliably elects Democrats, to Minnesota, thus ensuring Republican victories on the statewide ballot.

This was meant to be a joke, I'd stress, though even if it were a serious proposal, time has proved it unnecessary. When Cramer thought of his prank in the late 1980s, Democrats held nearly every statewide office.

As things stand now, Republi

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