Armstrong Announces Transition Team

(Kyle Martin/For the North Dakota Monitor)

(Michael Achterling – North Dakota Monitor) -North Dakota Gov.-elect Kelly Armstrong is still a member of Congress until Dec. 14, but he announced plans for the transition Wednesday after celebrating his election win Tuesday night.

“We’re going to go 100 miles per hour,” Armstrong said during a news conference at the North Dakota Republican headquarters in Bismarck.

Former state Adjutant General Alan Dohrmann will chair a transition team, Armstrong announced. Jacy Schafer, Armstrong’s campaign manager, and Joe Morrissette, a former director for the Office of Management and Budget, will serve as co-chairs.

Armstrong, who defeated Democrat Merrill Piepkorn, will succeed Gov. Doug Burgum on Dec. 15.

Armstrong said it was important for him to have a “rockstar lineup” leading the transition, particularly because he’ll need to travel back and forth to Washington, D.C., during the lame-duck session of Congress.

“We’re going to be able to turn this over to three people who I trust implicitly and are just really capable of making sure we’re off and running to hit the ground right away,” Armstrong said.

Burgum, who didn’t seek a third term, will present his budget recommendations to the Legislature during the first week of December. Typically a newly elected governor submits a revised budget proposal for lawmakers to consider when they convene in January.

Morrissette said the perfect budget proposal would be a marriage of ideas from the Legislature, Burgum and Armstrong.

“We’re gonna start working on it right away,” Morrissette said. Armstrong also announced the launch of the administration’s transition website with information on jobs within the new administration.

He appointed seven people to positions within his new administration that will be effective as soon as he is sworn into office.

The first staff members of the new administration will be: Roz Leighton, chief of staff; Dohrmann, chief operating officer; Christopher Joseph, general counsel; Schafer, deputy chief of staff; Aaron Weber, policy director; Mike Nowatzki, communications director; and Conner Swanson, senior adviser.

Legislative vacancy

Armstrong’s lieutenant governor, Michelle Strinden, is a member of the state House, representing District 41 in Fargo. Strinden said she’s been in contact with the District 41 Republican Party executive committee about naming her replacement.

She said the committee has been working to gauge interest in the position.

Strinden said the district has 30 days to replace a lawmaker after they accept a different office.

She added she hopes to give the new lawmaker enough time to get up to speed before the session starts in January.