Politics Is Different.

[lsanderson]

In North Dakota Forget Money. Politics Is Different.
By MONICA DAVEY

BISMARCK, N.D. — Consider the tactic one local Democratic Party leader in this state resorted to last summer to raise money. He chained hot pink plywood elephants, 2-and-a-half feet tall and 2-and-a-half feet wide, to trees in the yards of known Democrats, then offered to remove the Republican beasts in exchange for $25 donations.

“People loved it mostly, though I guess one or two didn’t see the humor,” the leader, C. T. Marhula, the party’s chairman for a district in Grand Forks, said, noting that he and his colleagues have also tried pig roasts, garage sales and auctions to raise political funds around here. Mr. Marhula said, “You do what you have to.”

In North Dakota, it seems, you may have to do a lot. More