‘North Dakota Nice’ Plays Well in Senate Race

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/01/us/politics/democratic-heidi-heitkamp-is-strong-in-gop-north-dakota.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

.... Senate Republicans considered the state in their column when Senator Kent Conrad, a veteran Democrat, announced his retirement last year. But with shoe leather, calibrated attacks and likability — an intangible that goes far in North Dakota — Ms. Heitkamp has made this a real fight. Though North Dakota is deeply conservative and is on no one’s presidential map as a question mark, this race could be one of the biggest surprises of the 2012 contests. And, like all close races this year, it could help decide control of the Senate.

Even the National Republican Senatorial Committee conceded in its most recent attack ad here that Ms. Heitkamp is making headway. .....

.... The contest — the state’s first competitive one since 1986 and probably its nastiest in modern history — features two very different politicians with very different styles: the rumpled Democrat against the well-turned-out Republican, the longtime denizen of state government against the affluent businessman. Ms. Heitkamp hugs her way through a room. Mr. Berg approached a table of women in Fargo on Wednesday and then sheepishly backed off, saying: “We won’t bug you. We’ll just keep going.” .....

..... In short, the campaign is a contest between North Dakota Nice and the national strategy of the Republican Party. ....