Democrats want nine Republican state lawmakers to each reimburse the state $500 for missing one day of the 2003 legislative session to attend a Las Vegas meeting.

Sixteen Republican legislators missed a day of legislative work to attend a meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council in late March, and nine of those lawmakers are up for re-election next week. Democrats are making a campaign issue out of the trip in those nine districts, but Republicans say the meeting was serious business, not a party.

The chairman of the state Democratic Party, Tom Dickson, said the legislators missed at least 20 votes during what he called a "freebie political junket" and should reimburse the $125 daily legislative pay they received while being gone from late Thursday through Sunday. During sessions, lawmakers are paid $125 per calendar day, whether they're working in the Capitol or not.

In a letter to the Republican lawmakers he calls the "Vegas Nine," Dickson wrote that ALEC is "widely known as a virtually all-Republican political junket at which legislators willing to carry water for big business in their legislative chambers rendezvous with corporate America." He said the conference allowed participants "ample time to slip away and enjoy the many attractions of the place they call Sin City."

"North Dakota taxpayers should not have to pay you when you were missing votes in Bismarck in order (to) play and politic in Las Vegas," Dickson wrote.

ALEC's director of public affairs, Joe Rinzel, said it is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, conservative group of state legislators, with about 2,400 members nationwide - of which about 70 percent are Republican and 30 percent are Democrats. He said the lawmakers and private sector get together to promote Jeffersonian ideas of free markets, limited government, federalism (states' rights) and individual liberties. ALEC gets financial support from about 320 corporations and covers lawmakers' costs to attend meetings.

ALEC's detractors say it's a partisan group funded by corporate America to get its agenda pushed through state legislatures, with the help of junkets and largesse.

Two of the speakers at the conference were retired Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Rep. Wes Belter of Leonard said the ALEC meeting helped lawmakers become more knowledgeable on issues that affect their state - from energy development to prescription drugs. He said it's "ludicrous" for Democrats to criticize them for trying to gain knowledge.

"I wish that Democrats would stick to relevant issues facing the state of North Dakota instead of cheap political politics," he said. "It's John Kerry politics. And we don't need this East Coast, West Coast crap in North Dakota. It really upsets me that they want to use these tactics."

He said legislators miss a "day or two" all the time.

"I know of legislators on board of directors for RECs (rural electric cooperatives) who miss quite a few days," he said.

Jamestown Sen. David Nething also attended the ALEC meeting, and said he expects to be attacked by Democrats on the issue, since "they've attacked on every other front" because Democrats are targeting his Senate seat.

He chaired a telecommunications and information technology task force, and said he had a "touch of the flu" so he did nothing but attend meetings and then return to his hotel room.

"I'm not a very big gambler in the first place," he said, "but I don't think the odds are with me out there. It was not a party. I didn't see anybody partying. I saw a lot of people attending meetings."

He said before he went, he checked the Senate calendar and didn't see anything controversial on the agenda. Lawmakers can always make a motion to reconsider action too, if something important was missed, he said.

Nething said Dickson's demand that they repay the state $500 was "hogwash."

Rep. Lisa Meier of Bismarck said she attended the ALEC meeting because she was asked to be on an education task force. She said they discussed everything from homeland security to Medicaid reform to education reform to energy policy. She said no "important final votes or meetings were missed" and that members of both parties often attend meetings during the session.

She said the Vegas trip was not a party, but work.

"It makes you a better legislator when you are able to dialogue with other legislators," she said. "I think it was a good growth opportunity."

Her Democratic opponents in District 32 - Hal Seeberg and Mary Splichal - have criticized her absence in TV ads.

Rep. Blair Thoreson of Fargo said the Democrats' salvo is indicative of "the last days of the campaign."

"It was not a big party, a big junket," he said. "There were meetings all day long."

Rep. Frank Klein of Dickinson said the trip was valuable because he learned about emission standards for farm tractors, herbicide and pesticide use, livestock feedlot runoff, power plant emissions and "things that environmentalists are trying to come up with" that hurt farmers.

"I gave up my weekend to go down there to do this and now I'm getting criticized for it," he said. "They got no issues. The way to make a mountain out of a molehill is to throw more dirt on it."

Rep. Jeff Delzer of Underwood said he attended a "Medicaid academy" to get ideas to save money.

"I've seen what comes back from the state-funded ones (organizations for lawmakers) and ALEC is much more in tune with North Dakota," he said.

He said lawmakers vote on about 900 bills each session, "so (missing) 20 is not a major number." He said legislators miss days for all kinds of meetings, and he noted that it was the only day he's ever missed in six legislative sessions.

Fargo Rep. Al Carlson is ALEC's state chairman, and said the group is "one of the finest organizations legislators can belong to." He said it's a conservative organization that espouses free enterprise and limited government and puts forth "model legislation" for lawmakers to bring home.

"Did we go there and play for three days? Absolutely not. I believe our people went there with the intent of working and learning something."

(Reach Deena Winter at 250-8251 or deena.winter@bismarcktribune.com.)