The candidates for governor and North Dakota's lone congressional seat are sparring over their positions on privatizing Social Security.

All of them say they don't support it.

Republican congressional candidate Duane Sand said Wednesday that a recent ad from Democratic candidate Earl Pomeroy is false because it says Sand supports privatizing Social Security.

Pomeroy's ad cites a 1999 interview where Sand told KFGO that he supports privatizing Social Security. Sand said he doesn't remember saying that.

Sandra Salstrom, Pomeroy's spokeswoman, said the interview happened on the Ed Schultz Show in May 2000. She said the ad incorrectly said it happened in 1999.

"I want to make one point perfectly clear: I'll fight to protect Social Security and Medicare, and to say anything else would be false," Sand said.

In his Wednesday press statement, Sand notes two New York Times stories from 1998 and 1999 that describe President Clinton's 1999 regional tour where he addressed Social Security's looming financial turmoil.

The Times reported that Pomeroy joined Clinton and other Republican and Democratic lawmakers, with Pomeroy supporting the idea of investing part of the Social Security trust fund into the markets.

Salstrom said that proposal never went forward, adding Pomeroy never supported private accounts for Social Security.

At a Tuesday press conference, Democratic-NPL gubernatorial candidate Sen. Tim Mathern tried to tie Gov. John Hoeven to President Bush's Social Security policy because the governor introduced Bush at a 2005 rally in North Dakota. Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., also attended the rally with Hoeven and Bush, said Don Larson, Hoeven's campaign manager.

"I think North Dakotans deserve an explanation," Mathern said.

At the time, Bush was pushing for privatizing Social Security. Hoeven said he has never supported that policy.

"Sen. Tim Mathern is trying to get attention in the last week of the campaign," Hoeven's campaign said in a Tuesday press statement. "It is unfortunate that he is resorting to negative campaigning in order to do it."

Schafer on McCain

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said he supports Sen. John McCain for president despite disagreeing with him on agriculture policy, according to audio posted this month on an agriculture-focused blog.

"What I would say to Sen. McCain is this: 'You're flat out wrong about your agriculture policy,'" Schafer said at the Association of Equipment Manufacturers' Ag Executive forum in St. Louis on Oct. 9.

Schafer's comments were recorded and posted on www.agwired.com, a Web publication dedicated to agriculture issues. Author Cindy Zimmerman asked Schafer the question about McCain's position on ethanol subsidies, which McCain has said he opposes.

Schafer, a former Republican North Dakota governor, went on to say at the forum that both presidential candidates, McCain and Sen. Barack Obama, "leave a lot on the table to be desired for agricultural policy."

"I'd love to have the opportunity to get in there and say 'this is the importance of agriculture in this economy' and I don't think either one of them are seeing it," Schafer said.

Obama postcard

A 92-year-old New Salem woman got an unexpected postcard from the Barack Obama campaign last month. The problem wasn't what the postcard said, but who it was addressed to: Her husband, who died in 2000.

Louise Christian received the postcard from the Democratic hopeful's staff in North Dakota who were asking voters to support Obama, Christian's son, Loren Christian, said.

Louise Christian's husband, August Christian, is still listed in the Bismarck-Mandan phonebook.

Beth Nodland, a volunteer for Obama's grassroots campaign in Bismarck, said thousands of postcards asking for support were sent out to homes where Obama staffers had visited over the summer.

(Reach reporter Brian Duggan at 223-8482 or brian.duggan@;bismarcktribune.com.)