Associated Press Writer

By DALE WETZELBy DALE WETZEL

Republican activists are preparing to choose a successor to former state Sen. Tom Trenbeath, R-Cavalier, in time for next week's organizational session of the 2007 Legislature.

North Dakota law gives a district committee the power to appoint someone to a vacant seat in the state House or Senate in situations when it would be difficult to hold an election before the Legislature meets.

The 2007 Legislature's three-day organizational session begins Monday. Its regular session convenes Jan. 3.

Trenbeath, an attorney and Cavalier city administrator, resigned from the Senate Nov. 24 to take a job as deputy attorney general. He represented District 10, which includes Cavalier County and most of Pembina and Towner counties in northeastern North Dakota.

The district's Republican executive committee, which has eight members, is meeting Saturday in the Pembina County Courthouse in Cavalier to choose Trenbeath's successor, said one member, state Rep. Dave Monson, R-Osnabrock.

Curtis Olafson, of Edinburg, and Charles Ottem, of Osnabrock, have expressed interest in the appointment, Monson said Friday. Olafson is a former district GOP chairman, while Ottem, who is a former chairman of the North Dakota Barley Council, is well known for his work in farm organizations, Monson said.

"Both would be very good candidates. We have a hard decision to make," Monson said.

Olafson could not be reached Friday for comment. Ottem said he was contacted about two weeks ago to see if he was interested in the Senate appointment. Ottem, 60, ran unsuccessfully for the state House in 1980.

"I'm very optimistic. I think my chances should be good," Ottem said. "It's up to the executive committee to decide."

North Dakota law gives a district's residents the right to petition for a special election for a vacant legislative seat, although the vote cannot be held until after the 2007 Legislature has adjourned. The District 10 Senate seat will be up for election in 2008.

At least 446 people would have to sign the petition to force Gov. John Hoeven to call a special election, state law says. The number represents at least 4 percent of the district's population, as counted in the 2000 census. Petition carriers would face a Dec. 31 deadline for turning in the signatures to Secretary of State Al Jaeger.

Jim Fuglie, the state Democratic Party's director, said party officials were discussing whether it would be worthwhile to petition for an election. The vote would not be held until the legislative session was over, and the law gives Hoeven the option of delaying it until June 2008, Fuglie said.

However, a special election winner would have a leg up during the 2008 campaign, Fuglie said. "I'd like to elect somebody early in the year and have them running as an incumbent in the fall," he said. "It's a pretty good district for Democrats."

Fuglie said lawyers were also researching whether to challenge Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem's hiring of Trenbeath, because of a provision in the North Dakota Constitution that bars lawmakers from taking a state office if they voted to increase its pay.

Stenehjem said the issue was researched before Trenbeath was hired. The deputy attorney general's position is not included in state law and has no specific salary, Stenehjem said. Trenbeath is being paid $82,500 annually, less than his predecessor, Sandi Tabor, was making.

"The only thing that is prohibited (by the constitution) is appointing somebody to an office, which I don't think the deputy attorney general is," Stenehjem said. "It's not provided for anywhere in the (state law), and of course, the compensation wasn't increased, because there was no compensation set forth."

In a legal opinion last year, Stenehjem concluded that state lawmakers weren't eligible to be appointed to openings for North Dakota tax commissioner and Supreme Court justice, because they had specifically voted to raise the salaries of both jobs.

At the time, Trenbeath had applied for a Supreme Court vacancy left by William Neumann, who resigned to become director of the state Bar Association. Trenbeath dropped out of consideration after the opinion was published.

Stenehjem's opinion, issued May 12, 2005, also disqualified state legislators who were interested in succeeding Tax Commissioner Rick Clayburgh, who had announced plans to resign at the end of that month.