Heidi Heitkamp, who was North Dakota's tax commissioner for six years, said she is not interested in running for the job again after Democratic candidate Mike Every decided to leave the race.

"People obviously have been floating the name, but I have not provided any encouragement at all," Heitkamp said Thursday. "I think that there's a lot of very qualified people who can be tax commissioner."

Heitkamp was appointed tax commissioner in December 1986, shortly after her predecessor, Democrat Kent Conrad, was elected to the U.S. Senate. She was re-elected in 1988. Four years later, Heitkamp won the first of her two terms as attorney general.

She left office in 2000 after losing a race for governor to Republican John Hoeven. A Mandan resident, Heitkamp works as an attorney and consultant. She is still closely involved in Democratic politics, and got a thunderous ovation when she spoke to the state Democratic convention last April.

Every said Wednesday he was leaving the race for family reasons. His departure came after news reports that he had been $2,400 behind on child support payments until late June. During the June 8 primary election, he was nominated as the Democrats' candidate for tax commissioner, without opposition.

Democrats may not be able to replace Every on the ballot. A new state law, approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature last year, bars political parties from replacing nominated candidates in their ballot columns unless a candidate dies, becomes seriously ill, moves out of state or is disqualified from voting by other means, such as a felony conviction.

Democrats may still organize an independent campaign, which would require gathering petition signatures from at least 1,000 voters and submitting them to Secretary of State Al Jaeger's office by Sept. 3.

Heitkamp and Tom Dickson, the state party chairman, questioned the rationale for the law. Heitkamp said it may be unconstitutional, and said she believes its passage is an example of GOP abuse of legislative power. House Republicans have 66 seats to Democrats' 28, and GOP senators outnumber Democrats 13-16.

"It clearly is another glaring example of why you never want power invested in a supermajority in a legislative body," Heitkamp said. "What you get is self-protectionist, nonsense legislation like this."

Dickson, a Bismarck attorney, said Democrats will decide whether to challenge the law in court after they have found a candidate to succeed Every.

North Dakota's Constitution requires only that the tax commissioner be an eligible North Dakota voter, at least 25 years old, and a state resident for at least five years. Under the state law, Democrats could find a candidate who met those requirements, but still could not put him or her on the ballot in the Democratic column, Heitkamp said.

"When you try and establish different standards for who qualifies to have their name on the ballot, you're really walking on the North Dakota Constitution," she said.

Jaeger said legislative actions are presumed to be constitutional, and that the law's meaning was clear.

"It's not up to me to decide whether it's constitutional or not. I'm just quoting the law," Jaeger said. "If somebody believes that the law is unconstitutional, then they need to pursue the options that are available to them … That's not for me to make a judgment."

The 2003 Legislature easily approved the measure. In the House, it was endorsed 86-6, with 23 of the House's 28 Democrats voting yes. The Senate vote was 32-13, with two of the Senate's 16 Democrats in favor.

However, aside from its restrictions on ballot substitution, the bill included a provision that allows a legislative district's voters to petition for a quick election if an incumbent lawmaker dies or resigns. A number of Democratic legislators supported the bill for that reason.

Current state law allows the appointment of new lawmakers to fill openings, and they may serve until the next general election. Last year, legislative Democrats pushed unsuccessfully in favor of requiring all new legislators to be elected, which was the practice until the 2001 Legislature approved a bill permitting appointments.

The appointment law itself followed a constitutional amendment that North Dakota voters approved in June 2000, which eliminated the constitution's requirement that legislative vacancies be filled only by elections.