North Dakota's candidates for state treasurer have generated thousands of words during their campaign, without speaking to each other - or even mentioning their contest.

Dickinson rancher Dean Meyer and Kelly Schmidt, a Mandan businesswoman, both write regular newspaper columns about their family lives. Even though both avoid politics in their writings, the columns have been an issue in the race.

Meyer has been writing a column for weekly newspapers for about 15 years. Schmidt began writing hers after Jason Stverak, the state Republican Party director, unsuccessfully tried last summer to get weekly newspapers to quit publishing Meyer's column until after the election.

Schmidt said at least two weeklies carry her columns regularly, and others have published them.

"I have always been told that I had a gift to write," she said. "This just gave me the opportunity to do that. Win or lose, this might be something I would like to continue."

Meyer said he has little choice. "I couldn't quit doing it because I've got so many people who enjoy reading it," he said.

Meyer, 55, a Democrat and former state senator, and Schmidt, 42, a Republican who does independent contract work out of her home, are vying to succeed incumbent Democrat Kathi Gilmore, who is not seeking re-election after 12 years in office.

The treasurer's office, one of the smallest in state government, reconciles state accounts, invests trust funds and distributes some tax revenue to local governments.

The office has survived attempts by lawmakers in recent years to abolish it. Both Schmidt and Meyer say they believe the office is important.

"We need the treasurer's office, just for the accountability that an elected official provides," Meyer said. "That applies if you're talking about the local Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, FFA chapter. You've got to have a treasurer."

Meyer wants to expand the office's duties to include overseeing the state Racing Commission, so that the attorney general's office is not promoting horse racing and regulating it at the same time.

He also wants to create a program to help educate high school seniors about financial responsibility, and a pamphlet to help people such as widows and divorcees who unexpectedly find themselves managing their finances.

"Efforts need to be made to make the office more visible," Meyer said.

Schmidt said she wants to bring technology in the treasurer's office "up to the current century," increase staff training, bring in someone with an accounting degree and build better relationships with other state agencies.

She said those moves would help avoid a repeat of mistakes made in recent years in the distribution of more than $3 million in tax money to local governments.

"I have the management skills and people skills to move us in a different direction in the treasurer's office," Schmidt said.

She describes herself as "goal-oriented."

"When I set a goal, I just stay focused," she said. "If there's something that needs to be done, I just set my mind to it and I go until I've done my very best. I'm the only one who has to look in the mirror and know I've done my very best."

Schmidt's background includes stints as a state Republican Party secretary and legislative clerk. She is president of the Mandan Kiwanis, serves on Mandan's zoning board and is a member of a state board that regulates foot doctors.

Meyer served in the Legislature from 1982-91, was president of the North Dakota Stockmen's Association in the mid-1990s and served as chairman of Northern Plains Premium Beef, an unsuccessful effort in the 1990s to start a beef processing plant.

He said his affable nature aids him in difficult situations.

"When issues (in the Legislature) got kind of tough or cantankerous, people would look to me to lighten the mood, maybe find a compromise," he said. "I've always been that way. I can find a little humor in anything. If you just relax, you can usually find an answer."