Jerod Tufte
2017 - Present
2026
8
Jerod Tufte is a judge of the North Dakota Supreme Court. He assumed office on January 1, 2017. His current term ends on December 31, 2026.
Tufte was elected to the North Dakota Supreme Court in November 2016 for a term beginning on January 1, 2017. He succeeded retired Justice Dale Sandstrom. To read more about judicial selection in North Dakota, click here.
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.[1] Tufte received a confidence score of Strong Republican.[2] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Tufte received his undergraduate degree in computer engineering from Case Western Reserve University and his J.D. from Arizona State University College of Law.[3] Tufte has worked as a clerk for a United States Court of Appeals and practiced law at a firm in Phoenix, Arizona. Upon moving to North Dakota, he served as a state's attorney in Kidder and Sheridan counties. He was appointed by Governor Jack Dalrymple (R) on July 11, 2014, to succeed John T. Paulson on the Southeast Judicial District court in North Dakota.[3] Tufte is a member of the U.S. National Guard.[3]
Elections
2016
Tufte ran for a seat on the North Dakota Supreme Court in 2016. He ran against Robert V. Bolinske, Sr. for the seat of retiring Justice Dale Sandstrom.
Election results
November 8 general election
| North Dakota Supreme Court 2016, Sandstrom's Seat, 2016 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Jerod Tufte |
60.69% | 166,229 |
| Robert V. Bolinske Sr. | 38.63% | 105,805 |
| Write-in votes | 0.68% | 1,851 |
| Total Votes (432 of 432 precincts reporting: 100%) | 273,885 | |
| Source: North Dakota Secretary of State Official Results | ||
June 14 primary election
Tufte and his opponent, Robert V. Bolinske, Sr., were the only candidates for the seat, and therefore both advanced through the June 14 primary to the November 8 general election.
| North Dakota Supreme Court Primary, Dale Sandstrom's Seat, 2016 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
| Jerod Tufte |
55.03% | 54,107 |
| Robert V. Bolinske Sr. |
44.65% | 43,899 |
| Write-in votes | 0.32% | 311 |
| Total Votes | 98,317 | |
| Source: North Dakota Secretary of State | ||
Bar Association recommendations
In June 2016, the State Bar Association of North Dakota released the results of its 2016 judicial survey. The number of valid responses to the survey questions was 248. Attorneys were asked to rate specific qualifications of judicial candidates on a scale of 1-5, with 1 the lowest and 5 the highest. The responses were averaged and the average reported for each candidate in each category. Survey respondents were asked to refrain from giving an answer in a category if they did not have enough information to do so. The averages for Jerod Tufte and Robert V. Bolinske, Sr. are reported below. The number of respondents choosing not to give answers on a particular candidate in a particular category is in parentheses next to the average. The number of respondents choosing not to give any answers, in any category, on a particular candidate is in the last column.
| State Bar Association of North Dakota Judicial Survey Results, 2016 | ||||||
| Candidate | Professional Competence |
Legal Experience | Judicial Temperament | Integrity | Average | No Response |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Robert V. Bolinske, Sr. | 2.99 (69 no ans.) | 3.54 (58 no ans.) | 2.50 (67 no ans.) | 2.92 (73 no ans.) | 2.99 | 41 |
| Jerod Tufte | 4.04 (51 no ans.) | 3.52 (49 no ans.) | 4.05 (54 no ans.) | 4.22 (53 no ans.) | 3.96 | 37 |
| Source: | State Bar Association of North Dakota | |||||
Campaign finance
| Jerod Tufte Campaign Finance Reports | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Report | Date Filed | Beginning Balance | Total Contributions for Reporting Period | Expenditures | Cash on Hand | ||||
| Pre-Primary | 5/12/2016 | $0.00 | $19,386.03 | Unknown | $14,493.04 | ||||
| Pre-General Amendment | 10/5/2016 | $0.00 | $38,719.21 | Unknown | $5,528.25 | ||||
| Running totals | |||||||||
| $58,105.24 | $(0) | ||||||||
2014
Tufte was appointed by Governor Jack Dalrymple (R) on July 11, 2014, to succeed John T. Paulson on the Southeast Judicial District court in North Dakota.[3]
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.[4]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[5]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.
Jerod
Tufte
North Dakota
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Strong Republican - Judicial Selection Method:
Elected - Key Factors:
- Donated over $2,000 to Republican candidates
- Held political office as a Republican
- Was a registered Republican before 2020
Partisan Profile
Details:
Tufte donated $3,895 to Republican candidates. He was legal council to Gov. Jack Dalrymple (R) from 2011 to 2014. He was a registered Republican before 2020.
State supreme court judicial selection in North Dakota
- See also: Judicial selection in North Dakota
The five justices of the North Dakota Supreme Court are chosen in nonpartisan elections. Judicial candidates compete in a primary election, and the top two candidates advance to the general election in November.[6] If a justice retires or dies in office, the governor may appoint a justice to the court for two years, when the appointed justice must then run in a nonpartisan election.[7]
Once elected, judges serve 10-year terms. At the expiration of a judge's term, he or she must run for re-election to remain on the court.[6]
Qualifications
To serve on this court, a judge must be:
- a U.S. and state citizen and
- a licensed attorney.[6]
Chief justice
The court's chief justice is chosen by a vote of the supreme and district court judges to serve a five-year term.[6]
Vacancies
In the event of a midterm vacancy, the governor appoints a replacement with help from a judicial nominating commission. Alternatively, the governor may call a special election to fill the vacancy. Appointed judges are to serve for at least two years, after which they must run in the general election to finish the remainder of the unexpired term.[8] If a justice retires or dies in office, the governor may appoint a justice to the court for two years, when the appointed justice must then run in a nonpartisan election.[9] The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
- ↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 The Jamestown Sun, "Tufte becomes new district court judge," July 12, 2014
- ↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 National Center for State Courts, "Methods of Judicial Selection: North Dakota," accessed August 16, 2021
- ↑ State of North Dakota, "Supreme Court," accessed September 8, 2022
- ↑ National Center for State Courts, "Methods of Judicial Selection: North Dakota," accessed August 16, 2021
- ↑ State of North Dakota, "Supreme Court," accessed September 8, 2022
Federal courts:
Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: District of North Dakota • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: District of North Dakota
State courts:
North Dakota Supreme Court • North Dakota Court of Appeals • North Dakota District Courts • North Dakota Municipal Courts
State resources:
Courts in North Dakota • North Dakota judicial elections • Judicial selection in North Dakota
