Become part of the movement for unbiased, accessible election information. Donate today.
Lonnie Laffen
Lonnie Laffen (Republican Party) was a member of the North Dakota State Senate, representing District 43. Laffen assumed office in 2010. Laffen left office on November 30, 2018.
Laffen (Republican Party) ran for re-election to the North Dakota State Senate to represent District 43. Laffen lost in the general election on November 6, 2018.
Laffen passed away on December 23, 2020.[1]
Biography
Laffen earned his B.A. in Architecture from North Dakota State University. His professional experience includes working as the North Dakota State Architect from 2004 to 2008, as chairman of the North Dakota Historic Preservation Review Board and as the operator of JLG Architects since its founding in 1985.[2]
Committee assignments
2017 legislative session
At the beginning of the 2017 legislative session, this legislator served on the following committees:
| North Dakota committee assignments, 2017 |
|---|
| • Finance and Taxation |
| • Transportation, Chair |
2015 legislative session
At the beginning of the 2015 legislative session, Laffen served on the following committees:
| North Dakota committee assignments, 2015 |
|---|
| • Energy and Natural Resources |
| • Finance and Taxation, Vice Chairman |
2013-2014
In the 2013-2014 legislative session, Laffen served on the following committees:
| North Dakota committee assignments, 2013 |
|---|
| • Industry, Business and Labor |
| • Natural Resources |
2011-2012
In the 2011-2012 legislative session, Laffen served on these committees:
| North Dakota committee assignments, 2011 |
|---|
| • Industry, Business and Labor |
| • Political Subdivisions |
Campaign themes
2014
Laffen's campaign website highlighted the following issues:[3]
Education
- Excerpt: "Define Benchmarks and develop an action plan toward the goal of becoming the #1 state in education"
- Excerpt: "Leverage state dollars to create a tuition scholarship program supported by public/private endowments"
- Excerpt: "Increase funding for greater curricula supporting science, technology, engineering & math"
- Excerpt: "Create opportunities for business to have a stronger voice in the development of higher education programming"
- Excerpt: "Work to reduce the cost of tuition"
Energy Development
- Excerpt: "Continue to grow our oil and gas industry"
- Excerpt: "Be excellent stewards of our land"
- Excerpt: "Use tax revenues to lower taxes, save for our future and improve our quality of life"
Tax Relief
- Excerpt: "We will work hard over the next four years to continue to cut taxes and will likely have a serious debate about eliminating our personal income tax. Strategic investment of our Legacy and Common Schools Trust funds will allow us to make tax cuts permanent."
Sponsored legislation
The following table lists bills this person sponsored as a legislator, according to BillTrack50 and sorted by action history. Bills are sorted by the date of their last action. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills this legislator sponsored, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.
Elections
2018
General election
General election for North Dakota State Senate District 43
JoNell Bakke defeated incumbent Lonnie Laffen in the general election for North Dakota State Senate District 43 on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | JoNell Bakke (D) | 52.6 | 2,692 |
 | Lonnie Laffen (R) | 47.3 | 2,420 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 7 | ||
| Total votes: 5,119 | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for North Dakota State Senate District 43
JoNell Bakke advanced from the Democratic primary for North Dakota State Senate District 43 on June 12, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | JoNell Bakke | 100.0 | 630 |
| Total votes: 630 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for North Dakota State Senate District 43
Incumbent Lonnie Laffen advanced from the Republican primary for North Dakota State Senate District 43 on June 12, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Lonnie Laffen | 100.0 | 621 |
| Total votes: 621 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
2014
Elections for the North Dakota State Senate took place in 2014. A primary election took place on June 10, 2014. The general election was held on November 4, 2014. The signature filing deadline for candidates wishing to run in this election was April 7, 2014. Incumbent Lonnie Laffen was unopposed in the Republican primary, while JoNell Bakke was unopposed in the Democratic primary. Laffen defeated Bakke in the general election.[4][5][6]
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican |  Lonnie Laffen Incumbent |
53.3% | 2,102 | |
| Democratic | JoNell Bakke | 46.7% | 1,841 | |
| Total Votes | 3,943 | |||
2010
Laffen won election to the North Dakota State Senate in 2010. He defeated incumbent JoNell Bakke (D) in the November 2 general election.[7]
| North Dakota Senate General Election, District 43 (2010) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidates | Votes | Percent | ||
| Lonnie Laffen (R)
|
2,102 | 52.80% | ||
| JoNell Bakke (D) | 1,872 | 47.02% | ||
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
Scorecards
A scorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.
Ballotpedia is in the process of developing an encyclopedic list of published scorecards. Some states have a limited number of available scorecards or scorecards produced only by select groups. It is Ballotpedia’s goal to incorporate all available scorecards regardless of ideology or number.
Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states. To contribute to the list of North Dakota scorecards, email suggestions to editor@ballotpedia.org.
2022
In 2022, the North Dakota State Legislature was not in session.
2021
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2021, click [show]. |
|---|
|
In 2021, the North Dakota State Legislature was in session from January 5 to April 29.
|
2020
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2020, click [show]. |
|---|
|
In 2020, the North Dakota State Legislature was not in session. |
2019
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2019, click [show]. |
|---|
|
In 2019, the North Dakota Legislative Assembly was in session from January 3 through April 26.
|
2018
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2018, click [show]. |
|---|
|
In 2018, the North Dakota Legislative Assembly did not hold a regular session. |
2017
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2017, click [show]. |
|---|
|
In 2017, the 65th North Dakota Legislative Assembly was in session from January 3 through April 27.
|
2016
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2016, click [show]. |
|---|
|
In 2016, the North Dakota Legislative Assembly did not hold a regular session. |
2015
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2015, click [show]. |
|---|
|
In 2015, the 64th North Dakota Legislative Assembly was in session from January 6 through April 29.
|
2014
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2014, click [show]. |
|---|
|
In 2014, the North Dakota Legislative Assembly did not hold a regular session. |
2013
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2013, click [show]. |
|---|
|
In 2013, the 63rd North Dakota Legislative Assembly was in session from January 8 to May 4.
|
2012
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2012, click [show]. |
|---|
|
In 2012, the North Dakota Legislative Assembly did not hold a regular session. |
2011
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2011, click [show]. |
|---|
|
In 2011, the 62nd North Dakota Legislative Assembly was in regular session from January 4 through April 28. A special session was called by Governor Jack Dalrymple from November 7 through 12 to cover legislative redistricting and disaster relief.[8]
|
NDPC: North Dakota Legislative Review
The North Dakota Policy Council, a North Dakota-based nonprofit research organization which describes itself as "liberty-based", published the North Dakota Legislative Review, a comprehensive report on how state legislators voted during the 2011 legislative session. The scorecard seeks to show how North Dakota legislators voted on the principles the Council seeks to promote. The Council recorded and scored votes on both spending bills and policy bills, and awarded points accordingly. Policy issues voted upon included income tax cuts, pension reform, and government transparency. On spending legislation, the Council accorded a percentage score based on how much spending the legislator voted against. On policy legislation, scores range from the highest score (100%) to the lowest (0%). A higher score indicates that the legislator voted more in favor of the values supported by the Council.[9] Laffen received a score of 81.82% on policy legislation and voted against 2.18% of state spending. On policy, Laffen was ranked 24th and on spending was ranked 38th, out of 46 Senate members evaluated for the study.[10]
Personal
Note: Please contact us if the personal information below requires an update.
Laffen and his wife, Pam, have three children. They currently reside in Grand Forks, North Dakota.[11]
Recent news
This section links to a Google news search for the term "Lonnie + Laffen + North + Dakota + Senate"
See also
- North Dakota State Senate
- Senate Committees
- North Dakota Legislative Assembly
- North Dakota state legislative districts
External links
- Profile from the North Dakota State Senate
- Profile from Open States
- Lonnie Laffen on Facebook
- Lonnie Laffen on Twitter
- Lonnie Laffen on LinkedIn
- Campaign contributions via Follow the Money
Footnotes
- ↑ Grand Forks Herald, "Lonnie Laffen, Grand Forks business leader and former state lawmaker dies at 62," December 24, 2020
- ↑ Project Vote Smart, "Sen. Lonnie Laffen," accessed June 22, 2015
- ↑ Laffen for Senate, "Issues," accessed September 18, 2014(Archived)
- ↑ North Dakota Secretary of State, "2014 Primary Election Contest/Candidate List," accessed April 9, 2014
- ↑ North Dakota Secretary of State, "Official Results Primary Election - June 10, 2014," accessed July 8, 2014
- ↑ North Dakota Secretary of State, "Official General Election Results," accessed November 17, 2014
- ↑ North Dakota Secretary of State, "2010 General Election Results," accessed May 29, 2015
- ↑ The Bismarck Tribune, "N.D. House leader: Special session starts Nov. 7," accessed September 15, 2011
- ↑ North Dakota Policy Council, "The North Dakota Legislative Review - 2011," accessed January 20, 2014
- ↑ North Dakota Policy Council, "2011 North Dakota Legislative Review Rankings," accessed January 26, 2014
- ↑ North Dakota Legislature, "Sen. Lonnie Laffen," accessed June 22, 2015
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by JoNell Bakke (D) |
North Dakota State Senate District 43 2010-2018 |
Succeeded by JoNell Bakke (D) |
