In case you missed it....Mathern not leadership material

From the Minot Daily News:

Tim Mathern's attempts to show he’s ready to be governor aren’t working
Tim Mathern seems intent on showing he’s worthy of being governor by continually criticizing plans involving the state penitentiary. It isn’t working.Mathern is exploring the idea of running for governor, although he’s not made an official announcement. His latest attempt to demonstrate his gubernatorial mettle has him at odds with Tim Schuetzle, the warden at the State Penitentiary in Bismarck.Mathern, a Democratic state senator from Fargo, says a recent review by the American Correctional Association shows that the prison meets all mandatory standards for accreditation. That, Mathern reasons, means the state shouldn’t spend $42 million to remodel and expand the main penitentiary, and it certainly shouldn’t spend more than $100 million to build a new facility.Schuetzle says the review does not address the penitentiary’s shortcomings. He says the audit does not show there isn’t a need for improvements.Mathern shouldn’t forget that he and the rest of the Legislature created the current mess involving the prison issue. In his budget, Gov. John Hoeven proposed spending $42 million to remodel and expand parts of the prison facility, and set aside money to pay for it up front. But the Senate and the House couldn’t agree on anything, and the Legislature ended up doing nothing to solve the prison issue – other than creating a committee to study the subject, although the corrections department had already done that prior to the 2007 session.Mathern is saying that our state prison meets the mandatory standards for accreditation, so the prison is good enough.He’s wrong. The prison isn’t good enough. It has areas that need fixing now, not later. In his role as governor, Hoeven tried to address those problems. His efforts were continually thwarted – by state lawmakers like Mathern. If Mathern can’t understand this issue, maybe he shouldn’t run for governor.