North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley told lawmakers his predecessors accrued $1.8 million in unanticipated costs while making specifications to a leased building in Bismarck. Lawmakers voted to investigate the matter.
Stenehjem worked to strengthen “sunshine laws” – so called because they bring light and transparency to public records and meetings – and thereby helped transform the state to one of openness and transparency.
Seven days after Wayne Stenehjem, the longest serving attorney general in North Dakota history, was found unresponsive in his Bismarck home, his wife attributed the cause to cardiac arrest and associated effects.
Wayne Stenehjem's unexpected death has captured the attention of the capital city in recent days. Friends and family eulogized him on Thursday as a figure whose long career in elected office, humor and physical stature loomed larger than life in North Dakota politics for years.
Stenehjem, the state’s longest-serving attorney general, died unexpectedly at the end of January. Jim Poolman, a former Republican lawmaker from Grand Forks, and who also served as the state’s Insurance Commissioner, reached out to the Alumni Association on behalf of Stenehjem’s family.
As the state mourns Wayne Stenehjem, the consensus in political circles seems to be that former lieutenant governor and former U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley will be appointed to replace him.
In the days since Wayne Stenehjem died, observers from all political corners have remembered him as a principled man who left a deep mark on North Dakota's government.
Attorney general, who died unexpectedly Friday, graduated from UND and spent years representing the city in the Legislature before moving on to attorney general position.
