We covered a lot of ground on this episode of Plain Talk.

Rep. Brandy Pyle, a Republican from Casselton, joined to talk about her efforts to curb distractions from devices in the legislative committee she chairs, and to talk about the struggles our society is having with our phone addictions.

North Dakota University System Chancellor Mark Hagerott also joined to discuss the State Board of Higher Education's decision to move on from his leadership. Hagerott characterized it as an amicable transition, though he acknowledged that he doesn't get along with one board member. "I'm not on his Christmast list," Hagerott said, though he declined to mention which board member.

Also on this episode, me and co-host Chad Oban discuss what we both agreed was a terrible, really bad, no good debate performance from President Joe Biden last night.

Want to subscribe to Plain Talk? Search for the show wherever you get your podcasts, or click here for more information.

The signature turn-in deadline for the committee backing a ballot measure to abolish North Dakota's tax on property value (but not, it's important to note, other types of property taxes) arrives on Saturday, June 29. The committee is expected to turn in the requisite number of signatures, which, if they pass muster, will kick off a repeat of a debate over property taxes voters here have had before.

In 2012 a similar proposal to eliminate the tax on property value was put before voters, and it failed spectacularly. A coalition group calling itself Keep It Local ND rallied to persuade more than 70% of voters to cast their ballots against the measure.

That coalition is back, and two of its organizers -- Andrea Pfennig from the Greater North Dakota Chamber of Commerce and my co-host Chad Oban, whose day job is with North Dakota United -- were on this episode of Plain Talk to discuss it.

Their arguments against the measure? It would eliminate about $2.6 billion in revenues for local governments every budget cycle with no real plan for how to replace it. And those voters who are frustrated with the Legislature's impotence in addressing this issue should consider, they argue, that it would be that same Legislature tasked with coming up with a revenue alternative.

Also on this episode, Democratic-NPL U.S. House candidate Trygve Hammer, fresh off his victory in the June primary, joined to discuss his general election campaign. He wants to make it clear to North Dakota voters that a Democrat winning a statewide vote in North Dakota is "not impossible."

"I have an experience that's closer to what most North Dakotan's have experienced," he said, touting his military background and blue-collar resume. "I've been boots on the ground in the oil patch."

Hammer spoke about everything from border security to foreign affairs.

Of Ukraine, "Putin has to be stopped," Hammer said. "Putin is a butcher." In the middle-east, Hammer said Israel absolutely has a right to protect itself, but sees a toxic relationship between the Islamic extremists who are a threat to the Jewish state and its current leadership. "Netanyahu needs Hamas and Hamas needs Netanyahu," he said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

To subscribe to Plain Talk, search for the show wherever you get your podcasts, or click here for more information.

North Dakota's primary elecitons this year were brutal. Attack ads and dirty tricks are endemic to politics, but I think most people would admit that, by the standards of our state, the Republican campaigns in this cycle were rough.

In legislative races, we saw ads suggesting that some incumbent lawmakers promote pornography to children, or that they would be unsafe to allow your children around. In the U.S. House primary, some unknown entity supporting Rick Becker's campaign was sending out text messages trying to fool voters into thinking Julie Fedorchak, who ultimately won that race, had pulled out. And in the gubernatorial race, Tammy Miller's campaign ran ads accusing Kelly Armstrong of enriching himself by helping child molesters avoid justice.

But when Armstrong appeared on this episode of Plain Talk to recap the race, he shrugged the attacks off. "You can't take these things seriously," he told me and my co-host Corey Mock.

Armstrong now faces Democratic-NPL candidate Merrill Piepkorn in the general election, but we asked him, if he should win in November, what the top priorities of his administration would be.

"Property taxes," he said, pointing out that consternation about those tax bills are running so high that a ballot measure to abolish them, which may appear on the November ballot as well, could well pass. "If it passes, you have a real problem," he said.

Armstrong said another problem is access to labor. He said past political leaders in North Dakota have campaigned on creating jobs, but that doesn't make a lot of sense right now. "We have 30,000 open jobs," he said. "Campaigning on jobs is great...trying to figure out how to get people here to take them is a harder conversation."

Also, in this episode, Mock and I discussed the seemingly intractable problem of property taxes, and what the primary election results mean for the future of the divide in the North Dakota Republican Party.

Want to subscribe to Plain Talk? Search for the show wherever you get your podcasts, or click here for more information.