Finally, throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s, the annual NARUC luncheon attendees would be regaled with a “Report from the Prairie”, delivered by the late Leo Rheinbold (1933-2010), who served as a North Dakota Public Service Commissioner from 1981-2002.  I do not believe anyone asked Leo to deliver such a report, but that did not deter him from stepping up to the microphone during the annual luncheon.

A multi-term elected commissioner, Leo described himself as the “number one sports banquet speaker in North Dakota”, appearing regularly at the state’s colleges and high school campuses.  His speeches, like his Reports, consisted of politically incorrect ethnic jokes, corny ones and “stories” about his life and times.   Many were about his own people, the Scandinavian immigrants who settled the Dakotas, as well as jokes admittedly stolen from a variety of sources including other Commissioners. As corny as the jokes were he quickly had the audience in stitches.

For new material he always carried a supply of three-by-five-inch cards.  If he heard you tell a joke he liked, he would copy it down and add it to his repertoire. In return for using a few of my better stories, Leo sent me, unsolicited, copies of pages of his jokes and one liners.  I guess he did so on the assumption that a Wisconsin regulator was unlikely to appear as a competitor on the North Dakota sports banquet circuit.