Bob CollinsFacebook kills careers. So does being a little too invested in a political issue. Ask the manager of a North Dakota horse track who, on his personal page, weighed into a bill in the North Dakota Legislature that would provide some assistance to the North Dakota Horse Park in paying special assessments to the City of Fargo.
Mike Schmitz is out of the job now because he said on his page that a person involved “cheats on his wife” and “loves cocaine,” according to the Fargo Forum.
The comment was attached to a link to a Bismarck Tribune article on the legislation, which would allow people to place bets on horse races that have already taken place.
Personal attacks in politics might work in national politics these days, but not in North Dakota, at least on this issue.
The president of the horse park’s board of directors acknowledged Schmitz made his comments on his own time and on his own page but that the association “has no tolerance for any activities or statements which are hateful, offensive or otherwise reflect negatively on the organization or racing industry.”
“For the life of me, I don’t know what prompted an outburst like that,” Andy Maragos, a horse park board member, tells the paper.
