As I joked with friends Monday night, no matter the results Tuesday, we will still be a heavily red state on Wednesday morning, or at least led by them.
But let’s focus on the positive to start out with;
Cameraman Bruce and I ran another successful campaign and got a Democratic candidate elected in a pretty conservative district. Another notch in the winner’s column for us. Woot! Woot! The candidate also busted their ass getting bi-partisan support. Democrats can win in this state, but they must follow a stringent strategy and keep it simple.
Congrats to Kelly Sullivan (House D13) who ran an amazing direct mail and ground game campaign, I also think the assistance of LEAD helped her defeat Rex Rolfing. A do nothing, two-term Sioux Falls city councilor. Hopefully we will never see his name on a ballot ever again. I joked with someone last night, “If Rex wins by only 35% of the vote, will he feel bad he didn’t get a 50+1 majority?” LOL. It’s time the SF City Council overturns his horrible idea.
LEAD also probably helped Erin Healy get elected, and Kasey Olivier get within 28 votes of beating Blake Curd. I expect there will be a challenge in that race. Curd needs to go bye bye.
IM 25 failed. It was a bad idea from the beginning. I’m hoping (but not holding my breath) that the legislature will find a way to fund Tech education thru a scholarship fund, funded by the industries that use and need tech workers. The Legislature also needs to work on making apprenticeships easier so graduating HS students can skip tech school all together and start working and training in a field right away without tuition debt.
Nothing changed on the Minnehaha County Commission with Beninga, Heiberger and Barth getting re-elected. Let’s see if they all serve out their new terms.
And now for the crap;
IM 24 passed. Which proves to me many voters are ignorant to our US Constitution. Money is free speech and it can come from anywhere. This measure will be challenged in court and will essentially be dead.
Amendment W failed, which surprised me. I guess South Dakotans like our ‘F’ rating of our very corrupt legislature.
As if we didn’t learn anything from Jason Gant as our SOS, we elected one of the most unqualified AG’s in the history of our State. Ravnsborg will clog our prisons with addicts, give little to no treatment to them and most likely run the office as a partisan hack. This will prove to be one of the worst decisions voters in SD made in a very long time.
Dusty winning the House race is no surprise. He ran a high energy, positive campaign. I think the Bjorkman campaign was positive to, but there wasn’t a clear message. As I told Dusty in an email before the election, while I appreciated the campaign he ran, I disagree entirely with his philosophies. On a positive note, for at least the next two years with a Democratically controlled Congress, Dusty will accomplish very little, but maybe he will get to witness a historic impeachment of a president.
As I am disappointed in Noem being elected, it shouldn’t surprise us. I voted for no one in that race. The GOP hate machine was in full swing from the Noem and Ravsborg campaigns, they proved negative campaigning works. Even if Sutton and Seiler would have been successful, we would still be living in a very red state.
South Dakota’s new motto should be ‘Two Steps forward, Three Steps back.â€
Do you guys wonder why its so hard to get any Democrats elected in this state. As a conservative my take is pretty simple, the Democrat party of today is not for the average person anymore. I would have gladly voted for a blue dog old school Democrat if the candidate is better but, this party has morphed into the party of Identify Politics, Global Warming, Free Health Care, and Free Education. These items do not appeal to me or many like me for one simple reason, the final 3 require the government to grow (bordering on Socialism) and the last is just a turn off flat out. I am white and I am tired of being told since I am not one of the bazillion minority groups I don’t count or I am racist if I don’t agree. I am not here to pick a fight or throw shade I simply don’t get why some of these good old school thinking Democrats just dont run as Independents. I think most sane people agree that government cannot be trusted with laws, money, integrity, etc. Why in the world would anyone vote to increase their reach and impact on our daily lives. I personally support a person like Theresa Stahley and I find her to be honest, forthright, and possessing genuine integrity. This is the kind of individuals your party should look to lift up and distance yourself from the national Democrat party.
As a side note another turn off for me is the Democrat party now is so anti-christian is sad. JFK today would not fit into this party in my opinion.
Now I have said my peace, I will prepare for the onslaught 🙂
Conservative H. Did you vote for trump? If you did, how can you call yourself a christian?
While I agree with a ‘few’ things you are saying, to be honest with you, I left the Democratic party over a decade ago because they have become to conservative, especially in SD. Sutton proved that being ‘Republican Light’ doesn’t get you elected.
As for your comments;
“Global Warming, Free Health Care, and Free Education.”
First off, Global Warming does exist. It isn’t some ‘policy’ the Dems came up with. It is a scientific theory, and if you disagree with it, you need to take it up with the scientific community, NOT Dems.
Secondly, public education is one the greatest foundations of developed countries. Would you prefer the poor don’t get educated? Trust me, and educated society benefits us all. Do I think administrators can be wasteful? Hell yeah! But that is something that needs to be taken up with individual districts.
Free health care? Huh? Veterans get VA Care because of their service to the country. They paid for it in other ways. Medicare is paid into your entire life and rewarded to you after a certain age. As for socialized medicine or Medicare for all, it wouldn’t be FREE. Everyone would have to pay into thru payroll taxes, etc. What it would do is put us all in the same pool, which would drop healthcare costs and drug costs which would make it a heckuv a lot cheaper than private insurance, but it wouldn’t be FREE.
You seem to have a lot of misconceptions about liberal philosophies, but I don’t blame you, when you are constantly fed the GOP dogma about ‘Liberal America’ you don’t have a chance to think for yourself.
Sullivan’s election was a very positive and powerful result. I don’t think I ever recall a Democrat winning a legislative race in Sioux Falls before without a running mate for the State House to protect their rear flank… Her strategy on this one is definitely one to take note of… and my hat (Hey, Rex!) is also off to LEAD on this one as well.
instead of “my cousin vinny” it’s “my cousin cletus” as attorney general.
Warren Pear
Yes, I did vote for Trump because like most human beings he is flawed and falls short of the grace of God as we all do. His policy positions were better than Hillarys and we only had one choice. My questions came down to how can I support someone so radically anti-Christian. The Democrat party and their surrogates are anti-Christian. I am constantly being told or shown that my Christain values don’t matter. That is fine they have that right so I have the right to support a candidate that I feel will support my lifestyle more. He is not perfect and has many flaws as do all of us. Many presidents have been very sinful, JFK cheated on his wife all the time, Bill Clinton is a serial womanizer, etc. So if we are going strictly on how perfectly someone follows Gods word only Jesus could be elected. I am also assuming you are asking a curious question and not attacking me about my reason for voting as this feels like a gotcha question intended to provoke a response.
Scott
I understand nothing is free and in reference to education I was speaking of college or tech school after high school. I don’t need GOP speaking points to make my own points as you referenced GOP Dogma
Global Warming – First it was global warming and if we listened to Al Gore the flag bearer of this we would have all been underwater years ago, still has not happened. Now its called Climate Change, ahh rebranding what every good marketing company does on a failed product. I hear all the people on TV spout this over and over as its settled science but, it’s not. This 97% talking point is false and articles all over the web and even on Forbes have debunked this. Now I am sure we could all find articles and papers that support our points but, I use my eyes and reasoning to see the BS. Last year thousands of private plans showed up in Davos to talk about Climate Change. Al Gores home burns up enough electricity for 20+ homes. If you truly believe in that stuff I would expect you to take public transportation, have windmills and solar panels all over your house. What you often find is the folks yelling the most about this are the ones with the big carbon footprint. Now banks all over the world are constantly providing people with loans for high rise condos and expensive properties all across the seaboards. I say follow the money and the rich and influential all have a lot of cash tied up in property that should be under water by now.
Health Care – I fundamentally have an issue with the government being in charge of this. They cannot even balance the budget let alone control health care. Look at what a shit show the VA is since you bring that up and I have a good friend that used to work as a nurse at the VA and she tells us what a horror show that is and she finally quit. The government does not work and everyone complains about it. If you look at socialized medicine in places like Canada its rationed to people. I used to travel for work and many of my Canadian counterparts complained about the Health Care and the waiting lists and one guy finally went to the states to have shoulder surgery because he could not wait 3 years for it and the docs said he could get by with pain meds. I understand the emotional attachment to this but, I would rather pay for what I want via my own private insurance vs getting told what I can get and what I cannot. Another issue with socialized medicine is how can we tell a Dr what his or her services should cost. That goes against free market capitalism.
I appreciate the dialogue but, I am afraid you may have misspoken on me needing “GOP” talking points. Truth be told I lean libertarian on many issues as I just don’t think we should rely on government. The fact we are having these discussions is proof enough that we should remove as many government tentacles as we can from our lives. It just sows division.
Conservative Here- I’m white…I have never been called a racist or been worried about being labeled as a racist because i don’t think racists thoughts, I don’t express racists viewpoints and I don’t tolerate racists opinions. If your hypersensitive about this topic, there’s a reason. Regarding your comment about Democrats not being Christian..Jesus helped the poor, the disadvantaged. Jesus put compassion first. Basically, Jesus wasn’t an a-hole, so perhaps it’s not Christianity that you believe in.
you are right Rachel; Jesus helped the poor, the hungry, the lame; no where does it say the government did it; as to medicare for all Scott, perhaps everyone would pay if they are working- what about those who don’t; and how do you explain that there is no limit on what people pay without any consideration of what they use ( the payroll tax funding) ; that is why medicine costs so much as many times the user receives much more benefit than they pay in
Rachel – spot on!
Conservative Here – please turn off Fox News for a few days and give you mind a chance to recover.
13wis – you forgot to mention the 37,000 sheep that re-elected RINO Bob Litz to another four years of f-ing up our elections. Once again, Minnehaha County was last with the numbers on Tuesday night – even with a one-hour head start on the west river counties.
Worst Auditor Ever
This is why we can’t have a conversation about anything, your talking SH!T about me watching Fox news. I rarely watch any News as 90% of the media is liberal and liberal slanted, Fox is no exception, they just wrap it in BS. I come to this blog to see the other side of things and I try to be open minded but, I guess when it all said and done civil discourse is truly done and I guess I am glad I am in a state that is Conservative and you all are in the minority big time in this state. My original comment was intended to ask the questions on why can’t we get some more diversity in politics in this state and what is the Liberal Leaning folks in this State think of the repeated failures.
Rachel – When I turn on the news thats the kind of crap I hear. Anyone who supported President Trump or his policies is a racist. Example – If you want undocumented immigration to end (regardless of solution) all the sudden everyone is racist as the majority of it is from South of the Boarder. This gets old and if you truly believe that the Liberal Wing of the Democrat party is not into Identity Politics your high and are not even watching your own news. Regular people are sick of it. I hold no racist views and your comments are WHY people are tired of this kind of sh!t. What if I said by supporting President Clinton your a sexist and it was constantly spouted in the news every time you turn it on. Would a regular person think that every person who supported Bill Clinton is a sexist pig, no that is absurd they probably support his vision and policies. No person is perfect but, it gets old to hear it constantly. Turn on MSNBC now and I bet within 20 minutes you will hear something like that about conservatives from their talking heads. CNN is even worse, Van Jones has a meltdown constantly about White people being racist.
Yes Rachel Jesus did all those things and up until 1965 we didn’t have any of this Medicare, Food Stamps, etc crap and its built generations of folks who feel they are entitled to that. God gives us free will to do as we please and I feel Govt has no right to FORCE us to pay for all this stuff. I like many others, have no problem helping out and my wife and I do plenty to help those who cannot help themselves but, forcing everyone to do it is crap. Its a choice! Would you honestly say that the Democrat party avows Christian principals because last time I checked many from that party are always Demonizing them.
Matt Johnson – Excellent points on Health Care
I have a family member who voted Tuesday in South Carolina.
All voting is electronic. At this person’s polling place, one of the booths was closed because it was changing people’s intended vote.
Also, the polling place had a sign which stated state law limits time in the voting booth to THREE MINUTES.
Tuesday, South Carolina had 15 candidates and 1 ballot issue.
And, we think we have problems with voting in South Dakota……!!!
To W A E, my response.
In 2015, I was the Minnehaha Election Review Committee Chairman. The committee was a selected group of 7 interested citizens appointed to fix the broken SOS Jason Gant / HAVA processes. The population growth of Minnehaha County added to the many issues to finally collapse the counting in each of the 2014 elections. I personally fixed the last general election ballot at 9:15am Wednesday morning. Our committee made recommendations used through out the state.
As someone who has been in the vote counting arena for many, many years I might be able to have a long conversation with you about the process. If you have a problem with the length of time it takes to count the ballots, come on down to the Election Center to work in the process of counting your ballots correctly.
The process is forced by the feds and state to use certain machines and processes to tabulate the ballots. This is not a local decision.
If you want to complain about the local part of the process consider how the ill conceived Marcy’s law passage forced the Election Center out of the Administration Building and into a makeshift setup located across the street in the the old county jail building. Post Marcy’s Law adoption, the County Commission gave the rooms previously used for counting votes to the additional needed county attorneys. So instead of one large room to work in, there are now 7 or 8 rooms to work out of. Not very efficient.
If you want it faster, get involved. Convince the Commission to buy another $125,000 tabulator and then help find a secure spot to place it and then help run it.
Like him or not, Bob Litz has to follow rules he does not make up and work in constraints not of his making. I have seen may changes to the election day processes in 52 years of involvement. We need people who are younger and more who are willing to put int the effort to help make the system work.
What we all should be careful of is a system run only by government staff. We have experienced elections here where the processes are behind hidden computer screens and far off unviewable tables. Something like we saw at the Sioux Falls School Bond election this past September.
As a Republican, I would encourage the party to pay attention to the results in Districts 12, 13 and 14, especially the portions of those districts residing in Minnehaha County, which found Dems giving strong competition in all races and claiming some offices.
But the party brass are likely so drunk with the feat which they accomplished in the AG race – propping forward the empty-suit candidacy of Jason Ravnsborg – to acknowledge that which is occurring in the most populous area of the state.
Side note: The chairman of the local county organization of the Republican Party on KELOland’s Facebook page on the day following the election reminding detractors that Ravnsborg has experience with US and State Supreme Court cases. LOL.
Hey Dave, reading briefs filed with the court does NOT constitute “experience with”.
Unexpected tesimony in support of Litz from Bruce.
The return to office of Bob Litz is on my list as “The Crap”.
But as I watch the antics unfold in Florida and Arizona (“hey, we found 50,000 more votes over here”), I begin to understand the value to operatives of either political party of having incompetent stooges in these offices.
See also Jason Gant. See also Jason Ravnsborg.
“JFK today would not fit into this party in my opinion.”
How often have we heard that one? Political leaders are a product of their time. They are a part of the continuum and hopefully a positive cointinuum of our history.
But if you don’t buy that, then do you really think that Ronald Reagan could fit in today’s Trump Republican Party?