Ever since I have owned my home I have lived just barely in District 13. The district used to be pretty balanced but it seems lately it has become ran by Republicans. I have been watching the districting process over the past few months. It seemed that I was destined to be moved to District 10 and I barely slipped in. I welcome it. The District has moved out of Brandon (Thank God) and mostly encompasses the Whittier neighborhood, Beadle and a tiny chunk of McKennan, it also leans Dem. It will be fun to watch how the legislative seats in the District play out in 2022. It’s time to kick Maggie Sutton to the curb and create a left of center district in Sioux Falls.

The governor appoints ANOTHER legislator. I don’t know how many that is in his two terms as governor, but It has to be in the high teens. Democracy at work folks.

The governor appointed Doug Barthel, former SF police chief to District 10 seat left empty by another Republican quitter Don Haggar.

I get pretty leary of former law enforcement in the state legislature. Remember the stellar term of Gene Abdallah? Yeah, that was wonderful, NOT.

I was pretty surprised to hear he was a Republican since most public servants that are not elected are independents, unless he changed his registration after he retired.

Doug had a pretty good term as Police Chief until his final years where he peddled the Mayor’s denial of a rising crime wave before the last mayoral election. He also wasn’t very honest about what happened at Tuthill Park and the ‘supposed’ shooting. A case that was dropped when he walked out the door. He also was pretty lax with the policy of police officers eating at the hospitals for free.

Doug is a nice guy and all, I just wish he would have stayed in retirement from public service.

I found their answers interesting, especially to measure 11. Hunt said this:

8. Do you approve or disapprove of Initiated Measure 11, which would ban all abortions with exceptions for the mother’s life, rape or incest?

I support Initiated Measure 11. It will stop abortions being used as birth control, protect over 800 unborn children in South Dakota annually and protect the health of women. The drafting of this measure was led by the attorney general who supports it. It provides the exceptions the general public asked for in 2006.

What!? So now our AG supports unconstitutional laws! That’s scary.

And Shantel gives the Deb Peters answer.

8. Do you approve or disapprove of Initiated Measure 11, which would ban all abortions with exceptions for the mother’s life, rape or incest? I support any measure that reduces the number of abortions used for birth control but strongly believe that better education on reproduction would lessen the number of women who have to make that difficult decision.