April 2018

Noem gets involved with Mayoral campaign, why not Thune?

I was pretty surprised to hear Noem put out a robo call for TenHaken. I would think being involved with a governor’s run she wouldn’t want to complicate things. Her call I guess.

So the bigger question is what does John Thune think of the race? He is a Sioux Falls resident, his wife I believe works for Sanford. Wouldn’t he have an opinion?

You would be surprised what that opinion is.

First the facts. Mud Mile, Jolene’s advertising agency has done video/campaign work for Thune for years, NOT Clickrain. In fact Thune and his wife consider themselves personal friends with Jo and Nate. The TenHaken’s? Not so much.

I guess there was a early discussion whether Thune would endorse Loetscher, but I guess the Loetscher campaign declined. Why? Good government and common sense. I think Loetscher wanted to keep this a non-partisan race but the TenHaken campaign has decided with the endorsements and postcard from the area GOP, the Jackley press release about nothing and the Noem endorsement, that idea went off the rails. They have run a successful smear campaign making Jo look like a uber liberal victim. But that’s what the SD GOP does best, hide from the real issues and throw mud.

I would encourage Loetscher to except the Thune endorsement if he is still willing to give it, and truly show she has support from both sides of the aisle.

And without getting into to much detail, I will say, while Thune may be undecided on whether to endorse his friend Jolene, he certainly WOULD NOT endorse TenHaken. And if you can’t get the endorsement of the TOP Republican in the state that lives in Sioux Falls, it really makes you take pause, doesn’t it?

Pat Starr likely the next Vice Chair of Sioux Falls City Council

While we still have a city election going on this Tuesday, that doesn’t mean the council still hasn’t been discussing the future of leadership.

Obviously a major lynchpin will be the contest between DeBoer and Soehl in the central district, which I predict will be a close race. So close that I don’t think it will be decided on Tuesday because they may have to wait for absentees to return from the snowbirds because our current (Uncertified) City Clerk doesn’t know how to order printing in a timely manner. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.

There are some obvious appointments;

Greg Neitzert will probably become chair of the Audit Committee, replacing Rex. He has wide support on the council for this position.

Erickson will probably roll into the Council Chair position with little to no opposition (she currently serves as Vice-Chair).

But where it might get sticky is the vice-chair position. As far as I know, Starr is the only one who has had interest in it. Stehly has expressed she is too busy in her personal business to be chair or vice-chair, and with Greg wanting the Audit chair position, he cannot serve in either of those positions, so it leaves Pat. New councilors tend to NOT get these appointments, and with councilor Selberg consistently sitting in the background, I can’t imagine he would be suited for the position or even want it.

Though council positions tend to be non-partisan, it will be really fun to watch a conservative Republican chair and progressive Democratic vice-chair serve together. Can’t wait to see the sausage this will produce.

McGovern Day Dinner 2018

What an amazing afternoon and night. Bruce and I had the honor to be granted press passes for the event. And besides KSFY showing up for a 5 minute interview with Mayor Buttigieg and Dana Ferguson from the Argus covering it old school style, SouthDaCola got extended interviews and videos from the event. We will be posting soon speeches from dinner (Loetscher redeems herself) and the noon luncheon. We also got exclusive interviews with Mayor Pete, Tim Bjorkman, Billie Sutton and Cory Heidelberger. Stay tuned!

I also gotta give a shout out to my West River Bud, Joe Lowe for giving me his best Donald Trump impersonations. God I love that guy. Joe, not Donald.

Nothing like posing with the future president of the United States 🙂

Disgusted with Mayor Huether

Just when I was considering writing a letter to the editor about Mike’s term in office, someone beats me to the punch, and they don’t gloss over anything;

We elect council members Huether doesn’t want to listen to. Their opinions don’t matter to him, to the point where one council member even walked out of a meeting. Can’t say that I blame him. Now the frosting on the cake is the April 4 article where theArgus Leader had the guts to poke fun at one of the candidates who answered a question from the public. Why should he even comment? All he wants people to be aware of is “What I have achieved.” Accusing a candidate of finding a way to capture the attention of the electorate was very uncalled for. At least that candidate is sincere, not phony like Huether. Take your “big shot” accomplishments home and live with them. We elect the council members, so what gives Huether the right to make our decisions, ignoring their opinions? He also chose the out-of-state ambulance service. I hope he doesn’t have a need in his family and need to wait 45 minutes to one hour, like some people have. One man had to take his wife to Acute Care, as no ambulance ever came. Sound like a proper response to you? Not to me. He probably would get special attention that we average folks can’t get. Highly disgusted with him.

She missed a couple of things, but I do agree with her ending. It has been truly disgusting.

*For the record I have no idea who the person was that wrote this letter.