South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

September 2025

1st Amendment Christine Erickson David ZoKaites Elections Greg Jamison Joe Batcheller Mike Huether SF City Council Sierra Broussard Sioux Falls Zach DeBoer

Who is all in on City Election?

l3wis 3Comments

That’s a great question, we are still slow to have a full docket with NO ONE yet announcing for the SE District (Barranco is NOT running for a 2nd term as he is running for State Auditor instead).

AT-Large; Rich Merkouris will likely run for a 2nd term. No challengers have announced yet.

AT-Large; Cole is NOT running for a 2nd term and is actually unethically chairing a replacement candidate’s campaign, whose name we will not speak. No other challengers have announced.

Central; This is my district and I am excited to say there are a full slate of candidates;

Zak Okuwe (Nurse, Non-Profit founder, immigrant activist)

Thomas Werner

Matt McKinley (landlord)

Sierra Broussard (she may run for at-large)

Bob Trzynka (attorney)

Zach DeBoer (hasn’t announced yet) (artist)

Mayor;

Mike Huether (Maybe)

Marshall ‘Illegally living out of district’ Selberg (Big f’ing Maybe)

Greg Jamison (Maybe)

Christine Erickson

Jamie Smith

Joe Batcheller

David Zoikaites

I think Erickson will make the runoff no matter who runs, BUT, I couldn’t tell you who will be up against her since half of the challengers could do it. Some argue it will be Erickson vs. Smith because it will be the conservative candidate vs. the progressive candidate and they will be the top two vote getters since we are a purple town, or at least 7% of us are 🙁 I’m not buying it because I think Jamison and Batcheller have Smith beat on city government knowledge and there may still be some morons out there that think MMM is still great, so yes, he has a chance of being in the runoff 🙁

1st Amendment Elections Mayor TenHaken Sioux Falls

Local Government participation has been bad for decades

l3wis 5Comments

Well, it only took a few days, but a local politician had to go there;

“We are finding it very hard to get people who want to put their hand in the air and serve,” TenHaken said. “Who would want to serve? Who would want to step up and lead, especially when you see things like what happened in the last 24 hours? Who would want to be bold and be a leader? And what that’s creating is a big leadership gap that we have right now.”

Participation by young folks in local politics has been bad for decades and I am not sure what the answer is. I know that trying to eliminate the city workforce of anyone over 50 in the union ranks may not be the best approach, or trying to compare the recent murder of a political activist as to why people shy away from local politics, or maybe it is because we have a closed government that can’t even be transparent about a mural!

I have ran many campaigns for council, some Repugs, some Dems, each election cycle presents new challenges as to WHO is paying attention and how to reach out to those folks. If there is one constant in political races, it is constant change and you need to adapt. I don’t think young people are as concerned about their safety as older people are at political events. I think what keeps participation low in local government is our low unemployment rate. Why do we have such a low rate? Because most people have 2-3 jobs to make ends meet, and when you are constantly working, you don’t have time for much else, and in your free time, it is highly unlikely you will be watching city council meetings or attending a protest. Because as a right to work state with little rights to organize for better wages and a terrible social safety net from the state, people are forced to work whether it is good for them or not.

Local government participation is low, that has been obvious for decades, but I’m not sure recent events sparked this disinterest, this cake has been baking for quite awhile, and Poops is one of the original chefs.

1st Amendment Denny Sanford Premier Center Sioux Falls

Do you think the Denty is UGLY? You are not the only one.

l3wis 8Comments

Had to laugh when I read this;

However, that didn’t prevent two buildings on opposite ends of the state from being included on a list of the 100 “ugliest” public buildings in the country.

One of the buildings is The Denty. It ranked 93rd. To watch more videos of how we got this ugly tin can, go HERE. I still believe if we went with the original plan of hexagonal panels it would have looked better and been constructed better!

1st Amendment Elections SF City Council Sioux Falls Zak Okuwe

Imagine my surprise, Zak Okuwe

l3wis 2Comments

(Image: Facebook)

A few weeks ago I was leaving the Jones building and the gentleman pictured above approached me; “Mr. Southdacola how are you?” I replied, as I always do when strangers approach me about the blog, “How is your day?” He did not tell me his name but did say he was a nurse and started a NON-PROFIT;

We had a short but engaging conversation about city hall leadership and how our local elected officials lack the knowledge and leadership experience to be effective (I said this, he just listened).

I enjoyed talking to him and glad to see he announced today he is running for Central District city council. Only one piece of advice, when introducing yourself to strangers, especially if you are running for office, tell them your name 🙂

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