Greg Jamison to host a town hall on November 24 at Sioux Falls Downtown Library
l3wis 
This is NOT a political announcement, it is a community conversation about the upcoming legislative session and Sioux Falls’ concerns.
Greg Jamison
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?
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
Christine Erickson
David ZoKaites
Elections
Greg Jamison
Jamie Smith
Joe Batcheller
Sioux Falls
Joe Batcheller announces bid for Sioux Falls mayor
We knew Joe was running, and as I have mentioned in the past he has the best resume. I have been telling folks lately though I am seriously looking at ALL of the mayoral candidates since they all have great qualities to be mayor, they also have their faults, but it will be interesting to see who will rise above those obstacles.
Erickson no doubt is the favorite, mainly for her exuberate personality, and this will be a hard to combat. Also, with likely being the ONLY woman running, she may garner a lot of female support. I did hear her on a podcast recently and she leans MAGA and seems to be supporting deportation efforts in Sioux Falls. If she continues the ‘Trump Talk’ I’m not sure this helps her, except amongst those mouth breathers, and when you are campaigning to 7% of the voting public in Sux, it’s wise to stay on a clear message.
I have no doubt if Jamison decides to run, he will have a polished campaign that is consistent on policy ideas, I also have NO doubt Joe will do the same. Couldn’t tell you much about the Smith campaign since it seems their strategy so far is let’s keep it a secret he is running and when individuals reach out to you for help or promotion you just ignore them. If I had a dollar for every DEM that told me about the unresponsiveness of his campaign, I could fund his campaign. Not a good look. I do like Jamie though and believe he would be the most populist candidate wanting to get things done for the citizens and not just for the Developer Welfare Queens (though working in Real Estate may present conflicts). Also, his unresponsiveness may be a sign of how he will do as a mayor.
If any of the candidates tell me they will end TIFs in this city (or at least make them only for affordable housing) I would support the candidate, hands down. TIFs are straddling our city with uncontrollable infrastructure needs and no way to pay for them. It also hurts our county and school district with property tax dollars they have to make up for from the state (which withholds crucial funding). I think if there is a candidate that addresses property taxes and TIFs they will have a good chance of winning. In fact, if any of the candidates running put property taxes as part of their campaign agenda they would at least get people interested in your other campaign promises.
This next city election will be about the economy, hands down, and by election time next year, it will likely be in the toilet. The candidates will need to talk about kitchen table ideas, because swimming pools and event centers are a thing of the past.
A couple of ‘NON-CRAZY’ SD Legislators weigh in on the session
It was refreshing to hear a Republican and Democrat share their feelings on the upcoming session. Notice they both have reasonable answers to the problems we face and how those opinions are pretty similar. I have argued for a long time that Sioux Falls is somewhat an oasis from the rest of the state, dare I say even cosmopolitan when compared to other districts. It’s just too bad our city government can’t stop acting like lazy cavemen.
Christine Erickson
Elections
Greg Jamison
Greg Neitzert
Mayor TenHaken
Mike Huether
Paul Ten Haken
SF City Council
Sioux Falls
Theresa Stehly
UPDATE: Will TenHaken run for Re-election as Sioux Falls mayor?
UPDATE: A South DaCola foot soldier told me today that they heard an interview where Paul said he intends to run for a 2nd term as long as his COS, Erica Beck, is on board and she said she would stay on. I had to chuckle a bit, because Paul has to keep her on board if he serves a 2nd term, because she is the one running the city.
With about a year away from the 2022 municipal elections I’m sure most people have other things on their mind. For instance, Curt Soehl is also up for re-election as the Central District councilor, but he doesn’t have to announce for awhile, and I think that race will be quite crowded.
It seems strange to me that Paul hasn’t said one way or another if he is running again. He wouldn’t need some big news conference, just a simple press release saying he will or will not run again. At the very least, just to raise money.
If I was a betting man, my guess is that he will seek a 2nd term AND will beat his closest competitor in a landslide. I also think Paul knows the job is gravy train, that is why he pays his COS $177K a year to run the city for him while he makes supposed side developer deals with inside information. It’s win-win for everyone.
If he decides to NOT run again, my guess is there would be a long list of people that would think about running like Huether, Erickson, Neitzert, Jamison and Stehly.
If Paul does announce he is running I’m not sure if he will have any serious contenders, and it will sure be fun watching him debate David Z.