South DaCola

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Mayor High Crimes

Mayor High Crimes Mayor Hubris Mayor Subprime Mike Huether Mike Huether Sioux Falls

Mayor’s Biggest Accomplishment? Spreading Confidence?

l3wis 6Comments

I still am trying to figure out how this trickles down on to citizens?

Q: What are you most proud of as mayor of Sioux Falls?

A: It is all about confidence whether it be a sporting event, running a business or nonprofit or running a city. One of the things I’m incredibly proud of in Sioux Falls is our confidence level is as high as it’s ever been and we don’t believe there’s anything we can’t tackle as a city. We are kicking tail and getting things done in government in Sioux Falls.

Maybe he ought to hand some of that high level of confidence over to the SFPD so they can ‘tackle’ our out of control drug and violent crime problem. Or maybe he needs to hand some of that confidence over to employers so they can start paying living wages so that our food banks don’t keep growing.

How would I have answered that question? I would have said “Our Citizens, I’m most proud of our citizens.” But as Mike recently said in a meeting with other city officials, “We didn’t need them (citizens) to weigh in. We got it handled.”

Mayor High Crimes Mayor Hubris Mayor Subprime Mike Huether Mike Huether US House

Did Mayor Huether really drop the ‘H’ word?

l3wis 8Comments

38eb450129d3619fb5a826b697dca23c

House! House! House!

Rumor has it that Mike recently dropped the ‘H’ word (House) when asked if he was running for governor. I guess he almost jumped out of his chair to point out he was interested in the seat. Now that he has maxed out our city’s credit card, I wonder when he will announce he is running for Congress or if all we will hear is ‘Aflac’!

Elections Kristi Noem Mayor High Crimes Mayor Hubris Mayor Subprime Mike Huether Mike Huether Sioux Falls

UPDATE: Will Huether run for US Congress? Will Dusty Johnson challenge him?

l3wis 12Comments

After Noemless announced just minutes ago that she will run for governor, does this mean Mayor Huether will decide to run for congress? Not sure, but let’s setup the scenario. Though the 2018 race for governor won’t have an incumbent challenger, the Dems have had zero luck for almost 40 years taking that seat. Take also into account that Kristi is very, very, very popular. I am even guessing that Jackley will back out so Noem doesn’t have a Republican challenger in the primary, or some crazy weak teabagger. I also speculated days ago she would be running after Mark bowed out.

What is unfortunate is that Noem will spend the next two years running for governor instead of being a congress person, but that’s not all so bad. She can’t take her fortune from her congressional campaign purse to use for the governor’s race, so she will have to run from scratch;

Although she didn’t say it, Noem’s decision to run for governor was forced by a ballot issue that voters approved last week. Initiated Measure 22, which becomes law on Wednesday, contains a provision barring candidates for governor from collecting more than $4,000 a year from any person or political committee.

Once effective, the language would mean that Noem couldn’t transfer more than $4,000 from her congressional campaign account to an account for a governor’s run. Under current law, federal office holders can transfer all of their money into a state account.

For Noem, that would mean forfeiting a huge advantage: Prior to Tuesday’s election, her congressional campaign was reporting nearly $1.9 million in the bank, an amount that would make her a formidable candidate in the Republican primary.

UPDATE: Now let’s move to Mr. Huether. He is a determined man who likes to win, but like running for mayor instead of governor to begin with, he took the path of least resistance. Congress would be that path, maybe. I do know that there has been a strong desire for Dusty Johnson to throw his hat in the ring. A Johnson vs. Huether matchup would be interesting to watch, they have many similarities when it comes to campaigning. South Dakotans, while they lean pretty much right, they do elect moderate Democrats to Washington, Huether could easily sell himself that way with no incumbent to run against. Not to mention, he would love Washington. I have often contended that he really doesn’t like Sioux Falls because he has been so persistent to change it into other places like San Antonio.

If I was advising Huether I would recommend he run for congress instead of governor, but hey when you have a bucket list, you have a bucket list. But Noem would cream him.

I will say this though, no matter what he decides, don’t under estimate him, because that is when he bites you in the ass.

Mayor High Crimes Mayor Hubris Mayor Subprime Mike Huether Mike Huether Sioux Falls Trump

Is Mayor Huether Sioux Falls version of Trump?

l3wis 8Comments

trump-mmm

First, I will start by saying people who are upset about the election results to stop crying and get involved on a local level to make change. Change doesn’t come from the top, it starts locally.

I say this because the similarities between Trump and Huether are a bit startling when you start looking at it. Huether became our mayor almost 7 years ago on the promise to run the city like a business and to ‘get things done’. Sounds like a familiar stump speech by Trump.

So how has this business acumen attitude worked out for our city?

• Huether has grown our economy and population

• Huether has grown development (mostly thru annexation and urban sprawl)

• Huether has improved infrastructure and quality of life amenities.

But what has been the cost?

• By the time Huether leaves office, he will have bonded more then any previous mayor, even crushing Munson’s record. We will most likely be a half-billon in debt by the time he leaves office. His total credit card bill during his administration will be well over $200 million in 8 short years. To put that in perspective, when Hanson became mayor our city debt was $90 million, 23 years ago.

• The rapid growth has caused two major problems. Not enough jobs for medium skilled workers and violent crime increase. Huether himself has even blamed rapid growth on the crime increase, so you ask, ‘Why did you promote it, and what are you doing to fix it?’

• Corporate like salary increases for city management and crumbs to support staff.

• Transparency at an all time low. Secret development deals, secret settlements, secret firings, behind the scene bullying and intimidation, and the list goes on.

• Lack of a diversity coordinator. Two people have already stepped down from the position.

So if you think Huether’s business acumen has worked out for the city, you certainly won’t have a problem with how Trump will run our country.

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