Apparently the city of Sioux Falls didn’t have Booze Cart Fridays

It seemed everywhere you looked in 2019 in Sioux Falls (and in South Dakota) there were quitters. Whether that was several restaurants closing or the proposed closure of the Sioux Falls Canaries Stadium and Arena, it was the year of the quitter.

Let’s look at some of our local government quitters.

First, on a state level, Stace Nelson threw in the towel due to a combination of health issues and the corruption. Noem’s staff has been quitting at a breakneck speed. You can tell why she is so proud of her relationship with Donald Trump because they are cut from the same cloth. Do and say stupid things and your staff quits. Go figure.

In Sioux Falls we had some communication issues. Mostly with Mayor TenHaken not figuring out how to communicate with the public or the media. His police chief also has that issue (unless he needs to implement a fee on non-profits for festivals). Speaking of that, apparently the city is no longer going to assist with these festivals for free. More quitters.

Mayor Paul has also quit plowing the streets as much and ‘tried’ to quit using city employees for storm cleanup (but perfectly okay to pay them to put up Christmas lights at Falls Park).

We also can’t forget who has personally quit this year, with little rhyme or reason. Paula Hawks (Dem Chair), Aaron McGowan (State’s Attorney), Jason Reisdorfer (Innovative Drinker), and Brian Maher (SFSD Super). Heck even Marty Jackley quit his private law practice (oh and he quit his marriage to);

On October 18, 2019, Marty and Angela were divorced citing irreconcilable differences.

This is why I am flagging 2019 as the year of the quitter. Now if we can just get our president to quit. Come on Donnie, you only have a couple more hours – do the right thing.

We are all screaming for ice cream. Made with hemp of course.

I guess I could go on and on about Trump. But I won’t. Let’s focus on Sioux Falls and South Dakota.

Aaron McGowan takes the prize locally. The fiasco he has left Minnehaha County is embarrassing. What is even more embarrassing is the lack of intervention by the commission until it was too late. I’m not sure if I am so disappointed in him as I am with the commission and lack of general oversight.

In second is Paula Hawks who fought tooth and nail to become the chair of the SD Democratic Party only to resign a few months later because she didn’t cash a couple of checks laying in some desk drawers. I have a feeling we will be hearing from Paula in 2020. Pray for her, but more importantly, pray for the Democratic Party.

The number one prize goes to Kristi Noem, who has embarrassed female politicians across the state as the first female governor. She has confused industrial ag products with drugs. She has made a mockery of drug policy in the state. She has zero comprehension of the 1st amendment and 2nd amendment. She has taken nepotism to a new level. She has taken a dump on public education. And she has done it all with a wink and a smile. She is truly disgusting on soooooo many levels. She has shown to be one of the hugest failures in local government in 2019, and the Snow Queen rodeo star’s reign is not over. Screw impeaching Trump, we should be impeaching our governor. 

And you thought Janklow sucked!

Honorable Mentions;

• Minnehaha County Commission (Beating up on the treasurer over monthly reports while the State’s Attorney was absent).

• Paul TenHaken. For a guy who used to run a communications company, he struggles with communicating.

• Dan Lederman, the GOP Party chair. Besides the fact that he does his business in Iowa, he is paid to be a lobbyist for the Islamic Saudi government. He also had very little to do with Representative Saba (a Democrat) bringing in a trade deal with the Egyptians, and had zero to say about it.

• Greg Neitzert. His rage and anger for Stehly is overwhelming. He makes Rick Kiley look like a pussy cat and Curt Soehl look like Rhodes Scholar. I don’t think dunking him in a 55 gallon drum of hand sanitizer could help.

She sent out this email this afternoon;

Good evening members of the South Dakota Democratic

Party State Central Committee,

I am Paula Hawks, former state legislator from District 9 (Hartford) and 2016 Congressional candidate for the South Dakota Democratic Party.  In response to Rachelle Norberg’s call for prospective party chair candidates, I am writing to you today to let you know why I am throwing my hat into the State Chair race.  Having run a few campaigns and won a couple I have some insight into what needs to be happening for Democratic candidates in South Dakota to be successful. A thoughtful, comprehensive strategy for long-term party development is necessary and must be developed as soon as possible. It takes a lot of dedicated, passionate people willing to step up and put their money, and their time, where their mouths are and then show results. This can only happen with leadership that is capable of unifying multiple factions within the party. I believe I can provide that leadership.

We haven’t seen a strategic plan from the state office telling us what the plan is for the next five years, the next year, or even the next six months. From a business perspective, this is unacceptable. I have had the privilege of being a high school teacher, a training professional and a talent recruiting specialist. Not once did I work for a company that did not have a short- and long-term strategic plan in place. Once you have the strategic plan in place, you have to have the capital to make it happen, and the leadership capability to execute it across the state. Our fundraising efforts have been lackluster and have not been meeting the needs of a major political party working to ensure the election of progressive candidates across the state. Listening sessions are great, but only if some action comes about as a result of what is heard. We need to take that data, analyze it, determine what it means for the mission of the SDDP, and then involve our leaders to develop our strategic plan around it.

This is what I intend to do if elected to the Chairmanship of the SDDP:

  1. Capitalize on the opportunities being handed to us by the massive numbers of people taking action through the many resistance groups forming across the state:  LEAD, Progress SD, South Dakota Forward, Pantsuit Nation…There are more people than ever who want to be involved and are looking for a way to move ideas forward rather than sitting in a dark room complaining. The listening sessions left people feeling like they weren’t really heard, and so they are finding other ways to be engaged and active in creating progress. Let’s engage these groups as partners!
  2. I will work to reinforce the existing relationships I have with media outlets in South Dakota, so that when we give them our message, they report it.  I will work to craft a consistent, clear message about the intent and goal of the Democratic Party and I will make it a priority to keep that message in front of statewide media outlets. We have to hold the media accountable for reporting the news from more than one angle. Lopsided news reports are doing us no favors–our media outreach must work to promote the actions of Democrats around the state, AND holds Republicans and Democrats alike accountable.
  3. The wait-and-see strategy that is occurring now isn’t working – we can’t wait for the reporters to come to us – we have to go to them and keep the lines of communication open.
  4. I will vigorously pursue the formulation and dissemination of a strategic plan of action. Within 30 days of my election, I will have called together the Executive Board of the South Dakota Democratic Party to create this document, which will provide a roadmap for communicating a progressive message, engaging voters and citizens at the grassroots level. This cannot be one person’s idea of what needs to be emphasized and executed, but the coming together of the elected leadership of every part of the state. The needs and desires of the southeast part of the state are different from those of the western part of the state and the northeast and central parts of the state.  We must focus all of those priorities and bring about a centralized message that identifies the mission of the South Dakota Democratic Party.
  5. I will expand fundraising efforts and make them a much larger priority.  The money is out there – we just have to get people to take it out of their pockets by showing them we have a plan that can work!  There is no excuse for the chair of the party to be spending tens of thousands of dollars of personal money to fund the state party instead of fundraising from partners that grow our influence.  We must focus on finding new ways to engage people that sparks their passion for supporting their party.  We do this by hosting events more often than twice a year and in more locations than just Sioux Falls and Rapid City.  Engaged people will support the party with their money, and when people make that kind of investment, they tend to be more engaged!  This is a positive loop of support and involvement.

These are the things I intend to do to lead this party into the progressive future we all want, while building a sustainable, connected Democratic Party that responds to the needs of all South Dakotans.  We want to move South Dakota forward. We have waited too long, hoping that a plan will emerge, that action will be taken.  Enough waiting, we need to start this YESTERDAY!

We have an incredible opportunity right now to build a strong team in the state party office: we have an empty executive director seat.  I will not go into this decision lightly or with preconceived notions of who I think will do the best job.  Again, this is not a decision to be made by one person, but by the leadership of the state party.  We also cannot wait to make this decision. We need an ED in place to start building momentum for the next election cycle and to start executing the strategic plan as soon as it is drafted and approved.

We need a polished approach of strategy and tactics combined.  This means not just ideas, but action steps to make those ideas happen.  These are things we can do, this is what we must do, and this is what I will do if elected to be the chair.  The buck stops with the Chair of the Party and our current state of affairs stops with our current chair.  It’s time for a change.

Thank you,

Paula