Category: Chris Martian

Congressional Candidate Disclosures being filed with the Clerk of the US House.

Pat Powers

Congressional Candidate Financial Disclosure reports are starting to trickle in from the candidates actively pursing South Dakota’s Congressional seat being vacated by Congresswoman Kristi Noem, as she looks towards the Governorship of the state of South Dakota.

Former PUC Commissioner & Republican Candidate Dusty Johnson’s report provides the most information, and also makes very clear the fact that his wife is part of a financial advising firm:

Dusty Disclosure by Pat Powers on Scribd

We have to wait for Secretary of State Shantel Krebs’ report, as she has taken a momentary bye, and asked for a 30 day extension at the time of her filing due date. So we won’t know where her report sits for at least another couple of weeks:

Our foul-mouthed Democrat friend Chris Martian who is running for Congress has his report in… for what it’s worth. For lack of a better term, It’s what we might call a “Chad Haber-ian” campaign finance report, with no reported income or assets.

Stay Tuned for more.

Apparently, major candidate announcements are not a biggie for the SDDP

Pat Powers

Today, the Democrats had their first big candidate announcement for the 2018 cycle (not withstanding Chris Martian, who is likely not going anywhere).

So, what do we hear from the South Dakota Democrat Party?

Nothing on their website. Nothing on Facebook. Nothing on Twitter. You’d hardly think there’s a political party there anymore.

(So far, so good, keeping Ann Tornberg in there.)

Billie might not be Dem’s Hero. Are Dems trying to push a couple of reluctant candidates forward?

Pat Powers

Did you notice how Democrat State Senator Billie Sutton, who was said to be planning to announce that he was going to be running for Governor at the Democrat’s McGovern Day Dinner, didn’t?

While Sutton spoke at the event, he held back from letting Democrats know they had a candidate, even after supposedly poaching the party’s Executive Director for his effort, leaving an already chaotic mess in further disarray.

Here’s where we get into the rumor mill – What I’m hearing on the street is that Sutton is getting somewhat contradictory advice in the matter. Some are urging him to proudly carry the banner for the beleaguered SDDP, and try to show that they are able to produce a viable candidate after their last disaster of the inept Susan Wismer helping along Republicans to one of their biggest victories ever in a gubernatorial contest.

But not so fast… I’m also hearing that Sutton is being counseled and pulled the other way… to NOT run, recognizing that whether it’s Kristi Noem or Marty Jackley leading the party in 2018, it is not a race he wants to take on, especially given the disorganized mess the Democrat Party is in.   Let’s face it. It’s not as if Ann Tornberg had a good year in 2016, and the Democrat party is even further fractured after the debacle of the recently attempted and failed Ann Tornberg coup.

What might be further driving it is that the rest of their ticket isn’t in such good shape. While Republicans have competitive races for many seats, all the Dems have is the foul-mouthed Chris Martian running for Congress on the Dem ticket. The unemployed IT professional isn’t exactly known among dems, nor does he seem to have the financial wherewithal to raise dollars for a congressional race. Martian isn’t their favorite at this time.

Plus, they may be ignoring him because State Dems know there’s someone better in the wings, and they don’t want to waste time with someone out of nowhere.

It has been rumored that Senate Democrat Assistant Minority Leader Troy Heinert may be weighing entering the Congressional contest. The well spoken Heinert would certainly electrify Democrats more than a profane and crass Martian, but South Dakota is still a Republican state, and the hill to climb might be impossible to navigate.  Heinert might be well spoken, but he is most definitely in the hard D column, and would be campaigning on a pretty liberal voting record that might be hard for many South Dakotans to swallow.

Further driving Dem reluctance is that if both Heinert and Sutton ran and lost, that could take a large and significant bite out of Democrat Leadership, with two of their most capable spokesmen out of the legislature for two years.

So, will Billie be dem’s hero? Hard to say at this point. But the clock is ticking down to get a campaign underway. For both he and/or Heinert.

Dem Congressional candidate gaining critics, and already promising to abandon race.

Pat Powers

The signs should be obvious to many when we’re looking at a candidacy from a Democrat who is running for Congress. Because inevitably, they just come off as a slow moving train wreck.

We saw it with Corinna Robinson, who chewed through gaffe-proned campaign managers like they were bubble gum. We had it with the Paula Hawks campaign, which the Argus editor at the time termed “amateur hour.”

And so far this election, we get to see it again and again, day by day, with the Dem’s potty-mouthed Congressional Candidate Chris Martian’s response as he responds to a potential voter pointing out that blasting out profanity-laden tweets at elected officials might not be the way to gain voter’s trust:

And it instantly got hilarious as Martian points out that if Democrats don’t like his profanity laden tweets “then run somebody else, I have no problem stepping down if a better candidate surfaces.”

So, the SDDP’s candidate is already announcing to potential voters and the people he is soliciting money from to run for office that – more than a year before the election – he’s prepared to abandon the congressional race at the drop of a hat?

What was I saying about slow-moving train wrecks?

Potty-mouthed Democrat Congressional Candidate Chris Martian is at it again

Pat Powers

Someone is an angry democrat political wannabe. Again.

Democrat Congressional Candidate Chris Martian is back at it, showing South Dakotans the kind of decorum and spirit of compromise that he hopes to bring to Washington:

Wow. He’s about the angriest stay at home dad we’ve ever seen. Wasn’t he just saying last week he wants to find “common ground” to build “something great?” Maybe that was one of his other personalities.

Potty Mouthed Dem Candidate for Congress Chris Martian now tries to be a centrist.

Pat Powers

I was checking Twitter this evening, and I was treated to a tweet that posted to me that came off as a little bizarre, considering the source. Democrat Congressional candidate Chris Martian had an odd reaction to my story on journalist Todd Epp’s assessments of  the two political rallies yesterday.

Apparently, I must have been sowing unnecessary division by pointing out someone’s thoughts, because it started a diatribe from the Democrat Candidate, trying to find middle ground to “build something great.”

Um, hello? Is this the same Chris Martian who introduced himself to the state earlier through twitter?

I think it went something like this from the person who is trying to portray himself as a centrist….

It looks like Chris Martian is trying rewrite the angry, venom filled narrative he’s been casting about on

Republicans make me very angry!

social media which is replete with hate and cursing.  In fact, if we go to his facebook page where he had been spewing a lot of this, the former center of Republican hate coming from the Democrat Congressional Candidate has now been locked down from public view.

Locked down, as in he doesn’t want people to see all his hate and trolling? Yep.

So we have a Democrat political wannabe who hates Republicans with as much fervor as a masked Berkley College antifa protester who at the same time is trying to claim some sort of middle ground and portray himself as a moderate?

Sorry, but not buying it.  And I don’t imagine South Dakotans will either. (assuming he makes it to the ballot).

A little more on the SDDP’s Congressional Candidate, Chris Martian

Pat Powers

As noted by the FEC filing I posted last night, Democrats have a candidate for Congress in the form of Chris Martian, who is apparently coming out of nowhere to run for federal office. According to his twitter feed…

…. this appears to be the right Chris Martian. But, if we dig a little deeper into his twitter feed to find out who he is, and what he stands for politically, it sort of ends up being a NSFW place where he says the F word a lot, and doesn’t think much of seniors:

I’m not sure what to take from that, other than he apparently thinks retirees should not attend town halls, and the only people who matter live in Rapid City and Sioux Falls. I think Mr. Martian is going to find the election will be a long, long one.

Another quality candidate brought to you by Ann Tornberg’s South Dakota Democrat Party.