Peter Norbeck, Father of Mount Rushmore derisively likened to professional politician by unprofessional politician.

Apparently, South Dakota’s first native-born Governor and the man who inspired Custer State Park, Norbeck Wildlife Preserve and Mount Rushmore National Memorial accomplished too much for South Dakota for one politician’s taste, according to the debate over Senate Bill 204. 

What was the problem? Apparently State Senator Jim Bolin tried to honor Norbeck with a kind gesture by naming a day in his honor. From the Watertown Public Opinion:

Bolin called Norbeck “probably the most important political figure in our state in the first 50 years of our history.”

Angry Stace Nelsonand…

The only opponent to speak against Peter Norbeck Day was Sen. Stace Nelson, R-Fulton. “I’m sure the career politician was a fine gentleman,” Nelson said.

Read it here.

Well, just darn that Senator Bolin for trying to honor a well digger and farmer who did all that stuff for South Dakota with a day in his honor.

Somehow, I don’t think they’ll be naming anything for Senator Nelson anytime soon.

Update… THAT was fast!

Attorney General Candidate Unveils Immigration Initiative

Attorney General Candidate Unveils Immigration Initiative

ABERDEEN, SD (February 14, 2018) – Senator Lance Russell, South Dakota Attorney General candidate, will hold a press conference at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites in Aberdeen at 10 a.m. (CST) Friday, February 16, to unveil his recent Immigration Enforcement Bill, SB 193.  This legislation will prohibit “sanctuary cities” and “sanctuary campuses,”  and will be heard in the Senate Judiciary Committee this coming Tuesday at 8 a.m. Senator Russell will also be unveiling his Immigration Plan as a South Dakota Attorney General candidate to address the ongoing issues of illegal immigration within the state.

This conference comes two days after the one-year anniversary of the passage of a “sanctuary campus” resolution by the University of South Dakota’s Student Government Association, passed on February 14, 2017. Senator Russell’s Immigration Enforcement Bill would make such actions illegal within South Dakota. It would also provide relief for South Dakota cities suffering the ravages of having law-breakers invited into the state.

WHAT:           Attorney General Candidate Russell’s Immigration Initiative
WHO:             Senator and Attorney General Candidate Lance Russel
WHEN:           February 16, 2018, 10 A.M. (CST)
WHERE:         Holiday Inn Express & Suites, 3310 7th Avenue SE, Aberdeen, SD 57401

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KELO Radio: Legislator shares racy joke on Facebook. (Update – Notes wasn’t of his doing)

From KELO Radio:

A Rapid City state representative shared a photo of a woman with a plunging neckline along with a joke about the size of a woman’s breasts on his personal Facebook page.

and..

Here is a link to Goodwin’s Facebook page. Here is the link to the post he shared on his own page, which has been removed. Here  is the link to the original post he shared.

and…

Last month many—but not all–legislators and their staffs attended sexual harassment training in Pierre. The training was not mandatory.

Read it here.

Update….  Representative Goodwin notes that the post was not of his doing, according to the associated press:

Republican Representative Tim Goodwin of Rapid City says he was in “shock” when he saw the post and had to get a legislative page to take it down when he found out about it Wednesday. Goodwin says he did not post it.

and…

Goodwin tells The Associated Press he has a “crystal clean record of respecting the other sex” and would never post something “off-color.”

Read that here.

Release: Marsy’s Law Compromise Achieved

Marsy’s Law Compromise Achieved

Legislators, Law Enforcement, Victims, and Advocates come together to support commonsense clarification of Marsy’s Law

Pierre, S.D. – Today, Marsy’s Law for South Dakota and South Dakota Speaker of the House Mark Mickelson announced that an agreement has been reached to advance a commonsense clarification to the Marsy’s Law Amendment that overwhelmingly passed in 2016.

“Everyone wanted to protect enforceable, constitutional rights for crime victims and the will of the voters. We identified some enforcement, implementation, and interpretation issues that required all parties to come together to find a workable solution”, said Speaker Mark Mickelson. “I applaud the Marsy’s Law organization, victims’ rights community, states attorneys, and law enforcement involved in forging this solution. South Dakota will be better off because of this collaboration.”

States Attorneys, Sheriffs, Speaker Mickelson, and the Marsy’s Law organization have been working to clarify some unintended consequences of the measure. The Speaker will introduce new language this week that clarifies how law enforcement can share information, encourages teamwork to solve cases, and creates an opt-in process to help victims and law enforcement achieve the goals of Marsy’s Law.

“We appreciate Speaker Mickelson, states attorneys, local law enforcement, and the statewide victim advocacy coalition coming together to turn challenges into solutions,” said Erinn Mahathey. “The Marsy’s Law organization is committed to equal level, enforceable constitutional rights for victims of crime. Once we identified that everyone shared a commitment to enforceable constitutional rights, we quickly found out that we also shared the same desire to make this as efficient as possible for law enforcement, the legal community and, most of all, victims of crime.”

The amendment, which will be introduced by Speaker Mickelson and Senator Jim Bolin, protects every constitutional right passed by South Dakota voters in 2016 while adding in new clarification language to ensure the rights can be carried out efficiently by South Dakota Law Enforcement.

“We work hard for victims of crime and we had some real concerns about our ability to implement what the voters had passed,” said Mark Vargo, Pennington County States Attorney. “This collaborative process maintains the rights voters approved while providing clarity and guidance for law enforcement and states attorneys. This is a victory for our state and I’m grateful for the hard work so many people put in to achieve this agreement.” Pennington County Sheriff, Kevin Thom stated, “We owe it to victims of crime to provide services in the most effective way possible and these changes enable us to better do so.”

Krista Heeren-Graber, Director of SD Network Against Family Violence and Sexual Assault said, “I understood and appreciated the concerns of law enforcement so we all worked together to come to a solution that works for South Dakota. I couldn’t be more proud that South Dakota will continue to have equal, constitutional rights for victims of crime and the confidence that we’ve done it in a way that has removed any concerns or clarification necessary for enforcement.”

The clarification amendment will need to pass both legislative chambers before moving to the June ballot for a vote of the people.  The Marsy’s Law for South Dakota organization, Speaker Mickelson, and other legislative leaders, states attorneys, and victim advocacy organizations have all agreed to work together to educate the public about the changes and advocate for a ‘yes’ vote.

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KELO Radio – New Poll shows Jackley & Noem neck in neck

From KELO Radio, a new poll was announced that shows Republican Gubernatorial contenders Marty Jackley & Kristi Noem competing within the poll’s margin of error:

The poll by Moore Information has Noem at 40 percent; Jackley at 35 percent; former legislator Lora Hubbel at 5 percent, and Dr. Terry La Fleur at 2 percent.

18 percent are undecided.

The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus of 6 percent and polled 300 likely Republican voters.

Read it all here.

SDGOP Exec Board issues Legislative Action Alert activating party to call legislators and ask them to vote against House Bill 1259

As promised in an earlier e-mail, the South Dakota Republican Party weighed in on House Bill 1259, and is asking it’s vast membership to contact members of the House State Affairs Committee to request a NO vote on House Bill 1259:

The Republican Party’s position against House Bill 1259 is based on the fact it will make these campaigns longer, more expensive, and less accessible to average South Dakotans.

And they’re correct, when you think about the Democrat’s difficulty recruiting candidates, and the fact that Libertarians would probably sue the state over this, since there would be less ballot accessibility for them.

Watch for the vote at 3:30 tomorrow.

New candidates popping up for Legislature. R’s in D1 House, and D24 House.

There’s are new candidates popping up for the State Legislature in recent days, through both filing candidate petitions with the Secretary of State’s office, as well as through filing their intent in campaign finance filings and other places.

In District 1, Republican Tamara St. John of Sisseton has announced she’s running for the State House. She’s running in heavy Dem territory. (Some might be familiar with her son, Tyler Tordsen, who is on US Senator Mike Rounds’ staff.)  I hear Republicans might fill both House seats in D1.

In District 9, Democrat Antoinette Miller filed her intent to run for the House back in October, but hasn’t really said much about it to date.  Keep watching.

Democrat, Sheryl L. Johnson of Sioux Falls, filed yesterday to run in the District 11 House race.

Democrat Kelly Sullivan of Sioux Falls has filed campaign finance paperwork to run for the House in District 13.

Yankton attorney Ryan Cwach has filed campaign finance papers to run for the House in District 18.  Voter records show him to be a Democrat.

In the State Capitol’s home district of 24, Roxanne Weber has filed campaign finance paperwork to run for the State House.

Current registration shows her registered as a Republican, although she calls herself “a lifelong progressive thinker.” Her entrance into the race would trigger a primary election against Tim Rounds and Mary Duvall if both of them intend to run.

Her Facebook page does note that she’s a state employee with BIT. I’m not sure how that’s going to work with the prohibition on state employees serving, the Hatch act (if her agency receives federal funds), etc, but that’s what it says.

Stay tuned.

Brookings School Board votes to approve sending MASSIVE 675% property tax increase to voters on April 10th

Good gosh.  The Brookings School Board voted last night to increase property taxes on the school’s property tax levy from 34 cents per $1,000 in valuation to $2.295 per $1,000. An increase of literally $1.955 per thousand or a 675% increase:

Brookings voters will get to decide on April 10 the fate of a $5.1 million annual opt out that would last for 10 years.

The opt out was approved by the Brookings School Board Monday night on a 4-1 vote after considering several different options that would have put the opt out amount at different totals and fund different levels of district priorities.

As Brookings Superintendent Klint Willert put it in describing the district’s situation, the challenge is closing the gap between limited resources and the needs and wants of students, staff and the district.

and..

Option 3.1 is a variation of No. 3 that puts a heavier emphasis on reducing class sizes and providing staff development enhancements. That opt out would come to $5,060,118.

The main difference between this and the third option, as pointed out by Willert, is “the 20 students per core classroom, which would add a total of 32 staff members to the district, 32 FTEs. Again, this is an anticipated number, a projected number based on current enrollments.”

This would increase the tax levy from 34 cents per $1,000 in valuation to $2.295 per $1,000.

and..

The vote to put the $5.1 million annual opt out on the April 10 ballot was approved by the board 4-1, with Fishback voting against.

Read it here.

I’m betting that’s not going to go well.