The Sioux Falls chapter of Drinking Liberally continues to give us some of the best insight into the workings of the Democrat party that we get in South Dakota.
In their latest post it would not appear that the Democrat faithful are very confident of the party’s ability to produce the candidate promised in the U.S. Senate race:
Faced with their ever increasing voter registration disparity, the South Dakota Democratic Party (SDDP) has been all but silent. The SDDP has not offered a plan to reverse the decline.
And…
The SDDP needs a plan and it needs to act on it soon.
Perhaps we can share voter registration ideas over a shot of Tequila at Drinking Liberally tonight. All of our thoughts will seem brilliant I am sure.
In the meantime we await the promised announcement of a Democratic candidate to challenge John Thune. Time is running short. The time to circulate nominating petitions has arrived.
I’m not holding my breath. Tonight I am drinking to Voter Registration and a plan.
I as a Democrat, I am totally confident we will have a candidate for the US SEN.
In terms of voter registration, VR is extremely important to the vitality of any political party, but I believe our current State Democratic Chair’s emphasis on making sure we will fill our slate, first, is the imperative issue.
If you want the customers to show up at your store you have to have the merchandise and having a full slate of Democratic candidates will turn voters on and not off to the SDDP – thus, making us credible to the voters as a political party to be a part of as a registered voter.
A voter registration plan would and is needed, but that is a building process which must and will continue beyond the realities of 2016, and would best be complemented with a full slate of Democratic candidates in ’16. Especially, if we are going to take the open primary initiative serious and its potential plus or minus impact upon partisan identities in the future into consideration.
For Democrats in South Dakota, it fair to say the smarter strategy is to see the ’16 and ’18 election cycles as part of a greater plan, which a long term voter registration plan can complement.
When the Democrats take over the statehouse in ’18, thanks to this long term strategy, we will have the opportunity to be more than a congressional party for a change. Instead, we will become a full service state party which the customers will like….I mean the voters….
When the Democrats take over the statehouse????
YEAH RIGHT!
2018 brutal Republican gubernatorial primary + Huether’s cash = 2018 Democratic gubernatorial win in South Dakota.
The calculus is very simple. Huether will be the “2002 Mike Rounds” in 2018.
Perhaps a 20 year plan would be a better goal for the state Dems. By then some of the most damaging nutjobs will have passed on, moved to Oregon or finally realized what they are selling no one wants here.
Huether in 2018? He has so much baggage that he simply will not be much of a factor.
Oregon as in Portland since the western part of the state is fairly conservative.
Correction: Eastern side of the state is conservative.
If the Dems become dependent upon a twenty year plan, then we Dems after all of that will merely be nothing but occupiers of the peanut gallery and be forced to watch the Republicans in the state mute into two political parties over time, but too tired as Dems to seize the moment.
Wait a minute, that muting is already beginning based on Lees’s recent commentary or conjecture on Medicaid expansion.
Hey, fellow Democrats! Let us seize this moment of GOP disenchantment and mount an offensive today, instead of in 20 years when we are too tired and just sitting around listening to Nirvana in our retirement years…..
mute? mutate! I don’t want the grammar police going full throttle on me….
haha! 🙂
‘He has so much baggage that he simply will not be much of a factor.’
What kind of baggage? Can you provide examples for those who are curious?
They have a plan—attempt to change the rules with all these crazy ballot measures…they can’t win fairly so they are doing that. Heidelberger openly says so on his blog…how it will help Democrats.
Your two assertions contradict each other. If changing the rules is a relevant point on your part, then would that not help the Democrats?
First Winston if Huether runs I will vote against him as an independent.He is not for the working class, as unlike Herseth turned into a republican and the dems stayed home.Winston you would have a better chance except for that remark about winning the State house not going to happen.
Dems can win on the ballot issue see what Bolin is trying to do with only 50 percent they are nervous as they can’t stop the referendums coming.
Whats not, I heed your concern for the working class, but my pragmatic hat tells me that with a continual Republican dominance in Pierre the working class will never have a chance.
Say what you want about Huether, but your enemies enemies are your friends. I realize a Huether candidacy is dicy for many good Democrats, but it is also a no brainer not to back him as a force to undo the Republican dominance in South Dakota. He has the I.D. and cash too win. Am I playing with fire? Heck yes, but it is worth the shot.
As far as Herseth is concerned. She was exposed as a “Republican” and lost because more liberal Democrats exposed her. The same liberal Democrats who looked the other way as a good Democrat once voted for Kemp-Roth, another good Democrat voted for the Bush tax cuts, and now, I noticed recently, another up and coming Democrat is supporting dynasty trusts. Too many well intended liberals in the South Dakota Democratic party practice what I call “spigot liberalism” – a liberalism which they turn on and off to their advantage and a liberalism you should be as concern about as the “Republican” Democrats who are amongst us.
–but my pragmatic hat tells me that with a continual Republican dominance in Pierre the working class will never have a chance.
The economic evidence tells us otherwise.
In Democrat-controlled states, the working class is being murdered by high taxes and little incentive to innovate or become and entreprenuer.
Thank GOD the Reps. are in control of SD.
Winston, Huether seems to represent the nearly perfect negative stereotype of a politician that could run as a Republican or Democrat as long as they are used and stress the word “used” to propel him to power. Whatever party he would run under he would damage their brand regardless of the money or connections he has.
Promoting Huether and asking voters to look the other way while voting for him is a sign just how desperate the state Democrats are.
But we are “Dunkirk Democrats” and war is hell.
“war is hell.”
Joe Lowe? Their must be others besides Huether. There is no way Huether will win!
In these “Democrat’ic’-controlled states” does it take an “Act of Congress” or should we say an initiative process led by concern citizens to give their working poor a pay raise… I don’t think so.
I also don’t think they have legislatures which slap the will of the people by enacting a lower minimum wage for the working class youth in their states just after the people as a whole had said “Yes” to a better minimum wage for all.
Your comments are demonstrative of the dominant failed “trickled-down” mindset in our state by too many of our political leaders, which is why the rich are not taxed in our state and the workers are not properly paid.
I wonder if that minimum wage increase would have passed if the voters had known there was a built in automatic pay raise tied to the cost of living each and every year. Most voters did not realize that, and most workers in SD do not have an automatic cost of living increase each year.
That’s because most South Dakota workers work without union rights and for stingy employers embolden with the pro business attitude in this state at the expense of the workers and the consumers.
Or it could be they just didn’t read the whole initiative. I know Governor Daugaard a few years ago, after the defeat of his 2012 referendums at the ballot box, blamed his defeats on indifferent voters who were bored with the 2nd page of the ballot instead of his own failed convincing as a leader….
The cost of living increase was clearly stated as part of the initiative process. Why do Republicans doubt the intention of the voters on the minimum wage increase? It is an indication of their attitude toward the working class.
Or maybe, just maybe a understanding of economics. It’s purely inflationary. The minimum wage matters in terms of politics only.
‘… and most workers in SD do not have an automatic cost of living increase each year.’
The lack of an automatic cost of living increase is not specific to just South Dakota. It happens all over the country. And perhaps the world.