Release: Marty Jackley Can Ride a Horse, Shoot a Gun, AND Balance the Budget

Pat Powers

Marty Jackley Can Ride a Horse, Shoot a Gun, AND Balance the Budget

PIERRE, SD: While it’s a good thing to know how to handle a gun or ride a horse, Attorney General Marty Jackley believes South Dakotans are looking for additional qualifications in their new governor.

Over the weekend Congresswoman Kristi Noem released a TV ad asking the question, “I can still ride horse, I can still shoot a gun, so, you know, what else do you need in the state of South Dakota?”

Jackley’s parody response features him in a cowboy hat with a rifle slung over his shoulder.

“Sure, I can ride a horse, and shoot a gun—but unlike my opponent, I can balance a budget, too,” Jackley says.

South Dakota balances its $4.7 billion budget each year, while Congress has nearly doubled the national debt in the last eight years.

The national debt stood at $13.9 trillion the day Noem took office. Today, it stands at more than $21 trillion despite repeated promises to lower the national debt.

77 thoughts on “Release: Marty Jackley Can Ride a Horse, Shoot a Gun, AND Balance the Budget”

    2. I agree- it is like the mic drop of political ads. I still can’t believe Kristi ran that ad and made that stupid comment.

      1. Wow. Great ad.

        Kristi’s ad was juvenile and reality TV like. I want a serious person for governor and she just makes it like it’s a big joke in that ad. I do not care for it.

    2. Looks like his daughter’s horse they keep on their family ranch by Rapid. I know the family- they are great people and I can’t wait to vote for Marty. I love this ad.

        1. Do you also know who taught his daughter how to saddle that horse? I bet it was him.

  3. He’s also the only candidate who can honestly say he’s only ever worn a cowboy hat for campaign ads rather than actual work like the rest of us. I’ll also add the only thing he’s shooting with that gun is this commercial so keep it in your pants. All i see is an actor in a costume, aka a Lawyer running for office.

  4. Marty will you pledge to return the donation you got from the apparently criminal aquaponics company that held a fundraiser for you?

  5. The gun wasn’t actually part of the shoot, they just needed something to stick in his hand to keep him from holding onto the saddlehorn while he played pretend cowboy.

  6. Watch the end…his little smirk at the end, urgh…who is advising him?

    That did not play well with me….I would have liked him to actually shoot the gun when it said so…not I can hold a gun…

  8. So is Marty actually saying he, as one of 435 Members of the House, would singlehandedly overcome the Senate and Barack Obama’s veto?

    Wow maybe he’s running for the wrong office.

    1. He might have at least tried and not just carried water for speaker ryan.

      1. Hey Speaker Ryan’s the guy who put bills on the Floor to balance the budget, which the Senate didn’t pass. So I fail to see your point.

  9. Marty’s background:

    -electrical engineering major
    -law school
    -law clerk
    -lawyer at fancy law firm
    -US attorney (government lawyer)
    -attorney general (government lawyer)

    Wow such a cowboy!

  10. Hahaha you know a video is good when it elicits this type of response from the Noem-ers!

    A+ to Team Jackley for verbalizing what everyone thinks (that she doesn’t have depth), and verbalizing it in a clever and funny way.

    1. sorry not a noemer , just made me cringe that smirk at the end was not good

  12. This is awesome- looks like it got under the Noem campaign’s skin… they are losing their minds right now on this blog. So fun to watch their rapid fire posts come in. Whoever decided it was a good idea to run an ad with her making that ridiculous statement just got schooled.

    1. Kristi thinks governing is like being a reality TV star.

      I didn’t mind it in Congress though it has gotten to be too much over the years. But I don’t want a reality TV show in my governor’s office.

  13. What. A. Joke. I have never seen a more phony candidate. Worst ad of the campaign. Not to mention it is taking Kristis comment way out of context.

    1. Out of context? Like when she says Marty is corrupt and is the reason for EB-5?

  14. This is the first ad this cycle that made me chuckle and realize the person on the receiving end just got destroyed.

  15. Looks like an improvement from last time he was on a horse. No hands on the saddle horn this time 😂 what a joke.

  17. When did Marty Jackley ever demonstrate he knows how to balance the State’s budget? He seems to forget that Kristi Noem worked on and voted for balanced South Dakota Budgets each year she was in the SD Legislature. When has Marty ever worked on or voted for a balanced South Dakota budget? Never, because he has never been in a position where he had to vote on any issues. .

  19. Marty’s ad just blew Kristi’s ad out of the water. That was a direct hit she never saw coming. Marty’s smile at the end was perfect too. Kristi smiled at the end of hers, but Marty smiled knowing he won this round.

  20. Marty balanced the budget?! Awesome! Please show me Marty’s vote on the budget! I’ll wait.

    1. Marty was obviously referencing his AG budget that is balanced every year. Common sense isn’t so common anymore.

  21. Best part of this ad is the smirk at the end. Shows sense of humor. Best ad of the cycle without question.

  22. So here’s the thing. We all knew this was a close race. Argus confirmed it today. Most of us knew it would come down to a real fight. I think all the ads on both sides are fair despite Marty playing the victim card. This ad is a good one as well to try to get people to like him but with a dig at Noem as well. Much better than his response calling her ads slander — because I don’t know that she slandered him at all.

    Point is that we who frequent this forum should have expected a bar fight at the end. I certainly did. But it also doesn’t matter what we think – we are the politicos essentially. It matters what the rest of the electorate think – the 97% who’ve never heard of this blog and don’t see any press releases. They watch the ads and that’s about it. To many it’s a close race.

  23. Marty shows that he doesn’t have what SD wants by sadly ‘imitating Kristi’. He pretends to be a cowboy and pretends he’s balanced budgets and other fictional things. Get real. She is the only candidate who has done anything worthy of the office. Her list is a mile long where Jackley’s is nothing. There would be no EB5 story if it weren’t for “JACKLEY”. Take responsibility, MJ. One little joke and he takes it to a whole new, pathetic commercial against her. No sense of humor. His tactics of serving the rich & powerful and ignoring the ‘nobodies’, his hush up deals, protecting Planned Parenthood & the Pierre mafia are his accomplishments. (PP praised Jackley’s decision to ‘not fight’ for the 72 hr waiting period to take effect immediately, July 26, 2011) When the terrorist brought guns & ammo into the church in Sioux Falls he did ‘nothing’ until days later after pressure from SD citizens. He’s spineless unless it makes him look good. He’s also very vindictive, so look out if he becomes governor and you’ve disagreed with him! I want a productive, real governor with conservative values and ways to move our state forward, and that is Kristi Noem.
    It’s time for the little ‘tin horn’ actor to get out of the way.

  24. RELEASE: Marty Jackley Can Ride a Horse, Shoot a Gun, Balance the Budget, AND Ignore Sexual Harassment Costing Taxpayers $1.5 Million.
    Team Jackley, I made your headline accurate.

  25. He’s looking “cowboy enough” there, but I still didn’t see him shoot a gun….(?)

    1. I have seen Marty shoot a shotgun at pheasants and knock them out of the South Dakota sky. He’s got nothing to prove.

      1. I agree…he has nothing to prove but I would have shot…1 ) I like to shoot 🙂 and 2 he is sayin in the commercial that he can shoot…..plus shooting something ANYTHING looks good …and psst it is a commercial you can take many takes if you need to 🙂

  26. I’ve watched this ad like 20 times now and it gets better each time. It walks some kind of fine line between comedy and a bare knuckled punch to the face. Yikes.

    1. You are a glutton for punishment…I liked Marty’s Vision ad way more …that sells to the masses way more than this one.

  27. I just can’t trust a guy to be governor who is such a complete phony. He tries so hard to be ranchy to appeal to the ag community, but it is so obvious when someone has barely ridden a horse, never fixed a fence, and is pretending to work on a novelty tractor.

  28. Any legislator can share that under his leadership the AG’s office could not balance the law enforcement and officer training fund. Nor could or would they find a soutuon. A leadership vacuum.

    1. How the heck did Kristi turn this into a horse race? She is a 4 term congressperson. Holy crap. She slept on this one.

  30. Oh, so in other words, Marty was opposed to the Trump tax cut too, huh?…. Gee, I knew there was something redeeming about him, even before he went all black…. (Did Clint Roberts ever go all black?…. I can’t remember….)

  31. First of all, I have to note that I’m voting for Sutton. So, I’m just providing field observations from the campaign and debates. But, I must say that I pray the voters don’t even allow MJ the satisfaction of winning the primary. I’m not surprised at the smirk at the end of the commercial. Arrogant? Who can argue that? That’s the real Marty Jackley. He is out for one person and one person only…himself. Noem has not done anything, eh? Sure, she didn’t attend the oh so prestigious Tech (right…maybe in Western SD) or obtain a law degree. But, from what I recall, she started college, ended up taking over her family’s ranch after her father’s death, and made quite a success out of herself with work ethic and persistence. She still earned that college degree seven years ago while serving our state, running her family’s operation, raising her family, and making sacrifices that many would not. I have to respect the tenacity, work ethic, and grind of Noem. And, what a great role model for young women in our state. . .versus MJ, whom finds no need to consume his time with “such matters” involving equality, ethics, and justice when it comes to gender. Just saying. . .It’s actually quite disturbing. Could you imagine if he was running as a Dem? Food for thought. . .

  32. He should have paid a real cowboy to shaped that brand new stetson before shooting this painful video. Every rancher and cowboy in the state probably wants to slap him for jerking on that fist full of reins at the end. Nobody holds reins like that.. And if you know anything about carrying a rifle, you might practice a little muzzle awareness. It’s muzzle down or muzzle up, Jackley. Good Lord. The only thing transparent about him is his complete lack of self awareness.

    1. While I like him, I laughed SO hard when I saw how he was holding the reins… and that they were tied together…

  33. JJ,

    While manner of holding the reins is a function of what you are doing and personal preference, the reins don’t look tied together to me. And, so what? That is how I’ve always done it.

    I started riding before I could get my foot in the stirrup. Having the reins tied meant I had one less thing to worry about like one falling down and having to get off the horse again. Later, when I used a horse when I fixed fence, I put the tied reins over hte post I wasn’t working on because my horse had a tendency to sneak up on me and I was afraid I’d hit him in the snout or he’d make me hit my finger.

  34. Why are they filming next to a borrowed stock trailer? I would looove to see him actually shoot his borrowed gun on that borrowed horse. But I’d hate to see his brand new cowboy costume get dirty.

  35. I’m sure he’s super worried about “his” horse sneaking up on him while he fixes fence. Lol. How can even try to defend this?

    1. Anyone who thinks there is only one way to hold reins has watched too many movies. I can give you a list of reasons for different techniques. You trolls are hilarious on what you think are issues.

  36. This ad was a fail. If he’s trying to get undecideds or trying to win away votes from Noem, he’s not going to do it by pretending to be something he isn’t. Noem’s gun and horse comment was made in a fun ad with her family. His response is petty, juvenile and arrogant. At the end of the day, it just makes you him look like he’s more concerned with her than his own campaign. Why should I vote for Marty? That’s what I and many others want to know. ThIs ad doesn’t cut it.

  38. I haven’t decided who to vote for…and it’s election day. I think both candidates have failed miserably. Kristi’s “what else do you need…” comment turned me off. Also, what farmer where’s a seed corn hat with hoop earrings? Not a smart one if she wants to continue to have earlobes. Jackley on a horse is about as believable as Krebs throwing a bail of hay. If I were from out of state and saw the political ads, I’d think all that people in SD did was ride horse, shoot stuff, and pretend to farm. Nearly sixty percent of us work for a small business. Has any candidate in any of the races talked about small business? Certainly neither of these. If I were a Dem running against either of these two, I’d tee off on these ads and talk business instead of guns, horses, farming, and law enforcement.

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