The value of hard work in a campaign

A reader pointed out last night that one of the state’s far-left liberal websites was shedding bitter tears and blubbering over the loss of one of their own state senators in this past months’ election, trying to minimize the victory of the Republican over the entrenched Democrat incumbent, by raising the silly specter of evil RV voters. It wouldn’t be the first time it was used as a cheap excuse.

You lose, so straws are grasped at. However, talk is cheap. Especially when it is woefully and hopelessly uninformed.

Republican numbers were increased in the legislature this year because of a number of factors. In South Dakota, Republican numbers continue to increase while Democrat numbers are in a sharp decline. In terms of supporting their candidates, State Democrats were utterly worthless, and fell flat on their faces.

And then there’s the other, and the single most important factors that I judge candidacies on: Work. There were a number of candidates that put the time in, and worked. They worked hard, and ultimately, voters rewarded them for it.

Time and again, whether it’s in a Republican primary or a general election, a candidate who gets out and does the work will defeat a candidate who simply goes through the motions.

You saw it with Jordan Youngberg in Madison. Jordan was a young, largely unknown candidate running against Democrat State Senator Scott Parsley. Youngberg immediately got out and made his mark, and showed everyone he was a hard working candidate who reflected the views of his legislative district. He wasn’t perfect by any means, and he made some rookie mistakes.

But the entire time he was working hard, and made a strong, concerted effort going door to door, leaving Parsley to try to play catch-up the entire time. Youngberg is now Senator elect.

Tom Pischke was another hard working candidate. In the District 25 race, he wasn’t a candidate with a large campaign account. He raised and spent around $8,000 in the general election, with a chunk of that coming from the GOP House PAC.

Pischke was in a district with Roger Hunt, one of the State’s longer serving legislators, and Dan Ahlers, one of the few Democrats who had been able to deliver a win in this largely GOP District. When the votes were tallied, as a result of his hard work going door to door, Pischke found himself leading the entire pack in a strong first place finish with Ahlers narrowly squeaking out a win over Hunt.

Same thing in the District that surrounds mine, and shoots off to the north – Republican John Wiik who ran against Democrat Kathy Tyler for the Senate Seat in District 4.  Wiik went out and worked his tail off, and Tyler’s effort was mediocre at best. Wiik beat her hands down.

The value of hard work by a candidate in a campaign can’t be ignored, and should never, ever, be dismissed. Hard working candidates have beaten “country club” candidates more times than you can count.

As much as some candidates try to treat them that way – Voters aren’t stupid. They can recognize the difference between an egotist sending them vanity advertising and a candidate who is out working hard, and running for the right reasons.

A good lesson for prospective candidates for 2018. If you’re going to run, and want to improve your chances of winning, you’d better be prepared to do the work.

12 thoughts on “The value of hard work in a campaign”

  1. That liberal blog has their same primarily out of state and a few instate basement dwelling brain trust that post from 7:00am to 10:00pm daily and with burning bowl after bowl they may just dream of a way to victory. Calling South Dakotans that enjoy hunting, own a gun for various reason Ammosexuals , attack their religions and call ALL Republicans names will not matter in their path to victory at least in their minds.

    Years of hard work including volunteering on numerous boards and associations in a community gaining experience and making face to face contacts?
    Door knocking and having a good ground game ? Making phone calls for fundraising and talking to voters? Having a platform, listening to what voters needs and concerns are and communicating how you will help them in your district?
    Eh………That is for chumps!

  2. Those SDGOP candidates that were victorious may want to send thank you cards to our good friends over at DFP if they would be so nice to provide their mailing addresses. Porter? MFI? others?

  3. There were over 5000 RV voters in Minnehaha County alone, that is 6.3% of the total vote in Minnehaha County for 2016. They vote overwhelming for the GOP and the only thing that makes them a South Dakotan is a mailbox at a UPS or FEDEX center within our state.

    Out of staters are deciding and influencing our vote outcome. Without the RV vote in 2004, Thune would have not beat Daschle with the 4500 vote margin that he did.

    One only has to wonder how many of these RV voters are also voting in Texas, Arizona, and Florida, too, given our decentralized national voting system with few checks and balances.

    If the GOP is truly concerned about voter fraud in this state and nation, then they would not allow the RV voters to behave as they do with merely a honor system in place in terms of their potential voting practices.

    The state of South Dakota should be proactive to make sure that our “RV South Dakotans” are not double-dipping or cheating on us….. It is bad enough that we got the Russians messing with us and our elections, we definitely do not need fellow Americans as well….

  4. Winston,

    First, where did you get the information there are 5,000 RV voters in Minnehaha?

    Second, where did you get the information that 5,000 (6.3% of votes cast) were RV voters?

  5. Well, let me answer your second question first. If there are 80,000 votes casted In Minnehaha County, which there were, then a collection of 5000 of them would obviously be 6.3% or 6.25% to be more exact.

    As to your first question, well, let me just say that “Democratic Intelligence” can identify it based on early ballot requests and the voting domain addresses which were supplied with those requests. But then the ballots were sent out of state, which is the historic behaviorism of RV voters… If it walks like a duck, acts like a duck, and quacks like a duck, well, then it is a duck.

  6. Winston,

    I’m still confused. Are you saying you got to the 5,000 because the ballots were mailed out of state or something else? I don’t know how you know the voter is an RV voter. Can yo be more specific?

  7. Winston, are you saying that someone compared all the out-of-state addresses where ballots were sent and determined if they are RV parks and determined which voters were not residents of SD who had already left for Arizona or had roots here?

    1. Troy,

      Would you define “roots” as including a need for a tax safe haven?

      There is a difference between “snowbirds” and “RV voters.” You are trying to confuse the two, in order, to try to defuse my claim. “Snowbirds” use a FEDEX Center in South Dakota in the summer time to send packages and not to check on their “domicile.”

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