The dust is settling as the ink dries on Senate Bill 2, the measure brought by the legislature to put in place the recommendations of the Prison Reset committee, finally bringing to a close a debate that’s been years in the making, arguing, remaking, resetting and now passing.
It has been an ugly process with a lot of people pushed off the bus on the way to it’s destination. But as we recap “what happened” in the last few weeks, it is clear that there were some winners and losers in the process, as brinksmanship had some political candidates taking a chance to come out of top.. except they floundered it badly in the execution. And if anything, set their chances back significantly.
So, where’s our view from 10,000 feet on who won and who lost in this process?
The Winner: Governor Larry Rhoden.
If they looked at the process, some might call this an ugly win, having to reset a location and completely revise a package handed to him by his predecessor Governor Kristi Noem, and sometimes having to knuckle under to a legislature who would not get on board. But after pivots and bumps along the way, including removing his Secretary of Corrections to get his deal to come together, they finally came across with a plan and a message that reasonable legislators could not vote against.
The risk was that if it didn’t happen, this might have been the end of Rhoden’s Gubernatorial campaign before it began. But the art of politics is one of compromise and getting the job done. If it had been a loss, it would have been on him. But he didn’t lose, and Rhoden got the plan across the finish line.
It wasn’t always pretty, but a win is a win.
The Biggest Loser: Rep. Jon Hansen (and by association, Karla Lems). Who’s missing from the photo above? These two. This special session marked a low point of desperation for the Hansen/Lems for Governor effort. As both were serving as a participants for the prison reset committee, Hansen and his shield-maiden Karla Lems both were counted among the unanimous vote for the prison reset project. Yet, when the time came to honor their prior vote, Hansen/Lems reneged and flip-flopped on their support, as Hansen sprung an October surprise attack in an attempt to scuttle the whole project.
The problem was that support for the prison was stronger than he gambled, and it immediately came out that the issue he was hanging his hat on – a consultant that had to be hired while an issue ran through the courts – had been known for weeks, yet he concealed that until his surprise. But the surprise was on him. People didn’t care.
Even more importantly – because you can fake it until you make it – the coalition that Hansen used to put himself into House speakership was flat out not willing to have his back on this. And his coalition completely fell apart. Even his close Lieutenant, House Majority Leader Scott Odenbach (who is in the picture above), who had also been part of the prison reset committee turned his back on Hansen, fragmenting Hansen’s coalition.
If Hansen spends his time contemplating this massive loss, his next action may be to try to keep the troops in line to maintain his speakership. Because if this vote was any indication of how this next session may go for the 2% Gubernatorial wannabe, that might be the next vote he’s in danger of losing.
Didn’t win, didn’t lose, but his people were present: Toby Doeden. The self-aggrandizing candidate from Aberdeen who wants to spend his way to being Governor might not understand that the state has to take care of the people and buildings it is in charge of, as well as that bad people need to be locked away in a manner that keeps guards from being injured or worse, as well as from getting your pants sued off.
Why do I bring Toby Doeden up at all in this conversation? Because the small coalition of no’s on this project seemed to be less a group of the Hansen/Lemmings followers, and more a group of Doeden hangers on.
It wasn’t a big group.. but Phil Jensen, Logan Manhart, Dylan Jordan, Toby’s favorite tenant Brandei Schaefbauer, California Carley, Taffy Howard, Amber Hulse and others are not in Gubernatorial candidate Hansen’s orbit, but in Doeden’s, and they were happy to do his bidding. Even to be on the losing side.
This was just weird: Former Speaker, and likely AG candidate, Steve Haugaard. After his loss to Kristi Noem for Governor, Steve Haugaard is still continuing to try to grasp for relevancy. And in the great prison project saga, Haugaard has been inserting himself into it, and did so again in the legislative hearing, and the earlier weird video with the mattress guy.
If he wasn’t advocating for the use of robotic guards, he was doing his darnedest to go after the project, appearing in the legislative committee to detail how while he’s not been a prosecutor, his daughter has been, and he has 2 boys who are cops. So, he as a career defense attorney knows best? He also handed out highlighted sheets with figures to try to cast aspersions on the figures used by the prison reset committee.
No one paid attention then, and it’s not going to help him run for Attorney General, a campaign he was talking about with at least one county chairman the other day in Springfield. At the end of the day, he really ended up just looking weak on crime and public safety. Not a good look for someone who wants to be considered for that role. So he can stop now.
Did someone say a task force? Time to call the Task Enforcer Lt. Governor Tony Venhuizen! – Can we call it winning when Lt. Governor Tony Venhuizen who just chaired the Prison Project Reset task force, and was just in Pierre presiding over the Senate, will now chair the Governor’s Correctional Rehabilitation Task Force? It’s prestigious and shows the Governor’s trust in Tony.. but does getting tasked with another task force sound like a win?
The Man of the Hour: Prison Project staffer Ryan Brunner – Lots of hands involved in making the plan come together. While the Lt. Governor, Tony Venhuizen, is the front man, Ryan Brunner, the former School & Lands Commissioner who did the day to day on this for the Governor’s office, has done a lot of the thankless grunt work in shepherding the project along behind the scenes. While it’s the Governor’s win, Ryan deserves part of the credit for making it possible.
Winner: KELOland on-line – KELOland had good gavel to gavel coverage of the whole special session, which had me linked up through them for the committee hearings and the floor action instead of Public Broadcasting. How were you watching the events of the day?
That’s what I caught during the events of yesterday – any thoughts of your own to add?
I hope voters listen to the floor speeches given by the opponents to the prison, ie the Doedon/Hansen minions.
These people have nothing but conspiracies to offer. They could not be more delusional with their arguments. My god, Liz May admonished their ludicrous arguments!
Rep. May was the star that stood out during the debates. She came armed with facts and smacked down many of the conspiracy theorists. I know that she will track this with the doggedness that she is known to possess.
Great job Rep. May!
Especially when she said she was tired of lawmakers writing legislation to hold people accountable for their crimes and protecting victims. What a snowflake. ❄️
I almost can’t believe this. Sam Marty broke from his sister and voted nay? This has got to be one of the only times he’s thought for himself. Clearly he shouldn’t try to do it anymore.
It was a safe vote for Sam. He knew the votes were there to pass it. He, Ismay, and Hunt will be doing victory laps in their district with their Nay votes. I admire Hunt’s passion and testimony but the way she made it sound, South Dakota should not spend one more dime on any project or legislation until all kids on the reservations have safe houses and adequate food. Will be looking for her to bring some sort of legislation this session to address this or it’s all just showy speech. The big question is will May and Odenbach forever be labeled Rinos by the crazy right and will they get hammered for this vote on the scorecards? Also found it completely absurd that Draft Dodger Jensen wanted to wait for a new Sec of Corrections to be chosen, before proceeding, so that this individual could design the prison? That threw me for a curveball that he wanted a non elected bureaucrat deciding where our tax payer dollars should be spent. That’s why we elect Legislators to make those decisions.
housing and food on the reservations are Federal, not State, matters.
oh, and don’t forget, living on the reservation is a choice the kids’ parents have made. They are not internment camps. They can leave any time they want.
Also Ismay said we don’t dare spend another dime as we are leveraging the unclaimed property amount at a level that could tip our state over. With that being said, the $170 million ongoing school choice bill that he supports should be dead. Thanks Ismay.
I came to say nearly the same thing as Anonymous 11:21. The public needs to hear what some of these opponents said and also see the actual truth. Many opponents were either ill informed, took stuff spread on social media as truth without doing any research, or completely ok with lying on the senate/house floor to hopefully get their way. Any of those possibilities is not acceptable from someone in the legislature.
And Phil Jensen should be ashamed of himself for making a claim on the house floor that a senators vote was influenced by a donation from the contractor. But we all know he’s not.
If that is the case, Phil has taken 1000’s of dollars from Special Interest Groups throughout the years. If that’s the case Phil needs to recuse himself from any legislation that involves an utilities that compete with Black Hills Corp, any medical legislation as he has taken money from Optometry and Anesthesia special interest groups, and retail grocery legislation as he hast taken money from Hyvee, and any legislation sponsored by Scott Odenbach as he has been on the Liberty Tree Pac teet. Lastly as a combat war vet, I ask the draft dodger Jensen to recuse himself from any legislation involving the SD National Guard.
I hope Kevin Jensen’s constituents were watching. His BANANA attitude is bananas! He absolutely negotiated in bad faith. Every time he got what he wanted, he’d come up with a new reason to not support the project. He demanded Wasko’s termination and then tried to gaslight and say that he hadn’t. If you don’t like the project, fine. But to negotiate in bad faith, to play games on the taxpayers’ dime, that is inexcusable. I can’t respect someone who has no integrity.
The floor debate was a true public service because it illuminated about 1/3 of the legislators to be completely ignorant on a major public policy matter. Some combination of pure stupidity and malevolent fearmongering. The list of “no” votes on this should be a good short-hand for people that have no business in elected office going forward and definitely a list of people that you can’t expect to negotiate with in good faith.
Winners/Losers: Did one of the Doedites sell the engagement ring while in special session?
Big winner: South Dakota taxpayer. Getting a 100-year asset for $650M implying a straight-line depreciation of $6.5M per year is a great value on the state’s balance sheets. The losers will continue to demagogue the issue as the largest expenditure in state history with no understanding of capital budgeting. When considering the 100-year time horizon, the best argument against this proposal may end up being that it wasn’t big enough and some financing/bonding should have been considered to spread the cost out over more time. But if these legislators couldn’t wrap their heads around a cash purchase for a capital asset, then god help us if they needed to be shown amortization tables on bonding.
Your story is spot on!! I especially agree with the praise for Ryan Brunner. He was fantastic throughout the entire ordeal.
“Ordeal”. LOL.
Biggest winners, deservedly: the COs and prisoners housed/working in these facilities.
Anyone wonder why one of the biggest opponents of this Majority Whip BranDEI Schaefbauer didnt utter one word on the house floor. Did ShadGPT not come through for he on what to say? We in D3 need to get our shit together and elect someone who will actually do their job insteat of sitting on the sidelines lowering prices of engagement rings.
Congratulations to Gov Rhoden on this win
Those floor speeches are post card gold! Brandei and Auch both yielded their time. I assume so they didn’t give even more ammunition to the normal people.
Let’s be honest, other than Senator Carl Perry(who voted in favor), Aberdeen wasn’t really represented on the floor in either the House or the Senate.
Besides Brandei, we didn’t hear from Representative Al Novstup or Senator Michael Rohl(They both voted in favor) or from Representative Logan Manhart who like Brandei was opposed.
Maybe they were more concern about what’s happening in Aberdeen with the possible two-way Main Street coming in the further. Let’s see how many of them are going to push to a referendum up for the voters to decide.
I mean future not further.
Another winner is the legislature which is apparently not as dysfunctional as I feared.
What happened during the special session will further drive down numbers and influence of the two bottom feeder candidates for governor. The Doeden campaign is losing even more credibility in court and rambling on about the Four Seasons luxury hotel prison. Hansen/Lemmings torpedoed themselves during the special session.
Will there be a new speaker of the house and leadership team in January?
One of the biggest losers in the Senate was Amber Hulse of District 30. She will continue to do Doeden’s bidding and it’s a shame. Money can’t buy you love or elections.
Amber has unfortunately hitched her wagon to the soft on crime, anti-job , obstructionist Freedom Party. Probably time for her to pivot to a position in the Trump administration.
Agreed. I thought I was voting for an upgrade from JFM when voting for Hulse in my district. I was duped.
While you’re mentioning winners and losers, you should recognize South Dakota taxpayers. As the only subjective losers in this entire debacle, the taxpayers lost $21 MILLION – evaporated away with the prior failure. Does anybody know where that $21 M ended up? You should play a game of Follow the Money on this one. This looks like it was handled with the same level of skill as Rounds’ EB-5 disaster.
That loss rests entirely on the shoulders of the NIMBY legislators. There was a plan in place. If not for those legislators this project would have been funded for about the same $650 million and two years closer to completion.
Pat Powers, you are still a **** for brains. Grow Up, Doeden will now become the next Governor. The People of South Dakota pissed off at the establishment and Jon Hansen has been cooked. This will be a two way race between Dusty vs Big Toby and Doeden has now grabbed the supermajority lead of the grassroots. Pat Powers keeps attacking the grassroots cause he knows the neocons are finished. People love Trump, and S.D Voters will support Doeden.
Trump is gonna endorse Dusty. Dusty has been pivotal in getting much of the Trump agenda across the finish line with our other SD Delegation. It will be a confusing endorsement for Toby and his followers.
Trump will endorse Dusty.
Team Toby Doeden may try get endorsements from
David Duke
Alex Jones
Mike Lindell
Nick Fuentes
Laura Loomer
Mark Robinson
neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin who runs the Daily Stormer website.
White supremacist William Johnson, head of the American Freedom Party.
Jared Taylor, a white supremacist who runs the American Renaissance website.
Richard Spencer, a white supremacist who runs a tiny think tank called the National Policy Institute.
Kevin MacDonald, a notorious anti-Semite and retired professor, has also backed Trump.
Matthew Heimbach, a racist and anti-Semite who co-founded the Traditionalist Youth Network, a white supremacist group.
Don Black, who runs Stormfront, the largest white supremacist Internet forum in the country.
Lee Rogers, who runs the neo-Nazi website Infostormer.
James Edwards, a white supremacist who runs the Political Cesspool website and radio show.
Underrated winners here: the South Dakota Democrats not named Eschenbaum. Not only did their votes seal a win for Rhoden, Venhuizen, and company, but they sure slammed a door on their once colleague (Pourier) who joined the Doedenites and Hansen/Lems to vote against this.
Dumbest say-nothing mumbling speech . . . Jordan.
District 4 voters, you can do better than this ignorant fool you elected in 2024.
Ismay was neck and neck for dumbest say nothing speech.
Big win for Rhoden. He demonstrated his ability to lead and get things done. Not bad for a guy who has been Governor for only seven months or so.
I loved Karr’s beat down on California Carley. Every point of opposition that Carley had, Karr had a well-thought out rebuttal. Carley’s major concerns were up front cost, ongoing cost, projected revenue shortfalls, and effect on the tax payers. I hope Carley remembers this when he starts dropping unconstitutional legislation next session that is unpopular with the masses, will cost millions of dollars in court costs trying to defend it and ongoing costs if for some odd reason it is passed. School voucher scams that have been ruled unconstitutional in 5 states so far and has saddled those states with litigations costs. 10 commandments bill, etc, etc, etc.