Thune: A Victory for Life

Thune: A Victory for Life

“The Supreme Court’s decision puts the question of abortion back in the hands of the states and the people and their elected representatives – where it should always have been.”

Click here or on the picture above to watch the video.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) today discussed the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to return the question of abortion to the states and the people and their elected representatives. Thune applauded the pro-life movement for its decades-long commitment to defending the unborn and criticized Democrats for using scare tactics and misinformation to create a false narrative that pro-life laws will prevent women from getting essential medical care for miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies.

Prior interview of Dems State Auditor Candidate shows how extreme the Democrat ticket is this fall

As part of a nod to diversity, South Dakota Democrats point to having a member of the LGBTQ+ community on their statewide ballot in the form of Stephanie Lynn Marty, a 70 year-old Transgender Activist, who appeared before the Democrat convention (in a video) and won the nomination for State Auditor.

Marty started out earlier in the campaign season with a third place finish in the District 11 House Democrat Primary.

Why would they pick someone to run for Auditor who had come in third in a state legislative primary a few weeks ago?  Well, she has a pulse for one.

But as evidenced by a recent interview, it might be her extreme positions that were more attractive to the Democrat ticket:

Candidate profile photo from facebook
Stephanie Lynn Marty profile photo from facebook

..we need to develop a tax structure that brings balance to the system.  We’ve spent years where candidates promise to cut taxes, while all they do is drive the costs down to lower levels of government.  Maybe it’s time to say that my responsibility is to make the system less regressive, which means some taxes will go up, and some taxes will go down.

and..

..We need to stop saying we won’t raise taxes when we need to rebalance the system.  We should consider a wealth tax, a windfall profits tax, a corporate tax on larger corporations and reinstating the inheritance tax on millionaires…

and..

Creating non-partisan primaries where the top two candidate move to the general election may be the answer…

Read the entire interview here at Dakota News Now.

Good gosh.

One of the Democrat candidates believes we need to “create a new tax structure” and make “some taxes go up?”  Corporate income taxes, and bringing back the death tax on farmers wishing to pass estates on to their kids.  Taxes, taxes, and more taxes.

And throwing in the crazy jungle primary, because she wants us to be more like California.

So extreme she couldn’t get through a Democrat Primary, and so Democrats move her to the top of their statewide ticket?

Good luck with that one.

Democrat Public Utilities Commission candidate Jeff Barth might have just disqualified himself from CO2 pipeline hearings at the onset of his race

The Democrat Convention this past weekend has provided interesting commentary from the new challenger for the office of Public Utilities Commissioner. The only problem is that the commentary communicates an absolute bias against a matter in front of the PUC coming from someone running to serve  on that panel. From this weekend –  Keloland 7/10/22

The PUC is considering a state permit for a proposed Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline that would collect carbon dioxide from various ethanol plants in the region and bury the gas in North Dakota.

“The CO2 pipeline, it’s, it’s really a terrible thing,” Barth said. He noted that when Dan Lederman, the South Dakota Republican chairman, first brought the proposal to the Minnehaha County Commission, Barth thought, “Oh okay, what is this?

“And the more I found about it, the more I turned against it. It can explode. It can kill you by asphyxiation. This is going to make a lot of money, for some people, but not that much for anybody in South Dakota. Certainly some of our ethanol plants are excited to have it. But they’ve been operating without this pipeline for thirty years.

Read that here.

And it isn’t just convention-fueled political hyperbole, he’s also put his objections in writing to the commission.

Claiming a pipeline is “a terrible thing” that can “explode” and “kill you by asphyxiation” would appear to be an insurmountable bias, which is particularly troubling for someone running to serve on a quasi-judicial body.  If you’re elected to be a fair and impartial judge on utility matters before the commission, how does that work when you are campaigning on being anything but impartial?

It doesn’t. And will automatically invite the state going to court going to court over it – and likely losing.

As explained six years ago in the Argus Leader (10/26/2016), PUC Commissioners are expected to act with much more impartiality:

(Chris) Nelson sees himself as an impartial judge of energy infrastructure projects and proposed energy rate hikes and a champion for extending broadband access to underserved rural populations.

Nelson has declined to take a position on future pipelines, power plants or wind energy projects and says doing so would taint his ability to act as a judge of the facts. Were he to show his hand before a hearing, Nelson said, he’d almost certainly be asked to recuse himself by a permit applicant.

State law expects impartiality from commissioners as they weigh electric rates and energy projects, Nelson said.

“People ask me ‘are you pro-pipeline or anti-pipeline?’ That question is irrelevant,” Nelson said. “We serve in a judicial capacity.”

Read that here.

And in fact, on this project, Commissioner Kristie Fiegen removed herself because the proposed pipelines would cross land owned by her sister-in-law (husband’s sister) and her husband.  It wasn’t even a direct conflict, but because it affected a relation, she felt the needs for a palms-up recusal.

The kind of impartiality from Commissioner Nelson and Commissioner Fiegen are what South Dakota voters expect from their Public Utility Commissioner. Not declarations that they are running to oppose specific projects.  And here’s where Barth may have inadvertently gotten himself into trouble.

It’s not the first time it’s come up, as back in 1990, Democrat Commissioner Ken Stofferahn got himself drug into court for similar biases when he declared US West Communications were  “jackals in lambskins,” and they hauled the PUC into court demanding a recusal because of his bias.  They didn’t grant a blanket recusal, but they recognized that you don’t get to be a crusader:

The trial court was correct in the factual findings relating to Stofferahn’s unalterably closed mind, bias and prejudice and the judgment declaring that Stofferahn should be disqualified in cases pending at the time of the entry of the declaratory judgment. This does not mean, however, that Stofferahn cannot or will not adopt a different attitude at some time in the future. This very real possibility was specifically recognized and addressed in the trial court’s memorandum opinion which was made part of the findings of fact and conclusions of law:

Although Commissioner Stofferahn argues he has put aside his prior views and can fairly judge USWC, he has never recanted his views on the competitive status of telecommunication services in this state, an issue critical to the disposition of future deregulation and classification proceedings. Furthermore, it is evident he continues to adhere to that view as he argues to this Court that his statements were justified by his good faith concern to attract public attention to “the dangers of the legislation.”

And..

In summary, we affirm the judgment disqualifying Stofferahn from participating as a member of the PUC where the material facts, law or policy involved in the docket concerns the deregulation or classification of telecommunication services, or involves the determination of the competitive status of telecommunication services of pending dockets, and also affirm the denial of USWC’s request that Stofferahn be disqualified in all future cases where USWC is a party.

The judgment declaring Stofferahn disqualified in all future dockets involving USWC where the material facts, law or policy involved in the docket involves the deregulation or classification of telecommunication services, or involves the determination of the competitive status of telecommunication services of future dockets is reversed.

Read that here.

So there’s a good chance he’s going to be forever disqualified from hearing these matters he’s campaigning on because of his already expressed bias. It won’t be a blanket ban, because at least the 1990 court wouldn’t allow that, but I’m guessing CO2 pipeline owners have a pretty good basis to force the matter to hearing to at least attempt to disqualify him. And there’s a good chance they may win.

While Jeff is entitled to his opinion, he probably should have run for another office if he’s going to be an anti-pipeline crusader. Because his position and anti-pipeline advocacy are incompatible with the job he’s placing his name on the ballot for, and I have no doubt they’ve taken note.

Democrat constitutional candidates so unmemorable that the media can’t even keep them straight. And platform plank might hit too close to home for their candidates.

As they cry over how they are being referred to, the South Dakota Democrat party has managed to put together a field of candidates for office this fall that are so unmemorable, that the media can’t even keep them straight. As evidenced by how they are reported on.

In one article, Joe Sneve from the Argus points out who the candidates for State Auditor and treasurer are…

The Democrats nominee for State Treasurer is John Cunningham, a retired public administrator from Sioux Falls, while Stephany Marty, a military veteran also from Sioux Falls, was tapped as the party’s candidate for state Auditor.

Read that here.

And we get an alternative line-up from Bob Mercer over at KELOland:

I believe the actual line-up is Stephanie Marty for Auditor and John Cunningham for Treasurer. But, as we’re noting from Bob’s recitation, it really doesn’t matter.

On another topic, in the Democrat platform this year is a plank that isn’t getting enough attention in the press.

If you look at the age of their Constitutional candidates, Tom Cool is 72. John Cunningham is 75, Stephanie Lynn Marty & Jeff Barth are both 70.  School and Lands Candidate Tim Azure is 68, for an average age of 71.

Of course they’re addressing end-of-life decisions in their platform.

2 huge additions to my South Dakota button collection today. 1956 Joe Foss Ace High Republican and ’37 Les Jensen Inaugural pin

I just added 2 long-time wants with one of them being a “Holy grail” addition to my South Dakota button collection today.

First is one of the most challenging pins to find for any South Dakota button collectors, the Joe Foss Ace High Republican pin for the 1956 San Francisco Republican National Convention, where Governor Joe Foss was being touted as a possible vice-presidential contender.  Haven’t heard about Foss being a VP contender? An effort was definitely mounted, but by the time when the nominations were made..

 

.. it seems to have gone away, and the vice-presidential nomination went to Richard Nixon instead.

This is an exceedingly rare South Dakota political pin and near impossible to find, so this nearly mint condition example that I’ve been trying to acquire for years is a welcome find.

The second pin is almost as tough, so when the offer for both of the pins came to me, I couldn’t turn it down either.  The 1937 Les Jensen Inaugural pin is only the third inaugural pin issued, so this 85 year old pin is expensive, and not easy to find.  Very happy to add it to my wall.  This only leaves me the very challenging first inaugural pin to find, the 1933 inaugural pin.  (Also looking for the 1947 Mickelson and 1953 Sig Anderson pins which I have around here somewhere).

They say that political memorabilia collectors are history’s dumpster divers. Great day for searching through our state’s rubbish today!

Dems nominate 6-time loser for Secretary of State, as old white man complains about white men running the country

South Dakota Democrats are keeping up their streak of awful candidates as they place Sioux Falls Democrat Tom Cool on the sacrificial altar for Secretary of State. And in his first quote for the office, Tom has already gotten a gaffe into the papers:

Image of Tom CoolSioux Falls Democrat Tom Cool, a former journalist who ran for state auditor in 2018, will carry the party’s platform to the November ballot in the race for Secretary of State. He’ll go up against Monae Johnson, the GOP candidate who knocked off incumbent Steve Barnett on a campaign that honed in on Republican disatisfaction of the 2020 presidential election.

“They keep whining about election integrity, which we know are their code words for voter suppression,” Cool said when accepting the nomination. “They don’t just want to go along with the Supreme Court and go back to the 1950s, they want to return to the 1850s when it was only white men controlling this country.”

Read it here.

“They want to return to the 1850s when it was only white men controlling this country.” 

Um.. Did Tom bother to check the mirror before he made that statement? If old white man Tom Cool is concerned about white men running the country, then why is he challenging a woman for the office?  That’s the same kind of self-awareness that’s cost him an incredible 6 races for office over the last the last decade.

Stick a fork in that race. He’s done.

Still not seeing a lot of candidates for Dems

Argus Headline today: South Dakota Democrats see open AG, secretary of state contests as paths to statewide office.

Don’t they have to have candidates first?

They named someone who might be one of the poorest choices they’ve ever made for lieutenant governor In terms of shoring up where the gubernatorial candidate could use some help.

And so far there is only one candidate for anything else, with outgoing Minnehaha County Commissioner Jeff Barth running for Public Utilities Commission, against incumbent Chris Nelson.

They’ve got a long way to go to fill that ticket, and not much for bankable candidates.

Jamie Smith picks Keintz as Lt. That’s not even a hard one to poke holes in.

From the Argus, Dem for Gov Jamie Smith has made his Lt. Gov pick: State Rep Jennifer Keintz:

The Sioux Falls Democrat challenging Gov. Kristi Noem in this year’s gubernatorial election Thursday formally announced that he’s backing Rep. Jennifer Keintz, 48, a real estate broker and business owner from Eden, for the Democratic Party’s lieutenant governor candidate on the November ballot.

Read that here.

Interesting that real estate agent Jamie Smith has decided to diversify his ticket with real estate agent Jennifer Keintz.

Really?

I don’t even need to work that hard to poke holes in this elitist ticket, as I had already pointed it out less than 2 years ago :

To the Editor:

I earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from South Dakota State University in the 1990s. Immediately after graduating I moved to the East Coast, where many people I met couldn’t find South Dakota on a map and had certainly never heard of the university. I was able to find jobs with good companies in various large cities and to build a decent career. After a few years in the work force, it seemed to matter more where I had worked than where I went to college.

I was probably not called in to interview by some companies because I hadn’t attended a prestigious university, but there are plenty of great employers who look at more than alma mater. All that said, I’ve seen how attending certain schools opens many doors. It’s not a guarantee of success, but there’s no denying that graduates of top schools have a leg up.

I have a 2-year-old and I already think about where she’ll go to college. It will ultimately be her choice, but I will strongly suggest elite institutions. Despite my own positive experience and my desire for it to not matter, it absolutely does.

Jennifer Healy Keintz
Eden, S.D.

Read that here.

Good luck with that pick. Democrats are going to need it.