Author: @SoDakCampaigns

Senate Mike Rounds – WEEKLY ROUND[S] UP: OCTOBER 16-22, 2023

After a great in-state work period spent in South Dakota, we’re back in action for another Senate work period. I had the opportunity to visit Sioux Falls to speak at the South Dakota Biotech Association’s annual meeting on a panel with Dakota State President José-Marie Griffiths. I visited Brookings during Hobo Week for a groundbreaking for 3M’s new expansion. While in town, I had to make a stop on South Dakota State University’s campus to chat with students over donuts, visit with the Collegian newspaper and celebrate homecoming. Great memories of my time as a student there. As we alumni look ahead to this weekend, we’re hoping for a Jackrabbit win against the powerful Yotes in Vermillion. Here’s my Weekly Round[s] Up:

South Dakotans I visited with: This past week, I met with Michael Bockorny, CEO of the Aberdeen Development Corporation. I also presented an Atomic Veterans Commemorative Service Medal to Navy Veteran Darrell Lee Witte from Pierre. Mr. Witte was a member of the USS Walton that took part in Operation RedWing, a nuclear weapon test series that took place in 1956. My office works with veterans to get them the medals they have earned. If you are a veteran or a family member of a veteran needing assistance with this, please contact my office.

Meetings this past week: Tanya Otsuka, nominee for the National Credit Union Administration board; Erik Fyrwald, CEO of Syngenta; The Real Estate Roundtable; and Martin O’Malley, nominee for Commissioner of the Social Security Administration. I also had a meeting with Kathy Warden, CEO of Northrop Grumman for an update on the B-21 Raider stealth bomber coming to Ellsworth AFB.

We also had our Senate Prayer Breakfast, where Senator Ted Cruz of Texas was our speaker this week.

Panel hosted: This past week, I hosted a panel for fellow senators and their staff members on artificial intelligence and cancer research. The panel featured academic and industry experts who work at the intersection of these two fields. We had an excellent conversation on how AI is transforming health care. You can read more about the panel here.

Cancer research is an issue that’s particularly personal to me. As many of you know, I lost my wife Jean to cancer on November 2, 2021. We were already seeing encouraging progress in the development of new treatments during her battle a few years ago. Now, there is a real opportunity to utilize AI in ways never thought possible that will help save lives.

Headline of the week: Q&A: Rounds on regulating AI, which will impact ‘every single aspect of our lives’ – South Dakota Searchlight

Votes taken: 8 – most notably was the Senate’s unanimous passage of a resolution standing with our ally Israel against terrorism.

Hearings: I attended 4 hearings this past week: one in the Select Committee on Intelligence, one in the Banking committee, one in the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) and one joint hearing between SASC and the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee.

Our Banking committee hearing was on nominations, where we heard from six individual nominees to executive positions. I had the opportunity to serve as Ranking Member and give the opening statement. You can watch a clip of that here.

Classified briefings: I had 2 classified briefings this past week: one was on the B-21 Raider stealth bomber. One was a briefing for all senators on the war in Israel. I talked more about that on CNN last Thursday morning. You can watch the clip of that at the end of the Round[s] Up.

My staff in South Dakota visited: Aberdeen, Madison, Mobridge and Roscoe.

Steps taken this past week: 56,514 steps or 28.06 miles

Video of the Week: I joined CNN This Morning to talk more about the war in Israel:

This is a particularly interesting development landing in my mailbox – pp

 Rounds Announces New Leadership in Sioux Falls Office

 WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) today announced that Keith Moore will serve as the Southeast Regional Director and State Director of Tribal Relations. Moore will be based out of Rounds’ Sioux Falls office, starting on November 6, 2023. 

“Keith is a committed and respected public servant who will be a great asset to our team,” said Rounds. “His years of experience, both in South Dakota and in D.C., will serve our state well. I am pleased to have Keith in this role, and I have confidence in his ability to make a meaningful impact for the good of South Dakotans.”

“I’m excited to get started serving the citizens and tribal members of South Dakota,” said Moore. “Senator Rounds has worked tirelessly for all people of our great state, and I intend to do the same as we take on the multitude of issues that are in front of us.”  

 Originally from Mission, Moore grew up in Kennebec and is an enrolled member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. After graduating from Lyman High School, he earned a scholarship to play basketball at Northern State University, majoring in education. He later received a master’s degree in educational administration from South Dakota State University and specialist degree in educational leadership from Montana State University. Moore most recently worked as the South Dakota Director of Americans for Prosperity. He has previous experience as the Director of South Dakota Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Chief Diversity Officer at the University of South Dakota and Indian Education Director at the South Dakota Department of Education. Moore also served as the SES Director of the Bureau of Indian Education in Washington, D.C. He and his wife, Kristie, have five daughters and reside in Sioux Falls.

###

Postscript:

Moore had taken the helm at Americans for Prosperity at a time when the group made a move from outreach and advocacy over a number of years to getting directly involved in state legislative primaries, mainly supporting hard right candidates via postcards and social media advertising.

The question that comes out about this is how it will affect AFP’s next moves in South Dakota and the 2024 election.

Saw this picture making the rounds. Is Styx playing a concert in Sioux Falls coming up? I’ll have to get tickets.

Oh… Sorry. That’s actually a candidate announcement.

Jordan Deffenbaugh Announces Candidacy for City Council, Pledges to Engage Neighborhoods and Repeal Ineffective Ordinances

[Sioux Falls, SD] — Jordan Deffenbaugh, a community organizer in the Whittier neighborhood and Sioux Falls native, announces his candidacy for the At-Large seat in the upcoming Sioux Falls City Council election. With a background firmly rooted in Sioux Falls and a vision for a more vibrant, neighborhood-focused community, Deffenbaugh seeks to revitalize the city and put power back into the hands of core neighborhoods.

The son of a local home builder who played a pivotal role in shaping Sioux Falls, Deffenbaugh combines a deep understanding of Sioux Falls’ history and urban planning with a forward-looking vision for progress.

etc…

You can read it all here.

Seriously.. he probably should ditch the album cover vibe of his web page.

A couple more campaign announcements have popped up and come to my attention in the last few days.

• In District 3, State Representative Brandei Schaefbauer has sent out an announcement that she is planning on seeking re-election to the House in District 3 (As per Hub City Radio). They also conducted an interview with her following the announcement.
• Via Rumble (YouTube for people who think Youtube is a plot).. Penny BayBridge, who came in 4th in the 2022 District 13 House Primary with 9.6% and trailed the #3 candidate by 700 votes, is going to attempt to run again as per an announcement she made at a SD Canvassing Rally on 10/19 (about 2 Hours & 3 minutes in).  Maybe she can break 10% this time.
• And in a blast from the past, former State Representative Patricia (Stricherz) Shiery formed a committee yesterday to run for District 8 State Senate.  Shiery, under her former married name Stricherz served in the House from 2011 – 2012. And she was just a peach.  One former House speaker told me the story where she had demanded to know what the state spent heating the Capitol Lake. Since then, she has denied the tale, but that’s how the story was related to me.  (BTW, Capitol Lake is a naturally warm body of water heated by underground artesian wells. Taxpayers don’t pay to keep it warm.).  Since then, she ran unsuccessfully in District 30 in the 2018 Republican Senate Primary (coming in 3rd with 12.7%), before moving back to the Madison area.

Well. Never let it be said elections in South Dakota are boring.

Attorney General Jackley Joins Lawsuit Against Meta For Harming Youth Mental Health

 PIERRE, S.D. – South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley has joined Attorneys General from 41 other states in filing federal or state lawsuits against Meta alleging that the company knowingly designed and developed harmful features on Instagram and other social media platforms that purposefully addicted children and teens.

South Dakota is part of the federal complaint, which includes 32 other states, and was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. It alleges that Meta knew of the harmful impacts that the platforms had on the mental health of young people and that the company misled the public about the harms associated with the use of its platforms.

“Social media use, including Meta platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, has played a major role in the youth mental health issues occurring in America,” said Attorney General Jackley. “Such platforms have led or contributed to physical and emotional harm to children and devastating families. Meta needs to be held accountable for its actions.”

Attorneys Generals also joining the federal lawsuit are from Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina,  Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Florida is filing its own federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

Eight other states filed similar lawsuits in their own state courts. Those states are District of Columbia, Florida, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, and Vermont.

The federal lawsuit can be read here: https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/court-filings/meta-multistate-complaint.pdf

From Twitter, one of the hardest left democrat state legislators in South Dakota isn’t leaving anything to the imagination regarding her position on Abortion, as she declares “abortion is healthcare.”

➡️Mifepristone is a safe and effective option for reproductive healthcare, offering women autonomy over their choices.

➡️Abortion is healthcare, and it’s crucial to support access for all who need it.

➡️It’s time to prioritize women’s health and rights. https://t.co/IkWpGwZBpA

— Rep. Kadyn Wittman (@kadyn_wittman) October 24, 2023

Not so sure everyone agrees.

I had a nice mention today in a number of InForum newspapers, including this version of the article from the Jamestown Sun, on hiring of Dave Roetman:

If North Dakota Republicans were hoping that recent turbulence from new populist, culture warrior leadership of the party would begin to ease, the new executive director that party chair Sandi Sanford has hired is not a good sign.

Dave Roetman, a former official with the South Dakota Republican Party, has been hired to replace former executive director Samantha Holly, who abruptly resigned in September.

and..

According to South Dakota War College, a longtime blog covering South Dakota politics from a right-of-center perspective, Roetman clashed with elected Republicans during his time with the SDGOP.

He also founded a political committee called Ripple Effect “to attack & challenge sitting Republican officeholders,” the blog reports.

That committee participated in a rally against Republican incumbents, as well as an anti-vaccine event.

Read the entire article by North Dakota long-time new media journalist Rob Port here.

Sounds like it might not be as warm a welcome as Dave might have wanted.

This one seems to have come out of left field, but Legislative Research Council Director Reed Holwegner is out after a meeting of the Legislature’s Executive Board today:

Reed Holwegner tendered his resignation as the director of the Legislative Research Council during a meeting of the Executive Board. During the meeting, the 15-member board made up of senators and representatives suspended the board’s rules and went into executive session to discuss the resignation.

and..

It’s unclear why Holwegner resigned. Executive sessions are not open under public meeting laws for purposes of discussing employee issues or consulting with legal counsel.

Read the entire story here.

This seems to have come out of the blue, but keep in mind this is the same LRC Director who acted like there was a “pestering” exception to open records requests during the Ravnsborg impeachment investigation.

So maybe it wasn’t quite out of the blue.

Update.. The Dakota Scout is suggesting the resignation arose because the director couldn’t keep employees there:

Legislative Research Council (LRC) Director Reed Holwegner has stepped down amid concerns about staff retention and office morale in the non-partisan office that provides year-round research, drafting, and support services for state lawmakers.

Read that here.

The Dakota Scout did a story after my post on The Minnehaha’s GOP ex-chair Dave Roetman taking a job as the Executive Director in North Dakota.

Apparently Roetman plans to continue his prior work of factionalizing the South Dakota Republican Party while he’s working up in the colder, unfriendlier Dakota:

An Iowa native, Roetman has been a key player in the South Dakota GOP in recent years, helping non-establishment Republicans gain a foothold within the party and the South Dakota Legislature. He was also paramount in South Dakota Secretary of State Monae Johnson’s upset of former Secretary of State Steve Barnett, who failed to secure the party nomination for reelection in 2022, which sent shockwaves through the state party and served as a precursor to the ouster of former South Dakota GOP chairman Dan Lederman.

and..

Roetman told The Dakota Scout Monday morning that while he’s moving to North Dakota, he intends to maintain a home in Sioux Falls and will remain involved on the periphery of politics in the Mount Rushmore State.

“I will still keep a hand in South Dakota politics, but I expect this to be a two-year gig,” he said.

Read the entire story here.

Not sure if Joe Sneve fell off his motorcycle and bumped his head, because neither Monae Johnson winning at convention, nor party divisions had anything to do whatsoever with Dan Lederman deciding not to run again. (Nevermind he had one of the longest GOP chair tenures in recent decades).

But aside from that, the more interesting thing in the story is that Roetman announced his intent is to continue to stay involved in politics in SD. Which as of late was sowing the seeds of division within the GOP and trying to knock out incumbent officeholders.

So the Executive Director of the North Dakota Republican Party is promising to continue to try to knock out South Dakota Republican elected officials?

We’ll see how that turns out for him.

Does the North Dakota Republican Party actually do any vetting when they hire people?

Because I just saw an announcement that Ex-SDGOP Finance Dir and ousted Minnehaha County GOP Chair Dave Roetman has now been put in charge of the North Dakota Republican Party: