Author: @SoDakCampaigns

From the Minneapolis Star & Tribune, a former Democrat Party operative in accused in a lawsuit of defrauding several South Dakota cannabis companies, including 605 Cannabis, the company co-founded by Melissa Mentele, who worked on several ballot measures to legalize pot in the state:

Dakota Natural Growers, 605 Cannabis and about two dozen of their investors filed a lawsuit in Hennepin County in December against Will Hailer, eSt Ventures LLC, Badlands Fund GP LLC and Badlands Ventures LLC. The lawsuit claims that Hailer and the three funds Hailer manages solicited a total of $3.5 million in investments with the “intention of stealing and/or misappropriating most of the money

and..

The parties reached a settlement agreement late last year that would have had Badlands Ventures pay about $1 million to Dakota Natural Growers and nearly $600,000 to 605 Cannabis. A document filed in court shows the agreement was signed by Hailer.

But the money was never sent, according to the lawsuit seeking the return of $1.68 million plus attorneys’ fees and unspecified “punitive damages.”

Read the entire story here.

I wasn’t there but there was a comment from the podium at this week’s Hughes County Lincoln Day Dinner about Senator Rounds’ future that has people chattering a bit.

In the introductions for Senator Rounds from his former Chief of Staff Rob Skjonsberg, I’m told it ended with a comment about Rounds “serving closer to home” in the future.

The nature of that potential service closer to home has tongues wagging and is generating more talk about Rounds running for a third term as Governor, when his Senate term completes and the next Governor’s race is up, both coinciding in 2026, further adding fuel to the rumor I had written about at the start of the month.

I’m sure there are those like Lt. Governor Larry Rhoden, Congressman Dusty Johnson, and others who might take issue with Rounds attempting to return, so we’ll see. There are a lot of months between now and the 2026 Governor’s race, so I’m sure we will be talking more about it between now and then.

Looks like the race for South Dakota Democrat party Chair is heating up to be a lukewarm contest.

In advertising for the Minnehaha County Democrat Forum over at the Nebraska based Dakota Free Press, an ad has been posted noting that the candidates for SDDP Chair are speaking at the Minnehaha Democrat Forum tomorrow, with speakers being State Democrat Vice Chair Jennifer Slaight-Hansen and John Cunningham.

This is the first indication we’ve seen that Cunningham is being challenged for the job and the Vice-Chair is officially in the hunt for a promotion.

We’ve already pointed out John Cunningham’s background in a prior post..

Cunningham had ran for the chairmanship previously, in 2019, where he was unsuccessful against Paula Hawks, receiving 12% of the vote at the time.  (With Hawks later running far away and fast when she figured out how bad things were. )

In the 2022 election for South Dakota Treasurer, Cunningham lost to Josh Haeder on a 2-1 basis 67.7% to 32.3%, which is not really demonstrative of the ability to generate efforts that might post a threat to Republican dominance in the state.

Read that here.

We’ve also covered Jennifer Slaight-Hansen a time or two in the past while she was on the Aberdeen City Council.

Such as when she claimed Al Novstrup talking about a Right-to-Life/FHA Legislative recap luncheon was a slight against her campaign…

And she denied being the Brown County Democrat Party chair to a constituent.. despite the fact she was ACTUALLY the Brown County Democrat party chair...

And her City Council race when she was crushed on a 2-1 basis…

If the candidates for South Dakota Democrat Party Chair are John Cunningham and Jennifer Slaight-Hansen, I think I can safely speak for a lot of South Dakota Republicans in noting that we are absolutely good with either one of these choices.

Both Cunningham and Slaight-Hansen will help preserve the electoral dominance that the South Dakota Republican Party has enjoyed for over a decade now, and give us a grand opportunity to expand our grace with the voters of South Dakota.

Carry on, Dems!

From Twitter:

Equivalent to coal in your stocking, House Approps votes to lower the sales tax rate from 4.5 percent to 4.2 percent. pic.twitter.com/a8PPc62ltx

— Representative Mary Fitzgerald District 31 House (@mjfitzyy) February 22, 2023

Honestly, that was not far off of what I was thinking. Now we may have to figure up 6.2% sales tax…

Governor Noem Closes State Government Offices for Winter Storm

PIERRE, S.D. – Today, Gov. Kristi Noem ordered all state government executive branch offices in certain counties to be closed Wednesday, Feb. 22, because of the winter storms in South Dakota.

State offices are closed in the following counties: Aurora, Beadle, Brookings, Brown, Buffalo, Campbell, Clark, Codington, Davison, Day, Deuel, Douglas, Edmunds, Faulk, Grant, Hamlin, Hand, Hanson, Hutchinson, Hyde, Jerauld, Kingsbury, Lake, Lincoln, Marshall, McCook, McPherson, Miner, Minnehaha, Moody, Potter, Sanborn, Spink, Sully, Turner, Walworth.

While executive branch offices in these counties will be closed, state employees will be working remotely.

Much of the Eastern part of the state is in a blizzard warning from 6am Wednesday until 12pm Thursday. The Western part and the southeasternmost portion of the state will be in a winter storm warning.

Snowfall of between 8-18 inches is expected across the state over the next two days. Winds will pick up overnight and into Wednesday, especially in the eastern part of the state. On Thursday, temperatures are expected to drop to around -20°.

Citizens should be prepared to stay home if possible. Many state highways already have no travel advised, and numerous roads are physically blocked. Portions of I-29 and I-90 will close at 10pm on Tuesday night. If South Dakotans must travel, they should check the sd511.org or the SD511 mobile app.

###

If we eliminate the sales tax on groceries, it will benefit SOUTH DAKOTANS. Every South Dakotan eats.

Lowering the overall sales tax would be a far bigger benefit to tourists.

Let’s keep our tax cut focused on South Dakotans. pic.twitter.com/qxy6VGmI5X

— Kristi Noem (@KristiNoem) February 21, 2023

Referring back to yesterday when my spies sent me over what is said to be Julie Frye-Mueller’s next attempt to shift blame from her harassment of a legislative employee and resulting censure, one item in the latest supposed plan to get revenge on all her colleagues for suspending lamented that Frye-Mueller was “unconstitutionally stripped of her rights, duties, and function of office, and subsequently intimidated, threatened with criminal prosecution, maligned by her fellow legislators…” yadda, yadda, yadda…  “and her constituents were left disenfranchised and unrepresented.”

Referring to the three days she was put in time-out while the Senate investigated the extent of her alleged harassment of a legislative employee, JFM claims that during this period her constituents were left disenfranchised and unrepresented?

Neverminding that Frye-Mueller skipped the Friday after she was suspended. And ignoring that 6 days she missed in 2021, and 5 days in 2022. Her people claim when she was forcibly suspended that THIS TIME her constituents were left disenfranchised and unrepresented!

But really, were they left disenfranchised because of her absence (in a string of them)? Or it the quality of what she is able to accomplish (or not accomplish) her problem? Because a glance of her legislative record this session does not paint a pretty picture as to how she’s doing for her voters.

Let’s look at the measures that the Legislative Research Council has her noted as prime sponsor for, along with where those measures are in the process…

Status	Bill	Title
Deferred to 41st Day	HB 1072	subject lithium to severance tax.
Deferred to 41st Day	SB 122	address the potential abuse of opiate and opioid drugs.
Deferred to 41st Day	SB 123	require certain reviews and updating of voter registration records and data sharing.
Deferred to 41st Day	SB 124	update maintenance and verification requirements for voter registration files.
Deferred to 41st Day	SB 125	prohibit the imposition of additional immunization requirements on children.
Deferred to 41st Day	SB 126	expand the availability of emergency services in state parks.
Deferred to 41st Day	SB 128	remove the option to register to vote by a signed statement.
Withdrawn at the Request of the Prime Sponsor	SJR 503	Proposing and submitting to the voters at the next general election an amendment to the Constitution of the State of South Dakota, limiting the amount of ad valorem tax on real property, and limiting the increase in the assessed value of real property.

With a third of the legislative session yet to go, every single one of Frye-Mueller’s bills have been killed, with the exception of the Joint Resolution she herself withdrew.

If her people try to turn in the weird “Victim Impact Statements” claiming they were somehow left “disenfranchised and unrepresented?” There’s a legislative record that would seem to disagree.

If they feel “disenfranchised and unrepresented,” it’s not necessarily the Senate’s fault. Taking a look at what she’s gotten done while she was there, the problem might just be Julie herself.

Hot off the press, it looks like Julie Frye-Mueller is going back at her fellow senators as she attempts to gin up to get people to file “Victim Impact Statements” and individualized affidavits in support of the prosecution of 27 of her fellow state Senators as claimed by this blank affidavit…  “unconstitutionally stripped of her rights, duties, and function of office, and subsequently intimidated, threatened with criminal prosecution, maligned by her fellow legislators, denied access to essential legislative resources and state email communications, deprived of her committee assignments, and her constituents were left disenfranchised and unrepresented.”

(No word about affidavits being filed for the day she just plain skipped session.)

I have to go back and look, but wasn’t the vote 33 – 1?   Where is the victim impact statement against Arch Beal, Red Dawn Foster, Brent Hoffman, Wiik, Wink?

The word I’m getting passed to me from my spies is that Senator Frye-Mueller supposedly wants this kept under wraps until Wednesday, as if it leaked early, it would ruin all of their plans.

So, this is just between us.. don’t go telling everyone that we have more stupidity coming from Julie Frye-Mueller in an attempt to shift blame for her actions.

In today’s article on how South Dakotans are racist, the Argus Leader has managed to find a way to make fishing about the white male patriarchy because many South Dakotans have traditionally not cared for carp.

It wasn’t a picture-perfect image of racial harmony, however; when white fishers discard a perfectly good fish like gar, David said that’s evidence some societal ley lines have yet to be crossed.

and..

This term, “rough fish,” is part of a racially biased vocabulary among the predominantly white fishing community, according to David, the fisheries expert who also runs Nicholls State University’s Gar Laboratory.

and..

According to a 2021 research paper from the American Fisheries Society, which David contributed to, European and white males have historically dominated the fisheries science in the U.S. Early fishery organizations, including the aforementioned society, laid the foundations of the nation’s management systems for freshwater fish, David said. However, since their contemporary leadership entirely or nearly-entirely comprised of white men, they followed a distinctly Euro-centric view.

Read the story on how most fisherman are racists here.

Nothing to do with the fact that many carp are bottom feeders, and people don’t care for the taste.

Darned white male patriarchy. Now they’re ruining fishing too.

Or maybe people just fish what they like to fish, and the Argus is calling it a white-male bias because their stylebook tells them that’s what they have to say. 

I had promised to post the vote on Senate Bill 40 this last week, and then I flew to the east coast for a visit to my daughter,  so I wanted to get back to the topic.

As of this writing, SB 40 will go to the House State Affairs committee in the coming days.  It may be a while, as the House is supposedly going to take a look at reworking it to make it more palatable, as it was a close vote in the Senate. Stay tuned for more on this.