Author: @SoDakCampaigns

Liz May might claim she’s over performing when paying people for petition signatures, but Dusty Johnson had a good month in fundraising:

Dusty Johnson April 2020 FEC by Pat Powers on Scribd

$193,424.00 raised against $64,813.12 spent, leaving Dusty $743,708.28 in his main account. That’s nothing to sneeze at.

Especially when you compare it to Liz May’s gasping $34k in contributions… hang on…

From my mailbox, Liz May’s campaign handler is claiming Liz May outperformed Dusty Johnson in collecting petition signatures:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 14, 2020

PRESS CONTACT
[email protected]
605-430-1221

Liz Marty May’s grassroots effort outperforms
Dusty Johnson’s establishment organization.

Republican Candidate Liz Marty May’s grassroots effort paid off big time. Since her campaign kick-off announcement on February 1, she and her army of 83+ volunteers collected 2,796 valid petition signatures.

That is 1,066 more than the required amount, and 776 more than Incumbent Dusty Johnson collected.

“I am blown away by the tremendous amount of support my campaign has received. This is probably the biggest grassroots movement that South Dakota has seen in a long time. Our volunteers worked day and night collecting signatures. You know it’s a powerful movement when we exceed the required amount of signatures amidst a health pandemic,” says May.

Since Coronavirus, campaigns have had to pivot their strategy to reach voters. The Liz Marty May campaign is relying heavily on good ole’ fashion grassroots with a dose of digital technology to ensure voters’ voices are heard on June 2nd.

“I’m under Martial Law on the reservation, we can’t leave. We’ve made adjustments and are now working smarter. South Dakotans’ are hurting financially, especially the ag community. We aren’t counting on out-fundraising Dusty Johnson’s incumbent war chest, we are counting on our powerful grassroots movement. Our petition numbers don’t lie. The conservative base is fired up. The ranchers are fired up. And those tired of the status quo are fired up. Coronavirus changes a lot, but not that,” states May.

In light of Coronavirus, the SD Secretary of State will be mailing absentee ballot applications to every registered voter between April 17-24. Voters are encouraged to complete their application as soon as possible to allow for delivery and processing times. Once an application is verified by the county auditor, a ballot will be mailed to the voter.

Liz Marty May is a proud 4th generation South Dakotan, a successful small business owner and a trusted rancher. She is running for Congress for the ranchers seeking relief from unfair trade practices, for the farmers who feed the world, for the small businesses trying to turn a profit, and for our future generations.

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Apparently, you can claim that you’re overperforming when you’re paying people $10 a pop in travel credits.

From President Donald Trump on Twitter:

‘Having been involved in the negotiations, to put it mildly, the number that OPEC+ is looking to cut is 20 Million Barrels a day, not the 10 Million that is generally being reported. If anything near this happens, and the World gets back to business from the Covid 19 …’

Oil production is reportedly getting ready to be slashed internationally as noted by President Trump, and MarketWatch:

President Donald Trump on Monday via Twitter is saying that a historic weekend deal struck between OPEC and some of the biggest oil producers on the planet could be more substantial than what has been announced.

The president’s tweet suggests that a global output cut by 9.7 million barrels a day struck by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and the U.S. could be doubled. That 20 million figure would be closer to what commodity experts say is required to sop up excess crude swirling in the market and address a shock to demand caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thune Releases Second U.S. Government Video Lesson: How a Bill Becomes a Law

“I thought since we were going to continue to do remote learning, we’d pick up on our government class. I thought what I’d do is give you a little example of a bill that we passed recently – of how a bill becomes a law.”  

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

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) today released his second U.S. government video lesson in which he gives a brief overview of how a bill becomes a law. Thune used his TRACED Act, a law to combat illegal robocallers, as an example. Thune previously released a video lesson in which he gave a brief overview of how the federal government works.

“By now, we all know that you won’t be returning to the classroom for the balance of this school year, and I’m very sorry and disappointed to hear that. I know this can be a wonderful time of the year, when the spring season rolls around. You’ve got spring sports, music recitals, graduation receptions, graduation ceremonies, and all those sorts of things. All I want to tell you is that I feel your pain, and I just appreciate what you guys are having to put up with and having to go through.

“As I’ve experienced in my lifetime, when I go through adversity, oftentimes it strengthens my faith and gives me a greater appreciation for my family and friends, and I hope that somewhere down the road as you look back on this experience, there will be some things that you have learned from and some things that you have grown from as a result of it.

“I thought since we were going to continue to do remote learning, we’d pick up on our government class. I thought what I’d do is give you a little example of a bill that we passed recently – of how a bill becomes a law.”

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Taking a moment aside from the coronavirus pandemic, the City of Sioux Falls is rolling out a new logo for the City and some participating entities today:

DSS offers help to families in need 

PIERRE – The COVID-19 pandemic has brought uncertainty to individuals and families across South Dakota including financial hardships and the Department of Social Services (DSS) reminds the public it has programs to help.

“The mission of the Department of Social Services is to create strong families,” said DSS Cabinet Secretary Laurie Gill. “When families are struggling, there are options to help support and strengthen them.”

For families dealing with financial stress, there are economic assistance programs available through DSS that may help. Programs include assistance with nutrition, home heating, and healthcare expenses, as well as temporary financial assistance for very low-income families with children who are deprived of parental support. Eligibility varies by program. To apply, go online to dss.sd.govand click on the Economic Assistance tab or call your local DSS office. Contact information for offices across South Dakota is available by clicking on the Find Your Local Office link at dss.sd.gov.

Childcare assistance is also available to families who meet income guidelines and minimum work and/or school requirements. Additional information including application forms are available by clicking on the Child Care tab at dss.sd.gov.

“These are difficult times and the Department of Social Services is committed to helping support families through them,” Gill said. “If an individual lost their job or a family had wages significantly reduced, that can add a lot of stress to an already difficult situation. We are here to help when families need it.”

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In case you were wondering if we were trapped in an alternate reality…

From Facebook:

The Media Research Center has picked up and amplified some recent comments Governor Kristi Noem has made regarding the media not reporting all the fact, and picking and choosing things to generate headlines:

Governor Noem is showing she is up to the COVID-19 challenge and we should be grateful she is in charge.

By Troy Jones, Guest Columnist

Facts (as of today, even after the new cases at Smithfield):

Cases:
USA per million: 1,750
So. Dak. per million: 1,000
SFSD SMSA per million: 2,730
NYNY SMSA per million: 9,200

Deaths
USA per million: 67
So. Dak. per million: 7
SFSD SMSA per million: 12
NYNY SMSA per million: 290

Fortunately, the key factor regarding infections (and lower deaths) is to manage infections to our hospital capacity. South Dakota is still well within the projected capacity of needed hospital beds even after these new infections. Plus, the Governor just announced we have been approved to deploy in clinical trials one of the most promising treatments – hydroxychloroquine – which hopefully will decrease deaths and stress on our hospitals.

We don’t have evidence of broad-based substantial community spread. We have evidence of minimal community spread and a single concentrated spread. South Dakota had a similar situation in Beadle County where Governor Noem deployed Department of Health resources to contact trace, isolate those who were infected, and today they have no active cases. Doesn’t it make sense to do the same thing in Sioux Falls with a similar concentrated spread?

Unfortunately, Mayor TenHaken has panicked with his request to the Governor for Shelter-in-Place for three weeks with no real evidence shelter in place has had a discernible impact.

1) Over the last four weeks, Germany, UK, France, Italy, & Spain (total population is the same as US) have been under shelter-in-place orders and have added 575,000 in new cases. Over the same period, the US has added 537,000 cases. Further, shelter in place has not proven effective at all in protecting the elderly and vulnerable as these European nations experienced 48,000 deaths over this period while the US experienced less than 15,000.

2) Sweden without hardly any coercive action (similar to what Governor Noem has done) has virtually the same cases per capita as Denmark and Norway who issued coercive stay at home actions. More important, Sweden’s has experienced 91 deaths per million while Germany, UK, France, Italy, & Spain have experienced 208 deaths per million.

3) Over three weeks ago, the Governor of NY issued his “stay at home” order. Yet after three weeks, they are still adding cases and people are dying at a higher rate than they were when the order went into effect. Today, the Governors of NY, NJ, & Conn. are beginning the planning of opening their economies while their daily deaths per million population are 4x what SD has experienced in TOTAL deaths per million.

Reason: It is becoming increasingly evident that individual actions (wash, wipe, sanitize, wear cloth masks and isolate the elderly/vulnerable) has a much higher correlation of flat curves than coercive actions imposed over long periods of time.

4) Besides the impact on people’s financial condition and no discernible impact on preventing the spread of Covid and corresponding deaths, domestic violence surges under shelter-at-home orders. In France since their order, DV is up 35%. In the US, law enforcement has preliminarily reported a 30% increase nationwide.

Now think of this. Mayor TenHaken asked the Governor for a Stay at Home Order but couldn’t tell us how this would look beyond what is happening right now.

If he doesn’t know this detail of what this would look like, there is no way to assess if it will make any difference, whether this is the right time to do it, or how long it can stay in place. His order request is just “doing something to do something” without regard whether it will have an impact or unintended consequences. Good leaders have the capacity to play decisions out, weighing the realistic outcomes against the unintended consequences and not succumbing to a mob mentality or panicking.

Or, if he does know the detail of what his request would mean, he isn’t being forthright. For what it is worth, when Mayor TenHaken was asking for greater powers from the Legislature, he was asked for an example of what he action he was thinking about and under what condition. He evaded the question from the Legislature and then closed the parks the very next day, which doesn’t indicate an attitude of forthrightness or transparency.

But, in his press conference he seemed to be ready for National Guard enforcement of whatever was included in the Order? Really? Martial Law? Must be pretty draconian to think it would need the National Guard. After watching his press conference today, I want to applaud our legislature for denying expanded powers to Mayors. Authority is to be given only if one is confident they are capable of exercising that authority with Wisdom, Justice, Prudence and Temperance.

Mayor TenHaken presents a demeanor of panic and not of true leadership when presented with the decisions facing our city with huge consequences making a comparison to Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer appropriate. True leadership appeals to our better nature to inspire our best efforts to protect ourselves and others each and every minute. Edicts by fiat exhibit an attitude the people of Sioux Falls have to be forced to do the right thing. We are better than that and deserve leadership who inspires and not dictates.

Governor Noem is showing she is up to the challenge and we should be grateful she is in charge.