Author: @SoDakCampaigns

Someone isn’t having a good day. Especially after this morning, when Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken announced who he was endorsing in the races for City Council:

I say someone wasn’t having a good day, as former Brookings Democrat and more recently Sioux Falls resident Pam (Merchant) Cole, who happens to be a candidate not selected for endorsement by the Mayor, had a bit of a public freak-out about the whole thing:

So, not only does she crab about not being an endorsee, she goes hard negative on Rich Merkouris.

I get the impression that this campaign is going to continue to not go well for Pam.

So far there has been one person removed from the ballot so far as a result of a petition challenge, Democrat Alexandra Frederick of Winner South Dakota was bumped from running as a candidate for District 26A State House.

But she wasn’t bumped by Republicans. She was bumped by Sioux Falls Democrat party activist, Cully Williams:

Interesting.

Apparently, the LRC has labored on despite being pestered, and the Majority and Minority Reports of the House Select Committee on Investigation are now available. And instead of having to slog through them int he LRC website, I have them below for your review:

Majority Report:

Majority Report Select Committee by Pat Powers on Scribd

Minority Report:

Minority Report Impeachment by Pat Powers on Scribd

From the Argus Leader, the Director of the Legislative Research Council seems to think there’s a “pestering” exception to the open records laws:

“When we stop being pestered by legislators and the public,” Legislative Research Council Director Reed Holwegner responded to an inquiry by the Argus Leader regarding when more than 70 materials that have been reviewed by the House Select Committee on Investigation prior to issuing a report recommending Ravnsborg not be impeached Monday.

Read that here.

If this is the kind of reverence for open government the head of the LRC has, I’m kind of wondering why they haven’t fired him yet.

Whoof. This does not appear to be a good year for Democrat Legislative chances.

Democrats filed for 44 Legislative Candidates by the end of the day today. To Republicans’ 154 – almost 50 more than there are legislative seats to be had.

And some of those Democrats are obvious placeholders.

Keep reading, as there will be more to come on this.

From the peanut gallery, we have challenger candidates speaking about how they view the petitioning process..

There’s one down, as expected..

Mark Mowry is praying he has enough valid signatures…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thank you Republicans of South Dakota for participating with our historic campaign to Secure Our Rights and to Keep The Republic. Life, Liberty, Property and Defense thereof.
Please read the full Press Release at https://t.co/qgjQZy6Fb6

— Bruce Whalen for US Senate (@Whalen4USSenate) March 23, 2022

And Bruce Whalen also thinks he has enough…

We’ll see how this all goes.

Hot off the press from the Bruce Whalen for US Senate Campaign at 5:45 tonight..

Yeah.. that might be a little late.

Maybe they should have sprung forward last week?

Petitioning is closed, and here’s what’s in so far. We will see more coming, as stragglers show up in the mail. I’ve got 22 Republican and 1 Democrat Primary for the House…

And in the Senate, I have 15 primary elections..

And I’m sure there’s still more to come..

Thune to Oppose Judge Jackson’s Nomination to the Supreme Court
“I can only vote to confirm a justice whom I believe will respect the separation of powers and the limited role of a justice and refuse to allow her personal opinions to influence her decisions on the bench.”

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

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) today spoke on the Senate floor regarding Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.

From Dakota News Now comes Spencer Gosch’s announcement for running for Senate, where he claims to have led “the state and the legislature through Covid 19, three stimulus packages, redistricting, and economically record setting years for the state of South Dakota.”

After much speculation, current Speaker of the House Spencer Gosch (R-Glenham) confirmed he’ll be running for Senate in 2022. pic.twitter.com/QJYKLzrULQ

— Austin Goss (@AustinGossSD) March 29, 2022

I guess that’s one way to view it.