Lisa Rave announces candidacy for District 25 Republican State Senate Nomination

Tonight, Lisa Rave of rural Baltic has announced her intention to run for the nomination to replace State Senator Kris Langer as the Republican candidate for District 25 State Senate.

Langer announced her withdrawal from running for the office this week.  In an announcement sent out tonight, Rave had praise for Senator Langer, noting:

I want to thank Senator Langer for her service to District 25 and the state of South Dakota. Her decision to withdraw from the ballot has presented an opportunity for me to consider public service by representing the people of District 25.

After talking with my family and encouragement from many individuals, I have decided to seek the nomination for the Senate seat in District 25.

I am looking forward to talking about issues important to South Dakota and finding common sense conservative solutions.

Lisa, resides with her husband, Tim, outside of Baltic near the family farm where she grew up. She earned a B.S. in Pharmacy from South Dakota State University and Masters in Business from the University of Sioux Falls. She works as a pharmacist in information technology at Avera with a background in retail and home delivery pharmacy.

Rave served on the South Dakota Board of Pharmacy from 2010 until 2019 and is currently serving as the Vice President of the Board of Directors for Heartland Consumers Power District.

Lisa and Tim’s two children, Thea and Mitch and son-in-law John all live in the Sioux Falls area.

KELOland noting Amazon is coming to Sioux Falls

Wow. Check out this story:

This is your first look at the new building plans for an Amazon Distribution Center that’ll be going up in Foundation Park near I-90 and I-29.

It’s four stories and 2 million square feet. It all falls under the Amazon Fulfillment Commissioning plan obtained by KELOLAND News.

Read it here.

This is going to be massive in terms of jobs and economic input into the state. Good job to the Governor, Mayor, and all who worked to make it happen.

Release: Senator Langer Will Not Seek Re-Election

Senator Langer Will Not Seek Re-Election 

Dell Rapids, SD: State Senator Kris Langer announced today that she will not seek re-election for the District 25 State Senate in 2020. 

“It has been an honor to serve in the South Dakota legislature and to represent the great people of District 25 for the past seven years,” said Langer “Including my time spent as a City Council member in Dell Rapids, I have spent over decade in public service and now I am going to spend more time with my family.  I especially look forward to spending more time with my aging mother and my new grandchildren.” 

Senator Langer will complete her current term.

The only thing worse than a patronizing campaign theme is spelling a patronizing campaign theme incorrectly.

I had someone send this campaign piece to me today from the fair. And to be honest, there are a couple of problems with it that are hard to get past.

Apparently, Republican State Representative Tom Pischke is campaigning for re-election on a theme which seems entirely appropriate for the 20’s. Unfortunately, that would be the 1920’s, before women were given the right to vote.  In a state with a Governor and a Senate Majority Leader who are women.. I’m going to guess that they’d disagree that they need to be singled out for patronization.

Then there’s the other part.  If Tom is going to actually campaign on a theme of protecting ‘women and chidlren,’ (sic) he should hire someone to do his cards that can actually spell ‘children.’

Just sayin’.

As you read here earlier, Ultra-liberal Sioux Falls City Councilor to replace Pam Nelson as candidate on Minnehaha Co. Ballot

In a previous post, I had noted it was rumored, but this morning it has been officially announced that Sioux Falls City Councilor Starr is going to seek to replace Pam Nelson, who has withdrawn from the MInnehaha County Treasurer’s race.

I am announcing today my intent to run for Minnehaha County Treasurer. I will be asking the Minnehaha County Democratic Party Central Committee tonight to place my name on the November Ballot,” Pat Starr said Tuesday morning.

Read that here at KELO-AM

Starr, who’s tenure on the Sioux Falls City Council has been highlighted by attacking gun owners, and recently claimed that that the carving of Mt. Rushmore was “vandals erasing history” is facing Republican Minnehaha County Chairwoman Kris Swanson.

Watch for this race to heat up.

Today is drop-out day for the fall ballot!

Today is actually notable in the fall elections, as according to the Secretary of State, “the deadline to withdraw from the 2020 November 3rd General Election is August 4, 2020 at 5:00 pm local time.”

Furthermore, if you’re thinking of getting out while the getting is good, according to the SOS “There is no registered mail option for the withdrawal form to be received by the filing office after the deadline,” and “the office where the petition was filed must receive the candidate withdrawal form before the county central committee(s) meet(s) to appoint someone to fill the vacant candidate spot.”

Who have we dropped so far? There have already been a couple of replacements, as I reported last week.

Since then we’ve added Josh Halsey, Democrat from District 3 Senate, who has dropped out, as well as Joan Stamm, Democrat of District 8 House.

Republican State Senate Candidate Bill Hines of District 27 also unexpectedly dropped out at the last minute last week, and the GOP is holding a (virtual) replacement meeting to fill the position on Monday, August 10, 2020 at 5 PM – 6 PM, according to an announcement:

Due to the withdrawal of Bill Hines from the District 27 House of Representatives race, the South Dakota Republican Party will be holding a candidate replacement meeting to elect a new candidate.

All members of the County Central Committees (and residents of District 27), from the following counties are invited to attend and vote in an election to replace the candidate:

Bennett, Haakon, Jackson, Oglala Lakota, and a portion of eastern Pennington

Any Republican from District 27 may run for the position. This meeting will be held virtually. If you are interested in attending, please contact SDGOP Political Director, Dave Roetman by emailing dave@southdakotagop.com.

If you’re in those areas, and want to run to be a candidate, reach out to the SDGOP.

After any further ballot dropouts are filed today by 5pm, the deadline for the party central committee(s) to fill vacancies is August 11, 2020 at 5:00 pm local time, so time is short.

Because we need another person claiming they are the expert on what is Republican. Despite not being one.

Have you had a chance to review your legislator’s “FreedomScore” lately? I had a legislator reach out to me today, asking me to review something I’ve seen mentioned across my facebook feed a couple times in recent weeks.

I have never seen such a thorough analysis of SD legislator voting records. Deserves credible review. Note the tabs at the bottom. By Lucas Kobat of Watertown”

Well, I’ve seen it, but I didn’t go into it and dig around because I suspected how it was going to come out. So, over my lunch hour, I went and took a moment. And once again, my biases were confirmed.

To debut my work, I’ve shown the Top 5 SD RINOs below. A RINO is a Republican In Name Only; someone who LIES TO YOUR FACE through a grinning facade…and then proceeds to stab you in the back. If you hold conservative values, these people are not our allies. They are NOT our friends.

Read that here.

Does the scorecard deserve a credible review? Well, I reviewed it. And my correspondent and I might have to agree to disagree.  I don’t see this new scorecard as any different than the Citizens for Liberty group picking and choosing bills to score on their scorecard because they want to highlight the people they like.  Just like the yutzes at CFL, the FreedomScore scorecard is one person framing votes after providing no advocacy on the issues they’re calling conservative or liberal.

It just comes down to personal biases.

The author Lucas Kobat claims in the facebook group he’s created that “this classification was guided by conservative principles found in documents like the US and SD constitutions, the Declaration of Independence, the Ten Commandments, and the Bible.”

So.. it might help if someone might explain to me.. which commandments are the liberal ones and which are the conservative ones?  Same goes with the Constitution. Are parts of the bill of rights good, and others bad?  I’d like someone to explain to me where in the bible does it say that 2019’s HB1232 was a conservative versus liberal issue, as in the “FreedomScore Bill List tab” Kobat termed it the “Give up on truant students” bill, as he claims the proper vote was no.

Considering the bill to lower the compulsory age for school attendance was brought by Representatives Greenfield (Lana), Brunner, Dennert, Glanzer, Marty, and Wiese and Senators Greenfield (Brock), Cronin, Langer, Maher, and Stalzer, I don’t think they’re what you’d classify as liberals. In fact, I doubt any of them would say that the proper vote was no.

Never mind the fact that the truancy issue in this instance is more of a matter of who gets the bill to deal with them – Keeping them in school until a higher age means that schools are stuck dealing with kids who cause trouble and don’t want to be in class until they’re 18, and a lower age means that bad kids are dealt with by court services.

Is either answer a conservative or liberal answer? Not really. Both options stink. All you’re doing is picking which bucket it comes from via different levels of government.  But, that doesn’t mean that legislators should be dinged as liberals for discussing it.

We also have the example with Mr. Kobat claiming that 2019’s SB 140 is a measure to “Give unequal advantages to native american students,” as he claims.  What was the actual purpose of that bill? According to the measure  – which was signed by Governor Kristi Noem – it was actually a bill to “develop programs to increase enrollment and improve retention and student supports for any student who is a member of one of the nine federally recognized tribes in South Dakota at state institutions.”

Is the legislature telling a branch of government to develop programs to try to “increase enrollment and improve retention” for a socioeconomic group of students that matriculates the fewest of the state’s students to college somehow giving Native American students unequal advantage?  Or is it actually doing what we expect government to do – identify problems and try to address them?  After some amending, it passed 52-12 in the house, and 32-0 in the Senate. Does that mean he thinks the Senate is packed with a bunch of RINOs?

Take another bill used in the score – 2019’s SB 4, to “revise certain provisions regarding the classification of agricultural land for property tax purposes.”  While only two in the legislature opposed it (Senators Cronin & Soholt in the Senate, none in the house) in the measure’s entire run, Kobat claims that the proper vote was to vote no and be against the bill he claimed would “Grant ivory tower university elitists the power to determine soil value.”

While some will look at the scores and like or hate the same people, when you dig into the basis for his scoring, it rapidly falls apart, and the cherry picking is strongly evident.

I couldn’t help it, but as Mr. Kobat started out his crusade by calling others a “Republican In Name Only,” I had to look what his registration actually is.

And I quickly found and have to point out that many of those he’s calling names successfully ran in and all were able to vote in the Republican Primary a couple of months ago. But unlike these legislators, our RINO caller would not seem to be able to do that very thing himself. Because the only Lucas Kobat I find in the voter database is registered as an Independent.

So, an Indy is telling everyone how to be a good Republican? I think Lora Hubbel was doing that for a while. Pardon me if I don’t put much stock in that.  If Mr. Kobat is going to claim to be an authority on who is a good or bad Republican, and call officeholders RINO’s.. he might start by actually registering as Republican.

Otherwise, it might seem as if the author “LIES TO YOUR FACE through a grinning facade.”  Or so, as he might say.

Update – Good catch by another legislator:

Did you notice that the district map that the freedoms score project used is not even close to correct? If they can’t even get that right why should we trust them to even begin to comprehend what went into the votes?

And they’re 100% correct..  I’m not sure what maps Mr. Kobat was using.. but they weren’t any maps drawn within the last 9-9 1/2 years.

(Official Release): USD Law School Receives Historic Gift, Honors David Knudson with Renaming

(Editor’s note – The USD Law School has posted the release regarding it’s renaming, and I’m sharing so you can read the entire thing, since it has a lot of detail the Argus story left out.)

USD Law School Receives Historic Gift, Honors David Knudson with Renaming

Knudson School of Law SealVERMILLION, S.D. – To honor the legacy of Sioux Falls lawyer, businessman and public servant David Knudson, the University of South Dakota’s law school will take on the name of the University of South Dakota Knudson School of Law, as announced today.

The naming of the USD Knudson School of Law is the result of a $12.5 million gift from Knudson’s friend and colleague, T. Denny Sanford. The gift will ensure the law school remains a national leader in excellence, service and leadership.

“It’s quite meaningful to see an investment of this size and to see the vision Mr. Sanford and Mr. Knudson have for securing the future of law in the state of South Dakota,” said USD President Sheila K. Gestring. “The USD Knudson School of Law is the only law school in the state, and most of our graduates practice in the state and regionally. This gift is very important to continuing law in South Dakota.”

“This gift is tremendous because it more than doubles the size of our current endowment at the law school, and it will fund up to 10 full-tuition student scholarships for every incoming class,” said Neil Fulton, dean of the law school. “It literally changes the lives of 10 students every year, and it gives us the opportunity to help 10 students begin their careers right here in South Dakota.”

Born and raised in Yankton, South Dakota, Knudson has served the state in many capacities. After earning his bachelor’s degree from Harvard University (1972) and a juris doctor degree from New York University (1975), Knudson returned to his home state to practice law. He started working for Davenport, Evans, Hurwitz & Smith, LLP, and in 1978, he became a partner. It is at the firm where Knudson began representing Sanford, beginning a collaboration that has lasted decades. Through their working relationship, the two formed a lifelong friendship that has in major ways transformed South Dakota.

In 1981, Knudson received his M.B.A. from the University of South Dakota. He went on to serve as chief of staff for South Dakota Gov. William J. Janklow in both 1995 and 1999 and as chair of the Governor’s Task Force on Managed Care in 1995 and chair of the Governor’s Task Force on Physician Recruitment in 1996. He was chair of the Governor’s Task Force on Trust Law Reform and Administration, a position he held for 15 years. Knudson was on the City of Sioux Falls Charter Revision Commission from 1998-2000, and he continues to serve the city through philanthropy today. He is on the Washington Pavilion Board of Trustees, the chair of the Stewardship Committee at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church and is co-chair of the Great Plains Zoo Fundraising Campaign.

Knudson served the state as a South Dakota senator from 2003-2011 and a Senate majority leader from 2007-2011. He was vice-chair for the education committee and the legislative procedure. Knudson is a member of the South Dakota Bar Association.

Knudson worked at Sanford Health as a senior vice president from 2010-2013, and he is now senior vice president at United National Corporation. Knudson resides in Sioux Falls with his wife De, a USD alumnus. They married in 1976 and have two sons, one in which – Michael – is also a USD alumnus.

“Dave chose to come back to South Dakota because he cares about his home,” said Fulton. “Dave is a perfect example of what a lawyer can do here in South Dakota, and for the students of the law school to walk in the front door every day and see ‘USD Knudson School of Law,’ it’s transformative.”