Author: @SoDakCampaigns

This might be a Flashback Friday for the Governor.

The other day I was planning on hunting for some buttons around Fargo. I was bringing an entertainment cabinet up to my oldest for her apartment last weekend, since we’re putting in an electric fireplace. So I pulled up Facebook rummage sale for the area, thinking I might be able to snag some political pins.

And.. wait a minute… Grouped with a pile of non-political pins. One seller in the middle of nowhere clearing out his mom’s stuff had a pin that I had suspected might exist for years, but had never been able to find an example.

There it was. I FOUND IT!  The very first button on which – now Governor – Kristi Noem made an appearance. Except she wasn’t Governor, or even Congresswoman then. She wasn’t even Noem then. But Kristi was on a pin because she had won the Snow Queen crown at the previous years’ Snow Queen festival in 1990.

Now, the pin isn’t perfect, as it has some “foxing” – the rust colored spots that sometimes occur from the materials used to make the pinback.  But it’s still the only example I’ve been able to find since Kristi rose to prominence in the political scene, and it makes a great starting point to chronicle her public service career in political buttons.

And who knows? If Governor Noem rises to national office, it might also be worth a few shekels as it will become highly desirable for those in the political collector community.

For political item collectors, sometimes it’s all about the hunt, and confirming that something exists that you only suspected might be out there.

Now my only challenge is finding one in better condition. But until then, it will be added to my collection of pins for South Dakota political figures.

South Dakota is a Rising Star as a Recovery Leader
By: Governor Kristi Noem
August 20, 2021

It may not surprise many here at home, but South Dakota is leading the nation in recovery! Moody’s Analytics and CNN track how far along the nation’s economy is at getting “Back to Normal,” and they say that the US is only 92 percent recovered. But South Dakota is the top-ranked state in this metric at 113 percent, meaning we’ve more than recovered and are growing substantially! Second-place Idaho is far behind us at just 103 percent. Obviously, CNN is no friend to me or my policies, but even they can admit that South Dakota’s economy is thriving.

For four of the last five years, a separate ranking firm named Sioux Falls the top city in the nation for young professionals based on affordability, demographics, and entertainment options. And thanks to our scenic parks in West River, the undeniable draw of Mount Rushmore, and our respect for freedom, the state is leading the nation in tourism, according to the U.S. Travel Association.

Well before these rankings were published, I was working with lawmakers to build on the popularity of our state as businesses and Americans, in general, started looking for a place to land amid pandemic shutdowns. From January to March this year, the legislature succeeded in delivering key solutions to priority issues. Those include access to high-speed internet, investing in health care recruitment, and providing new programs to strengthen our public school system.

We delivered $100 million this past session for rural broadband access, which will continue to open doors of opportunity for small businesses looking to expand via e-commerce. The legislature appropriated nearly $1 million for recruiting healthcare professionals to the state, with a strong focus on rural health care providers. Additionally, the state expanded the ability of Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists to work with dentists and other non-physician practitioners. We even streamlined a process to allow licensed out-of-state healthcare professionals to work in South Dakota.

We also addressed the need for more access to mental health services with a combined $7.6 million appropriated for crisis stabilization facilities in Rapid City and Sioux Falls. As we look to expand access to high-speed internet statewide, we also authorized more telehealth services to allow South Dakotans to access the care they need.

No plan for our state’s future would be complete without an investment in schools and educators. That’s why I fought to deliver a salary increase for teachers, and expanded the ability of school districts to raise local tax dollar investments. For high school seniors looking at colleges and universities, we established the South Dakota Freedom Scholarship with an initial state investment of $50 million. When partnered with donations from PREMIER Bank, T. Denny Sanford, Sanford Health, and Avera Health, the scholarship endowment will start at $175 million!

To ensure we continue to be a recovery leader and a friendly environment for people to start and grow their businesses, I fought to pass House Bill 1259. The bill creates incentives that encourage more businesses to construct facilities in cities and counties throughout the state. I also cut red tape that prevented South Dakotans from being able to start small businesses in their homes.

Speaking of homes, we secured $3 million for the Housing Opportunity Fund to develop more workforce housing as the state continues to grow its population and businesses relocate their employees here.

For our veterans returning home, we invested $400,000 for the veterans’ bonus program and modified tuition requirements for veterans, armed forces personnel, and their families. We want to continue our record of being the number one state in the nation for veterans to live and work. And for our aging veteran population, I helped secure more than $300,000 for improvements to our State Veterans Home.

The data is still pouring in on how our policies are creating one of the best business environments for entrepreneurs and existing business owners. A WalletHub survey in July found that South Dakota was in the Top 10 for health care. And just this week, the Inc. 5000 fastest-growing companies in the country included 10 South Dakota-based businesses. These are good indications that our future is bright.

As we look ahead to the 2022 legislative session, I am committed to working hard for you so that employers and employees can continue to grow and thrive in South Dakota.

###

The South Dakota Democrat Party must be running a telethon or something, as we have the second 10k donation out of the entertainment industry showing up on their latest FEC Report. And they’re still backsliding, which won’t be helped by their recently announced $7200 fine:

Sddp August 2020 Fec by Pat Powers on Scribd

State Democrats are reporting that they started this month with $52,738.97, and added $45,751.43 to the total. And then they spent $51,470.39, about 6k more than they brought in, leaving them $47,020.01 cash on hand.

This is not moving them in the right direction.

Of that $45,751.43 they brought in, $17,941.17 were transfers in from Affiliated/Other Party Committees. So they really didn’t raise it, as much as were gifted it to keep the lights on.

And from here, we get into those donations. There were a lot of the expected ones from the party faithful, such as Brendan Johnson, Tom Daschle, and various current and former legislators. Renee Christianson, the attorney who has her ads on TV gave them $100. Taneeza Islam of South Dakota Voices for Peace dropped them a $550 check.

We have the Carpenters Legislative Improvement Committee of Washington DC donating $4375, but then here’s the weird one:

Buried in the report is a $10,000 donation from Broadway producer Edward Snowdon, Jr. (The Elephant Man, Spring Awakening). Because Broadway producers have a thing for Democrat State organizations in the midwest which can’t keep their door open?

But even weirder, is that this $10,000 donation is marked as having been received November 21, 2019. It’s two years old, and now only being reported?  And it’s marked as being a “memo item”.. but I don’t see a note in that field. Hmm..

I have to question whether this might be part of the practices that the FEC had recommended.

It’s been a while since I’ve visited the crazy known as “Primary John Thune in 2022,” on Facebook so I thought I’d check it out in case I missed anything new and interesting.  Aaaaand.. no. The facebook group is still like finding a dirty diaper on top of your car. You should just know to not look.

First off, evidence that one of our US Senate hopefuls Mark Mowry is actually campaigning. And we get a glimpse at his campaign piece.

One of the grammarians in the audience should chime in. I’m not sure if that’s a run on sentence on the front of his campaign piece, or a plain old incoherent rant. And we find out that he’s going to be at a secret Perkins for a meet & greet (message him for details.) He will be there at 3:00 pm.. And his hat will be there at 6.

We also find out that our other US Senate hopeful, Bruce Whalen, was recently diagnosed with COVID:

Bruce Whalen thinks he was infected with COVID on July 22nd. Hmm.. what was that Bruce was doing on the 22nd?

Oh No! Instead of Freedom, he was either catching COVID or pitching COVID at the Primary Thune group’s Freedom Rally. Now, I only saw 20 or so people in the early pictures, but they claim there were 200, so who knows how many were there to grab ahold of COV..  er, Freedom.

And we also learned in the Primary John Thune group that this last week, we didn’t just have Mike Lindell in Sioux Falls – We had Witches!

“The airport was closed down in their town in S Dakota just to keep Christians from coming into stand with Mike Lindell. ” and “Angie said the witches were blatantly all over & people adamantly against them & anyone who is for Trump or Lindell.”

This was “from a friend” and all I can tell you is that Medical Marijuana has only been legal for a few short weeks, and this friend must have some heavy duty medication!  (I hope they get well soon).

in response to the call by some legislators for a special session to create laws to prevent businesses from determining how they want to handle employees who refuse to vaccinate, COVID Governor Kristi Noem is responding to the issue by giving a big thumbs down to more government regulation:

In response to a comment request from The Federalist, Gov. Noem insisted “Conservatives should always be opposed to big government.” Her spokesman, Ian Fury, added: “Our system does not allow [the governor] to dictate that private businesses require or not require vaccinations of their employees – nor does she have the authority to shut them down.”

“Businesses that choose to require vaccinations should do so with full knowledge that their employees – and future workers – may have other choices elsewhere,” Fury said. “And for their part, workers at all levels should understand that during their careers they may face hard choices about whether the requirements of an employer are consistent with their own beliefs.”

Rep. Scott Odenbach, one of the bill’s co-sponsors, dismissed the argument that the vaccine passport ban amounted to government overreach. “My answer to the people arguing this is big government is, ‘you folks would think the Bill of Rights is big government then’,” he said. “There are thousands and thousands of freedom-loving people watching what’s unfolding with quiet desperation and wondering if anyone’s going to stand up for them, and we need to start doing that.”

Read the entire story here.

And there you have it.

The Argus Leader has a story on their website today regarding the South Dakota Democrat Party being zapped by the Federal Elections Commission for having screwed up finances under Ann Tornburg:

“Our leadership has entirely changed over. We’ve hired a new compliance lawyer and we have a whole new compliance process, so really everything has changed with how we do things at the South Dakota Democratic Party,” said Ehrmantraut, who was hired to lead the party earlier this summer. “We’re in a lot better spot when this infraction occurred several years ago.”

and…

“Neither (Tornburg) or her staff were held to account for the mess, but the scandal still brought down at least three members of the state Democratic Party leadership who followed,” he said. “Hopefully, the scofflaws who were in charge of the Democratic Party at that time will not ask South Dakotans to trust them in elected office ever again.”

Read the entire story here.

Super excited to find this ribbon, and managed to acquire it by trading a couple of other ribbons I was not attached to.  And today this new item for my collection arrived, a Watertown for State Capital Ribbon. I believe this is from the first – the 1889 Temporary Capital fight – where Watertown placed third after Pierre and Huron. Watertown was in the 1890 Capital fight, but only briefly.

And here it is with my other “non-Pierre” contenders:

If anyone ever comes across a South Dakota Capital fight ribbon or similar item, drop me a note, as this is on my permanent want list.

Uh Oh..  It looks like My Pillow’s Mike Lindell has a cyber expert looking to collect his $5 Million after supposedly proving that the data they were trying to examine in Sioux Falls last week was all bunk:

“P-CAPs adhere to an international standard,” Alderson said, and include information like the date a file was created and an IP address. But Lindell’s data, shared as text files, had none of that. In fact, it was saved in hexadecimal format — despite the fact that packet captures use binary code.

and..

At the conference, Lindell had all of the invited cybersecurity experts sign a legal document explaining the rules and stipulations under which he would give out the $5 million reward — all of which Alderson says he met.

He even sent a 10-page letter to Lindell’s attorney Wednesday outlining each part of the agreement and how he was able to meet the requirements.

Read the entire story here.

What? The conference reneging on their promise of $5 million after making wild claims?

Who would have thought?

Just had a note that former State Legislator and current Sioux Falls City Councilor Christine Erickson is taking on a new job as the incoming Executive Director for the South Dakota Auto Dealers and Trucking Association.  She’s taking over the job for Myron Rau, whom is retiring.

This is a huge position – one of those where the executive will likely stay until retirement, as it is viewed as one of the plum jobs in the South Dakota Association world.  I’m told Christine will be starting shortly on Sept 7th, with Myron staying on to mentor her until April 1.

Again, Congratulations to Councilor Erickson on her new job!