Author: @SoDakCampaigns

So I guess if the South Dakota Bikers for Trump are to be believed, Mike Lindell, the pillow guy, is coming to Sioux Falls and nooooo one else will be able to have a hotel room in Sioux Falls unless they’re invited, because everything will be reserved for federal officials, press etc.

 

I’m not sure that I believe them when they say “all” the hotel rooms will be taken.  And after the event that was recently held in Mitchell, I’d be a little surprised if any elected federal officials are in attendance. But we’ll see.

In all reality, it does sound as if there will be an event taking place, and Lindell himself claims he’s reserved up to 1000 hotel rooms. But that’s about all the detail we have. Lindell had previously claimed that this symposium would reinstate President Trump after his loss in the November election, and recent reports do place the event in Sioux Falls, and taking place on those dates.

We’re not entirely sure on the location, as It’s not clear what venue this symposium is taking place at. But we’ll let you know when there’s more data on it.

Where’s the Beef?
By: Governor Kristi Noem
July 9, 2021

America’s meat supply is a matter of national security. If we don’t control our own food supply, then we don’t control our own destiny. South Dakota feeds the world, and we do it better than anybody else. We have more head of cattle per-person than any other state. But anticompetitive practices in the meatpacking industry are threatening that way of life. We need more competition, more transparency, and more options for our cattle producers to market their livestock.

Over time, the beef processing industry has consolidated into 4 mega-packers who control 85% of America’s beef supply. That’s bad for competition, and it leads to higher prices at the grocery store for the American people. Two of these companies are based out of Brazil. And these companies have such a tight control over the marketplace that beef producers are lucky if they make $100 per head of cattle.

Recently, one of these Brazilian companies, JBS, was hacked, and 20% of America’s beef supply went offline overnight. That shouldn’t happen in this country. We need more options to ensure that America’s food can’t be held hostage by bad actors targeting foreign-based companies.

Last year, the US Department of Justice sent civil investigative demands to the 4 mega-packers, but we haven’t heard any updates on this investigation since then. I recently wrote a letter to the DOJ that was co-signed by 5 other governors, and we urged them to continue this investigation so that we can root out anticompetitive practices in our beef supply chain.

In the meantime, South Dakota is taking action to help our cattle producers. My administration recently awarded $5 million in grants to 99 small meat processors across the state of South Dakota. These grants will allow them to expand their operations or start new ones, which will give producers more options when it comes time to sell their livestock.

South Dakota also recently announced that we’ve signed a Competitive Interstate Shipping agreement with the US Department of Agriculture. This agreement will allow our producers to sell state-inspected beef across state lines, opening up even more avenues for increased competition.

I recently discussed next steps with our producers at the Governor’s Ag Summit. The solutions are simple but will be tough to achieve: more competition and more price transparency. Frankly, it will take the support of the entire ag industry to get this done. These solutions will give producers more options to sell their livestock and negotiate better prices. They also will keep costs lower for consumers because the 4 mega-packers won’t be able to completely control the price of beef at the grocery store.

Our food supply is a national security issue. Foreign adversaries shouldn’t be able to take down entire supply chains by hacking a few overly large meatpackers. I pledge to keep working to increase competition in this industry so that we can protect the way of life for our farmers and ranchers while also keeping prices lower for the American people.

###

KOTA news is reporting tonight that in the misdemeanor case filed against Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg, all is not as his detractors have portrayed as his defense drops a huge bombshell in the court action:

In the paperwork that was filed on July 9. Ravnsborg’s attorneys say that Boever had told friends that his preferred method of suicide would be to “throw himself in front of a car”.

And..

The defense also cited medication that had been filled the day before, but only 12 of the 90 pills remained. The medication in question can cause suicidal ideations.

Read it here!

WOW! It seems that there will be a lot of previously unknown information that will come to light.

In 2018 as part of a package of bills to make South Dakota’s initiated process better and in hopes of decluttering the ballot, Amendment Z was brought to establish “that a proposed constitutional amendment may embrace only one subject” and required that “proposed amendments to be presented and voted on separately.”

The Constitutional Amendment passed in a landslide with over 62% of the vote.

But now, the backers of measures to legalize recreational pot are threatening to undo this law after their measure ran afoul of the single subject requirements of measures, despite prior warnings that their measure was a mish-mash.

According to an Associated Press Story, in the run up to the court making a decision on the legality of a recreational pot measure which failed a court challenge because of the requirements of amendment Z, the group behind Amendment A is threatening a repeal challenge to that amendment if the Supreme court does not rule in their favor:

Over the July Fourth weekend, South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws announced they’d sent five new ballot measures — all related to defanging criminal laws and civil penalties for marijuana possession — to a legislative research team in Pierre.

But the team behind the push, who also have proposed removing a single-subject test for constitutional amendments, say they won’t bring the measures forward if the five justices in Pierre uphold Amendment A, which legalizes recreational cannabis in the state and voters approved with 54% majority last November.

Read that here.

Interestingly, the single subject problem the recreational pot measure had and which may have ultimately broken the ballot measure’s back in court should not have come as a shock to the measure’s sponsors. Because they were given a warning from the onset before they collected signature 1 by the State Legislative Research Council pointing out that “The Constitution is not a compilation of policy statutes and as such, should not be amended to incorporate what ought to be statutory material.”

They went ahead and did it anyway. Which also earned them this note on the ballot by the attorney general about the measure’s problems:

Judicial clarification of the amendment may be necessary. The amendment legalizes some substances that are considered felony controlled substances under current State law. Marijuana remains illegal under Federal law.

Read that here.

One thing the measure’s sponsors may wish to consider is that while a majority of South Dakotans did pass the recreational marijuana measure with a 54% majority last year, as noted over 62% of state residents were tired of confusing omnibus measures being dumped on voters in the immediately preceding election.

If recreational pot proponents want to bring back the bad old days of ballot measures after they were warned their own measure was a mess, they might not find themselves as successful as they were in 2020.

Office of the Attorney General in Agreement with South Dakota Highway Patrol’s Framework for Implementation of IM26


PIERRE, S.D. – Contrary to current media reports, the Attorney General’s Office agrees with the South Dakota Highway Patrol’s Framework for Implementation of Initiated Measure 26. 

The Highway Patrol Framework sets out in part that Highway Patrol officers, when interacting with a South Dakota resident in possession of no more than three ounces of natural and unaltered marijuana, will not arrest that resident if he or she is an enrolled tribal member with an unexpired medical cannabis card issued by the resident’s tribe.

For non-tribal members, the Framework provides for a process to determine legitimate medical cannabis cases and refers other instances of concern to the local State’s Attorney.  The Attorney General supports the Framework’s approach to ensuring enforcement of all state drug laws, while recognizing that ultimately charging decisions will be left to the local State’s Attorney.

On the issue of law enforcement recognizing tribally issued cards for South Dakota residents who are not enrolled tribal members, the Highway Patrol Framework provides an approach that is consistent with IM 26’s requirements and recognizes the important issues of tribal and state sovereignty. That a tribe is a separate sovereign entitled to issue medical cannabis cards to tribal members is not disputed and is reflected in the Framework. However, the Framework also addresses a very important and separate issue – South Dakota’s jurisdiction over its residents who are not enrolled tribal members. Regardless of its decision concerning marijuana access within its own jurisdiction, a tribal government cannot dictate to a separate sovereign – the State of South Dakota – how the state’s laws apply to its own residents who are not enrolled members of a tribe when they are off reservation land and therefore wholly within the jurisdiction of the State of South Dakota.

A tribe’s medical cannabis card issued to a South Dakota resident who is not an enrolled tribal member is therefore not a substitute for the written doctor’s certification that a resident must produce under the Framework or in the future to receive a medical cannabis card from the Department of Health.  In addition, for the written doctor’s certification to be valid, it must be received as part of a bona fide practitioner-patient relationship by a doctor licensed to practice medicine in the State of South Dakota.

It appears my host might be experiencing some server issues today, so if there’s some server weirdness, my advance apologies.

Gov. Noem Approves Federal Request to Deploy Additional South Dakota National Guard to Southern Border

PIERRE, S.D. – Today, Governor Kristi Noem approved the deployment of approximately 125 members of the South Dakota National Guard to the southern border between the United States and Mexico. The deployment will take place later this year at the request of the federal government.

“Our South Dakota National Guard is the very best in the country, and they are prepared for the sustained response the national security crisis at our southern border requires,” said Governor Kristi Noem. “I am hopeful that this mission indicates the Biden Administration is waking up to the devastating situation at the border.”

The soldiers are members of the South Dakota National Guard’s 1742nd Transportation Company, stationed in Sioux Falls and Flandreau. These soldiers will be deployed for up to nine to twelve months and will be in a federal pay status. This deployment is in addition to the state active duty deployment that Governor Noem announced last week.

The guard members will provide non-law enforcement support to U.S. customs agents as part of the government’s Southwest Border mission. The Southwest Border mission involves security along the Mexican border in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. The request for South Dakota guard members came from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the National Guard Bureau. About 3,000 Guard members from several states are involved in this federal mission. For security reasons, additional information about the guard members’ duties will not be provided.

###

Except for parade and festival activity by incumbents over the 4th of July weekend, during this off-year the summer has been fairly devoid of political activity.  And it’s leaving those of us who consume such news with excitement and zeal… well, it’s boring.  There really hasn’t been much going on.  But I have caught whiff of a few things in the wind that are worth reporting on for the primary election, even if just for the sake of mild amusement.

So what am I hearing?

In the US Senate, the Mark Mowry campaign called my phone today and his wife/campaign manager left a message asking if I was interested in getting involved in the Mowry campaign. Wait, what?

Yes. that actually happened.  I’m guessing they don’t read the political “internets.”

Aside from the fact I’m happy to support US Senator John Thune and appreciate all he’s done to get Republicans elected during his time in office, there’s also the part where his opponent Mowry alleges a January 6 conspiracy, claimed that the Nashville bombing was done to hide fraud with Dominion voting machines, and even more egregious, was on facebook telling people that mass shootings “sure could be” orchestrated to get people to accept gun control.

So, am I interested in getting involved in the Mowry campaign? How about NO!, in case I have not been clear enough about my opinion.

In the Congressional race, Congressman Dusty Johnson can apparently do no wrong as he continues to be buoyed by the very positive SDSU poll (which also tells us we love Sen. Thune and Gov. Noem), and earning high marks as the most effective Republican Congressman on Ag issues. I’m hearing that State Rep Liz May is said to be passing on taking another solid shellacking at Dusty’s hands.

But then there’s the chatter that the hard right is said to be teeing up someone else.

In conjunction with the Sioux Falls “America First” rally at the Farmer’s Market featuring Gays for Trump leader Scott Presler, a group trying to gin up a Dusty opponent was on Facebook declaring that State Representative Taffy Howard is also going to be speaking at the event.

That’s awfully interesting, as Howard has been a fairly vocal critic of Governor Kristi Noem over the past couple of years, and there has been speculation that she might have been a primary opponent for the Governor.

Howard had previously attacked the Governor over a series of grants to expand rural broadband access in South Dakota. And more recently, Taffy had attacked the Governor claiming that her appointments to the Board of Regents weren’t sufficiently conservative – an attack that earned Howard a rebuke from Pennington County GOP Committeeman Ed Randazzo, who claiming that Howard’s “victim mentality is a cloak.”

But as opposed to taking on Governor Noem, the rumor mill has been that recently  Representative Howard’s name is more associated with a challenge to Congressman Johnson than Governor Noem.  I was speaking with one correspondent today who indicated that he’d heard there may be some calling around trying to drum up support for her.  And with this one appearance she’s already going to Sioux Falls more than Liz May ever did in her campaign.

Is Taffy going to try giving a statewide campaign a spin? We’ll see.

As for primary campaign activity in the Gubernatorial race.. Don’t kid yourself. There’s no one who seriously thinks they could challenge Governor Kristi Noem in a GOP primary.

There was talk at one time that State Rep. Steve Haugaard might be looking at it. And he is termed out after this election.

But that was dicey even before Kristi became one of the county’s GOP success stories for holding her state together during COVID.  Yes, yes, Democrats are going to complain and disagree. But they’re chattering in an echo chamber when it comes to that issue, which might be why they seems to be throwing anything else they can at the Governor.

Intra-party, at this point, I’m doubtful that any Republican challenge to the state’s first woman Governor is going to happen. And even Lora Hubbel who has switched parties back and claims that she’s going to run against the Governor (in the midst of saying other goofy things on facebook) sounds as if she’s going to run as an indy in the general versus trying to get party members to select her in the GOP primary.

A GOP Challenge to the person in the big chair on the second floor? Not going to happen, or at the least, if it does it will be last minute and won’t be anything serious.

That’s what I’m hearing tonight in early July.

Stay tuned for more.