Author: Pat Powers

Today the Lawrence County commission rejected a petition for an initiated measure at the county level that they viewed as potentially illegal under the law, and overreaching in that it attempted to supersede federal law; something they didn’t believe they had the authority to do.

Lawrence County Commissioner Eric Jennings moved to reject the petition on the grounds that, “this petition violates state and federal law and the proposed ordinances must be within the power of the county commission to adopt and these are not.”

“While there has been a lot of discussion today about voting tabulation machines, hand counting, and complying with state and federal voting laws, the issue that we’re dealing with is if the petition submitted violates federal or state law,” Jennings said.

Read the entire story here.

And that appears to be a potentially fatal flaw in many of the initiated county level measures being brought by election truthers and ballot counting machine conspiracists.

They are not going to get counties to move against federal laws, such as (HAVA) the Help America Vote Act  and they are really not going to be successful if somebody sues under the (ADA) Americans with Disabilities Act.

From The Hill, South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds is behind John Thune to succeed outgoing Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, as a fresh breath, and willing to stand his ground when it comes to Donald Trump:

Asked by ABC’s “This Week,” co-anchor Jonathan Karl how important it is for McConnell’s successor to be “willing to stand up to Trump,” Rounds said, ” Well, that’s what I’m looking for in a leader. I want someone who will work with a president, but who also will stand his own ground.”

“That’s one of the reasons why I very publicly and openly supported John Thune, and I supported Mitch McConnell. I think John Thune will bring some – you know, a fresh breath. That always happens when you have a change in leadership,” Rounds continued.

Read the entire story here.

Well, that sounds like a barn burner. (sarcasm warning)

The anti-prison NIMBY’s in Lincoln county had an event last night to raise money for their sisyphean fight against the state who is building a new prison on land it already owns.

Who were the featured speakers? Steve Haugaard and NDGOP exec for a week Dave Roetman.

Ironically, given Haugaard’s prohibitionist attitudes on alcohol, the musical entertainment was a Jimmy Buffet tribute band called “too drunk to fish.”’

If they had any number of people there, I’m guessing they were there for the band.

I was given permission to let the cat out of the bag this AM today that long-time politico Kristi Golden is going to run for office as a candidate for District 9 House. Since her days doing press for Larry Pressler, Kristi has been involved in Republican politics and public affairs for decades, and is an absolute gem of a person.   Which is good news!

In bad news, unfortunately, apparently now both of the main people behind last year’s attempt at book banning in the Brookings School District are running for the legislature. And they’re gathering petition signatures at a Brookings coffee shop where people go to study and read books.

In an announcement posted to social media by one of the spouses, Rick Weible had announced earlier for District 8 house, but has apparently shifted gears and instead of being beaten by the two house candidates is setting himself up to be beaten by the incumbent Senator, Majority Leader Casey Crabtree. And also contained in that same post is a note that Jeff Struwe, who worked closely with Weible on their efforts to ban books in Brookings Schools (about 1:59:00 in on the linked video), is also going to be a candidate for the State Legislature, this time in District 7.

And both book burners will be gathering signatures tomorrow at the Cottonwood Coffee Shop in Brookings, a popular spot for local high school and college students to study and read while they drink coffee.

So, stop and pause a minute, and think about this.   Two of the main people who wanted to ban books from being read by students in Brookings are going to be gathering petition signatures in a place where students go to read.

Amazing.

From the book of face, it looks like they far right is switching gears in District 8, as Rick Weible, who was running for House, is now said to be running for Senate by the gal who failed in that race last time;

Wasn’t Rick ‘the self-declared hero’ running for another office a while ago? He’s just running from his own accolades to new office so quickly! And now he’s running against State Senator Casey Crabtree.

I suspect Crabtree will let him down the easiest, as opposed to the two ex-sheriffs who might put handcuffs on him and investigate his background (just kidding). They might scowl at him too.

According to Fox News, South Dakota US Senator John Thune is endorsing Donald Trump after his latest primary win:

Senate Minority Whip John Thune, the No. 2 Senate Republican leader, is endorsing former President Trump for reelection.

It’s a key win for Trump from the establishment wing of the Republican Party. The South Dakota Republican is Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s top deputy in the Senate GOP.

“The primary results in South Carolina make clear that Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee for president in this year’s pivotal presidential election. The choice before the American people is crystal clear: It’s Donald Trump or Joe Biden,” Thune told Fox News Digital.

Read the entire story here.

The Sioux Falls City Council* candidate filing deadline was today. And of the four seats up for election, the two seats in the northern half of the city were completely conceded by Minnehaha County Republicans without a fight and without GOP candidates, despite the earlier promise of the County GOP Chair “to chip away at Democrat strongholds” during his race for county party chairman.

In January 2023, the Minnehaha County Republican chairmanship was won by former Republican legislator R. Shawn Tornow who made certain campaign promises:

Tornow said his goals will be shoring up fundraising and local organization, as well as beginning to chip away at some of the Democratic Party’s last strongholds in the state.

and..

“We’d really like to try to recruit good candidates, get more precinct committeepeople involved and fundraising is part of it,” he told Forum News Service.

Read that story here.

Tornow must have actually promised something about eating a bag of chips, and not chipping away at Democrat strongholds, as his first test was a bust where one of city council seats currently held by a Republican was handed away without a shot fired, and no one bothered to provide assistance to a new candidate in another open seat to check to see if he did things correctly.

As the dust settled this evening and the candidate slate was set for Sioux Falls city races, the sole contest where Republicans will have to perform is the at-large seat with former Republican State Representative Richard Thomason bearing the burden of carrying the GOP banner in upcoming city elections against Democrat Allison Renville, and magician Doug Henning  unaffiliated candidate Jordan Deffenbaugh.  This seat is currently held by Republican Councilor Alex Jensen who chose not to run again.

Republicans did retain a currently held position in the Southwest City Council seat which was left uncontested for Sioux Falls Republican Ryan Spellerberg already winning the seat without an election when no other candidates filed by the deadline for the seat where current Republican councilor Marshall Selberg is term limited.

That’s the good news.  The bad news is where the Minnehaha GOP had the opportunity to make a difference, but performed like they did at last years’ Sioux Empire fair, where they skipped the important stuff and just didn’t show up. 

The Northeast District will remain outside the grasp of Republicans after Republican Tarek Maalouf discovered his nominating petitions had been improperly filled out when it was too late, leaving the race Republican free, with Independents Miranda Bayse and David Zokaites running against Libertarian Neil Jeske.

This would have been an opportunity for the county Republican team to show their value in assisting a new candidate. Which they didn’t.

In the Northwest District where Republican Councilman Greg Neitzert was term limited out, his seat was actually handed over to Independent Jennifer Sigette, as no other candidate filed. What happened with the campaign promise of “try to recruit good candidates?”

Just didn’t happen. As Yoda from the Empire Strikes back is quoted, “do or do not, there is no try.”

That’s the problem with the group who is currently in charge of the largest Republican County organization in South Dakota.  There is “no try.” No candidate assistance. No candidate training. No candidate recruitment.

Not in the least.

(*And yes, I’m well aware that they are not partisan offices. But that doesn’t mean that parties don’t recruit and assist people to run for them.)

Did I mention yet that I am involved in a primary this year?

I am running for precinct committeeman, and for the third or fourth election in a row, I have an opponent. Same guy always files for the same office as I do, for the privilege of representing our precinct at the South Dakota Republican Party state convention.

Which really makes the argument against down ticket statewide officials not standing for primary elections kind of fall flat for me. Why is the office of precinct committeeman  – always dead last on the ballot – worthy of a primary in front of the voters for my chunk of the city of Brookings, but Attorney General or Secretary of State is not deserving of similar scrutiny by the voters at large?

Senate Bill 13, an act to revise the process for nominating candidates for the offices of Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, and Secretary of State is up for debate on the Senate floor tomorrow, after passing unanimously 9-0 out of the Senate State Affairs committee this last week

While it seems that we’ve heard this a couple of times in the legislature already this year, and this is the second time the Senate has had the opportunity to debate and discuss the measure, that being said, it is a measure that deserves far more serious consideration than it may have received over the course of the legislative session.

In its prior incarnations, the proposals to change how South Dakota political parties select a couple of the offices that are currently chosen at party conventions have been subjected to conjecture and scare tactics which are utter nonsense as some try to preserve the current way of doing things.

Currently there are 301,869 registered Republicans in South Dakota. So, at least 301,000 are disenfranchised from selecting the primary candidates for their party for most state offices under the current system.

The arguments against it absolutely crumble under their own weight.

Some are naïve enough to declare that the group of delegates who gather at political conventions are performing some vital vetting process that the poor uneducated voters of South Dakota are incapable of doing on their own.

As an active participant, I could tell you that’s a ridiculous, and kind of insulting, notion. Convention delegates are just versed in how to fill out a piece of paper, and we like to participate in state politics, and go to the convention.

The act of putting an address on, filling out the precinct number, and signing a one page form does not grant us any greater insight or wisdom than the public at large has.

Another argument that opponents like to throw out, is that big money interests would somehow be able to sway the elections for nefarious ends. Sometimes they even bring up George Soros as a bogeyman.

I can’t help but roll my eyes at this. If this was the case, then, why are these bad actors only discussed in terms of the primary election? I would think that they would find more fertile ground in the general election. But where are they? They never seem to appear.

It might have something to do with the fact that these offices don’t really have people throwing out cash left and right to elect constitutional offices.

If there were all these dark monied special interests ready to pounce on our down ticket races, I suspect our current Secretary of State, Monae Johnson, would be reporting more than $324 in her campaign account after she loaned it $1500, as I posted about recently.

Ultimately, it comes down to a question of whether we trust the voters of our political parties or not.

301,869 Republicans and 145,449 Democrats, do we trust them to select the candidates who will represent their parties in the fall elections? I do. And I think we’ve gone past the time to think that individuals don’t have an interest in selecting the candidates who will represent their party.

As I tried to communicate in my testimony to the Senate state affairs committee on Senate Bill 13: Don’t be afraid of the voters! Don’t patronize them by pretending that a group of a few hundred people are smarter than a group of 300,000.

Voters as a group are smart people and acting together they make good decisions. If voters at large can choose their coroner, their county auditor, legislators and governor in a primary they are capable of choosing their Attorney General and Secretary of State the same way as well.

Unless we want to continue insulting voters.

From my mailbox:

I want to start out by thanking you for your support, encouragement, and engagement. You were one of my earliest supporters who believed in me, invested in my first race, or have kept up with me since. That’s why I’m coming to you first with some exciting news.

I’m excited to share that I’m running for re-election to the House of Representatives in District 14! I’ve learned a lot in my first term and am proud of my track record and legislative success. More importantly, the continued encouragement and support from my family and friends makes serving the people of southeast Sioux Falls possible. It’s not easy being away from my wife and my two growing boys for the nine-week legislative session, but they’re also a big part of the “why” I choose to serve. Keeping our state strong for our next generation guides me and the decisions I make.

When I first announced for the legislature I promised to keep our people as my number one priority. I also told you I’d focus on promoting a vibrant economy along with building up strong communities and healthy families. In keeping with that promise, as a freshman legislator I carried five bills last year and all five were signed into law. These efforts included strengthening our elections, fixing outdated regulations, and a signature “workforce freedom” legislation to recognize professional and occupational licenses to assist in our workforce shortage. I was honored to be recognized by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) as one of the top 50 Under 50 lawmakers in the nation promoting conservative policies at the state level, and earlier this year was named a Legislative Champion by the Foundation for Government Accountability. The Greater Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce also named me one of their Community Champions for 2023 for maintaining a 100% voting record.

Last summer, I was selected for a National Conference on State Legislatures (NCSL) fellowship on youth homelessness which spurred legislation I’m moving through the process this year. This session I’m also championing legislation that would address child food insecurity, improve our process of electing statewide offices, and a bill to recognize some of our nation’s biggest heroes. In short, you sent me to Pierre to work hard, respect the people, and get results. In my first term I’ve done just that, but there’s still more work to be done.

I am looking forward to getting back out and earning the vote of my neighbors again and hope I can count on your continued support and encouragement so we can run a successful campaign for re-election. If given the opportunity to keep serving, I promise to do more of the same. Help kill the bad bills and do all I can to pass the good ones. Keeping the focus on South Dakota families, our next generation and addressing real problems.

If you have any questions, suggestions, or just want to catch up, give me a call at (605) 610-8884 or shoot me a message at tyler@tylertordsen.comanytime. I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you for your friendship and continued support!

Sincerely,

Tyler Tordsen

Delivering Wins for Agriculture

MADISON–The Legislature is nearing the end of session and we remain focused on working to find resolution on some of the major policy issues in the state and finalizing a balanced budget for the state’s next fiscal year.

The future success of ethanol, corn markets in South Dakota and carbon dioxide sequestration have been major topics of debate in the Capitol last year and again this year.  House Majority Leader Will Mortenson and I introduced SB 201 to find a path forward for South Dakota in what has been an emotional issue related to private property rights and the proposed carbon pipeline.  SB 201 is a comprehensive solution that protects landowner rights and establishes clear infrastructure guardrails. 

When South Dakota farmers succeed, all of South Dakota succeeds, and that cuts both ways. When South Dakota farmers have limited access to national and global markets, our whole state suffers. A rising tide lifts all boats, and that’s why I am committed to legislation like SB 201 that fosters a brighter future for all of South Dakota.

I want South Dakota to have some of the strongest landowner protections in the nation, and that’s why we’re working on a compromise package. What SB 201 does is set standards in state law for linear utility projects to abide by, specifically CO2 pipelines. It allows counties to levy a surcharge on CO2 pipelines that could equate to $3.5 million each year for counties hosting the proposed pipeline. It also requires land agents to be South Dakota based, CO2 pipeline operators to repair drain tile, and establishes penalties for safety failures for operators.

SB 201 also clarifies state law where federal preemption voids any state or local safety standards or setbacks. South Dakota is open for business, which means we don’t set up roadblocks for projects through regulation, red tape, excessive fees, and indefinite timelines. We provide fairness and certainty in the process for landowners and businesses. State law should reflect federal standards and remove uncertainty for counties on actions that would result in lawsuits that will cost taxpayers money. Our farmers and communities deserve better than sham lawsuits that drag out projects and cost taxpayers legal fees. Let’s put money in the pockets of farmers, not lawyers.

Related to ethanol, I joined Gov. Noem, farmers and ethanol producers for the bill signing ceremony of SB 78. This bill helps incentivize gas stations to offer E15 and bolster our ag industry. Ethanol plants buy 64% of the corn grown in the state, supporting 11,00 family farms and 30,000 jobs. I want to see more homegrown fuel sold and used in South Dakota. It’s good for farmers and consumers.

Earlier this week, I was proud to support HCR 6008 discouraging voters from adopting the radical pro-abortion ballot measure paid for by out-of-state special interest groups. South Dakota is a state that values the life of the unborn. Alternating the state’s constitution to allow late-term abortions, remove parental awareness and override existing conscience protections that were enacted for healthcare providers is extreme and frankly, it’s immoral. 

The Senate and House enjoyed the service of pages from District 8–Chester, Arlington and two from Howard. These four have bright futures and we are grateful for their help in the Capitol. If you know a high schooler interested in government and public service, encourage them to apply to page in a future year.

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