Author: Pat Powers

Gov. Noem Thanks Attorney General Vargo for His Service

PIERRE, S.D. – Today, Governor Kristi Noem thanked Attorney General Mark Vargo for his work on behalf of the people of South Dakota.

“Although Mark he knew the job was temporary, he worked every day for the people of South Dakota. He brought extensive experience with him as he rebuilt trust for our state’s top cop,” said Governor Noem. “Mark reestablished a stable workplace for the employees of the DCI and the Attorney General’s Office.”

Governor Noem specifically applauds the hiring of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Person Coordinator, a position she permanently funded in the state’s budget last year.

Governor Noem appointed Mark Vargo on June 28, 2022, after Vargo prosecuted former Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg in the Senate’s impeachment trial last summer.

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Bright and early this morning, I’m hearing that the fake “Minnehaha Central Committee” fizzled in its attempted coup last night against the Minnehaha County GOP.  The report I received from the inside noted:

“Meeting happened, no board members showed up was told between 25-30 people. They trashed Maggie and Stalzer mostly.”

Without at least two board members, even if they had 30% of Central Committee Members, it’s a meeting that can’t be certified, so game over.

Which might be why they were holding that alleged list of 20% so tightly. Because they already had an inkling of how it was going to happen.

You go girl. Hot off the press this evening, Maggie Sutton, chair of the Minnehaha County Republican party is stepping up and clapping back at former legislator R. Shawn Tornow’s attempt at overthrowing GOP leadership.

Chairwoman Maggie notes Tornow is refusing to provide his alleged list of “20-percenters” and points out his effort will not be legal under party bylaws anyway:

From: Margaret Sutton
Date: December 27, 2022 at 10:32:09 PM CST
Subject: MINNEHAHA REPUBLICAN PARTY

Dear Minnehaha Central Committee Members:

Many of you recently received a notice of a Central Committee meeting to be held on December 29^th.  This notice did not come from the leadership of the Minnehaha Republican Party and was not a proper notice.

Issue one is that while they claim to have the signatures of 20% of the required members, Tornow Law Office has refused to provide a list to verify they met the 20% requirement.

Issue two, we have verified that a significant number of members were not notified of the meeting or did not receive the required five day notice.  Again, Tornow Law Office refused to cooperate and refused to provide the list used for notification.

Because of these deficiencies in the process, and our inability to verify the accuracy of the claims, the officers have been advised by council not to attend this meeting. The bylaws require that a quorum must include at least two officers.  Not having the required officers present will result in the lack of a quorum and thus this will not be a recognized meeting and any actions taken will be void.

While we agree that the bylaws do require holding two meetings a year, there is no penalty for failure to do so.  A good faith effort was made to hold the second meeting on December 15^th.  Unfortunately, with no travel recommended for all of Minnehaha County the board made the prudent decision to cancel that meeting.

Due to Christmas, New Years, Inauguration, and the start of the legislative session all falling in the immediate future, a decision was made to hold elections later in January.  This will still meet the requirement given in the bylaws.

Therefore, the officers of the Minnehaha Republican Party have unanimously decided to only attend the meeting planned for January 27^th or 28^th.  A separate invitation will be sent in the next few days.

The Executive Board of the Minnehaha Republican Party
Maggie Sutton, Chair

SD GOP Bylaws for County Central Committees:

Section III – South Dakota Republican Party (sdgop.com)

Not being able to lay your cards on the table when it’s time to show what you’re holding might just be a problem when you’re playing poker.

See you at the end of January.

Johnson Applauds TikTok Ban on Government Devices

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Representative Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) applauded the final passage of the No TikTok on Government Devices Act led byU.S. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO). This bill bans the download and use of TikTok on federal government devices.

In September, Johnson has introduced a similar bill in the U.S. House of Representatives to block TikTok on federal government devices and on military bases and installations. Johnson’s Block the Tok Act would also prohibit China from accessing Americans’ user data from within China.

“TikTok is one of China’s Trojan horses,” said Johnson. “This app poses a national security threat and has safety implications for everyday Americans. I’m encouraged to see progress at both the federal and state level to prohibit TikTok on government devices, but there is still work to be done. I’m going to continue the effort to prohibit China’s access to Americans’ user data in the new Congress.”

19 states have banned the use and download of TikTok on state government devices.

Read the full text of Sen. Hawley’s No TikTok on Government Devices Act here.

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Gov. Noem Appoints Melissa Magstadt as Secretary of Health

PIERRE, S.D. – Today, Gov. Kristi Noem appointed Melissa Magstadt as Secretary of the South Dakota Department of Health. Melissa’s appointment will be effective on the next state work day, which will be Tuesday, December 27.

“Melissa has proven her ability to provide innovative and cost-effective healthcare to the people of South Dakota,” said Governor Kristi Noem. “She will bring a fresh perspective to the department. We’ve set an example for the nation over the past several years by trusting our people to exercise personal responsibility over their healthcare decisions. Melissa will advance that vision for the people of South Dakota.”

Melissa is an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (ARPN). She is a co-owner of Quick Care SD, an organization that provides quick and affordable healthcare access across Eastern South Dakota. She also owns an integrated medicine practice called SG Essentials in both Watertown and Pierre. Melissa served in the South Dakota House of Representatives from 2011 to 2014 and was a member of the House Committee on Health and Human Services. She has been involved in South Dakota healthcare for more than 30 years.

“South Dakota should be on the forefront of supporting proactive quality of care for our people,” said Melissa Magstadt, South Dakota Secretary of Health. “Our state has unique health challenges, which vary from our rural communities to our big cities. We can tackle these challenges by focusing on an innovative, forward-looking approach to public health, rather than simply reacting to difficulties.”

Melissa has a Master’s in Science from South Dakota State University with a focus as a family nurse practitioner. She also has a Master’s in Business Administration from Mount Marty University. She is a graduate of the Great Plains Public Health Leadership Institute at the University of Nebraska. And she is a fellow at the University of Arizona’s Center for Integrated Medicine.

Melissa and her family live in the Castlewood and Watertown area. She was born and raised in South Dakota.

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Apparently, it’s good to be Speaker of the House. Because even when you’re on the way out the door, you get to approve sending yourself to Hawaii on the back of the taxpayer:

Gosch, as well as Rep. Jamie Smith, both went on a trip to Hawaii to attend the Council of State Governments’ national conference in Honolulu. They were among a dozen South Dakota lawmakers to attend.

But neither Gosch nor Smith are returning to the Legislature in January. Both are lame-duck lawmakers.

And..

“As God is my witness, I can think of no justifiable reason for the outgoing House speaker, with less than 30 days left in his term, to be at a taxpayer-funded legislative conference in Hawaii,” Hoffman said. “My constituents will not be pleased to hear of it.”

Read the entire story here (subscription required).

According to the story, Gosch would have approved his own travel to the legislative conference where he learned about topics important to South Dakota.  Such as the cliff jumping which caused Gosch’s leg injury.

The cliff-jumping session for Gosch must’ve been in-between his important session on bouncy houses and the all important luau round table.

Understandably, legislators are not happy about Gosch sending himself and Jamie Smith on a Hawaiian junket a month before they’re out of office. Not the last we’ll hear about that one. Especially when the final bill is available.

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“I don’t find Jamie Smith extreme in anything, and I wouldn’t call him a liberal Democrat, I really wouldn’t … he’s just the kind of guy that everybody loves, he’s a guy who’s really hard not to love. When he talks to you he really listens and he really cares.”

— Republican Speaker of the House Spencer Gosch. SD News Watch 10/19/22

I don’t think there’s anything more likely the week after Thanksgiving than re-heated leftovers that have been lurking around the fridge, but provide meals of diminishing quality. Which is why it’s not unexpected to see Joe Kirby of Sioux Falls is in the news, yet again. Pushing the concept of a jungle primary ballot measure. Yet again.

A campaign committee calling itself South Dakota Open Primaries filed paperwork with the South Dakota Legislative Research Council Wednesday that seeks to place a constitutional amendment on the 2024 ballot.

and..

If successfully placed on the 2024 ballot and adopted by voters, all the candidates would compete in a single primary open to all South Dakota voters. The two candidates that receive the most votes would advance to the general election. Party affiliation of candidates, or lack thereof, would be indicated on the ballot, according to the organization.

Read about Joe’s reheated leftovers here.

Oh, for crying out loud. Can these guys not take a hint?

They tried it in 2016. It was defeated 55% – 45%

They tried it in 2018. They gathered signatures, but could not get enough valid signatures to put it on the ballot.

They tried it in 2022. They could not get enough signatures to even bother turning it in.

I sense a trend.

As I’ve noted before.. several times now.. this is a solution in search of a problem that no one has been asking for. Going back to when the measure was first proposed in South Dakota, while the proponents have all these noble goals, in practice, the solution ends up being worse than the problem:

We’ve seen this same phenomenon before, but this is the first single-party statewide election ever to take place in Washington. That’s just terrible for democracy. California also uses a top-two primary, and there, polls show that many Republican voters simply plan to sit out this year’s Senate race between Democrats Kamala Harris and Loretta Sanchez. But at least we know that California, a very blue state, would likely have elected a Democrat to succeed retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer anyway. Washington, by contrast, almost certainly would have voted in another Democrat as treasurer, so the situation here is particularly perverse.

Supposed “good-government” reformers naïvely believed that eliminating partisan primaries would somehow crank down partisan gridlock by forcing office-seekers to moderate their views in order to win. Not only has that not happened, but voters have repeatedly been denied the opportunity to vote for the party of their choice thanks to debacles like these. It’s long past time for proponents to acknowledge their mistake and advocate for a return to proper primaries—and proper democracy.

Read that here.

And that’s coming from the Democrats.

Jungle primaries – providing diminished participation in elections, cutting candidate choice in the November election, and even more polarized candidates. That’s what Joe’s ballot measure would provide.

A menu choice that no one was looking for when it was fresh. And it has just gotten less appetizing as time goes by.

How about that SDSU opinion poll now?

With a margin that is currently 63% to 34% as of this writing, Governor Kristi Noem has absolutely dominated her opponent Jamie Smith in the 2022 gubernatorial race to lead South Dakota for the next four years.

At no point in the evenings returns did Smith even show a glimmer of being competitive as Noem has outpaced him constantly with an ever-widening margin of success.

The strength of her campaign almost seems contrary to the media narrative that has been disseminated over the course of the last several months, trying to paint the race as having a slimmer margin or being more competitive. Even the Smith campaign has been claiming in social media ads all the way through today that the race was within 3 percentage points.

They probably should have moved the decimal point over a place. Because the margin tonight is nearly 30 points not three.

Tonight is a well deserved victory lap for Governor Kristi Noem. She won the race, decisively and definitively.

In one of the three races I have been watching closely tonight, the District 1 State Senate rematch with Michael Rohl versus Susan Wismer.. Despite Wismer unloading a pick up load full of cash into the race in the final 2 weeks, she has gained no traction.

With one precinct left to go, Rohl’s lead is absolutely insurmountable at this point, with him leading in a landslide over Wismer on a 59% to 41% advantage.

Wismer is done, crushed in the race by Michael Rohl.

Gov. Noem to Participate in Hobo Day at SDSU

Wraps Up First Week of RV Tour

BROOKINGS, SOUTH DAKOTA – Today, Governor Kristi Noem will participate in Hobo Day at South Dakota State University (SDSU) in Brookings. She and dozens of campaign volunteers will march in the Hobo Day parade at 9:30 am. She will then attend SDSU’s game vs. Indiana State at 2pm. SDSU is Governor Noem’s alma mater.

The day in Brookings will wrap up the week for Governor Noem’s RV tour across the state. She kicked off the tour on Wednesday, leaving Pierre for town halls in Spearfish and Deadwood.

On Thursday, Governor Noem held multiple townhalls in Rapid City and visited local businesses like the Millstone, Prairies Edge, and Black Hills Bagels. She ended the night at a high school football game in Wall.

On Friday, Governor Noem held a townhall in Chamberlain before visiting Bad River Jerky and a local art gallery. She then held another townhall in Mitchell, visited Main Street Mercantile, and spent some time on a combine with Senator Josh Klumb. She closed the day in Sioux Falls with a visit to Fair Market and a “thank you” visit to volunteers in the Sioux Falls campaign office.

 The RV tour will continue strong next week! Stay tuned for Governor Noem to visit a community near you.

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