Author: Pat Powers

This hit the mail in District 30 today.. and if you look at the picture on the front, you have to ask – was she wearing bell bottoms in this photo?

The photo on the front side looks like she’s trying to campaign using a vintage photo from the 1970’s. You have to ask whether she’s wearing bell bottoms, and arrived to take the photo in a ford pinto?

But we do find out she “Volunteered 10 years with the Conservative Causcus (sic) in Pierre”… even though it’s only existed since 2018.

I’m assuming she went back in time to volunteer at the same time she got that photo done.

If you recall, a little while back, I had noted that there were reports from the field that instead of practicing social distancing, State Senator Phil Jensen was actively going door to door.

I was talking to someone from that District today and they noted that snapshot provided to me of Jensen going door to door thing in the time of coronavirus was not an aberration, but he indeed was reported to be regularly campaigning door to door.

I’m told that his wife is not going door to door during her campaign against David Johnson for the State Senate seat, but Phil is making an effort to spread his message (if not other things) in his pursuit of the House seat.

Governor Noem Announces House District 22 Legislative Appointment

PIERRE, S.D. – Governor Kristi Noem today announced that she is appointing Lynn Schneider of Huron to represent District 22 in the South Dakota State House of Representatives. Schneider will succeed the late Rep. Bob Glanzer, who passed away last month.

Schneider, a Republican, was born and raised south of Huron and is a graduate of Huron High School and Huron College. Schneider retired in 2017 as CEO of American Bank and Trust after a 45-year career in banking, beginning with the Farm Credit Service and continuing with Farmers and Merchants Bank and American Bank and Trust. Over the years, he has been active in many community organizations and causes in the Huron area.

Schneider was a close friend and brother-in-law of Rep. Glanzer and served as treasurer for Rep. Glanzer’s legislative campaigns. He and his wife, Gloria, have three sons and eight grandchildren.

“I want to thank Lynn Schneider for stepping into this important role,” said Gov. Noem. “Lynn’s family and the Huron community suffered a great loss with Bob’s passing. I appreciate that Lynn has agreed to continue Bob’s legacy of service to his community and to our state in this way.”

Schneider’s appointment is effective immediately and will continue for the remainder of Rep. Glanzer’s current term, which runs through the end of this calendar year. Although no regular legislative session will be held during that time, Schneider would serve during a potential special session, and could also participate in the legislature’s interim committee work.

Rep. Glanzer was also a candidate for reelection at the time of his death and was not opposed in the June primary. The Republican Central Committees in Beadle and Kingsbury counties, which make up District 22, will meet at a later time to name a candidate to take Rep. Glanzer’s place on the November general election ballot.

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Governor Noem to Tribes: Remove All Checkpoints

PIERRE, S.D. – Governor Kristi Noem today sent letters to Chairman Harold Frazier of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and President Bear Runner of the Oglala Sioux Tribe demanding that checkpoints be removed from State and US Highways. If the checkpoints are not removed within the next 48 hours, the State will take necessary legal action.

“We are strongest when we work together; this includes our battle against COVID-19,” said Governor Noem. “I request that the tribes immediately cease interfering with or regulating traffic on US and State Highways and remove all travel checkpoints.”

On April 8, 2020, the US Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs (DOI) issued a memorandum regarding South Dakota tribal government authority to close or restrict travel on State and US Highways. The memo makes it clear that tribes must consult with the state of South Dakota and enter into an agreement with the state before closing or restricting travel on State or US Highways. Neither consultation nor agreement among the tribal and state government occurred.  Regardless, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and the Oglala Sioux Tribe established checkpoints on State and US Highways to control and restrict non-tribal member travel.

You can read Gov. Noem’s letter to the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe here, and her letter to the Oglala Sioux Tribe here. 

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“In the end, I think the governor’s position was the right position. My position to do that was the wrong position,” TenHaken said of whether or not to issue a stay-at-home order, ⁦@Argus_Joe⁩ reports. https://t.co/HKC1nzLmp3

— Seth Tupper (@SethTupper) May 7, 2020

With fewer than thirty days until the election, Congressional challenger Liz May finds herself challenged. Challenged by the demands of a campaign in which her participation has been almost exclusively via facebook meme.

May has managed to get a few 4×8 signs to travel east of the Missouri River, which is an accomplishment that the candidate has not been able to achieve, aside from an early and somewhat rambling speech at the Hughes County Lincoln Day Dinner.

While candidates in this years’ primary election have been equally hobbled by the restrictions necessitated by the COVID19 pandemic, most have found creative ways around it, and provide regular content, and actually campaign.

US Senator Mike Rounds has had signs up for some time, has an active campaign presence, and has been a regular presence in state and national media. His challenger Scyller Borglum has been active on social media, and had a statewide mailing.   Congressman Dusty Johnson, again, is a regular presence in the media, has signs up around the state, he’s mailed, he’s has had regular media appearances, and even given the limitations of the pandemic is active.

Liz May? Well… A couple of surrogates have managed to smuggle a couple of inanimate pieces of plastic emblazoned with her logo past the Missouri River barrier which seems to have stymied the candidate, (although she’s looking for $5 if you want a yard sign.)  OH! Liz made it to her freezer in this video. And she’s posted a number of facebook memes that you can see nearly anywhere else on Facebook without a plea for cash or a demand that we “#culltheherd” with more emoticons than a 12 year old girl on twitter.

Is this as awful as I’m making this sound?? Well, yes. It is.

If it sounds as if Liz has given up at this point.. well, she might be competitive in her county. But beyond those borders, I question if she’s going to come close to the dead cat bounce figure of 18-20% (the number of people that would vote for a dead cat against a popular incumbent just to be contrarian).

If you look across the spectrum, I can point to several state legislative candidates who are running more aggressive campaigns. And they managed to make it past their refrigerated cooler.

Liz May for Congress in the 2020 GOP primary?  It’s more like Liz May Not.

There sees to be an odd narrative being floated out there about Governor Kristi Noem trying to get back to Washington… despite the fact that 3 years ago she decided to leave a safe congressional seat to consciously get out of the beltway, and come back to the state.

It just doesn’t make a lot of sense. And if I have to be honest, I think it smacks of more than a bit of sexism, because not just the media, but many others seem to be trying to paint their own portrait of who Kristi Noem is or what she’s thinking based on their own warped preconceptions of how she should be behaving.

The problem with the stories they’re trying to tell is that she wasn’t elected to be Governor by a majority of the state’s citizens because she’s supposed to “behave” in some way. She’s her own person, she was elected to lead, and that’s what she’s doing.

If you haven’t read it yet, there’s a great article out there by Mollie Hemingway at The Federalist which walks through how Governor Noem is leading during the COVID19 crisis, as well as discusses some of the ‘mansplaining’ that the media is going through, claiming to know her mind.

The latest media attack on Noem comes from out-of-state reporter Thomas Beaumont, filing from Iowa, and his colleague Stephen Groves, both of the Associated Press. It’s a bizarre piece. The article begins with an unflattering photograph of Noem, a difficult feat given how attractive the governor is. (Noem was rated the most beautiful member of Congress when she served in the House.)

The two men who wrote the article purport to get into the governor’s mind and ascertain that her policy goals are driven not by her leadership or rational decision making but by emotion and naked ambition. It is unclear why they believe they’re qualified to perform this type of analysis, much less how these men developed their theories about this woman’s political path. Courageous leadership is certainly a way to stand out, but comes with extremely high risk in our media environment, as articles such as this attest. It would seem that a more ambitious politician would attempt to find safety in the herd. They admit that the media politically oppose the governor but suggest that they’re not alone, “It’s not just the media who have questioned her approach,” they write.

and…

Nowhere in the article is it mentioned that a Tax Foundation analysis shows that South Dakota has the lowest percentage in the country of a state’s workforce filing unemployment claims. Nowhere in the article is last week’s parade in honor of the governor mentioned. The parade featured hundreds of cars, and one horse.

Read the entire story here.

The article is good guidance on what the Governor is actually doing. She’s making her own decisions, and not worrying about what values that armchair quarterbacks are trying to assign.

Governor Noem is going to do what she feels is correct and be judged by history. Period.  Not by people who who are trying to sell newspapers.

On the phone with Smithfield employees.

Great questions and good discussion about South Dakota’s fight against #COVID19. pic.twitter.com/VNM5o1oXUa

— Governor Kristi Noem (@govkristinoem) May 7, 2020

Thune: Supporting American Farmers and Ranchers a Top Priority During Coronavirus Crisis

“I will continue to do everything I can to strengthen our agriculture economy and help our nation’s farmers and ranchers thrive.”

Click here or on the picture above to watch Thune’s speech.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), a longtime member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, today discussed the struggling agriculture economy, its effect on South Dakota’s top industry, and his commitment to strengthening it so our country’s farmers and ranchers can weather this storm.

 

ATTORNEY GENERAL RAVNSBORG JOINS WITH 52 ATTORNEYS GENERAL IN EFFORT TO EXPAND ILLEGAL ROBOCALL RESPONSE 

PIERRE, S.D. – Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg recently joined a bipartisan coalition of 52 Attorneys General in calling on USTelecom – the leading organization representing telecommunications providers – and its Industry Traceback Group (ITG) to continue working with state attorneys general by bolstering technological capabilities to improve enforcement against illegal robocallers.

In a letter sent to USTelecom, cosponsored by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, the coalition is urging the association to further develop robocall traceback and other tools suited to law enforcement needs.

“Illegal robocalls continue to annoy and harass us all, but this is another step in the proper direction,” said Ravnsborg. “I will always fight to protect consumers in South Dakota from being scammed out of their hard-earned money.”

The letter asks USTelecom to advance the ITG’s abilities in identifying robocall campaigns, trends and business ecosystems; conducting automated traceback investigations; and coordinating with relevant law enforcement agencies.

A key part of that action would be for USTelecom to develop and roll out an online platform to collect live data from carriers and robocall-blocking apps. When USTelecom or a law enforcement agency detects an illegal robocall campaign, the law enforcement agency would then be able to submit a subpoena to USTelecom in a streamlined online portal. In turn relevant data would be quickly retrieved, this would bolster law enforcement investigations and could potentially lead to attorneys general offices issuing temporary restraining orders that could stop a live robocall campaign in its tracks.

The coalition believes these measures would strengthen the partnership between the USTelecom-backed ITG and Attorneys General, a relationship that led to the creation of the Anti-Robocall Principles. It will also build on the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED) Act was signed into law by the federal government and supported by all the state attorneys general.

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