Category: 2016 Elections

Press Release: Senate Majority Leader Rave To Resign; Governor Invites Public Input

@SoDakCampaigns

(And it’s official…. -PP)

Senate Majority Leader Rave To Resign; Governor Invites Public Input

PIERRE, S.D. – State Sen. Tim Rave has announced his resignation from the South Dakota State Senate. Rave, a Baltic Republican who serves as senate majority leader, is resigning to accept a position with Sanford Health as enterprise vice president for public policy.

“I am very sorry to see Sen. Rave go,” said Gov. Dennis Daugaard. “Tim is widely respected by his peers, who chose him to serve as speaker of the House and as senate majority leader. As Dell Rapids natives, Linda and I were always proud to have Tim as our legislator. I wish him and his family the very best.”

Rave has served in the state Senate since 2011, after serving four terms in the state House. He served as speaker of the House from 2009-11 and as senate majority leader since 2013, making him the only South Dakota legislator to have held both positions.

Rave represents District 25, which includes north and east Minnehaha County, including the cities of Dell Rapids, Baltic, Garretson, Colton, Lyons, Valley Springs and Rowena. It also includes the area in eastern Sioux Falls near South Sycamore Avenue and East 26th Street.

The resignation was effective March 31 and will create a vacancy that will be filled by gubernatorial appointment.  The Governor is asking the public to nominate candidates to fill the position.

Those wishing to be considered for the appointment, or to offer nominations, should contact Grace Kessler in the Office of the Governor at 605-773-3661. Nominations should include the candidate’s name, current address, telephone number and relevant background information.

Gov. Daugaard expects to name an appointee by late spring or early summer.

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With Rave and Lederman gone from the Senate, where do they seek their rudder?

@SoDakCampaigns

With the twin resignations of Senate Assistant Majority Leader Dan Lederman, and Majority Leader Tim Rave coming like a 1-2 punch, there’s a new void in Senate Legislative Leadership that even the Democrats couldn’t have envisioned were they competent or effective in winning elections.

President Pro Tempore Corey Brown is still there as leader of the Senate, but there’s no one to help steer the Republican Caucus. It’s as if the steering mechanism has now come off of the ship, leaving Senate Republicans in a position where they now need to seek amongs themselves the people who will be their rudder.

Will they look to their current whips, Senators Holien, Ernie Otten, or Deb Soholt?  Or will they look to the ranks of the Senators – many of whom have significant experience, but aren’t in one of the six official leadership positions?

Who else does that leave for them to choose from?  The list….

Jenna Haggar, Blake Curd, Bob Ewing, Brock Greenfield, Terri Haverly, Phyllis Heineman, Phil Jensen, Jeff Monroe, David Novstrup, Craig Tieszen, Larry Tidemann, Alan Solano, Bruce Rampelberg, Betty Olson, David Omdahl, Ernie Otten, Deb Peters, Art Rusch, Bill Van Gerpen, Jim White, Gary Cammack and Mike Vehle.

If you peruse the list, the thing that strikes me is that there’s a lot of new people there. As well as some busy ones.

Blake Curd might be a choice, but given how busy he is with his own new position, I’m somewhat doubtful he has an interest in dividing his time further. Tieszen, Vehle and Tidemann had ran or expressed interest in leadership positions previously.  And you have people like Deb Peters, who while not leadership at the moment has been a point person on caucus election efforts – some of these Senators are Senators because she made it happen.

There’s a particular political functionality and increased level of partisanship that goes with the leadership positions. They have to be able to build a coalition within the caucus between those that lean to the middle, as well as those that are hard right. They are peacemaker, as well as messenger for the gods… or at least the one that resides on the second floor.

Depending on what happens, with the departure of the Majority & Assistant Leaders, this caucus could also become more prickly, depending who is in charge. There are definitely a few possibilities who march to the beat of their own drummer, and interpret the Republican Party Platform in a more strict fashion.

What do you think? With the voids to be filled, who will emerge to lead the State Senate Republican Caucus?  Where do they seek their rudder?

….And what ever happened to Ms. Robinson?

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Speaking of the Democrat’s anorexic bench…..

Several weeks ago now in the tangle of chaos that is my life, I had a brief e-mail exchange from someone active in South Dakota politics who had previously had a close association with Corinna Robinson during the campaign.

You remember? Corinna Robinson – the person who moved from Virginia to South Dakota to run against Congresswoman elect Kristi Noem.   In fact, if I recall last April, she was the darling of the looney left who predicted she’d win handily with the rest of the Dem field:

So Dems, since Corinna Robinson will be seeking re-election to the House, and since Joe Lowe will be busy Governoring, and since I don’t think you’ll ever get Bernie Hunhoff to leave Yankton, who’s our pick to take out Thune and join Rick Weiland in the Senate in 2016?

Read that here. (And try not to laugh out loud as much as I did)

Anyway, getting away from delusional Democrats, and back to the conversation I was having with the Robinson staffer, it was an interesting e-mail exchange because the subject was that Corinna Robonson has literally gone off the radar.

Immediately after the election, Robinson had noted that Democrats were asking her “to stay the course,” but 4 months later, and even some of her own campaign people are saying she’s dropped off the map?

In fact, there have been no updates on her website, and nothing on Twitter since a single December tweet. And if you attempt to go to her former facebook campaign page at http://www.facebook.com/CorinnaforSD, it’s been taken off line and is no longer there.

Those aren’t the signs of a potential candidate seeking to remain engaged with the few people who supported her, who wants to build more support for a race that begins in less than 10 months.

But it is a sign that someone may be packing her bags, and scooting out the door to greener pastures.

So Dems, you’d better keep looking. Maybe Frank Kloucek is getting tired of hanging out in Scotland?

Roll Call confirms with Brendan Johnson that he’s not interested in 2016. And someone needs to throw the Dem’s thin bench a sandwich.

@SoDakCampaigns

Roll Call is reporting this morning that one of the only two potentially competent candidates that South Dakota Democrats have is taking a pass for 2016.

Brendan Johnson, son of former US Senator Tim Johnson, confirmed to Roll Call that he’s going to be spending time working on his law practice for the next few years:

But Johnson is now officially in the private sector. On Monday, Robins Kaplan LLP announced he has joined the firm and will open a new office in Sioux Falls, S.D.

“My focus is exclusively right now on building a national law practice,” Johnson told CQ Roll Call. As for a political campaign, “I haven’t given it any thought, nor do I have any sort of political plan.”

and…

Democrats have a thin bench in Republican-leaning South Dakota. There was Johnson and former Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, now the general counsel and vice president of corporate development for Raven Industries.

The race is rated Safe Republican by the Rothenberg & Gonzales Political Report/Roll Call.

Read it all here.

“Democrats have a thin bench in Republican-leaning South Dakota?”  Thin? It’s so darned anorexic that people are starting to talk.

The ‘thin bench’ is far worse than Roll Call cites, because half of the Democrat insiders hate Herseth, considering her too conservative, as evidenced by the fact they keep trying to shove members of the Weiland family in her path.

How thin is the Democrat’s bench? This last election, Democrats had to start importing candidates from out of state to fill important candidate positions. That should speak volumes to the fact that it’s not looking promising for the bench to fill out any time soon.

Democrats realize they can’t win, plan on recruiting Republicans.

@SoDakCampaigns

Well, that’s a new one on me.

If you haven’t noticed, because of their stances which don’t jibe with most of South Dakota, Democrats have been hunted to extinction in the state. So, what’s the response of young democrats who are tired of seeing their party lose race, after race, after race?

Recruit friendly Republicans:

An organization formed in November is in the early stages of implementing a mission of electing more Democrats to local offices and the state Legislature.

and..

The Democratic Party is good at getting policy passed and in supporting federal races, so the South Dakota Progress group will fill a niche at the local level.

Wilke said the Democratic Party is unable to focus on the local elections, especially the nonpartisan ones, because it doesn’t have the manpower or the time.

and…

The goal is to fill ballots with the names of Democrats or even progressive Republicans.

“We would find them,” she said. “We wouldn’t just wait for them to come to us. We would look for people who are really active in their community.”

Read it all here.

So, the Democrat Party can’t be bothered to run candidates, because they’re too busy on ballot issues and “supporting federal races.”  So, with their blessing, this outside group is going to recruit liberal Republicans to run.   Whom I really, really suspect are going to be slaughtered at the ballot box. Badly.

They might ask Scott Heidepreim how that worked out for him 4-5 years ago when he switched parties.

Someday, we’ll be telling our grandchildren – “I remember when there were two political parties in South Dakota. But then a bunch of goofy liberals got ahold of the Democrat party, and drove it off the cliff.”

The takeaway is that Democrats have finally realized they can’t win, so, they plan on recruiting Republicans.  Can we start counting down the days to the next shellacking at the ballot box?

NRSC puts Brendan Johnson on notice that they “wont give him a pass” upon his resignation

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The Press Conference at which Brendan Johnson has announced his resignation (Effective 3/11, I believe) is still going on, but the National Republican Senatorial Committee is wasting no time in going after Johnson, likely in case Democrats manage to recruit him to take on John Thune.

I personally don’t think that’s going to happen, but it’s politics, and anything goes!  Here’s the release from the Republican US Senator’s Political organization:

:NRSC

 NRSC Statement Regarding Brendan Johnson’s Departure As U.S. Attorney

WASHINGTON – With Brendan Johnson, the son of former Senator Tim Johnson, set to quit his job as the United States Attorney for the District of South Dakota, the NRSC released the statement regarding his impending departure.

“It became clear that young Brendan Johnson was not ready for the job, once his father had to pull a few strings to get him a hearing and the votes for his confirmation. Brendan should know the next time he steps into the ring we won’t give him a pass, nor will his dad be able to bail him out.” – NRSC spokeswoman Andrea Bozek

He’s baaaaaack.. “Draft Stace Nelson for State Senate” effort springs up.

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Is an effort to draft someone for State Senate like drafting someone for School Board or Electric Coop Board?  It kind of lacks the “oomph” of drafting someone for Governor or US Senate.

Of course, I wouldn’t be writing about it if it wasn’t happening.

Apparently, tired of the relative peace and quiet of this legislative session, in the last week, someone started a “Draft Stace Nelson for District 19 State Senate” facebook page.

draft_stace_watermarked

The facebook page, located at https://www.facebook.com/draftstacenelson doesn’t list the page’s creator, but noting the people who are supporting it, it would appear to be coming from within the close circle of Nelson campaign people.

The obvious point to bring up is that this effort would pit Nelson against current Republican State Senator Bill Van Gerpen, who anyone would agree is also quite conservative. And certainly wouldn’t be someone that anyone could accuse of “not following” the constitution.  Any plea to kick Bill out of office on that basis would seem to be …misplaced at the least.

We’ll continue to monitor the situation to see if this early draft effort is an indicator of Nelson’s intention to re-enter politics after his US Senate effort which ended in a third place defeat at the hands of current US Senator Mike Rounds.

And with that, I’ll ask  – what do you think about the possibility of Nelson getting back into the State Legislature? It it a good thing, because he has a lot to contribute to South Dakota? Or would it be a bad thing, remembering robocalls and divisiveness?

 

State Representative Steve Westra Announces South Dakotan’s for Jeb Bush Group

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From a release:
IMG_1254.PNGState Representative Steve Westra Announces South Dakotan’s for Jeb Bush Group

PIERRE, South Dakota – (January 20, 2015) – Today State Representative Steve Westra (R-SD), announced the formation of the South Dakotans for Jeb Bush group. “South Dakota has the opportunity to create one of the first grassroots efforts to encourage Jeb Bush to seek and win the Presidency of the United States,” said Westra. “Jeb Bush is as conservative as South Dakota. His views align with the majority of South Dakota voters who want limited government, balanced budgets, and a strong America.”

Rep. Westra today unveiled a Facebook site that will collect the names and contact information of South Dakota voters who want to be counted as early Jeb Bush backers. The group is encouraging those who want to send a signal of support to Jeb Bush to visit www.Facebook.com/SDforJEB . Supporters who visit the Facebook page like the page and enter their name on the petition will be submitted to Jeb Bush at the end of February.

Bush announced in December of 2014 that he was creating a Presidential exploratory committee. “We want to send a clear message to Jeb Bush, that just as South Dakotans stood with his Dad and his brother, we will stand with him,” said Westra. “Jeb Bush shares South Dakota values on guns, protection of the unborn, a strong defense, and conservative fiscal policy. Now is the time for South Dakota voters to play an early role in the upcoming 2016 Presidential election, by registering your support for Jeb Bush.”

“This is an all-volunteer effort by South Dakotans to show Jeb Bush that we will strongly support him and his message of positive conservativism to help restore opportunity to South Dakota and America,” said Westra. “At the end of this push we will send to Jeb Bush the names of his early South Dakota supporters, and hope that this send the early message that we need Jeb Bush to run and win the Presidency of the United States.”

Representative Steve Westra was recently elected to the position of the Assistant House Majority Leader by his fellow South Dakota Republican legislators. Representative Westra serves District 13 in South Dakota which includes parts of Minnehaha and Lincoln County. He is the Chief Operating Officer at Hegg Companies, Inc.

Contact:
Steve Westra,
South Dakota State Representative for District 13
[email protected]
605-310-4778

Adam Timmerman,
Coordinator for South Dakotan’s for Jeb Bush
[email protected]
605-360-6635

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Is there anyone you’re holding a candle for in the presidential sweepstakes? Who is the next Reagan?

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The New York Times has an article today noting how the GOP is torn in giving a third chance for Mitt Romney:

“People say he is a very fine man, but he had his chance,” said Frank Keating, the former Oklahoma governor. “I think they’re looking over his shoulder at the next attractive candidates.”

Mr. Romney’s indication in New York last week that he may run in 2016 has set off excitement among his loyalists in the Republican donor class and assurances from his consultants that he can bring a different dimension to the campaign this time.

But interviews with more than two dozen Republican activists, elected officials and contributors around the country reveal little appetite for another Romney candidacy. Beyond his enthusiasts — a formidable constituency given that many are donors — opinions range from indifference to open hostility.

Read it here.

I don’t have anything against Romney, but I guess I’m looking for a Republican candidate who is inspirational and aspirational. That’s kind of the same problem I had last go around in the Republican presidential sweepstakes. I’m looking for someone with a clear vision as well as a blueprint, of where they want our country to go.

And that might be the very reason Republicans keep struggling at the Presidential level. Hands down, Obama is the worst president of my lifetime. Even worse than Jimmy Carter. At least Carter attempted to lead.

But without a Republican alternative for voters who can articulate a vision and a path to achieve it, it could be a rough row to hoe.

So, you tell me. Which Republican candidate should we be paying more attention to in the months to come? And what is their vision?