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According to their facebook page, the Prairie Country PAC has apparently sent out a postcard attacking Republican Leadership in the lead-up to tomorrow’s caucus elections:

Maybe it’s just me, but I’m not sure what exactly this accomplishes.

First, given that several Senators, including President Pro Tempore Corey Brown have been termed out of office or resigned, such as Majority Leader Tim Rave and Assistant Majority Leader Dan Lederman both did in 2015, with a new crew of people after the election, the Senate Caucus is nearly starting from scratch in the elections.

The antagonistic nature of the card seems completely misplaced, as it attacks “Republican Leadership” on many measures while ignoring that these measures required a majority vote – and in some cases a 2/3 vote to pass. Effectively, they’re attacking everyone, while blaming leadership. And, of course, on the reverse side they’re asking people to vote for their favored candidates.

Just a bit of cognitive dissonance for legislators who will be asked to make a choice as to who their leadership would be.

Aside from that, we get into some of the technical aspects of the card.  There’s a few problems with it that will probably cause Prairie Country PAC some headaches.

Mistake #1 – As I spoke with Senator Elect Lance Russell himself yesterday, he wasn’t running for Assistant Majority Leader, and was predisposed to defer to Senator-elect Ryan Maher, who was. So, here’s a card promoting someone for the office who didn’t ask for it, much less was actively running for it.

Mistake #2 – The address side of the card appropriates the SDGOP’s logo for a Political Action Committee’s independent mailing. A PAC which includes in it’s leadership Ken Santema, Chairman of the South Dakota Libertarian Party.  I think it’s rather presumptuous for a PAC to appropriate the party’s logo for a piece of campaign literature attacking members of the party’s leadership.

Mistake #3 – Where exactly does it say “paid for by?”

12-27-15.   Printed political communications to contain certain language–Exceptions–Violation as misdemeanor.Any printed material or communication made, purchased, paid for, or authorized by a candidate, political committee, or political party which expressly advocates for or against a candidate, public office holder, ballot question, or political party shall prominently display or clearly speak the statement: “Paid for by (Name of candidate, political committee, or political party).” This section does not apply to buttons, balloons, pins, pens, matchbooks, clothing, or similar small items upon which the inclusion of the statement would be impracticable. A violation of this section is a Class 1 misdemeanor.

Read that here.

I see a logo & return address for the PAC, but not the three magic words; “Paid,” “For” and “By.” Considering their omission carries criminal penalties, you’d think people would pay more attention to it.

Probably the worst thing of all is that I don’t believe this or the nonsense with Citizens for Liberty sending e-mails is being done on behalf of the candidates. If it was, you’d think they would have noted that they weren’t sure they were running before all the nonsense went out.

The danger it poses is that it could have the opposite effect on Senators who are deciding who they want to lead them for the next two years, and harden their hearts. Which would be unfortunate.  I think Brock would do a good job as caucus leader, and shouldn’t be sandbagged by the misguided efforts of others.

I did find a graphic out on the internet which represents the Democrat bench for the statewide political races in South Dakota for 2018:

With all the news about 2018 that’s been going on today, I thought I’d update you with a handy chart of who is looking at what, and what rumors are out there.  Don’t consider all of this as Gospel as it’s likely to get even crazier in coming months.

From the updated story on Mickelson getting out of the race:

Noem’s chief of staff, Jordan Stoick, confirmed Thursday the Congresswoman was considering a bid for governor.

“Kristi’s main focus right now is on the position she was just re-elected to, but she’s received encouragement from across the state to run for governor in 2018 and is giving it serious consideration,” Stoick said.

Read that here.

Looks like someone got ahold of a letter before I did. As teased earlier today, Mark Mickelson has decided to take a pass on running for Governor:

Mark Mickelson, the Sioux Falls lawmaker who has been considered a favorite to be the state’s next governor, says he has decided not to run for the job when it’s open in 2018.

Mickelson, 50, had been actively fundraising and gearing up against potential GOP primary rivals, raising about $1 million for the campaign. But the commitment it takes to run a large statewide race was taking him away from his wife and three boys, who range in age from 17 to 13.

and..

Mickelson notified his supporters with letters and phone calls this week. He said he will return money to donors.

Read it all here.

In the aftermath of Tuesdays’ election, Todd Epp at KELO AM Radio received a copy of Ann Tornberg’s ridiculous self-congratulatory letter to Democrats about how great of a job they did this past year. And he wasn’t buying any of it:

..don’t get me started about the South Dakota Democratic Party.

They issued a release yesterday saying how wonderful they were and their candidates were, though they got their butts handed to them. There are now fewer Democrats in the state legislature since 1954.

1954. Let that sink in. Eisenhower was President. Cars had fins. Telephones were the size of Volkswagens.

State Democratic chair Ann Tornberg and executive director Susan Jones Pranger instead should have done the honorable thing and resigned. If the state Democratic Party were an actual, functioning business or non-profit, everyone associated with this debacle would be on the street.

The state Democratic Party lost because they have no plan for voter registration. They lost because they have no plan to recruit candidates. They lost because they are beholden to the South Dakota Farmers Union, which has its own ongoing issues with its own members and transparency. They lost because they did not have a message that resonates with regular, hardworking South Dakotans.

Read it here.

I think that sums it up well. The Democrats lost because they really don’t have a party to support their “impressive slate of legislative candidates” as Ann called them. Instead, they recruited them and left them to twist in the wind.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m ok with that. But it does seem like a crappy thing to do to someone you talked into being a candidate.

The world of GOP political gossip is highly charged at the moment, with multiple sources noting that an announcement in the 2018 GOP race for Governor is forthcoming, possibly as soon as today.

While some are speculating that someone is going to announce that they’re in, the more prevalent rumor is that an announcement may be forthcoming that someone is getting out. But again, it’s all a rumor at this point.

If one of the major players in the GOP Hunt for Governor decides to take a pass, it opens up what has generally been a closed contest, and might entice others to dip their toes in the water in an exploratory effort.

Hang on for more.

An acquaintance sent this over to me, and I have to ask if Ann Tornberg is talking about the election we had last night, because her enthusiasm seems a bit misplaced.

Begin forwarded message:

From: “Ann Tornberg” <[email protected]>
Date: November 9, 2016 at 3:08:06 PM CST
To: 
Subject: Thank you
Reply-To: [email protected]

Thank you. 

For all your hard work, for all the time you’ve committed, for the hard-earned money you have donated, and for reading all these emails, to support South Dakota Democrats up and down the ballot – thank you, from the bottom of my heart. 

Because of your hard work, we were able to defeat Referred Law 19, the incumbent protection plan, and Referred Law 20, which would have lowered the minimum wage for young workers. Once again, Democrats showed that when our ideas are on the ballot, the people of South Dakota agree.  

Because of your hard work, our statewide candidates – U.S. Senate Candidate Jay Williams, U.S. House Candidate Paula Hawks, and Public Utilities Commission Candidate Henry Red Cloud were able to run great campaigns. Running against well-funded political insiders like John Thune, Kristi Noem, and Chris Nelson is a tall challenge, but our candidates ran smart, energetic campaigns and raised some very important issues. They, and all Democrats, can be proud of the races they ran. 

Because of your hard work months before the election, Democrats had an impressive slate of legislative candidates including a Grammy nominated artist, an escaped hostage of Saddam Hussein, a former gubernatorial cabinet member, along with teachers, health care providers, firefighters, farmers, lawyers, and business leaders. These candidates were moved to run to provide balance and accountability in state government, and Democrats remain committed to that cause. The Democrats who were elected to the legislature are ready to work across the aisle for the betterment of all South Dakotans.

Last night didn’t turn out the way we wanted it to, and we lost some tough races in South Dakota and around the country. But Democrats will continue to fight to move our state and nation forward and to promote our shared values of rewarding hard work, investing in our children, advancing inclusion and empowerment of others, and expanding opportunity for all. 

Today we begin the fight for 2018. We must build to make gains in the State Legislature, to elect Democrats to state constitutional offices, to the Governor’s office, and to take back South Dakota’s U.S. House seat.

Thanks again for all your hard work and dedication.

Sincerely,

Ann Tornberg
South Dakota Democratic Party Chair

She left out the part about all these candidates getting their butts kicked.

I agree the Democrat party must build, but for about the last decade that hasn’t happened. And Tornberg took them the farthest they’ve been down in the hole in over 50 years.

Will they “build?” Sure. You bet. Just don’t hold your breath waiting for it to happen. I’m not sure why 2018 would be any different than the many years that have preceded it for quite a while.

So, about those South Dakota Democrats…

Do you realize that in the Senate, they did not win a single, solitary race. Only uncontested ones. And in the House of Representatives, of the ten seats they won, six were uncontested, 2 were contested against Independents, and only two wins out of 70 seats – one in D17 (Ray Ring over Debbie Pease), and one in D25 (Dan Ahlers over Roger Hunt) were head to head runs against Republicans.

Think about that.

The Democrat party was only able to put together legitimate head to head victories over Republicans in only 2 out of 105 seats.  That’s just staggering for a political party who, not much more than 20 years ago in the 1992 election was able to capture a majority in the State Senate.

The intervening years have not been kind to the opposition, but in many cases, they’ve brought it onto themselves.

As opposed to recruiting and running a full slate of candidates, they’ve relied on the stopgap placeholder to put a warm body into candidate positions with hopes of filling it later, in all too many instances.

As opposed to trying to appeal to the middle in center-right to conservative South Dakota, they keep pushing farther and farther left. When you bring in candidates for the head of your ticket who want to raise taxes all over the board and tell us we need to stop oil production, farmers who might possibly be sympathetic to your cause are just going to shake their head and pull the lever for the GOP that much more earnestly.

As opposed to party building, the Democrats have fallen into this trap of working ballot issues, thinking that they’re going to build their potential mailing lists, and the electorate is going to reward them for their ideas they can’t get pushed through during session.

Now that they’re at their lowest point of elected officials IN OVER 50 YEARS (since ’53), you would think that maybe they would get the hint that their path which meanders towards extinction isn’t working for them anymore.

But somehow, I just don’t think they get it.