Looking for campaign materials for a Municipal or School Election?

Once again, with Municipal and School Board elections coming up in April and June, it’s shameless plug time!  At the bottom of the right hand column, I have an ad for my printing and campaign material business – dakotacampaignstore.com, where you can get some of the best quality supplies the industry has to offer, at some of the cheapest prices you’ll find.

Check out my website, or click here, and browse the latest catalog on-line!

2016 Dakota Campaign Store Catalog by Pat Powers on Scribd

Remember, the early bird gets the worm!

Rounds Statement on Confirmation of Betsy DeVos to be Secretary of Education

Rounds Statement on Confirmation of
Betsy DeVos to be Secretary of Education

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) today issued the following statement on the confirmation of Betsy DeVos to be Secretary of Education:

“I support Betsy DeVos to be Secretary of Education because she understands the need to keep education decisions at the local level: with parents, teachers, school boards and students. Further, I believe she will be successful in implementing the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which was signed into law last Congress and repealed Common Core and other one-size-fits-all approaches, giving local units more flexibility in developing a curriculum that best fits the needs of South Dakota students. The South Dakota Department of Education and our individual school boards are more than capable of making decisions best suited for our students; they will be further empowered to do so under Ms. DeVos’s leadership.”

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GOP Chair and Vice Chair candidates discuss slate at Yankton County GOP Meeting


GOP Vice Chair Candidate Dan Wheeler and GOP Chair Candidate Dan Lederman met with interested Republicans last night to explain why Republican Central Committee members should elect them to leadership posts this coming weekend in Pierre, where Dan Lederman and Linda Rausch will be opposing incumbent Chair Pam Roberts and David Wheeler for the offices in question.

According to Yankton County GOP Chair Jason Ravnsborg:

“They both represented their positions well and we had a good question and answer session from the audience and they were both engaging.”

“We are thankful that they both could attend and we told them they are always welcome in Yankton and hope that they can come back for a Lincoln Day dinner on April 7th no matter what the outcome is on Saturday.”

Stay tuned – there’s lots more to come on this weekend’s race for South Dakota GOP Chair!

With Leadership from Noem, House Backs Black Hills Cemetery Expansion

With Leadership from Noem, House Backs Black Hills Cemetery Expansion

Washington, D.C. – The U.S. House of Representatives today unanimously passed Rep. Kristi Noem’s H.R.337, the Black Hills National Cemetery Boundary Expansion Act.  If enacted, this legislation would facilitate a permanent land transfer of approximately 200 acres of Bureau of Land Management land to expand the Black Hills National Cemetery outside Sturgis.

“Our veterans and their families have made tremendous sacrifices so our people could remain safe and our freedoms secure,” said Noem.  “Securing a restful piece of hallowed ground for these patriotic men and women is a small token of gratitude we can offer as a nation.”

NOEM PRESENTS BILL ON HOUSE FLOOR PRIOR TO PASSAGE


Under current law, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act limits transfers like this one to a lifespan of 20 years. The Black Hills National Cemetery Boundary Expansion Act would make this particular transfer permanent. 

First introduced by members of the regional congressional delegation in 2015, the legislation was passed by the House in 2016 and was nearing passage in the Senate at the end of that year.  Sens. Thune, Rounds and Enzi again joined Noem in re-introducing this legislation in 2017. 

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Well, that was an awful idea. Sen. Curd appoints Amendment V’s Rick Knobe to Board of Elections.

I have to admit, I was taken aback a bit to see the announcement of today’s appointment of Rick Knobe to the State Board of Elections:

New Board of Elections Members Appointed

Pierre, SD – Secretary of State Shantel Krebs is looking forward to working with two new board appointees on the 7 member bipartisan Board of Elections. The new members are Rick Knobe of Sioux Falls and Clay County Auditor Carri Crum of Vermillion. Secretary Krebs said, “I value the dedication the board members bring to the table while we work together to ensure South Dakota elections remain fair and transparent. Both Rick and Carri will bring new enthusiasm and a great work ethic to the bipartisan board.”

Auditor Crum was selected by Speaker of the House G. Mark Mickelson to replace Codington County Auditor Cindy Brugman and Mr. Knobe was selected by Senate Majority Blake Curd to replace Drew Duncan. Auditor Crum said, “Serving on the Board of Elections is a great honor. I am humbled to have been chosen, and I am also very excited to see what the next four years will bring for South Dakota.”

Former Sioux Falls Mayor Rick Knobe will be the first registered Independent voter to serve on the bipartisan board. “This is going to be a grand adventure! Working to ensure election laws are fair to all, ballot access is open, and our procedures use the best techniques and technology available is important. I am eager to join the ongoing effort,” stated former mayor Rick Knobe.

To put it delicately, WTF?

Didn’t people on either side of the aisle just spend the last year and tens of thousands of dollars fighting Slick Rick Weiland, Rick Knobe, the Daschle/Johnson Machine and a load of out-of-state money on Amendment V, because we didn’t want to see California’s systems of elections implemented in South Dakota?

On top of that, the Anti-Amendment V side believed that Knobe’s group supporting Amendment V played fast and loose with campaign finance laws, and accused the group of taking illegal donations.

And now, just a few months later, Senate Majority Leader Curd appoints the person who wanted to completely up-end our elections, and shutting independents out of the process, to the State Board of Elections?  After the State Republican Party went all-in to stop it, the Republican Leader in the Senate does this?

I might be speaking for myself, but today’s appointment? Well, that was an awful idea.

Daughter on way to Pierre to serve as legislative page!

On a personal note, on this Superbowl Sunday, my overachiever Daughter #4, Sydney, just departed the family domicile post-haste to drive to Pierre to serve as a legislative page in the State Senate during the third paging term, sponsored by our State Senator Larry Tidemann.

My #2 daughter Meredith, who had previously served as a page in the House, offered her a bit of advice for her time in Pierre. She suggested that Sydney have a card printed as follows that she can hand out:

Probably a bit too constraining, but indicative of the cross my daughters bear in relation to me.

Right now for Sydney, based on scholarships and an early offer of law school (if she completes an honor’s degree and maintains a certain GPA) it’s looking like she’s leaning towards USD. She’s made early noise about a degree in political science, which she can get at either school, but unless SDSU gets on the stick and ponies up on some scholarship offers, I’m going to lose another child to the state’s lesser University.

And that could permanently damage her standings in the contest for favorite child of her father’s.

Seriously though, I’m proud of my daughter, and excited for her and the opportunity to see how our legislative process works in Pierre.

Who knows, maybe she’ll be Governor someday.

Increased Meth supply being shipped in from Legal Pot States according to Attorney General

Interesting statistic from the Attorney General this AM.

The increased availability of meth in South Dakota is coming into the state alongside pot from those states that have legalized it. And both are creating a dangerous, armed drug culture in quiet South Dakota:

Attorney General Marty Jackley said the factors behind violent crime vary but typically involve controlled substances.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office, which handles high-volume methamphetamine cases, is prosecuting more of them. The number of federal-level meth-related prosecutions in South Dakota jumped from 24 in 2010 to 46 in 2015 after peaking at 57 in 2014.

In Rapid City, meth was involved in three of the four officer-involved shootings during police Chief Karl Jegeris’ first two years in his job.

The meth increase has come without the aid of home labs. Instead, it’s coming from out of state, Jackley said, alongside shipments of marijuana from Colorado, Washington and Oregon. “All three of those states have the same thing in common: They have legalized marijuana for recreational purposes,” Jackley said.

The public’s appetite for high-grade marijuana and methamphetamine has fostered a more violent drug culture in which buyers and sellers are more likely to arm themselves, Sioux Falls police Chief Matt Burns said.

Read it all here in the Rapid City Journal.

Another good reason not to add South Dakota to the list where people “grow their own medicine.”

US Senator John Thune’s Weekly Column: If Anyone Can Fill Justice Scalia’s Shoes, Judge Gorsuch Can

If Anyone Can Fill Justice Scalia’s Shoes, Judge Gorsuch Can
By Sen. John Thune

When Justice Antonin Scalia unexpectedly passed away last year, the country lost more than veteran of the Supreme Court. It lost a man who was universally respected by his colleagues in the courtroom, both behind and in front of the bench, and a man who will undoubtedly go down as one of the most brilliant legal minds in American history. Justice Scalia’s reverence for the law and Constitution was as evident in his written work as it was in his methodical and oftentimes witty oratory. He loved the court and his country, and his shoes will be big ones to fill.    

Not that there is ever an ordinary vacancy on the court, but when Justice Scalia passed away, it came at an extraordinary time. America was in the middle of a heated presidential election, and President Obama was months away from leaving office. In order to protect the selection and confirmation of a new Supreme Court justice from the heat of election-year politics, Senate Republicans decided the best option was for the American people to have a voice in the process.

That meant Republicans were willing and prepared to give whoever was elected as the 45th president (Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton) the power to nominate the next Supreme Court justice. It also meant that the next Senate (led by Republicans or Democrats) would be the group to provide its advice and consent to the president on his or her nominee. Both the next president and the next Senate would be free from the political rhetoric and rancor of the campaign trail. 

By now, we all know how the election ended. Donald Trump won, and he selected an extremely well-qualified, mainstream jurist who is ready to serve on the highest court in the land. Senate Republicans retained our majority, and we are ready get to work on the people’s business, which includes quickly confirming Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.

Judge Gorsuch’s resume is impeccable. He is the graduate of Oxford University, Harvard Law School, and Columbia University. He served as a clerk for two Supreme Court justices, including Anthony Kennedy who still serves on the court today. For more than a decade, Judge Gorsuch has served on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, a position to which he received unanimous support in the Senate. Perhaps most importantly, Judge Gorsuch believes that Supreme Court justices should be like an umpire who calls balls and strikes. The law is the law, and Judge Gorsuch agrees.

It is unfortunate that before this nominee was even announced, my Democrat colleagues in the Senate launched a filibuster campaign in an attempt to block the nomination. Not because of the character or qualifications of the person who would ultimately receive it, but because they think the seat belongs to someone else. 

To be clear, seats on the Supreme Court do not belong to a president, a political party, or even a justice himself. The Supreme Court and the seats of which it is comprised belong to the American people. They, as should my Democrat colleagues who not that long ago believed we needed nine justices on the Supreme Court, are ready to fill this vacancy so Judge Gorsuch can get to work without delay. 

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