Category: Uncategorized

Defeat 22 Coalition Welcomes SD Cattlemen’s Association and other organizations
Three new South Dakota organizations join coalition opposing taxpayer funded elections

Sioux Falls, S.D. – The Defeat 22 coalition today welcomed aboard the South Dakota Cattlemen’s Association, the South Dakota Republican Party, and the Yankton County Republicans. The organizations bring the total coalition opposing taxpayer funding of elections to over 20.

“We welcome our newest partners in the fight to stop taxpayer funding of elections,” explained  Ben Lee, Spokesman  for Defeat 22. “Our coalition represents thousands of hard-working business owners, ranchers, contractors, and citizens who know that tax dollars should pay for roads, bridges, and schools – not robocalls, television ads, and junk mail. We look forward to continuing to educate South Dakotans about Measure 22 and urging them to defeat it this November.”

Jodie Anderson, Executive Director of the South Dakota Cattlemen’s Association saId: “In addition to the pitfalls of taxpayer funded elections, SDCA opposes Measure 22 due to concerns that our members’ privacy would be endangered simply because we advocated for our policy goals or mentioned a candidate in passing. We believe this would diminish civic engagement  and open  our members to harassment and intimidation.”

Ryan Budmayr, Executive Director of South Dakota Republican Party said: “IM22 is yet another example of outside, big money interests trying to change the way we do things in South    Dakota.”

Jason Ravnsborg, Chair of the Yankton County Republicans, said: “For a measure that claims to limit the influence of money in politics, Measure 22 sure does a poor job of it. Measure 22 would have taxpayers contribute up to $12 million each election cycle to political campaigns. We have better priorities for our states limited funds than forcing taxpayers  to support political campaigns.”

Defeat 22 is a coalition of over 20 South Dakota businesses, charities, political leaders and organizations who agree that tax dollars shouldn’t fund political campaigns. They have released multiple radio ads and multiple mailers to supplement a grassroots door knocking effort. The coalition plans to continue heavy grassroots advocacy and paid media through November.  All  details  about the coalition-led effort  can be seen at www.defeat22.com

Now I’ve got that Beatles song stuck in my head. Because the South Dakota GOP is helping the Liberal Democrat candidate for State Senate in District 3 with his memory again today, as they remind him of his statements in favor of raising taxes all over the place!

Statements promoting a personal state income tax… a corporate income tax… a new penny of sales tax.. and removing $800 Million in Sales tax exemptions?  And all of them are from this year? Ouch.

This might be a tough election for our little liberal in Aberdeen, unless he can find a majority of people want to be taxed far, far more than they are now.

Moving on…

Update!

They zinged him in the newspaper too. (Which I’m hearing he wants to remove the tax exemptions on, so it’s probably appropriate).

 

It must be video day, as everyone is posting them to YouTube and Facebook, and John Thune’s latest is as always, a good one.

State Senate Candidate Jordan Youngberg has a great new video out on social media – and you can check it out here!

A South Dakotan’s Field of Dreams
By Sen. John Thune

When South Dakotans picture opening day of pheasant season, they see unharvested corn and milo fields, sloughs, shelterbelts, and food plots lined with hunters – often friends and family, conspicuous in their bright orange clothing. Although shooting a limit of pheasants isn’t the mark of a successful hunt, the allure of the “Pheasant Capital of the World” is why hunters from across the United States gather in South Dakota every third Saturday in October to participate in this world-class event and renew or create family memories and traditions. 

As you walk through the amply covered fields during your fall hunt, it’s important to think about what the surrounding landscape looks like in winter after the crops are harvested, snow covers the ground, and temperatures dive below zero. It’s also important to think about the spring nesting season when quality habitat is crucial for pheasants to hide their nests and offer protection to their young chicks. Most people probably assume that’s what the widely known and well-respected Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is for, and they would be right.

Since its authorization in the 1985 farm bill, CRP has evolved into the cornerstone of federal conservation programs and has helped create a field of dreams for South Dakota pheasant hunters. CRP acreage in South Dakota peaked in 2007 at more than 1.5 million acres, and as a result of the nesting habitat and winter cover most CRP acres provide, pheasant numbers increased dramatically. Since then, CRP acreage has dropped, and unfortunately it’s only going to get worse. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports show that over the next six years, nearly 580,000 additional acres will expire from CRP in South Dakota – that’s a 60 percent loss of our current CRP-enrolled acres. 

The opportunity for South Dakota landowners to enroll more land in the most recent general CRP sign-up was significantly hamstrung when the USDA announced it had accepted just 107 of the more than 40,000 acres that South Dakota landowners had offered. In response, I wrote to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and later had an opportunity to question him during a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing about the department’s disappointing decision and inappropriate CRP management practices.

As a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, I will continue to work with USDA officials and focus my efforts on making changes to CRP policy next year when we begin debate on the next farm bill to ensure adequate and equitable CRP enrollment and common-sense management of CRP in the future. 

Keeping adequate acres enrolled in South Dakota will benefit everyone because it will help maintain our state’s nearly quarter-million-dollar pheasant hunting industry, which directly benefits our small towns and rural areas. Farmers will continue to protect and preserve soil health, and our state’s pheasant hunting legacy will continue for generations to come. 

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Hunting Pheasants in South Dakota
By Senator Mike Rounds

Across the country, the month of October is a time to carve pumpkins and watch the leaves change color. While I enjoy participating in these activities with my family, for us, the highlight of the month has always been the opening weekend of the pheasant hunting season. I have lived most of my life in central South Dakota, which is home to some of the best pheasant habitat in the country. Huron, where I was born, actually bears the nickname “Ringneck Nation.” 

For our family and for many families in South Dakota, the opener is almost as big of a reunion as Christmas or Thanksgiving. I was born on the opening weekend of pheasant hunting season in 1954, and my dad still reminds me that I messed up his hunt. I remind him that was his fault! My kids all hunt, and some of our older grandkids are looking forward to taking the hunter safety course. Until then, they still join us in the field and help the dogs chase down birds. It’s fun to see them get excited about a sport that is such a big part of growing up in South Dakota. 

Pheasant hunting in South Dakota is not only a deeply-held tradition for those of us who live here, it also plays an important role in our economy. People travel thousands of miles just to spend a weekend hunting pheasants here. It provides us with a unique opportunity to showcase our state and highlight everything we have to offer. According to the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish & Parks (GFP), hunting generated $302 million in wages for South Dakotans in 2011 and created just over 11,000 jobs.

While hunting is a fun sport, it also plays a big role in land conservation. The pheasant habitat found in South Dakota is exceptional because farmers and landowners practice proper land management and conservation. It is important that we take care of the prairies and grasslands to make sure they remain in great shape for future hunters to enjoy. I believe the Conservation Reserve Program is a very important part of this effort.

While I always enjoy the hunt, some of my favorite parts of these days come before and afterward when family and friends get together to share stories and a meal. Hunting is as much about tradition and comradery as it is about the sport. It’s a time for us to get out of the house or office, ignore the digital distractions of our daily lives and enjoy some fresh fall air with our friends and loved ones. I hope everyone who takes advantage of the fabulous South Dakota pheasant hunting this year will have safe and successful hunts!  

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Beating Breast Cancer
By Rep. Kristi Noem

Jami’s family had a history with cancer, but it wasn’t until late 2014 that her own battle with breast cancer began. She was a busy mom, working full-time at a non-profit in South Dakota and raising her 11 year-old daughter. Now, a battle with breast cancer was being added to her plate, but she pushed through, undergoing a double mastectomy and reconstruction, followed by a year of chemotherapy treatments. Despite the hardships, a friend of hers wrote: “I know there were times where the side effects of chemo were affecting her – the numbness and tingling in her fingers and legs, rashes covering her neck and torso – but she never lost that bright smile of hers.”

Like her mom, sister, and aunt before her, Jami fought – and won. Earlier this year, Jami was honored as the Susan G. Komen 2016 Survivor of the Year in South Dakota.

October marks Breast Cancer Awareness Month, a great time to celebrate those, like Jami, who have fought this disease; to remember those no longer with us, like my grandmother-in-law Betty, who also was diagnosed; and to encourage those who are in the middle of the battle. It’s also a time to learn more about the disease, the opportunities to detect it early, and the actions we can take today to reduce our risk altogether.

Nationwide, one in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer within their lifetime. In South Dakota, the number of diagnosis has risen steadily since 2010, putting our state at the top of the list when it comes to breast cancer incidents per capita.

It’s unclear what has caused the rise. While not everything is in our control, there are steps we can take to reduce our risk or detect the cancer early. For Jami, she knew her family’s history and acted on it. It was during a routine annual breast exam when the mass was detected. Annual exams like this can help make early detection possible. This means treatment can start earlier, possibly even before the cancer has spread.

Additionally, according to the American Cancer Society, excessive drinking, being overweight or obese (particularly after menopause), and a lack of physical activity can increase a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer. If you ever notice a lump, hard knot, or thickening inside the breast or underarm area, schedule an appointment with your doctor right away.

While we have made tremendous strides when it comes to detecting and treating breast cancer, 680 South Dakotans are expected to learn they have breast cancer this year alone. It’s one of the reasons I join my fellow female members of Congress each year in a softball game against the press to benefit the Young Survival Coalition. It’s a good opportunity to show support for our daughters, sisters, mothers and friends and build resources to help the many South Dakotans whose lives have been changed by breast cancer.

This month, please join me in building awareness about breast cancer. Use Jami’s story as motivation to put together an early detection plan (one great resource is www.earlydetectionplan.org). Urge your friends and family to do the same. Learn more about breast cancer and how it could be impacting your mom, your neighbor, or you. Find out how you can be a support system for those impacted. Get involved in one of the many breast cancer awareness activities throughout South Dakota this month. Together, we can beat this.

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The Last Great Stronghold For Pheasant Hunting
A column by Gov. Dennis Daugaard:

Pheasant hunting comes as naturally as the changing colors of autumn here in South Dakota. Our hunters look forward to opening day like kids looking forward to Christmas. When pheasant season begins, the hunters are everywhere. In Eureka, Mitchell, Faulkton, Winner, Armour, Miller, Vivian, Hoven, or Huron areas on a Saturday morning in mid-October, you’ll see orange armies of hunters ready to hit the fields.

Some of my fondest memories are of walking with friends and family through wooded draws and fields of harvested corn, just waiting for the cackle of a flushing rooster pheasant. Many South Dakotans have memories like these. Parents instill the tradition in their sons and daughters as soon as they’re old enough. It has become a part of our way of life.

In fact, the fall hunt is a tradition almost as old as South Dakota itself. This will be the 98^th year that South Dakotans have pursued ring-necks in South Dakota. During the first season in 1919, about 1,000 hunters bagged a total of 200 birds. Compare that to last year when more than 150,000 hunters bagged around 1.2 million birds and spent over $170 million in South Dakota.

This year, the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks reported a slight decline in its Pheasant Brood Survey. Though we would like to see increases every year, the numbers for 2016 are still good. This year’s pheasants-per-mile index is still higher than 2014’s index and twice as high as 2013’s. There will be good pheasant hunting opportunities in South Dakota this season.

South Dakota’s pheasant hunting experience is second to none and it draws hunters from across the globe. Our state is the last great stronghold for pheasant hunting in the world; and to help us keep it that way we established a permanent funding source for wildlife habitat work called the South Dakota Conservation Fund.

If you’re interested in helping us preserve this century-long tradition in our state, I hope you’ll consider giving a donation to that fund. To donate, go to the South Dakota Community Foundation website and search “South Dakota Conservation Fund.”

Happy pheasant hunting to you and yours.

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Did you catch the story this AM at rapidcityjournal.com about the 10 minute statutory limit on the amount of time we have to vote:

It took me nearly 20 minutes, and that was only to decipher the scaled-down version of the numerous and complicated measures on the Nov. 8 ballot.

The problem is, according to South Dakota state statute 12-18-15, which carries the ominous heading, “Voting without delay — Maximum time in booth or machine — Re-entry prohibited,” by law I’ll only have 10 minutes to cast my ballot that Tuesday.

Forget the contentious presidential election. Discount the congressional races. Disregard who is running for the state Legislature or the PUC. Those are easy decisions.

But South Dakota voters should be very afraid of the 10 constitutional amendments, referred laws and initiated measures facing South Dakota voters in this year’s general election. I know I am.

“The person voting shall cast his vote without delay,” the 1993 law commands. “No voter may occupy a voting booth or voting machine already occupied by another, nor occupy a voting booth or machine for more than 10 minutes.

Read it here.

A statutory 10 minutes to vote? That’s an interesting law that I dont think has ever come up before. But, this is an unusual year when we’ve been innundated with ballot measures.

The Secretary of State claims that the law wont’t be enforced. She can provide suggestions, but, I don’t think law enforcement is her department. And voting occurs at the county level.

That’s not to say that I think anyone is going to be arrested for it. States’ Attorneys have better things to do. But, the law exists.

With that fact of the ten minute time limit coming to light, I don’t think people out there want to break the law. So do you think there will be a new pressure for voters to just get through it?

And if so, will it mean that more people will just opt to vote “No on everything?”