Category: Uncategorized

A legislator just sent me yet another poll request they received from an anonymous source.

Where the one from last week came from “consrepublican@gmail.com” this new one comes from “sdnonpartisanpoll@gmail.com.”  So, it’s completely a different person. Yep. Not the same person at all.

The request for information does forewarn candidates that the results of the survey “will be provided to all of SD’s TV & radio stations, all interested blogs, all of South Dakotas numerous newspapers, etc.” Because as you know, most newspaper, tv, and radio stations regularly broadcast polling results from unnamed people representing unknown, anonymous groups. 

What are they polling people on? Important issues, such as:

Legislation to make it legal for you to have horses and cows in your backyard in town, and the ever important issue of “omnibus bills.”  Important issues for all of South Dakota (said no one ever).

So, once again, we’re left with someone who seems focused silliness, or has an axe to grind.

And unfortunately for the Senate candidates, it appears he may have their e-mail addresses. The only question is whether anyone is foolish enough to respond.

 

I think the latest Donald Trump bombshell was just one too many for some of those in the SDGOP Leadership.

From the Rapid City Journal:

The two top state Republicans made their views known in posts on Twitter on Saturday, calling for Trump to end his presidential bid a month before the election after crude remarks by Trump a decade ago surfaced in a video on Friday.

“Donald Trump should withdraw and Mike Pence should be our nominee effective immediately,” Thune said on Twitter.

And…

Also Saturday, Daugaard re-tweeted Thune’s statement, and added his own Tweet calling for Trump to step aside in favor of Vice Presidential Candidate Mike Pence.

“Enough is enough. Donald Trump should withdraw in favor of Governor Mike Pence. This election is too important,” Daugaard tweeted, according to KELO.

Read it all here.

For those who had been planning to vote for him, did Trump’s recent comments disqualify him in your mind?

From facebook:

As Paula Hawks tries to gain purchase on the porcelain as her campaign continues to circle the drain, a number of agriculture groups came together to point out how Congresswoman Kristi Noem has been an effective representative for the State on the Ways and Means committee.

Their letter appeared on the Argus Leader website yesterday:

As farmers, ranchers and agribusinesses we strongly disagree with recent criticisms of Rep. Kristi Noem’s transition to the influential House Ways and Means Committee. This was a strategic move –made with the understanding that having a voice during tax, trade and health care debates would be essential to ensuring fair deals for agriculture and all South Dakotans. For this reason, we each offered our encouragement and support to Noem when the opportunity to join Ways and Means arose in early 2015.

and…

There is no doubt that if you’re a farmer or rancher, you care about the Farm Bill, but the conversation must not stop there. We need to fix what’s wrong with our tax code, level the playing field so products can be sold more easily overseas, eliminate harmful regulations, and make it easier to pass our operations to our children. The agriculture industry’s interests are not isolated to a sole committee in Congress, and our representation shouldn’t be either. In her role as the first South Dakotan in history to serve on the Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Kristi Noem is giving agriculture a powerful and effective voice in Congress.

Todd Wilkinson, president, S.D. Cattlemen’s Association, DeSmet
Brenda Forman, executive director, S.D. Association of Cooperatives, Pierre
Keith Alverson, president, S.D. Corn Growers Association, Chester
Scott VanderWal, president, S.D. Farm Bureau Federation, Volga
Jerry Schmitz, president, S.D. Soybean Association, Vermillion

Read it all here.

“Rep. Kristi Noem is giving agriculture a powerful and effective voice in Congress.” That small letter to the editor speaks volumes.

From KORN Radio, apparently Rick Weiland has pulled down his offensive flag burning video that was produced in support of the Amendment V proposal that would hide party labels from the ballot:

An on-line video favoring passage of Amendment V has been removed from YouTube. The video, titled “Party Wars” was promoted by TakeItBack.org, a group supporting Amendment V. It used blue, red, and purple toy soldiers to depict what appears to be an Independent trying to vote and included the burning of a small American Flag.

Rick Knobe, co-chair of the Yes on V committee says his group had nothing to do with the video. He says the group that produced it did so without asking the committee or seeking permission to publish it.

Read it all here.

In the raging battle over where the Yes on V group is getting it’s funding, tonight the “Open Primaries” group claims it’s all a big misunderstanding:

and…

Apparently, someone doesn’t want their identity known, or can’t pick up the phone.

An anonymous “Survey Monkey” poll was sent out tonight to legislators and candidates to ask where the “perspective (sic) Republican Legislators” stand on issues and where they are in leadership elections.

Once you get into the content, there’s an immediate obsession with registration history and report cards, asking them if they’ve read the party platform, and demanding information on their compliance. (That’s if you get past all the mistakes in the survey, and thinly veiled attacks on current Republican leadership.)

The survey ends with an odd and out of place call for disunity, asking legislators if they should establish a caucus within the caucus, if their favored conservatives are not elected to lead the Republican Caucus. (a.k.a., the take-our-toys-and-go-home strategy.)

It’s almost as if the author of the survey is attempting to have it serve as a proclamation that someone is looking to stir stuff up, and if you aren’t meeting someone’s narrow definition of scorecard Republicanism, then you’re not worthy.

Anyone who responds to it likely risks approaching the level of foolishness of the people who sent it. Because they’ll have all your answers, and you’ll have none of theirs.

Those who aren’t running, what do you think about the survey?  And what do you think about someone with a hankering to starting up all the intra-caucus nonsense again? Do we really need to replace a deliberative process with name calling?

If there’s any lesson that’s been proven time and time again when nonsense such as anonymous attacks against leadership sprouted up before, it’s that it’s a silly distraction. Those in GOP Leadership are in the leadership position because they were elected by their peers.

And I suspect they’ll have less tolerance for it than they did before.

If you haven’t heard about the Sioux Falls Doc who is sitting in the Jail in Sioux Falls on a million dollar bond…..From the Argus Leader:

A Sioux Falls doctor accused of human trafficking is being held on $1 million cash-only bond.

Jonathan David Cohen, 36, appeared in court Thursday afternoon on charges of human trafficking, procuring or promoting prostitution, sexual exploitation of a minor and solicitation of a minor.

The victim in the case was a runaway from Georgia who was reported missing in August, Lt. Michael Colwill said. She had visited and stayed with Cohen for four days in September and again this week after meeting him on an online dating website. The two were engaged in a sexual relationship, Colwill said.

and..

Prosecutors said Thursday that Cohen, who is a doctor with the Sanford Ear, Nose and Throat Clinic, had sex with the girl on his desk at work. They said Cohen admitted to buying a plane ticket for the girl using the victim’s birth date, meaning he knew the girl’s age.

Read it here.

An observant reader pointed out that ‘the good doctor’ has been busy writing checks to Hillary Clinton..(From OpenSecrets.org)…:

….and has been busy on his Facebook page railing against Donald Trump, most recently posting about how he’s “holding judgement against his supporters.”

Somehow, I think he picked a bad time to talk about holding judgement against anyone.

After the Amendment V press release this morning pointing out that potentially illegal donations have been made to promote the ballot measure which would hide party labels on the ballot, Yes on V spokesman Rick Knobe is out calling the call to return the illegal donations “A dirty trick”

Mortenson called on Yes on V to return money that it received from the two groups, which aren’t required to disclose their donors.

“The supporters of Amendment V must immediately return the illegal contributions obtained from dark money corporations that have no regard for South Dakota law,” he said in a statement.

and..

Rick Knobe, the chairman of Vote Yes on V responded with a statement accusing the state’s political establishment of playing “dirty tricks” in making the allegation. The South Dakota Republican Party opposes Amendment V.

and..

“Campaign finance laws exist to protect South Dakota elections from just this type of hidden, out-of-state influence, Mortenson said. “Yes on V should give back every cent it received from TakeItBack.org and Open Primaries and apologize to the people of South Dakota for its disregard of our campaign finance laws.”

Read it all here.

So, the chairman of the No on V Committee calls the allegation a dirty trick, and rails on against the Republican party…   But one thing I notice is that he didn’t deny that it happened. He didn’t say, No, we didn’t take illegal money.  He just called making the allegation “dirty tricks” without addressing their substance.

This bad news for Knobe couldn’t come at a worse time.

Why? Because Nielsen ratings recently came in for Spring 2016. And it isn’t looking good for KSOO Radio, who came in last place among listeners in the Sioux Falls Metro area:

(There was one with fewer listeners, but most people don’t consider Yankton Based WNAX as a member of the Sioux Falls Metro area.)

Knobe’s station was 2000 listeners off of first place for persons 12 and older from 6am to 12 Midnight, with an average rating of .1, a weekly cumulative rating of 4.7 and an average share of 1.3%

I can’t imagine that Knobe’s attachment to a ballot measure designed to hide party affiliation, and disenfranchise independent candidates from the fall general election has helped attract badly needed listeners to what was once a flagship station in the Sioux Falls media market.

Getting beat up in the press, while his station is getting beat up in the ratings. It’s just not Rick Knobe’s day.