Category: Uncategorized

(From my mailbox – PP)

Greetings Fellow Republicans,

I wanted to take a moment as a follow up to the State Convention to discuss an important issue on the ballot this fall: Defeating Amendment V – Rick Weiland’s plan to elect Democrats by hiding party labels on the ballot.

The Republican Party overwhelmingly passed a Resolution at the State Convention opposing Amendment V. Senator Thune and Governor Daugaard spent significant time discussing the negative impacts of this Constitutional overhaul in their remarks on Friday evening at the Convention.

What Senator Thune says about Amendment V:

Amendment V is an attempt by South Dakota Democrats to hide candidate party affiliation on the ballot from voters. Rather than run on their party’s principles and policies it seems they are desperately looking for a way to run from them. I’m opposing Amendment V because I believe voters deserve more transparency on their ballot, not less.

Governor Daugaard said:

I believe political parties – all parties – serve an important role in our democracy. They crystalize issues. They bring like-minded people together. They help the electorate make sense of the electoral system.

For those of you that aren’t familiar with Amendment V, here are some of the facts.
Amendment V is a Constitutional overhaul that would take information away from voters at the time they need it most. This amendment would make three major changes to our election system:

• First, it would do away with partisan primaries. Every candidate from every party would run on the same ballot, with all registered voters participating in a single primary for each office. The top two candidates, regardless of primary, would advance to the November ballot.
• Second, it would do away with the State Convention’s role in selecting candidates for statewide office. Our state convention would no longer nominate candidates for the constitutional offices. These would also be selected through a non-partisan primary by all registered voters.
• Third, it would take party labels off the ballot. Not only would it allow all voters to vote in the primaries, it would actually hide candidates’ partisan affiliations from the voters.

The third change is very troubling. Rick Weiland and the other proponents of this amendment talk a lot about “transparency.” However, they are trying to make our ballot less transparent – by hiding party labels. As Republicans, we need to see this amendment for what it is. Rick Weiland and the other Democrats have realized that, after eight damaging years of the Obama Administration, South Dakota voters simply don’t trust Democratic candidates to represent our values.

Rather than changing this policies to appeal to South Dakota voters, they are trying to hide behind a less transparent ballot that removes the word “Democrat.” It’s really quite something – the Democrats are admitting that the word “Democrat” hurts them when they run for office!

You will be hearing more about this issue in the weeks and months to come. In the meantime, if you’d like take a look at the Resolution that was passed overwhelmingly at the SDGOP State Convention, you can go here (Resolution #5) – http://southdakotagop.com/about-the-party/resolutions/resolutions/
If you’d like to volunteer to help defeat this terrible ballot initiative or would like to donate to the cause, please reach out to me at this time.

As always, contact me with any questions.

Thanks!
Ryan Budmayr
Executive Director
South Dakota Republican Party
www.southdakotagop.com

From the Argus:

A Sioux Falls man whose prison sentence was reduced by U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds has been charged with breaking into Rounds’ office downtown and stealing various items.

Read it here.

It sounds like the burglar earned his early release for community service, or getting his GED. I suspect he’s also earned a return trip to the greybar hotel through his actions as well.

Betty Otten was kind enough to share some photos from the Lennox 4th of July parade where she reports District 6 GOP candidates were having fun — candy from Sen & Rep Otten; water gun sprays from Rep Latterell from a boat!  And that Chris Nelson, Commissioner David Gillespie, Congresswoman Noem & Senator Thune also had a good presence.

She tells us all 136 photos are posted here: https://www.facebook.com/ErnieOttenForSouthDakota/ – so go check it out!

From the Aberdeen legislative candidate who declared how hard her classes were and “#f__knorthern” in her twitter feed, it looks like Democrat Nikki Bootz should have appreciated her classes a little more.  Especially the parts where she’s required to communicate in the English language.

But don’t take my word for it. Read for yourself:

I don’t see a disclaimer, as required under South Dakota law. But that’s a minor offense against the electorate when you look at the egregious offenses against our native tongue.

Honestly, I’m not sure where she’s coming from with most of her letter. Not just where the letter switches schizophrenically from a third person to a first person narrative between paragraphs 3 and 4. It’s the rest the content that’s not just odd, it’s downright bizarre.

She goes on about how Democrats are being “outnumbered by Republicans by more than 1000 voters is due to gerrymandering.”  Aside from the fact no one cares, I question whether she knows what gerymandering is, since that’s a voter registration issue.

Of course, it devolves into semi-coherent slogans. just because it has to when the content runs dry. “Ms. Nikki is serious when it comes to politics, she has strong views on specific political issues that directly affect her own family.”  So, she doesn’t care about issues that don’t?   “Keeping our jobs local and open,” which means what? She wants lots of local unemployment?

She does take a stab at a position on the second amendment, where she sort of claims that she supports the right to bear arms, because “South Dakota’s economy depends a lot on it. Hunting is our own personal right for food and sport and aids in keeping farmers’ crops safe. We also have the right to bear arms in defense and to be prepared to defend ourselves as needed.”

Curiously, her declaration of support for gun rights in her fundraising letter seems to fly in the face of prior statements, such as this from facebook:

Which I had posted here,  where apparently she didn’t believe that legislators deal with abortion or gun rights.

What do you think? Should she have taken a run at draft two, three, …or fifteen before this mess was sent out?

I think I’ve mentioned it at least once that Jordan Youngberg in District 8 is worth keeping an eye on. He was nice enough to share some pictures from the parades this past weekend where he and his crew went and manged out 2 or three parades.

Candidates – Something to keep in mind when you’re hitting these – pull in as big a crew as you can, as it helps cover the parade route (and shows how well you’re supported).

I asked Jordan what he thought of the parade circuit, and he noted “was great for me as far as getting turnout and what a great way to shake people’s hand and reach out!”

Thanks for sharing – and Candidates – feel free to share your photos with me here.

Medicaid expansion is the topic at hand in an Associated Press article this AM, regarding the possibility of it passing in the 2017 legislative session, now that plans for a special session of the state legislature have been canceled:

“I think the path for the governor’s office is potentially going to be tougher next session, but we’re continuing to march forward with the thought that that very well could be a topic for 2017,” said Ben Lee, state director at opposition group Americans for Prosperity-South Dakota.

Daugaard, who had floated the idea of a summer special session, decided against it after hearing from lawmakers who wanted more time to study the proposal and to wait until after the presidential election to consider it. The move was a blow to Democrats pushing for expansion, and Senate Minority Leader Billie Sutton said it would remain their top priority when lawmakers gather in 2017.

Their push would be helped if Democrats can gain some legislative seats in November to stave off a more conservative Senate, he said.

There are enough undecided and leaning legislators in both chambers to make expansion a “real possibility” in 2017, said Jennifer Stalley, a lobbyist for the Community HealthCare Association of the Dakotas, which is among many groups supporting expansion.

Read it here.

I think there’s far less support in the House than proponents think, and that’s going to be the easy chamber.  Expanding welfare rolls for able-bodied adults is not going to fly at all in the State Senate. 

The rank and file of the GOP recently noted (in part) in resolutions at the 2016 convention:

Whereas, the South Dakota Republican Party recognizes the crises in healthcare offered by the Veterans Administration and the Indian Health Service, and the failure of the federal government to keep its promises to those who receive these services.
Now, Therefore, be it resolved, the South Dakota Republican Party rejects efforts by the federal government to mandate or incentivize further government intervention in healthcare; and,

Be it further resolved, the South Dakota Republican Party is opposed to the expansion of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, generally referred to as Obamacare; and, 

Be it further resolved, the South Dakota Republican Party urges the South Dakota state legislature, both house and senate, to reject and defeat efforts to expand Medicaid or adopt the Medicaid standards outlined in Obamacare.

Read that here

That’s probably a good hint that, at least among the Republican faithful, that dog is not going to hunt and Republicans remain largely unconvinced that it could be in their benefit.  And that’s not helped when the conventional wisdom is that there are no success stories in states who have moved forward with the expansion.

Coupled with Democrats’ likely legislative prospects this fall (slim to none) my crystal ball tells me that there is no visible path forward in the state legislature for Medicaid expansion in 2017, and you can arguably add 2018 to that prediction as well. 

Todd Epp, who was an early denizen of South Dakota’s blogosphere at SD Watch, at about the time I started Dakotawarcollege just took on a new job as producer for the conservative Greg Belfrage Show on KELO-AM where you can see his byline on a few stories associated with the show.

According to his Linked-in profile, Todd will “Help produce The Greg Belfrage Show weekdays from 6 to 9 a.m. on KELO-AM 1320 and KELQ-FM 107.9.”  Todd had previously been with KSFY as their news producer, and later with KSOO Radio in 2015 (up until a point where it seemed that news wasn’t terribly important to them anymore).

Best wishes to Todd in his new position.