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Congressman Dusty Johnson‘s campaign account continues to accrue funds for his work in Washington, while he’s out beating the bushes in South Dakota to raise money for his gubernatorial campaign:

Friends of Dusty Johnson Oct 2025 FEC by Pat Powers

The outgoing congressman is reporting in his latest FEC report that he raised $141,138.78 against $928,240.41 in expenditures & transfers (including $800,000 transferred to Dusty for Governor), leaving him with $5,201,452.65 cash on hand.

Somehow, I think that will be enough to get him through to his next report.

Well, that’s kind of underwhelming.

In his first FEC Report, Democrat Congressional candidate Billy Mawhiney raised less than a lot of State Legislative races do nowadays.

Billy Mawhiney Oct 2025 FEC Report by Pat Powers

In his first go at bat, which should be when he collects up front money from friends and family.. it doesn’t look like he has many, because he raised $17,106. Against this, he spent $8643.45, leaving him $8462.35 in the bank.

Well, at least he didn’t go backwards.

Former legislator Kameron Nelson gave him $1000, and he put $2,000 of his own money in.. otherwise, not a lot else that was noteworthy.  I suspect his primary opponent will come in with heftier sums, but we’ll have to wait and see for that report.

While State Rep. Jon Hansen was looking in the couch cushions to pay for a text message, Congressman Dusty Johnson was in mailboxes today with a jumbo postcard, talking about his conservative leadership, and the work he’s doing with President Trump:

From facebook.. as State Senator Tom Pischke uses attending “public school” in a manner which implies an insult.

Well.

At least it wasn’t a comment about race.

Thune: Schumer Shutdown Day 14

“Democrats were against shutdowns when it suited their political purposes, and now that it suits their political purposes – they think – to keep the government closed, now they support shutdowns.”

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor:

Click here to watch the video.

In a bombshell story that came out on Politico just a couple of hours ago, apparently a group chat among leaders of the national Young Republican organization has been disclosed which paints several of them in an unfavorable light:

Leaders of Young Republican groups throughout the country worried what would happen if their Telegram chat ever got leaked, but they kept typing anyway.

They referred to Black people as monkeys and “the watermelon people” and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies and driving them to suicide and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery.

and..

The group chat members spoke freely about the pressure to cow to Trump to avoid being called a RINO, the love of Nazis within their party’s right wing and the president’s alleged work to suppress documents related to wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein’s child sex crimes.

and..

Mixed into formal conversations about whipping votes, social media strategy and logistics, the members of the chat slung around an array of slurs — which POLITICO is republishing to show how they spoke. Epithets like “f—-t,” “retarded” and “n–ga” appeared more than 251 times combined.

Read the entire story here.

That’s kind of ironic, considering the earlier post below involving Minnehaha County Commissioner Cole Heisey declaring Native American Day “as a mistake.”

And let’s not forget some of his prior issues, such as taking the stage with the Proud Boys. Among other things:

I note it, because just like the people who are the focus of the Politico article, Cole Heisey is chairman of the South Dakota Young Republicans.  And Vice-chair of the group?  State Representative Logan Manhart, who had his own controversy over racially tinged comments that went national a few months back:

I can’t help but wonder out loud if South Dakota’s Young Republican leadership participated in the sometimes racist chats of the group being cited in the article. Which makes me think that the group has gone downhill quite a bit since my time as Chairman over 2 decades ago.

We were glad to be able to get enough people together for a meeting at the time. Now? I find myself at times repulsed that they think that people like this think they might be the next generation of Republican leaders.

But considering the quality of who is in charge, and the kind of rhetoric which passes as acceptable.. maybe it would be ok for it to go back to being dormant for a while? At least until such a time when adults can be in charge of the group, and it’s more about getting Republicans elected than this kind of trash.

I received the following text blast of recycled buzz phrases yesterday from the Hansen for Governor campaign, and couldn’t help but think “well, that’s kind of needy.”

We are ending woke..  Ending woke what? And we get an image claiming Hansen is the only trusted and proven conservative and will stand firm. Which after his flip/flop on the prison and ultimate vote to keep people and law enforcement employees less safe, I would argue the ad should more correctly point out he’s the least trusted and self-serving.. remembering he was before the prison before he was against it.

The text blast coming on Native American Day seemed just kind of random. It’s like the campaign felt it needed to do something with all the money it collected from their Pizza Ranch fundraisers and show some signs of life by advertising.  And a text blast was the best they could do.

At this point, you have to wonder if they’re in the mode of just throwing things against the wall to try to delay Hansen’s inevitable dropping out of the race. Or at least prevent it from happening before January.

Apparently Toby Doeden campaign worker and Minnehaha County Commissioner Cole Heisey has a big beef with Native American Day, going so far as to call it “a mistake” on Social Media as he proudly displays a banner image for Columbus Day, calling the federal holiday substitution disrespectful to Italian Americans, and a slap in the face to broader American History..

”It was a mistake to replace Columbus Day over three decades ago.” – Minnehaha County Commissioner Cole Heisey

Because South Dakota is an enclave of Italian immigrants? I would wager Cole’s exposure to Italian Americans consists of playing Mario Kart.

What was that campaign promise Cole made when running for Office?

That was pretty short-lived!

If you wish to register your displeasure with how Minnehaha County is being represented by Cole, the Toby Doeden for Governor campaign worker (who is actually no longer working as an insurance agent), his contact information can be found here.

Next session, are we counting on legislators to bring legislation to build our workforce? Probably not. Or to move South Dakota from the bottom in teacher pay? I’m guessing no. Or to bring more value added agriculture processing to South Dakota to reverse the trend of plummeting corn prices? Oh hell no!

Can we count on them to fight against cloud trails left by high altitude jets from warm exhaust?  Of course we can.

As you might have guessed, one of South Dakota’s goofiest legislators is at it again. After signing a pledge earlier this year to have jets shot down if they leave contrails, State Representative Dylan Jordan is on facebook promising to bring a bill to “ban geoengineering flights” at airports:

Heeding the call of facebook (as opposed to his constituents), State Representative Dylan Jordan took to the social media website to declare that “there will be a bill next session” in response to this non-existent crisis.

*sigh*

Just remember. When low voter turnout gives us the lowest common denominator in legislators, this is what they bring to the table.

South Dakota US Sen. Mike Rounds was interviewed tonight on 60 Minutes with regards to Chinese intrusion into our national infrastructure such as airlines, water systems, financial institutions and more:

Mike Rounds thinks he knows why China is doing this.

The Republican senator of South Dakota is chair of the Armed Services Cybersecurity Subcommittee. He believes China intends to deter the U.S. from standing up in a fight by hacking our most sensitive industries

Sen. Mike Rounds: But all it takes is a blip on the financial markets to delay certain trades by just milliseconds, to put the market into an entirely different attitude about the security and the soundness of being able to make those transactions happen.

Scott Pelley: You’re talking about causing chaos on Wall Street.

Sen. Mike Rounds: Threatening to be able to cause chaos on Wall Street would be something that they would love to do.

Scott Pelley: And turning the lights on and off.

Sen. Mike Rounds: Most certainly.

You can read the entire interview here.

If this makes you nervous, it should.