Category: Uncategorized

What was the line of defense back in October?:

Robinson’s video speech occurred during the Dakota First Action political action committee’s Victory Gala. Toby Doeden, an Aberdeen businessman and founder of Dakota First Action, said his fellow Republicans who are condemning Robinson are hurting the party.

“CNN has no substantive proof,” Doeden said.

Read that here.

From twitter yesterday.. maybe CNN wasn’t so far off the mark:

Mark Robinson drops CNN lawsuit, vows not to run for office again https://t.co/JsrAT9g0eq

— The Hill (@thehill) January 31, 2025

Robinson faced pressure to drop out of the governor’s race after the CNN report. He filed a case against CNN in October seeking $50 million in damages but decided to drop the lawsuit after losing the governorship to Democrat Josh Stein.

Robinson said his political ambitions are now botched.

“I will continue to utilize my platform to promote and support many of the issues we are all so passionate about; however, at this time, I will do so from the sidelines. I will not run next year, nor do I have plans to seek elected office in the future,” he wrote on X.

Read that at The Hill.

Johnson Invites Trump, Burgum to Host Independence Day Fireworks at Mount Rushmore 

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Representative Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) invited the President Trump and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum to host a fireworks celebration at Mount Rushmore for Independence Day. The last celebration with fireworks at Mount Rushmore was in 2020, during President Trump’s first administration.

“Celebrating our nation’s independence at the foot of Mount Rushmore is quintessentially American,” said Johnson. “Whether it’s fireworks, drones, lasers, or something else, a show brings another level of energy to the patriotic celebration. I hope President Trump and Secretary Burgum can join the festivities at our historic national landmark.”

Johnson has been supportive of fireworks celebrations at Mount Rushmore in previous years and has attended past Independence Day events at the monument.

Read the full letter here.

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Let Me Introduce Myself
By: Gov. Larry Rhoden
January 31, 2025

This past week, I started out in a new job. After six years serving as your lieutenant governor, I had the opportunity to shorten my title. I’d like to take some time to share some things you might not know about me.

I have a wonderful wife named Sandy who I have been married to for nearly 44 years. I wouldn’t be here today without her support and encouragement. Together, we have four sons, four daughters-in-law, and seven grandchildren: Jesse and Sarah and their children Ladd, Sully, and Gus; Cody and Liz and their children Tally and Josey; Reggie and Jennifer and their son Lincoln; and Tristen and Kalen and their daughter Birkin.

I’m a fifth-generation South Dakotan. My father’s grandfather, Allen Rhoden, came to a place in western South Dakota called Chalkbutte in 1907. My mother was a Murphy. Her family came west on horses and wagons and homesteaded in the Two Rivers area, about 20 miles west of Union Center. Some of the original foundations of my family’s homesteads still stand today.

My dad was named Allen after his grandfather. He and my mom, Mildred, raised five kids. My twin sister, Lorie, and I are the fourth and fifth. Mom and Dad taught us the importance of faith in Jesus Christ, and faith is still central in my life.

My parents also taught us the value of work. Hard work is part of life on the ranch. Even today, I’m still happiest when I’m working with my hands. There’s value in working to create something from start to finish.

Service in the military has always been a big part of my family. My great-great-great grandfather came to American with General Lafayette to fight in the Revolutionary War, and his four brothers all died in the Revolution. My grandfather, John, served in World War I and fought in the Meuse-Argonne offensive. My dad served in World War II and fought at the Battle of the Bulge. Two of my brothers served in the Army, one of them in Vietnam. And my son Cody was a Black Hawk pilot.

So when I came of age, I signed up for the South Dakota National Guard and served for six years. As a former Guardsman, it is a great honor to serve as Commander-in-Chief of the South Dakota National Guard.

I’ve also been active in my community around Union Center. I’ve been a leader in our church. I served on the board at our local Cenex. For several years, I coached women’s softball and boys’ basketball. I still sing bass in a men’s quartet. And I served five years on the Meade County school board.

I got elected to the State Legislature in 2001 and served there for 16 years, including in various leadership positions. In 2018, Kristi Noem asked me to be her running mate. We won that election and were reelected in 2022, so I served six years as her Lieutenant Governor before rising to the office of Governor just a short time ago.

I promise you that I am prepared for this job and understand the gravity of the responsibility that has been placed on me. Serving the people of South Dakota in this capacity will be the great honor of my life. I promise to lead with civility, openness, responsiveness, and the common-sense conservative values that have made South Dakota so great.

I would like to make one request of each of you. Please pray for me and for my family. We all work hard and try to do our best, but we are nothing without the help of the Good Lord. Thank you. May God continue to bless the great state of South Dakota.

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Medicare Advantage Helps Meet the Needs of South Dakota’s Aging Population
by Bill Cohen, MD

South Dakota’s older population is growing—and quickly. According to projections by a state demographer and South Dakota State University professor, adults over the age of 65 will surpass 20% of our state’s population by 2030. To ensure our communities can meet the complex needs of this growing part of our population, access to affordable, high-quality, comprehensive health care is critical.

That is why programs like Medicare Advantage are so important. Medicare Advantage is the public-private form of Medicare that more than half of all eligible Medicare beneficiaries choose to enroll in because of the broad range of health care services, support programs, and supplement benefits it provides.

Through Medicare Advantage, patients can access dental, vision, and hearing services not covered by traditional Medicare—as well as some more innovative offerings like fitness and wellness programs, nutrition benefits, and preventative care. Moreover, with capped annual out-of-pocket costs, Medicare Advantage patients often end up paying less in medical expenses than those enrolled in traditional Medicare.

Given the vital role this program plays in serving some of our nation’s most vulnerable, at-risk patients, it should be something that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle can agree is worth protecting. Yet, under Biden Administration, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) imposed years of consecutive cuts to program, threatening benefits and increasing premiums for patients.

Importantly, CMS’ Advance Notice released in the final days of the Biden Administration seems to be an attempt to do the right thing, albeit a little late and not quite enough to make much of a difference. In their Advance Notice for 2026, CMS proposed a very slight payment increase. While this is mildly welcome news after the years of cuts Medicare Advantage has endured, there is still more work for lawmakers to do to ensure the long-term success of this vitally important program – with healthcare costs on the rise, and a lot of damage already done by previous years’ cuts. The Republican trifecta must recognize the reality that seniors and their families are looking to them to help protect and strengthen Medicare Advantage—not just in 2026, but for years to come.

Polling in the run-up to Election Day 2024 shows how important this program is to those who use it to access the health care services they need. 86% of Medicare Advantage beneficiaries would be less likely to vote for a Member of Congress who supported cutting funding for MA.

Regardless of who takes the lead, all our lawmakers should be working to keep Medicare Advantage strong so the program can continue to grow along with our aging population. Particularly for states like South Dakota, where our older population is growing at a rapid

Medicare Advantage is absolutely necessary to ensure access to high-quality, affordable, and reliable health care for those who need it most.

—-

Dr. Bill Cohen is a board-certified pain relief specialist and founder of American Pain Relief Institute.

This is a weird one that seems to not just inch up to the line, but goes over it in trying to confuse Republican Party donors.

Central Dakota Republican Women Federal PAC by Pat Powers on Scribd

Leaders of an auxiliary republican women’s group in South Central South Dakota have apparently created a federal PAC for purposes of raising and spending money in federal races. But the problem is on the application for the Federal PAC, they’re directly saying it has nothing to do with the Republican Party while invoking the Republican Party’s name.

According to paperwork filed with the Federal Election Commission and made available via the FEC website today, despite deceptively titling themselves as the “Central Dakota Republican Women,” this group helmed by Connie Wagner and Trudy Qualm of Platte, SD, submitted the paperwork to the federal government noting on the form that under the laws governing PACs that “this committee supports/opposes more than one Federal candidate, and is NOT a separate segregated fund or party committee.”

In other words, as leaders of the local Republican women’s club, they’ve created their own private federal political action committee slush fund, given it a name that makes it seem affiliated with the SD Federation of Republican Women or the Republican party at-large, yet will do whatever they want since they declared that to the FEC that it is NOT a …party committee.

This brings up some serious questions. How much money are they going to try to divert from legitimate Republican candidates and groups to their private slush fund? Are they going to try to fool donors to just the Republican Women, or all they trying to hoodwink all Republican Donors to build their piggy bank?  And who do they intend to use the funds for/against? Because if they want to donate to an indy candidate like Justin McNeal in the last election, they have no barriers to doing so.

Not to mention that in filing with the FEC, they’re not playing in South Dakota campaign finance with few rules, and easily forgiven errors. They’re playing in federal campaigning where most people work with attorneys specializing in this sort of thing. And even then, people screw up and it’s very costly.

It is very noteworthy that PAC treasurer Trudy Qualm is also the spouse of SDGOP Chair wannabee Lee Qualm. Which given that this group is falsely titling themselves a Republican Women’s group while declaring on the paperwork that they’re not, it brings it up as a factor in his campaign.  Because if he’s running for party chair, why is his wife filing paperwork to set up a private Federal PAC and pretending to be a fake Republican group?

We can hope that the SDFRW or State Republican Party will get involved so as to not let this PAC lead donors to implied conclusions that could not be farther from the truth.

Apparently Netflix is laying the groundwork to bring the Laura Ingalls Wilder “Little House on the Prairie” books back to television as a new streaming series that now has the green light:

According to Variety, Netflix recently greenlit a modern reboot of the American classic book series, Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie, which was a hit NBC show in the 70s, starring Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert. Wanting to adapt the books more closely as a long-time fan of Wilder’s work, Sonnenshine will act as showrunner and executive producer of the new Western series. Sonnenshine told the outlet how she hopes to honor both fans of the books and of the TV show.

and..

With more than 73 million copies of the beloved books being sold to date and over 200 episodes of the original NBC series, the new take on the classic is bound to draw a crowd. The original series was even one of the most streamed shows of 2024, according to Variety.

Read that all here.

No immediate information is available on when the series is expected to air.

That has to be good news for future DeSmet SD tourism, home of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home & Museum, and the Ingalls homestead.

If you hadn’t thought the school bills were crazy enough this year, then hold my beer – because there’s still time left for bill introductions! The latest is another bill from Rep. Manhart.

This time his House Bill 1201 proposes making everyone who works in a school, from the principal on down to the janitor, mandatory reporters of gay thoughts in school children.

And I wish I was kidding. But I’m not. As stated in the proposed measure:

Section 2. That a NEW SECTION be added to chapter 13-32:

A school counselor, or another school staff member, must notify a student’s parent or guardian:

(1) When a direct counseling service is provided to a student;
(2) If a subject is discussed during a direct counseling service that is substantially different from those discussed during previous counseling sessions; and

(3) If questions regarding any of the following topics are discussed with a student during a direct counseling service:

(a) Gender;
(b) Gender confusion;
(c) Gender dysphoria;
(d) Homosexuality; or
(e) Transsexuality.

Is ‘counseling session’ defined that bill? Well sort of in section 1:
“direct counseling service” means an interaction, between a school counselor and a student, pertaining to mental, medical, or emotional health and does not involve career planning or academic discussions.

But section 2 says another school staff member.  So if a lunch lady has an interaction with a kindergartner in the lunch line, and a girl says “they wish they were a boy,” the lunch lady is subject to the mandatory gay thought reporting law?

With all this errant gay thought policing schools HB 1201 will demand schools to take on, I’m not sure when teachers are supposed to get any teaching done. Maybe we need to drop wood shop and accounting?

Remember when people used to say “The government is best which governs least?”

That’s not happening in Pierre this year.

(It might seem like a pick on Scott day, but I’m not the one who is putting his name to these things.)

State Representatives Karla Lems joined by Scott Odenbach have introduced House Bill 1191, a plan to provide property tax relief.  Unfortunately, the devil is in the details, as while it isn’t in the title, the bill is proposing a brand new sky-high 10% tax on “advertising services” for prescription medicines.

The meat and ‘taters of House Bill 1191 is this passage:

Section 2. That a NEW SECTION be added to chapter 10-45:

There is imposed a tax of ten percent on the gross receipts of all sales of advertising services for a drug, as defined in subdivision 34-20B-2(1) or (2).

The department shall transfer all moneys collected pursuant to this section to the state treasurer for deposit into the property tax reduction fund established pursuant to section 3 of this Act.

And what is 34-20B-2(1) or 2?

So they want to increase the prices we pay for prescription drugs in the amount of an incredible 10% sales tax every time this catchy jingle runs?:

They avoided affiliating the tax to be derived from advertising of medical equipment too which if I recall taxing medical equipment was a huge bone of contention in a session under Janklow, but in their new big tax on advertising, if Karla’s new tax would pass, it’s full speed ahead against advertisements for Jardiance, Aspirin, or hard right favorite Ivermectin.

Okay, that ad was a parody, but you get my drift.  Why do Karla and Scott think that tax relief is an excuse to come up with targeted sky-high taxes that no one in their right mind has ever proposed before?

If this is what constitutes the new conservative leadership as handed down by the Speaker Pro Tempore, I have to think that Karla “Tax and Lems” might be facing some postcards in the 2026 election.

Tony Venhuizen Confirmed and Sworn In as Lieutenant Governor 

PIERRE, S.D. – Today, Tony Venhuizen was confirmed as the 40^th Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota. Pursuant to Article 4 Section 6 of the South Dakota Constitution, he was sworn in on the floor of the South Dakota State Senate. A photo of that swearing in can be found here. 

“It will be such an honor to serve as presiding officer in this Senate that means so much to me and my family,” said Lieutenant Governor Venhuizen. “I am ready to get to work to help Governor Rhoden keep South Dakota strong, safe, and free.” 

Lieutenant Governor Venhuizen was confirmed by a unanimous vote of both the House and the Senate.

“I am grateful that the legislature accepted my nomination of Lt. Gov. Venhuizen by such resounding margins,” said Governor Larry Rhoden. “Now we have our team put together – let’s get to work.”

More information about Lieutenant Governor Venhuizen can be found here.

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According to year-end reports, Congressman Dusty Johnson is coming out of 2024 with a not insignificant campaign kitty built up across his various campaign committees, not the least of which is his primary federal account, Friends of Dusty Johnson.

2024 FEC Dusty Johnson Year End by Pat Powers on Scribd

And Dusty’s friends were very, very good to the Congressman, as after expenditures, the Congressman was left with $5,245,125.00 in his main account. But it doesn’t end there.  Because that’s not his only committee.

To the total, you can also add $253,431.82 cash on hand from the Dakota Leadership PAC, Congressman Johnson’s leadership committee.

Dusty Leadership PAC 2024 Year End Report by Pat Powers on Scribd

And it doesn’t stop there, as Dusty has a State PAC which he mainly uses to support candidates:

2024 Year End Dusty State PAC Sdcfdisclosure by Pat Powers on Scribd

After lending a hand to a long list of Republican candidates, and spending around $48k to personally oppose Amendment G..

Congressman Johnson ended the year with with $277,651.47 in that account.

Totaling them all, we end up with $5,776,208.29 cash on hand, plus a minor amount ($17,500) in another, minor federal PAC.

Walking into the next election cycle with just under $6 million in hand is not exactly a bad position to be in if you have plans to run again.

Regardless of what office that may be.