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Word from the State Capitol building today is that Julie Frye-Mueller wasn’t the only person not attending the Senate Republican Caucus today.

I’m told that she has now been joined on the Senate floor during caucus time by Senator Tom Pischke, who announced at a press conference yesterday that he was asking for a criminal investigation against 27 of his fellow State Senators for suspending JFM while they investigated allegations of harassment against an LRC staff member.

There might be a moral to this story for Senator Pischke that if you don’t want to be asked not to attend (kicked out of?) the Senate Republican caucus, you probably shouldn’t ask that nearly everyone else in the caucus be brought up on criminal charges when there’s no chance of it happening.

From yesterday’s press conference..

In a signed victim impact statement and affidavit of senator in support of prosecution, Pischke wrote he believed Frye-Mueller’s suspension was in violation of state law by “preventing a legislator from attending or voting.” The violation is a class two misdemeanor.

and..

“I’m asking today officially the States Attorney of Hughes County to investigate this matter,” Pischke said in a press conference to reporters Thursday.

Read that here.

From LinkedIn…

I’m kind of thinking that the Hughes County States Attorney is the last person they want to send a complaint over to that involves a legislator (Julie Frye Mueller) being awful to a LRC employee. She’s probably had more than her share of exposure to bad legislators.

(I did hear that she’s referring it to the Pierre Police Dept, as she is related to one of the twenty seven legislators named in the action. Probably another audience who has had their share of legislators when they act badly.)

With yesterday’s efforts to mitigate the damage done to herself, as Julie Frye-Mueller insists on defending herself, it brings up a question as to whether her efforts are dragging down the standing of her few allies in the legislature.

Yesterday’s press conference where Sen. Tom Pichke took the lead in defending his seatmate Julie Frye-Mueller as she continues to deny her harassment of a Legislative Research Council employee further nudges Pischke into Frye-Mueller’s radioactive zone, and begs the question how his close association with her might be affecting his legislative performance.

In a review of Pischke’s record of success this legislative session, you can’t help but notice that every single piece of legislation where he was the originating prime sponsor has gone down in flames.

Status	Bill	Title
Tabled	SB 60	make an appropriation for completing improvements of the road leading to the former entrance into Palisades State Park and to declare an emergency.
Deferred to 41st Day	SB 66	modify provisions related to the suspension of probationary permits issued to minors.
Deferred to 41st Day	SB 96	provide for the recall of school board members.
Deferred to 41st Day	SB 97	establish a for-cause requirement for inspections of motor carriers on possible vehicle weight and load violations.
Deferred to 41st Day	SB 130	provide for philosophical exceptions to required vaccinations.
Deferred to 41st Day	SB 136	provide a rebuttable presumption in favor of joint physical custody of a minor child.
Deferred to 41st Day	SB 137	provide for the consideration of a child’s wishes in awarding custody.
Deferred to 41st Day	SB 194	to establish certain provisions regarding fairness in repairs of equipment sold or used in this state.

For 2023, Pischke already finds himself at a ZERO success rate,  passing 0/8 of his bills this session. This matches Frye-Mueller’s own performance as mentioned a few days ago.

In reviewing, compared to his previous session in the House, it’s actually about the same, where in 2022 Pischke didn’t manage to pass any legislation, again earning a zero percent success rate, but managed to get one of his six bills into a conference committee before it died. In 2021, Pischke similarly goose-egged at zero, failing to pass any of eight bills.

Whether the toxicity around Frye-Mueller will rub off is actually a moot point for Tom, given his legislative performance as of late where he hasn’t managed to get the job done for several years.

So he might as well be Frye-Mueller’s chief defender. It’s not as if he has anything to lose.  

The celebration of Presidents’ Day always brings attention to South Dakota. When people think of our state, they think of Mount Rushmore – and rightly so. In a lot of ways, that mountain is a symbol of American Freedom. It presents the faces of four leaders that fought for and expanded our nation’s founding ideal of the inalienable rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

President Washington fought a war to secure these American ideals. President Jefferson famously wrote them down. President Teddy Roosevelt, my favorite president, sent our Navy around the world to show how strong that Freedom has made us. And President Lincoln fought to deliver Freedom for every single American.

The first carving of Mount Rushmore happened in 1927, when President Coolidge handed Gutzon Borglum a set of drill bits. President Coolidge famously said, “this memorial will be another national shrine to which future generations will repair to declare their continuing allegiance to independence, to self-government, to freedom and to economic justice.” He also spoke of the strength of the American spirit in the people of South Dakota – something that I still see every single day.

It would be 14 years before Mount Rushmore was completed, but it was well worth the wait. That carving in the Black Hills serves as a reminder not only of what our nation has been through and what we have endured, but as a beacon of hope for our future. It represents the foundational truths upon which America was founded – the same principles that I strive to live by every day.

Unfortunately, today, traditional American ideals are being put on the back burner. National leaders prioritize the defense of other countries above the security of our own borders. Politicians use fear to motivate Americans to shelter in place rather than trusting them to make the best choices for themselves and their families. And the current administration put American security at risk when they let a spy balloon sent by Communist China travel across the entire country before taking any action.

Not in South Dakota.

In South Dakota we value our small-town morals. We protect our people and help build strong families, and then we trust those families to exercise their personal responsibility and make the best choices for themselves. In our state, it’s simple – less government, more Freedom.

President Teddy Roosevelt said that “it is a mere truism that every nation, whether in America or anywhere else, which desires to maintain its freedom, its independence, must ultimately realize that the right of such independence cannot be separated from the responsibility of making good use of it.” In South Dakota, we maintain our Freedom and our independence by making good use of it. And I can promise that during my time as Governor, I will never infringe upon the inalienable rights of every single South Dakotan.

It is important that we remember our great leaders, that we honor their legacy by preserving the ideals that are at the very heart of this great American experiment in democracy. Presidents’ Day reminds us of the great U.S.  presidents, but what’s even more important is the nation that they built. We must work to protect that nation every single day – to keep the American Dream alive. And that’s exactly what we’re doing right here in South Dakota.

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Senator Tom Pischke, who last week was defending the rights of sex offenders to be in classrooms with potential victims, was back fighting for the rights of harassers to be in close proximity to potential victims as today, he was leading a press conference attempting to claim Senators violated state law when Julie Frye Mueller was suspended from the State Senate while they investigated allegations of harassment of a legislative employee:

Frye-Mueller then allegedly told the staffer how “(the staffer’s) husband could ‘suck on (the staffer’s) breasts’ to get milk to come in,” according to the complaint.

and..

In a signed victim impact statement and affidavit of senator in support of prosecution, Pischke wrote he believed Frye-Mueller’s suspension was in violation of state law by “preventing a legislator from attending or voting.” The violation is a class two misdemeanor.

and..

“She should be embarrassed,” Schoenbeck said. “She and her bully friends need to go away and leave our workers and citizens alone.”

Read the entire story here.

If you recall, my spies provided me the affidavit Frye-Mueller was shopping around to potential allies on Monday..

.. so this comes as no shock that JFM and her allies were going to be doing this.

Meh. In speaking with people, the common legal opinion is that this dog isn’t going to hunt.

And it’s nowhere near as funny as the Julie Frye-Mueller joke told at the Hughes County Lincoln Day dinner.  Something about milk and cookies..

Because Senator Julie Frye-Mueller is more effective as the punchline in a joke than she is in the South Dakota legislature.

 

From the Minneapolis Star & Tribune, a former Democrat Party operative in accused in a lawsuit of defrauding several South Dakota cannabis companies, including 605 Cannabis, the company co-founded by Melissa Mentele, who worked on several ballot measures to legalize pot in the state:

Dakota Natural Growers, 605 Cannabis and about two dozen of their investors filed a lawsuit in Hennepin County in December against Will Hailer, eSt Ventures LLC, Badlands Fund GP LLC and Badlands Ventures LLC. The lawsuit claims that Hailer and the three funds Hailer manages solicited a total of $3.5 million in investments with the “intention of stealing and/or misappropriating most of the money

and..

The parties reached a settlement agreement late last year that would have had Badlands Ventures pay about $1 million to Dakota Natural Growers and nearly $600,000 to 605 Cannabis. A document filed in court shows the agreement was signed by Hailer.

But the money was never sent, according to the lawsuit seeking the return of $1.68 million plus attorneys’ fees and unspecified “punitive damages.”

Read the entire story here.

I wasn’t there but there was a comment from the podium at this week’s Hughes County Lincoln Day Dinner about Senator Rounds’ future that has people chattering a bit.

In the introductions for Senator Rounds from his former Chief of Staff Rob Skjonsberg, I’m told it ended with a comment about Rounds “serving closer to home” in the future.

The nature of that potential service closer to home has tongues wagging and is generating more talk about Rounds running for a third term as Governor, when his Senate term completes and the next Governor’s race is up, both coinciding in 2026, further adding fuel to the rumor I had written about at the start of the month.

I’m sure there are those like Lt. Governor Larry Rhoden, Congressman Dusty Johnson, and others who might take issue with Rounds attempting to return, so we’ll see. There are a lot of months between now and the 2026 Governor’s race, so I’m sure we will be talking more about it between now and then.

Looks like the race for South Dakota Democrat party Chair is heating up to be a lukewarm contest.

In advertising for the Minnehaha County Democrat Forum over at the Nebraska based Dakota Free Press, an ad has been posted noting that the candidates for SDDP Chair are speaking at the Minnehaha Democrat Forum tomorrow, with speakers being State Democrat Vice Chair Jennifer Slaight-Hansen and John Cunningham.

This is the first indication we’ve seen that Cunningham is being challenged for the job and the Vice-Chair is officially in the hunt for a promotion.

We’ve already pointed out John Cunningham’s background in a prior post..

Cunningham had ran for the chairmanship previously, in 2019, where he was unsuccessful against Paula Hawks, receiving 12% of the vote at the time.  (With Hawks later running far away and fast when she figured out how bad things were. )

In the 2022 election for South Dakota Treasurer, Cunningham lost to Josh Haeder on a 2-1 basis 67.7% to 32.3%, which is not really demonstrative of the ability to generate efforts that might post a threat to Republican dominance in the state.

Read that here.

We’ve also covered Jennifer Slaight-Hansen a time or two in the past while she was on the Aberdeen City Council.

Such as when she claimed Al Novstrup talking about a Right-to-Life/FHA Legislative recap luncheon was a slight against her campaign…

And she denied being the Brown County Democrat Party chair to a constituent.. despite the fact she was ACTUALLY the Brown County Democrat party chair...

And her City Council race when she was crushed on a 2-1 basis…

If the candidates for South Dakota Democrat Party Chair are John Cunningham and Jennifer Slaight-Hansen, I think I can safely speak for a lot of South Dakota Republicans in noting that we are absolutely good with either one of these choices.

Both Cunningham and Slaight-Hansen will help preserve the electoral dominance that the South Dakota Republican Party has enjoyed for over a decade now, and give us a grand opportunity to expand our grace with the voters of South Dakota.

Carry on, Dems!

From Twitter:

Equivalent to coal in your stocking, House Approps votes to lower the sales tax rate from 4.5 percent to 4.2 percent. pic.twitter.com/a8PPc62ltx

— Representative Mary Fitzgerald District 31 House (@mjfitzyy) February 22, 2023

Honestly, that was not far off of what I was thinking. Now we may have to figure up 6.2% sales tax…

Governor Noem Closes State Government Offices for Winter Storm

PIERRE, S.D. – Today, Gov. Kristi Noem ordered all state government executive branch offices in certain counties to be closed Wednesday, Feb. 22, because of the winter storms in South Dakota.

State offices are closed in the following counties: Aurora, Beadle, Brookings, Brown, Buffalo, Campbell, Clark, Codington, Davison, Day, Deuel, Douglas, Edmunds, Faulk, Grant, Hamlin, Hand, Hanson, Hutchinson, Hyde, Jerauld, Kingsbury, Lake, Lincoln, Marshall, McCook, McPherson, Miner, Minnehaha, Moody, Potter, Sanborn, Spink, Sully, Turner, Walworth.

While executive branch offices in these counties will be closed, state employees will be working remotely.

Much of the Eastern part of the state is in a blizzard warning from 6am Wednesday until 12pm Thursday. The Western part and the southeasternmost portion of the state will be in a winter storm warning.

Snowfall of between 8-18 inches is expected across the state over the next two days. Winds will pick up overnight and into Wednesday, especially in the eastern part of the state. On Thursday, temperatures are expected to drop to around -20°.

Citizens should be prepared to stay home if possible. Many state highways already have no travel advised, and numerous roads are physically blocked. Portions of I-29 and I-90 will close at 10pm on Tuesday night. If South Dakotans must travel, they should check the sd511.org or the SD511 mobile app.

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