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The Argus has a story this morning which has huge implications for people who will be running for state legislative office.

The Minnehaha County Auditor has announced that they won’t have accurate voter lists for the new legislative districts until February 28th – nearly 2 months later!

The changes include the addition of one legislative district encompassing the northwestern part of Sioux Falls for a total of nine districts in Minnehaha County and new boundaries for each of those districts, said county auditor Ben Kyte at Tuesday’s commission meeting.

“If you were a smaller county you would go into your database and change each one of those,” said Kyte. “That’s not practical for 60,000 voter changes.”

and..

Kyte pointed out the boundary changes create challenges for individuals looking for an updated registration list. Individuals interested in running for office and are seeking a voter registration list at the beginning of January won’t be able to get an updated list until after February.

Read it all here.

Ugh. What a mess. This seems an awful lot like all the times we’ve read about the Minnehaha County Auditor being unable to count the votes on election night anymore.

Now practically on the eve of it happening, they’re announcing that candidates who start running for office on Saturday won’t have voter lists available until the end of February?

Maybe this would have been good to talk about before the week where petitioning begins? Amazing.

What are the implications? First and foremost, This means that candidates could turn in petitions with errors, potentially causing issues with the validity of their petitions.

Luckily, petitions can be turned in to the Secretary of State until 5:00 p.m. on March 29, 2022, and candidates are able to turn in additional signatures up until that point. But it will cause headaches for everyone, especially it will be 2 months until they can be sure their petitions are accurate & sufficient.

What’s my advice for candidates running for the State Legislature?  (At least on the GOP side)

• Whatever your count is for the numbers needed to run for office in your district – at least double it. Obtain 100-125 signatures. You should be doing far more than the minimum anyway.
• Know your district’s new map by the precincts, not by the overall district map. The questionable areas that they’re going to be fiddling around with are split precincts. You can always collect your signatures in precincts that aren’t split.
• You MUST check your signatures on your petitions when the lists are finally available. Make copies before you send them in, so you can double check.
• You can turn in more names until the deadline. At least at the point when they do get lists available, you’ll have a month to fix any errors and add signatures.
• Don’t sweat it. Errors happen, and problems arise. Just be ready to respond.
• FOLLOW THE RULES.
• And for gosh’s sake, if you are sending in anything during the last two weeks before March 29th, SEND IT REGISTERED MAIL no matter what the well intentioned clerk at HyVee mail desk or the post office tells you. Certified mail doesn’t cut it.

Any questions?

COVID numbers are up by single digits in the latest update from Sanford Health:

Compared to last week’s numbers, they’ve inched up by a few, but the percentages of mainly unvaccinated people being hospitalized continue to hold true.

From the Associated School Boards website comes praise for Governor Noem’s teacher pay increase proposal:

Schools received a nearly unprecedented state aid increase proposal from Gov. Kristi Noem for the 2022-23 school year.

At Gov. Noem’s budget address this month she proposed a 6 percent increase in state aid for the 2022-23 school year. The 6 percent increase brings $41 million in new, ongoing funding to state aid.

and..

“We’re incredibly thankful to Gov. Noem for the proposed increase,” ASBSD Executive Director Wade Pogany said.

“It’s a much needed increase as schools are trying to keep in teacher pay with regional states, attract classified staff members and face increasing costs with high inflation.”

Read the entire article here.

A red wave across this country portends to wash out Democrats in Congress after dismal polling results for President Biden:

“I’ve been telling Democrats, especially Democrats in targeted seats, enjoy the holidays, and you got a decision to make: retire or lose next fall,” Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told The Hill.

Emmer cautioned that a GOP House majority is not guaranteed, though he asserted that as many as 70 Democrats could lose their seats in a possible wave, warning “in this environment, no Democrat is safe.”

and..

That confluence of factors is leading Democrats to privately — and in some cases publicly — concede that their grip on the House is tenuous.

“The environment is particularly dour, both because of rising prices, economic anxiety, frustration about feeling stagnant when it comes to COVID, that it is not behind us despite the fact that we’ve been living with it for two years,” Democratic pollster Molly Murphy said. “If this environment holds, it’s going to be pretty damning.”

Read the entire article here.

Today, Rachel Dix of Aberdeen filed paperwork with the Secretary of State’s office to form a campaign committee to run for the State Senate in District 3:

This sets up a potential primary for the State Senate seat currently held by former majority whip and current Senator Al Novstrup, who has represented Aberdeen in the State House or the State Senate since 2003.

In a quick review of records, I don’t note that Senator Novstrup has ever faced a primary election in any of his races for the State Legislature.

Novstrup’s latest term of office in the Senate has had him either unopposed, or facing (now Nebraska resident) Cory Heidelberger, whom he defeated by a minimum of 1500 votes in each of their two head-to-head battles. 

pic.twitter.com/OeMtBUZtwl

— Defiant L’s (@DefiantLs) December 27, 2021

and..

After a year, we finally agree @potus. The federal government isn’t the solution. That’s why from the start, SD took a different approach by trusting our citizens to be responsible and make the right decisions for themselves & their families. Now rescind all the federal mandates.

— Kristi Noem (@KristiNoem) December 28, 2021

From the Argus Leader this morning comes some light humor from Democrats on their hunt for a standard bearer to take on Governor Kristi Noem:

Noem this fall formally announced her candidacy in the November election. And while the 50-year-old Republican doesn’t yet have a declared Democratic challenger, state party officials say an announcement is near.

Read it here.

Ten months ago, and again more recently, SDDP Chair Randy Seiler was talking about being ‘optimistic’ about the future, and was talking about having candidates for US Senate, Governor, and Congress.

Fast forward, and they have a life-long Indy as their US Senate Candidate who talks about making states raise taxes, no candidate for Governor on the horizon, and they’ve outsourced their search for a Congressional candidate.

Try not to hold your breath waiting for those promised candidates. They’ve been saying the same thing for nearly a year now, and not surprisingly, have yet to produce.

Argus Leader reporter Joe Sneve doesn’t mince many words when it comes to South Dakota Speaker of the House Spencer Gosch, as he takes a hard aim against him for a lack of transparency in the impeachment proceedings on Twitter:

Back in September, Speaker @SpencerGosch promised a transparent impeachment process. Since then, he’s failed repeatedly to live up to that. https://t.co/iWfvahhbEe

— Joe Sneve (@Argus_Joe) December 27, 2021

Republican candidate Christian Skunk has filed paperwork to set up a campaign committee for District 26 State Senate:

It’s especially interesting, as Joel Koskan, who had been a candidate for the D26 seat before, is also said to be running for the Senate. This sets up a primary contest among Republicans for the legislative district’s Senate Seat (generally, as it has been reconfigured in redistricting) held by Troy Heinert who is ineligible to run for the Senate due to Term Limits.

If you are a new candidate running or know of a new candidate jumping in, drop me a note, and I’ll add them to my list. 

While her primary opponent as well as at least one member of House Leadership is casting aspersions at the priorities expressed in the Governor’s budget address, at least one member of the conservative bloc of the State House of Representatives is noting his support for Governor Kristi Noem’s plan to expand child care funding.

Gotta start somewhere.

— Rep. Fred Deutsch (@FredDeutsch) December 26, 2021