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And then there were none…. Measure to allow killing grandma NOT turned in, recreational pot, etc.

Pat Powers

Well, 5pm has arrived, and there’s a few petitions that we didn’t see turned in.

First and foremost we did not see the measure to allow assisted suicide, a.k.a. the “Kill Grandma” measure, from the New Approach SD group, who barely made the signature requirement with medical marijuana, which will likely find itself disqualified, having significantly fewer signatures than 2016’s failed attempt. The same group failed to turn in their petitions circulating for recreational marijuana.

An alternative ballot measure for legalizing marijuana never really got of the ground. Neither did a Constitutional Amendment to prevent the legislature from fixing or repealing bad ballot measures for seven years (Like 2016’s IM22).

I was surprised we saw reduced numbers for the pot measures than they had in 2016. Normally, you’d think they’d get better the second time around.

Do you think people more aware of what they didn’t want to put on the ballot? Are they growing tired of the professional petitioners?

What do you think about all of this?

Medical Pot promoters post 1000 fewer signatures than measure that failed ballot in 2016

Pat Powers

The people promoting medical pot in SD just posted over 1000 fewer signatures than their measure that failed to make the ballot in 2016.

Stay tuned on this one. (That really came off as a double entendre, didn’t it)

Medical Pot petitioners claim 14k Signatures…. haven’t we been here before?

Pat Powers

From Facebook, the people trying to legalize smoking pot for “medical” use claim to have counted over 14,000 Signatures on their petitions as of midnight last night:

But, haven’t we heard this before? From 2016:

Krebs said the sponsor of the measure turned in 16,543 signature, but that after a spot-check of 5 percent of those signatures, it was determined that too many were invalid. It was determined that 54.5 percent, or 9,019 of the 16,543 signatures were valid, but that was not enough for the measure to make the statewide ballot.

Read that here.

Supporters needed to collect 13,870 valid signatures. If they find themselves coming in with nearly two thousand fewer signatures than they had last election, I’d be surprised to see it pass the muster of a petition review.

1 year to go until the General, PoliSci Profs reiterating that Gubernatorial race is going to come down to Kristi Noem and Marty Jackley

Pat Powers

Dovetailing off of the article which appeared in the Collegian the other day, in Yesterday’s Sioux City Journal, SDSU PoliSci Professor David Wiltse is doubling down on his comments that the 2018 Gubernatorial race is going to come down to a clash of two champions – Congresswoman Kristi Noem and Attorney General Marty Jackley.

However, Wiltse and his counterpart at USD, Julia Hellwege, disagree on who holds the upper hand:

Professors David Wiltse of South Dakota State University and Julia Hellwege of the University of South Dakota said the race will boil down to two Republicans — U.S. Rep. Kristi Noem and South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley.

“South Dakota is becoming such a monolithically Republican state, it would take a near meltdown of a Republican candidate or campaign in order for (a Democrat to win),” Wiltse said.

Noem, 45, a former state legislator, was first elected to the sole South Dakota congressional position in 2010. Jackley, 47, has been the state’s attorney general since 2009, when he was appointed to a vacancy and then won two elections.

“That is certainly the common wisdom, and I see no reason why it won’t shake down to those two,” Wiltse said.

and…

Wiltse said he thinks Noem has the upper hand one year out, since she can point to constituent help and has more campaign funds, plus the attorney general position is “not as prominent an office to build a record upon.”

Hellwege said Noem is well-known in South Dakota, but the fact that she spends much of her time outside of the state could create an opening for Jackley to campaign hard across the state’s counties.

Read it here.

So really, if the race is going to boil down to Jackley and Noem, it’s not as the article says with “1 year to go…” as the front runner in the race is going to be largely decided on June 5th.

If that’s the case, remember – petitioning begins on January 1. And early voting* begins April 20th.

(*Yes, I know it’s officially in-person absentee voting. But most of us call it early voting anyway)