Category: Uncategorized

S.D. State Senator Lance Russell Seeks Attorney General Position

HOT SPRINGS, S.D. (Sep. 20, 2017) – South Dakota State Senator Lance Russell announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for South Dakota Attorney General today.

“If elected Attorney General, I will support stronger laws and enforcement of those laws to ensure open government and safer communities,” Senator Russell said in his candidacy announcement for Attorney General. “Violent crime has recently been on the rise in South Dakota, and my number one priority will be to halt the upward trend in violent crime.”

During Senator Russell’s time as Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he focused on issues of government transparency, accountability and protecting Constitutional Rights, which according to Senator Russell was a significant factor in his decision to run. For his Legislative efforts, Senator Russell has earned 100 percent and A ratings from South Dakota Right to Life, the National Rifle Association and the National Association for Gun Rights.

Senator Russell is an active member of the South Dakota Republican Party. He previously served as the Executive Director for both the South Dakota Republican Party and Pennington County Republican Party. He also has served as Party Chairman in his home county of Fall River.

Senator Russell continues to work at his 17-year private practice as an attorney in Fall River County, where he served two terms as the Fall River and Shannon County State’s Attorney from 2001 to 2008.  For the past nine years, Russell has served in the South Dakota Legislature as both a Representative and Senator, for a total of seventeen years in public service.

“My life as a public servant has been about fighting for victims, property owners, open government, and quality of life issues for our communities,” Senator Russell said. “Taking these positions to a state-wide platform as our state’s next Attorney General gives a new administration a fresh look at conducting the people’s business in the open to protect the taxpayers of this state.”

The Republican party will announce their nomination at the 2018 Republican State Convention next year in June.

###

About Lance Russell

Lance Russell is the current State Senator from District 30 and serves as Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He is a candidate seeking the Republican nomination for Attorney General.

Russell has over 17 years in public service, formerly serving as the District 30 Representative and as Fall River County and Shannon County State’s Attorney. Russell runs his own private practice as an attorney in Hot Springs, South Dakota, where he and his wife Starla are raising their four children, Julia, Madison, Warren and Grant. He is a prominent Republican Party member, previously serving as the Executive Director of the South Dakota State Party, and for the Pennington County Party before that, and has served as the Chairman of the Fall River County Party.

Russell earned a Juris Doctor Degree from the University of South Dakota School of Law and a Master of Laws Degree in Natural Resources and Environmental Law from the University of Denver College of Law. He represents Grassland Grazing Associations and is City Attorney for several municipalities in the southern Black Hills.

Democrats announced a while back that they’re bringing a speaker to Rapid City on Friday Night:

The South Dakota Democratic Party today announced that Jason Kander, former Missouri Secretary of State and chair of the Democratic National Committee’s Commission to Protect American Democracy will speak at its third annual Democratic Round-Up Banquet Dinner, set to begin at 7 p.m. on Saturday, September 23 at the Ramkota Convention Center in Rapid City.

“We are excited to welcome Jason Kander to South Dakota for the Democratic Round-Up. He is a strong advocate of the voting rights of every American citizen, and has an impressive history of electoral success as a Democrat in a ‘red’ state,” said SDDP Chair Ann Tornberg.

Read that here.

And what’s so awesome about Kander that they felt that had to bring him here?  Probably this message:

Good luck with that message in Rapid City, Democrats!

*sigh*  As if they’ve ever stopped, I note the Argus Leader is out pushing fake news to attack Republicans again.

Today, in relation to the Lynn DiSanto Facebook meme story they’ve been trumpeting since yesterday, the Argus has posted a new story trying to draw criticism to the Republican party by blaring a BS headline “South Dakota GOP won’t punish lawmaker for controversial Facebook post.”

Pray tell Argus Leader editors who wrote this silliness…… How exactly would “the South Dakota GOP” punish Representative DiSanto?   It’s not like there’s a mechanism for the Party to kick her out. I would point out that she was elected by a vote of her constituents. And anything in relation to her party whip position would be up to the legislative caucus, which isn’t set to meet until January.

It would be like me asking the reporter, “What exactly are you going to do about an Alien invasion?” And then blaring that she’s going to just stand by when the martians invade.

They did note a statement from the State Party Chairman, Dan Lederman which pretty much lays out what the party’s role in the whole thing is:

The GOP’s state chair said in a statement that it does not tell members what is appropriate when it comes to what they post on social media.

“Each candidate and officeholder is individually responsible for their own social media, and it’s up to each of them to determine what’s appropriate,” Dan Lederman said.

If they could do anything otherwise, I’m sure there’s a whole lot of crazy on Lora Hubbel’s Facebook page that would never see the light of day.

I’m not sure what the Argus is demanding with all their moral outrage. Is the GOP supposed to sentence her to 40 lashes with a wet noodle?  Or make her stand on Main Street in Rapid City with a sandwich board sign saying that she posts memes on Facebook?

Obviously, the state’s largest newspaper is just giving up on silly little things like facts, or objectivity. Because if they hadn’t, we probably wouldn’t read such utter ridiculousness in print.

Anyone out there looking at running for the South Dakota Legislature (or county office) as a Republican for the first time in 2018?

Drop me a confidential note here, and let me know a few basics, such as name, city, what office you’re running for, and maybe a note about your previous political experiences.  I and a friend or two are looking at potentially putting something together for new candidates to help them in their efforts, and am wondering about the level of interest.

I was a College Republican. Once. Long, long ago…  And that’s a big group of future conservative leaders on the SDSU Campus!

Taking time off from running for Governor, Congresswoman Kristi Noem took the time to pop in to say hi to them this evening, and to bring them up to date on what’s happening on the campaign trail:

I read this, and just had to shake my head. Did the Argus even try? The Argus Leader shows us once again how much they don’t know about South Dakota politics:

The field of candidates vying for the attorney general’s office is growing ahead of the March deadline to submit candidate petitions.

and..

With his seat set to come open, two have announced they’ll face off in the Republican primary.

and..

The field is expected to grow ahead of the deadline to run in the state’s June 5 partisan primary elections.

Read all those errors here.

Jesus wept, it’s bad enough that the Argus panders as much as they do to South Dakota Democrats, but most of this article is incorrect.  Did they bother to ask anyone how this stuff all works?

Error #1 – “The field of candidates vying for the attorney general’s office is growing ahead of the March deadline to submit candidate petitions.”

South Dakota Attorney General candidates for the political parties do not submit petitions. Period.   In fact, it’s right there on the Secretary of State’s website:

The following will be nominated at the 2018 state conventions of each political party:

• Lieutenant Governor – 4 year term
• Public Utilities Commissioner – 6 year term
• Attorney General – 4 year term
• Secretary of State – 4 year term
• State Auditor – 4 year term
• State Treasurer – 4 year term
• Commissioner of School and Public Lands – 4 year term

Read that here.

They may want to bookmark the link for future reference.  Statewide, in South Dakota, only for US Senate, Congress & Governor do they submit petitions. For the rest of the statewide executive branch elected offices, they’re nominated at convention. It’s been that way for what? 100 years or more?

State Legislators (State Senate, State House), and offices on down then shift back to a petition process.

Error #2 – “With his seat set to come open, two have announced they’ll face off in the Republican primary.”  There are 4 candidates, not 2 who have announced they’re running. And they have been for quite a while. Otherwise, it looks pretty silly for John Fitzgerald, Charlie McGuigan, Lance Russell and Jason Ravnsborg to be running around the state talking to all the groups they have been for the last several months. They’ve all announced, but apparently the Argus ignored the memo, since it wasn’t coming from the Democrat State Party Headquarters.   Which leads into glaring error 3..

Error #3 – “The field is expected to grow ahead of the deadline to run in the state’s June 5 partisan primary elections.”   Well, it’s going to grow from the two listed, as the 4 have been running for a while, but as noted, they don’t have to petition, and they are not winnowed out in the primary election process. There IS no Primary for AG.  They are chosen at the political party conventions AFTER the primary.

It’s pretty bad when the State’s largest newspaper can’t get basic facts about state elections correct. Even worse when it’s gone through a writer and an editor… and they still screw it up.

Update… They have an updated story now, with the following mea culpa:

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the number of candidates running for the office of attorney general and mischaracterized the nomination process.

The Jackley for Governor campaign just dropped me a  few courtesy photos, as they’ve been out hitting the campaign trail recently.

Here’s the Jackley parade team at Swarm Days this past weekend…

And at the Pierre Homecoming parade…

And at the Winner Labor Day Parade:

Keep those photos coming!

 

 

Apparently, the eternally outraged have outraged State Representative Lynne DiSanto’s Real Estate Employer over the meme controversy, as they’ve announced that they’ve parted ways with her tonight over it:

As I noted earlier, it’s not something I would have posted on social media. (The last things I posted were that I bought Shania Twain tickets, a picture of Thune Staffer Ben Ready, and a meme over the unending Garth Brooks posts we’re now being subjected to).

But even moreso in light of this action, if Facebook memes are the things we get outraged about, we’ve apparently run out of real things to be outraged over.

18.7K Raised. 34.7K Spent, 65.7K Cash on hand. Wow. Dems have got it going out almost twice as fast as it’s coming in. And at this rate, they’ve got about 2 months worth left.

SDDP Sept 2017 FEC by Pat Powers on Scribd

The South Dakota Democrat Party is going through cash like a drunken sailor, spending nearly twice as much as it has coming in for income, despite a monthly $7500 stipend from the National Democrat Party ($67,896.31 so far to date this year).

Not exactly a sustainable model to run elections on, because the cash on hand isn’t going to last forever.

The Johnson for Congress campaign crew was out spreading the Dusty Johnson gospel tonight at the Pierre Homecoming parade.