Looks like Richard Thomason is victorious in his race for Sioux Falls City Council tonight:
Richard Thomason will take the Sioux Falls City Council’s At-Large C seat after defeating Jordan Deffenbaugh in Tuesday’s runoff election.
Thomason, who served two years as a state representative for South Dakota’s District 13 and currently works at Central Bank, got 6,160 votes.
I think there are two take-aways from this election:
#1 – You can have the best ground game in the world but it doesn’t matter if you’ve burned a bunch of bridges before you decide that you want to be a candidate. Jordan probably had the best “grass roots” campaign in Sioux Falls city council history, and he probably would have won if he were a true “blank slate” candidate and not someone with a track record of creating controversy.
#2 – What you see online and what reality is in the voting base can be two entirely different things. The online chatter was 90% in favor of Jordan, but Richard pulled out a victory due to his strong door-to-door game and backing from the business establishment.
What was the track record of controversy and bridges burned that worked against Jordan?
#3 – Money wins the election. We can’t have nice things in this city, but at least the developers and their friends can.
Money did not influence, much less win, that election. I did not see any television advertisements or hear any radio advertisements.
You really think that is how candidates still advertise? Do people really listen to radio and watch linear TV? I saw multiple ads on Youtube, Facebook, billboards, and websites. It was reported five days before the election that the race had $100k filed for donations, of which 75% was allocated to Thomason (and $10K coming from the OP). One would be pretty ignorant to think this had no impact on the race….
Jordan Deffenbaugh says he’s an independent, sure just like (MMM) My Man Mike Huether.
MP funded another candidate. That’s the thing. It’s the same group of donors funding the same candidates.
I’ve heard Hurther is running for governor as a Republican.
Alex Jensen Part II
Deffenbaugh has supported legalizing a variety of drugs. He openly degrades SD GOP leadership. I think it’s safe to say he’s a democrat at heart regardless of how he’s registered. What’s shocking, as a mother in Sioux Falls, is how low the turnout was and how small the margin was given what was at stake. Republicans always think a Republican will win so they don’t make the effort. That needs to change especially in Sioux Falls.
TenHaken wants to move the city elections to the primary date for increased turnout. The concern is the local elections will get drowned out in the event of a competitive statewide primary (ex. 2026 Governor and maybe Senate ) and people will make uninformed decisions.
It is only a matter of time before the legislature corrects “uninformed decisions” on candidates like they do on ballot initiatives.
Who’s going to correct the legislature?