Wow. I mean, wow. From the Argus Leader:
Democratic Party chair Ann Tornberg repeatedly encouraged attendees to circulate a ballot measure petition aimed at creating an independent redistricting committee. She called the existing districts “entirely partisan and gerrymandered.” Rep. Peggy Gibson, D-Huron, told attendees about how she circulated the petition to other drivers who were stopped for hours near the site of a fatal car crash. “If I can do it there, you can do it anywhere,” Gibson said.
and…
The candidate challenging Thune in 2016 will be…
Just kidding. No news on that front. With just over 13 months before the 2016 election, the party has yet to select a candidate to run against U.S. Sen. John Thune. Party leadership didn’t acknowledge the hole on the ballot heading into next year, but they indicated individuals interested in exploring a run could go to next months’ training event.
“Rep. Peggy Gibson, D-Huron, told attendees about how she circulated the petition to other drivers 
who were stopped for hours near the site of a fatal car crash.” And, she admitted it.
Wow.
If the rest of Dems follow Peggy’s crass opportunism, I think accident scenes and funeral homes are going to start putting a ban on petitioners.
The state Democratic party including the crazies are swirling around the drain.
Yep, keep up that complacency. You’re dealing with a growing number of people who are determined to make government work for all the citizens. You will undoubtedly be shocked to discover that a lot of them are registered Republicans.
I would advise you to continue making fun of them and their efforts. That always helps.
They can’t hardly win elections or even recruit candidates to run so what do they do? They will flood the ballot box with initiatives so many that will just confuse and turnoff the voter. Great strategy!
this obviously mirrors the massive upward trend detected by ppp in the scott heideprem numbers the week before he was beaten by daugaard. impressive if true.
To collect signatures at the site of a fatal car crash is just wrong, and to brag about it simply disgusting. I don’t know Gibson or Tornberg, but have lost any respect for them as individuals for this.
let me circulate a few democrat petitions. i’ll bet i can be worse than that if i try.
What next? I go up to communion at Mass and there is someone asking me to sign a petition?
If someone were to ask me what my ideal job in politics would be in SD I would answer “Chair of the SDDP.” The reason is simple. It’s so bad right now that there is nowhere to go but up and there aren’t a bunch of elected officials to take orders from. Just find a way to start winning.
I’d love to have the opportunity to be Chair of the SDDP.
Peggy Gibson shouldn’t be bragging about that.
Redistricting isn’t the Democrats problem in SD. The problem is that they had 14 senate seats before the 2010 elections (before the new census and redistricting) after 2010’s election they had 5 Democrat Senators. The reason was Obama, Obamacare, Cap and Trade, Stimulus, not being in touch with SD voters…
2012 was the first election after the new census. Their big losses came in 2010.
Anne Tornberg is demonstrating that she doesn’t understand why the SDDP keeps losing. It might be a nice slogan but it doesn’t address the real problem. It’s being out of touch with SD voters on a national level. Find SD Dem first candidates and they will start winning elections again. Stick with Obama and DC first democrats and you will not win for a long time.
The funny thing is, Republicans usually lose seats in elections after redistricting. It’s actually a bit of a non issue. It only matters when both parties field candidates.
But, one must oppose it on general principles, considering the source.
You are spot on. The other part of their problem is the rabid hate that many of the Democrats have for anything Republican, to include Republican voters that they must court in order to get elected.
Anonymous 2:16: That is a great point. Dems have actually increased their # of Senators SINCE redistricting. No wonder they can’t point out a single district they claim was districted creating a GOP advantage.
redistricting and pac money are the two big hot button issues on the democrat side. they’re working their way around the cycle of blame for why their big new world hasn’t been implemented yet. they haven’t figured out that they’re voting for the people who promise them everything and give them nothing because they need the unfilled promise to keep churning out votes.
The only instance of redistricting that delivered desired results was 15 years ago or so when Beadle County got split in half and Charlie Flowers couldn’t get votes out of Huron. Now Beadle and Kingsbury are back together to form District 22, and Dems will have a tough time electing anyone from her to the Legislature after Mrs. Gibson is term-limited.
As for her enthusiasm for getting signatures at fatal car crashes, all I can say is that Dems are a lot like those GEICO commercials: It’s what they do.
“have a tough time electing anyone from here”
This IM is pure BS as it is a direct attempt to diminish the publics chosen leaders in areas needing cool heads by forcing equal ratios of political parties sitting at the table. A Judge will be forced to threaten contempt of court after months of stalemate talks concerning boundaries. Actually a slap in the face to the South Dakota voting Public.
Next IM from the Dems will be to have equal representation on all legislative committees with shared Chairpersons.
Charlie, I am sure you would agree that there have been a lot of BS IMs over the years. But the voters cherish this mechanism to have their voices heard directly – as evidenced by the amount of public backlash towards Corey Brown’s idea.
I think it’s a sign that the people behind the measures don’t think the legislature is doing a good job on a topic that they are passionate about.
For instance, a lot of the commenters in here just hated the very successful IM 18 (2014), but thought the failed IM 11 (2008) was a great idea.
Simple voter numbers would suggest that neither of these outcomes would have been possible without the support of a lot of registered Republicans. I haven’t looked at the district maps closely for a while but the last time I did, it looked like many of them were put together by people who did not know what a straight line was for.
Heisenberg,
I guess before I’d accuse the Legislature of gerrymandering, I’d look at the map.
BTW, with just a few exceptions, nearly all of the district boundaries follow county boundaries which weren’t drawn by this legislature so they aren’t responsible for non straight lines.
Troy that’s fair enough. The last one I looked at looked pretty bad in the Rapid City area and the Sioux Falls area – almost a house-to-house line that jumped back and forth across county roads and streets. Someone must have fixed it.
I guess then that if the districts are already fairly-drawn, an independent commission would probably just carry on with what exists. So I guess the IM would cause no harm if passed.
Heisenberg,
I’m not sure anything was “fixed” in Sioux Falls area. There the districts tried to mirror as close as possible the school district boundaries which is not exactly “straight lines.” The rationale was not to gerrymander districts for partisan purposes but to unify school distrinct interests with their legislators. In this part of the state, what is desired by the Sioux Falls school district (and sometimes Brandon) is not the same as desired by Harrisburg, Tea, Lennox & West Central (all of which have tentacles into Sioux Falls).
This moving of district lines to as closely as possible (and still conform to the federal court rulings of equal size legislative districts where school districts boundaries are of varying size (and changing rapidly) was a response of voter accountable legislators. I don’t have the confidence an appointed commission would do that. Thus, why fix what isn’t broken.
It is still incumbent on the person asking for change to point out a district that was manipulated for partisan purposes. Otherwise, there is no reason to change to make you feel better.
Troy, that’s a nice attempt at showing the reasonableness and good will of the party that draws the lines. I have been in those rooms before, so I will respectfully decline to agree that drawing district lines has always been a matter of good will. That’s now how politics work.
But I do appreciate your attempt to let us all know from an insider’s view of your position on this.
Finally, the only thing that makes me feel better about all of this is that in South Dakota, citizens still have the opportunity to ask the voters what they think about issues if they put enough effort into it.
That makes me feel better. I hope it makes you feel better, too.
Heisenberg,
Its not an “attempt” and the inference implies an ad hominem attack because I’m a Republican. I know because I observed it in real time via conversations with people observing it directly with regard to the interests of Harrisburg school district.
I live in the least “school district” generated district relative to the other school district/legislative district in the area. That is why I know the genesis of what occurred as I happen to be overwhelmed by Sioux Falls school district voters yet live in Harrisburg. But, I get why it happened as it was necessary to get greater overlap with everyone else. Not everyone wins.
It is still incumbent on someone advocating change to give a reason based on facts of gerrymandering for partisan purposes. I’m waiting.
Thank you Troy for saying once again what Needed to be said.
Aside from the comments by Republican legislators who admitted gerrymandering occurred?
What are the chances they could cut former Rep Lora Hubbel out of 99%(?) of her former district, or Frank Kloucek, or Stace Nelson out of theirs? Was that all happenchance or by design? What are the odds?
Yeah like like klouchek kept getting moved.
Hubbel: While it wasn’t close to 99%, when Sioux Falls is adding a Madison to its population every year, there is volatility everywhere. Next time there is a redistributing Sioux Falls metro will add two districts (added one this time but was almost two).
Klouchek: I don’t know where he lives relative to the district lines so I can’t comment.
Nelson: He lived on the west side of his old District. With the growth of Sioux Falls, district lines moved east which moved him into the east side of his new district. It was inevitable. That said, next time when Sioux Falls gets two new districts, depending on if they add a district on the north and west, he actually might be in a district that is longer North & South vs. East and West he currently is in. This is because the west side of Nelson’s current district will continue to depopulate as is happening up and down the James River Valley especially west and that district too will be more North & South. Like it or not (which I don’t), the ring 50-80 miles from Sioux Falls is really going to be volatile and it can’t be avoided.
P.S. Nelson is currently in one of the top five GOP districts. Not exactly punishment.