Sam Kooiker, who lost his bid to return to being Rapid City mayor for another term, has nothing written in stone regarding his political future. As he’s said to be planning, he might just decide to catch up on his fishing.
But I can’t help but notice that he resides in District 32, an area where he generally polled well. It’s also a District where State Representative Brian Gosch is prevented from running again for State Representative due to term limits. (and is said to be looking at a Senate challenge against Sen. Alan Solano.)
Open legislative seat. Mayor with really good name ID.
Do you think it might be in the cards?
That is a great idea! There isn’t an elected official who cares more for his constituents that Sam. I hope him all the best.
Go for it Sam!! You would be great in Pierre.
Pat, thank you so much for the thoughts. I am not planning to run for the legislature or Mayor or anything anytime soon. I am taking my yard signs to recycling and saving my sign sticks for my dad in case he decides to run for re-election for his seat in the Iowa State House of Representatives. Jennifer and I were talking the other night that I have had 11 elections in 13 years (5 council races and 6 Mayor’s races (which includes 2 run-offs). That’s a lot for a young family to experience.
I am excited about the efforts I have made to make Rapid City a better place, and am looking forward to a smooth transition. Recall that my predecessor ordered a low-level format of his hard drives and destroyed most of the files in the Mayor’s office. It was almost certainly a violation of state law, and we now have additional policies to prevent employees from being ordered to wipe hard drives and shred documents that belong to the people. It was a very serious situation and criminal prosecution couldn’t occur because Glen Brenner declined to look into it because there was no evidence — The previous mayor probably could have argued he didn’t do anything for four years and that would have been hard for me to dispute since that was the argument I made during the 2011 campaign. I joke Alan’s administration was like Woodstock — if you can remember it you weren’t there.
This office belongs to the people, and not to any of the office-holders.
Commentary on the 2011 transition aside, Steve and I are working on a smooth transition. I wish him all the best and I want him to be successful as our Mayor. Steve and I talked at 10 PM on election night when I conceded, and we might right away the next afternoon to begin the transition. In 2011, I didn’t like how my predecessor had introduced the budget prior to the election, so in this case, the 2016 budget is just now being put together. Since Steve will own the budget regardless if he works on it or not, it’s the right thing to do to include him. So Steve and I have been meeting with Department Directors most of the last two days to work on the budget, since this will be his first responsibility. I do not know what the future holds for me, but I am excited about it and I know I will land. In April 2011, I quit my job at Golden West (a great company) for a chance at a 2-year term as Mayor, and I had no fallback position. Two terms later, I look back at the risk I took, and I know it was worth it. I am looking forward to the next phase in this adventure called life. Sam