I was scanning the media this morning, when I came across a group of legislative columns in the Capitol Journal, two of them from District 24 legislators (representing Pierre). But for party balance, for some reason they added in a wild screed from new District 1 legislator Jennifer Keintz that they’d been sent.
Even though she represents District 1 in the far North east:
Last week, Gov. Kristi Noem referred to the Senators-elect from Georgia as communists. These incendiary comments are part of a long history of baseless hate-fueled rhetoric. Reverend Warnock is a Pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta and preaches from the same pulpit as Dr. Martin Luther King did. Mr. Ossoff is a descendant of Jewish immigrants. Attacking these people with untrue and scary sounding words erodes who we are as a people in South Dakota. With her inflammatory rhetoric, the governor has chosen to associate herself with figures like Governor George Wallace, who famously said “segregation today, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever.”
Read the over the top attack here.
My first thought was that – given the hyperpartisan attack from a new legislator – Keintz might be D1’s nutty Susan Wismer replacement, since her opponent kicked her out.
Nevermind the fact that Republican Kristi Noem has nothing to do with Democrat segregationist George Wallace, as well as a number of other things.
But when I started digging into it, my spies sent me a copy of an actual press release that was sent out on January 9th, with said release clearly going out across the state, obviously including the Pierre Capitol Journal. And that got my attention even more:
JK Noem Statement-0224382 by Pat Powers on Scribd
Take notice of page 2..
This came from a consultant?
Why do I get the feeling someone is trying to raise their profile because the Democrat bench is small and someone has ambitions.
Why else would a brand new legislator who hasn’t been sworn in yet (at the time of the release) have a self-styled political consultant on retainer sending out press releases for her?
Especially one claiming they know “political strategy?”
Hm. Maybe Rep. Keintz should actually accomplish something before she starts using a consultant, possibly in hopes of a bigger office.
“Consultant” is a pretty generous title for the person who wrote this press release.
So you are attacking Keintz for saying what many South Dakotans are saying: That Noem has gone way down the Trumpism rabbit hole? Please find more substance and actually have good arguments.
Did she say it? Or pay someone to write it?