Fresh off of being on the front lines of forcing South Dakota Democrat Julian Beaudion out of the race for US Senate…
Beaudion writes that “an influential Democrat in the state … told me that I was the most toxic thing ever to happen to the South Dakota Democratic Party. He told me that if I remained in the race, donors would leave the party and that he intended to contact people about it.”
Beaudion also relates a direct conversation with independent candidate Brian Bengs, in which Bengs says, “if you stay in the race, things will get worse for you.”
“Allegedly Independent” Brian Bengs has been part of a behind the scenes effort to make sure there was no traditional Democrat in the race, preferring his own brand of using Democrat Party resources to do and say anything he wants to get elected. Instead of referring to him as Independent Bengs, after the Beaudion substack article, we might need to refer to him as “dirty fighter Bengs” after he cleared his opponent off the field.
Like it or not, Bengs’ strong arming of Julian Beaudion is the past. So Let’s talk about Bengs in terms of a more current topic. Data Centers – the new boogie man in South Dakota Politics, which is convenient for Bengs to use as a throw away issue. Fresh off the the newly cleared slate, Data Centers are one of his first selling points that he’s is pushing in an effort to appeal to populists, according to KOTA News:
Brian Bengs, the independent candidate who is now the only remaining challenger for Sen. Mike Rounds’ seat, is receiving national coverage for his criticism of the war in Iran and other issues.
And..
Bengs also discussed his opposition to data centers during the CNN interview. He said that if a local community votes in favor of building a data center facility, he would support that decision.
Here’s that very same story on Forbes:
I say it’s a throw away issue for Bengs, because he’s skipping a couple of items when it comes to them. He’s failing to disclose that BRIAN BENGS has investments in data center companies according to his financial disclosure filed with the US Senate in May:
Here’s the write up:
Kyndryl Holdings operates a global footprint of roughly 66 data centers across 25 countries, alongside strategic hyperscaler cloud integrations, combining legacy asset management with modern colocation and hybrid IT infrastructure services.Global Operations & FootprintOperates facilities spanning major regions including North America (such as Markham, Ontario and Edmonton, Alberta), Europe, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific.Relies on an asset-light strategy, consolidating traditional real estate footprints while expanding colocation hosting capacity and peering partnerships.
And let’s not forget an oldie but a diverse company from Bengs’ portfolio that also likes it’s data centers:
IBM’s data center related activity? Here you go:
IBM operates over 60 global cloud data centers across 19 countries and 6 continents. These centers use a multi-zone region (MZR) design to offer high-availability, low-latency cloud infrastructure, bare-metal servers, and strict federal compliance standards like FedRAMP.Infrastructure and NetworkZones: Independent fault domains grouped inside metropolitan regions to limit downtime.Security: 24/7 on-site guards, surveillance, and restricted physical entry.Power: Redundant N+1 power and cooling systems.
So, Bengs thinks Data Centers are bad, unless they can make Bengs bank?
Go read Brian Bengs’ financial disclosures for yourself, and come to your own conclusions.
I’m sure there’s other breadcrumbs he’s left along the campaign train as to where he really sits on the issues.
Bengs is such a stinking hypocrite.
Julian come back!
Wasn’t Kyndryl Holdings a recent spinoff of IBM?
Yes! Julian come back! The Rounds campaign will encourage you to come back! A three candidate race would be ideal! lol
How many of us with our busy lives have taken the time to go over our investments including retirement mutual funds to see what is invested where? There are probably investments many of us would not prefer or find unacceptable to invest in if we took the time to further investigate.
It would be interesting to find out to what degree the Rounds campaign was directly or indirectly involved in sabotaging the opposition challengers campaigns.
South Dakota voters deserve to watch several debates between Brian Bengs and Mike Rounds.
Weak sauce Pat. What are the headings on those report columns? What’s the dollar amount? A thousand bucks in IBM? 🤦
Hearsay from a former candidate who had a public meltdown is also weak.
Rounds must be somewhat nervous? That’s interesting.
Right, the onslaught of AI logorrhea has mostly been brought on by IBM.
The AI-slop graphic makes it seem like Bengs is a heavy investor in Nvidia and all the other technocrats. IBM has been one of the best performing stocks over the last century. It’s possible that he’s invested in IBM because it’s a safe and stable way to gradually grow some wealth? I fail to see how that makes Bengs a greedy hypocrite, but alright.
IBM used to be referred to as a Blue Chip investment.
A blue chip investment is a safe, high-quality share in a large, well-known, and financially stable company. These reliable firms are industry leaders, have a long history of steady growth, and often pay regular cash rewards to owners. The name comes from poker, where blue tokens have the highest value. Investopedia
If we are looking at investment portfolios, let’s check Mike and John too, surely theirs will be squeaky clean!
, Bengs makes bank” … with less than $32,000 in those holdings!!??
C’mon man!
The DSA chippers are in full effect for bengs this morning! Haha
Got that right!!!
It’s possible.
This is a very unpredictable year for elections in a state like this. Trump is less popular and our Washington delegation’s numbers are bleak.
Could Bengs win? Mike Rounds is saying that this race has changed and it could get close. If Bengs gets some money, I think he actually could win. And… calling Bengs a “socialist” isn’t going to protect Rounds.
Mike Rounds is a happy healthy former popular two term governor ready to clock in for a new senate term with his hardworking indefatigable energy set to stand tall for South Dakota. This race is not only over, it never even got started. Face the facts. Not gonna happen.
Ready to clock in? His re-election announcement came in noticeably late and only after trump publicly endorsed him. Rounds will be 72 by the election and 78 by the time hes done. He was clearly thinking retirement until trump dragged him into the race, let the man retire.
He also spends less time on social media and other present-day nonsense than he does on just working. He’s the best Federal officer the state has, and if he wants to go again, more power to him. I wish more elected officials would stop the show pony crap and just get to work.
Mike Rounds is a good example of how a U.S. Senator should be working, unlike most of them.
Quietly working for his corporate donors instead of the citizens of the state he’s intended to represent? I disagree….
#actbluebengsstaffer
He works for us too. It’s called multitasking.
LOL
In the cartoon somebody drew, this Mr. Bengs fellow looks like a jolly park ranger. grudznick likes the hat especially. Everybody likes unusual hats.
I would be interested to know if he manages his own portfolio or not. I’m guessing not. Which means this post doesn’t mean a thing lol.