Contrary to what I had heard in recent weeks, Pierre news-stringer Bob Mercer is claiming that Secretary of State Shantel Krebs is preparing to announce a congressional run 4 or 5 months after former PUC Commissioner Dusty Johnson pulled the trigger:
By the way, I’m told that Secretary of State Shantel Krebs is preparing to be the second candidate for the Republican nomination for U.S. House to succeed Kristi in Congress. So far Dusty Johnson is the only declared candidate for the Republican slot on the 2018 general election ballot. Dusty has the backing of Republican Gov. Dennis Daugaard, who hasn’t taken a public side in the governor contest.
It is not inconceivable that others would enter the race for an open congressional seat. But, they may face a rocky path. At this point, Dusty has had several months of uncontested campaigning, and has managed to put some respectable fundraising numbers together to fend off challengers.
What has me questioning his report, is that it hasn’t seemed that the signs are there. Inside reports have pointed elsewhere, and notably, this year’s Hughes County Lincoln Day dinner, which tends to be populated by the Who’s Who of upcoming campaign hopefuls, was missing the Secretary of State.
At the same time Shantel skipped the GOP Dinner, congressional hopeful Dusty Johnson had a nice-sized fundraiser immediately prior to the event.
However, as I’d reported earlier, someone was buying up Krebs related websites. So, you never know.
I hope so. 2018 will be even more fun.
Wow. If true I’m excited. If not true then fun speculating.
I hope this is true. Shantel would be a fantastic representative for our state out in D.C. Run, Shantel, Run!
If Shantel runs then there will also be an open Secretary of State race……even more political excitement….political junkies rejoice lol
I will support Krebs!
Better chance she runs for House or as LG?
If she runs, then others will likely start declaring a run for SOS. But if she loses the US House primary to Dusty, does she go to the state GOP convention a few weeks later and run for reelection as SOS?
I don’t like that there should be a rule that you have to declare for the race by an earlier date, that is not fair to the people that campaign all year only to be swept away at the convention in a scenario just like that. They should have to declare by the time all other candidates put in their petitions….Mr. Chairman.. possible rule change??
One race is a primary, the other is a convention. Apples to Oranges. Candidates for SOS won’t have submitted petitions before the convention. Anyone who wants to run at the convention should be able to, regardless of whether they ran in a June primary.
Some thoughts:
There were reports in SF of someone looking a lot like Shantel (accompanied by someone looking a lot like Mitch) taking pictures downtown last Friday. The person who saw this said they tried to get a closer look but they had moved on before they could verify that it was the Krebses. But they said it looked like the type of photo shoot that a candidate would do to prepare materials for a race.
Second, Mercer’s post also mentions some polling in the Gov’s race that he caught wind of. Kristi up 39-35 sounds about right to me at this juncture. There’s a long ways to go before June 2018 but I’d guess Noem has a slight edge at this point.
It looked like a club for growth because they were sending out a poll that had Krebs at 28% and Dusty at 12%
They seemed to be inquiring with conservative leaders about the the two of them.
I don’t know if that would be the governor’s race poll also.
60% undecided? Or did they have a bunch of other names thrown in there? That seems like a lot of undecideds if they polled head-to-head.
The one I saw had about 7 other legislative candidates in it. Lots of undecideds though.
Lots of folks give money to both top contenders in a State wide race until one wins the primary. The race is usually won by the most personable here in SD.
Washington wouldn’t know what hit it if Shantel came to town. Stuff would be getting done and offices would be run the way they were meant to be.
I’ve heard Shantel is hiring hatchet men from out-of-state. Let the mudslinging begin!