Today I heard something odd about Sioux Falls Mayor Mike Huether. Although, after you hear this you may gag, and declare him to be “Mike Puker.”

Apparently, on more than one occasion when outside of the Sioux Falla area, he has taken to referring to himself as “Mike Huether, Mayor of South Dakota.” As if that intentional slip was going to pass by unnoticed.

Huether may not be talking yet, but it certainly sounds like someone’s ego is already off & running for the 2016 democrat nomination for governor.

I probably won’t win any math awards, but it’s pretty clear that the amount of blogging one does is directly proportional to how busy a person is at their employment. And as of this week, I think I’m officially on overload.

Big project at my day job, combined with my busiest primary ever for political work, plus not one, but two listings popping up for me at once, and trying to get a home sale put together successfully. And since I’m on overload, it’s a great time for the family dog to… um, go away, & have a kid get into a car accident at the exact same time I’m trying to get my dad to a doctor’s appointment.

I have to admit I was starting to have a panic attack today that the Minnehaha County Lincoln Day dinner I’d committed to attending was tonight. (Thankfully, it’s next week – Whew!)

That leaves me finally tapping things out on my iPad at midnight – 1 AM now,  as I try to settle in to recharge my batteries. Because I’m off to Sioux Falls, Madison, and parts unknown up north all before Friday. 

That’s not a lot of time to read, contemplate and “philosophize” about politics in general.

So, what do I have time to notice? What has punched through the chatter?  Stuff.. 

Foremost, negative campaigning seems to have taken sway in a few races, but (mostly) not from campaigns. It mainly seems to be coming from PACs designed for attacks. 

Stan Adelstein shook off the cobwebs, and wrote a check or two and had someone do a piece for one of his several PACs. Rich Hilgemann’s PAC in Aberdeen did Stace Nelson’s bidding, and went hard negative using photos of Nelson’s opponent at a charity fundraiser at SDSU.  As mentioned in an earlier post, the Lautensclager gun group is attacking from Colorado, and a South Dakota Right to Life affiliated PAC is sending out attack postcards.

Some are poorly done, but the tone may lead us back to the primary of 2014, where much of that started to backfire. The only negative piece I was commissioned to design last primary ended up being pulled before it went to homes because it could have cost the candidate the lead. The candidate won, so, it may have been a good call.

This spring, I haven’t been asked to prepare any pieces to take the bark off of any fellow Republicans, and I’m ok with that. It just may be because of public distaste for it is growing, as some of what’s being used seems to have gotten more personal, some are outright falsehoods, and some of what they’re using is less related to the job performance of politicians.

We’ll see in the two weeks left.

The other thing that is getting my attention is the amount of complaining I’ve been hearing about what had once been a good read on candidates, but seems to have fallen on hard times in recent years – the South Dakota Right to Life Voters Guide.

Like the 2014 primary election edition, this years’ primary edition in at least one case seriously misrepresented a candidate’s position using questionable sources. Again. When they very easily could have picked up a phone.

Last election in one instance, they relied on a NARAL website (of all sources) to comment about a GOP candidate. And they got the candidate’s position flat wrong. This year, it was sourcing a candidate assessment from a pro-choice, liberal atheist Democrat State Senate candidate. And again they badly missed the mark.  

But it’s not just questionable sources when a candidate doesn’t respond. Legislators themselves are grumbling that SDRTL is rating them on legislation SDRTL took no public position on, but omitting bills that they did. As one legislator noted to me “how can you support them on their legislation when you don’t know what it is?” 

Yet, an affiliated PAC is sending out negative postcards based on that same potentially  flawed rating.

I asked one of their longest time legislative supporters over the years – one who had carried a lot of water for them – about it. He remarked that he personally got busy an election ago, and forgot to send his survey in. SDRTL ended up with a statement of support for his opponent, because he didn’t get the survey in, despite a decade of being one of their more vocal advocates. Suffice it to say he was not impressed when a survey negated a decade of activism. 

SDRTL needs to take a hard look at their legislative outreach, as well as how they survey lawmakers. When they correctly list “did not respond” for some, and whether intentional or not, instead do a hit job on others who did the same thing, there’s a problem that needs to be addressed.

Lest they find out what a loss of prestige & moral authority costs them when they really need to count on it.

And that’s what I know tonight.

On his facebook page, Lobbyist Larry Mann notes today that former State Senator Jim Dunn has been given the last rites, and is close to his time of passing from this earth.

There are many who know him better than I, but I’m glad for the time our paths crossed. He was truly a good guy, and one of the last of a breed which we see all too seldom in the halls of the State Legislature.

God speed Jim Dunn.

This past weekend, the GOP county organizations which comprise District 4 met for the purposes of addressing Fred Deutsch’s resignation from the race for D4 House.  The counties met, and selected John Mills of Brookings County to fill the vacancy.

And that’s John Mills; formerly of Mills Construction, currently Mills Properties and Mills Development.

John should be a strong candidate, helping to move this district fully in the “R” column.

Gov. Daugaard Orders State Capitol Flags At Half-Staff For Former State Sen. Roland A. Chicoine

PIERRE, S.D. – Former state legislator Roland A. Chicoine of Elk Point passed away on May 19, 2016. Chicoine, 93, served for 20 years in the state legislature, as a state representative from 1981-87, a state senator from 1987-93, and again as a state representative from 1993-2001.

Gov. Dennis Daugaard has ordered flags to fly half-staff at the State Capitol on Wednesday, May 25, the day of Chicoine’s funeral.

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Congresswoman Noem is pictured here visiting an important South Dakota icon with her family…

While the State Capitol building is nice, if you’re a Pierre expatriate, you know there’s 2 specific stops you need to make when you’re in town; The Donut Shop at the top of the Euclid (before 8 – 8:30 am, when all the good ones are gone), and when in season, the Zesto’s ice cream building at 213 W. Capitol Avenue ran by Barb & Rick Newman.

Darn it. Now I want a blueberry cake donut from the Donut Shop.

If you go to the Rapid City Journal website, you might have this massive ad pop up across your screen before you can proceed:

Former legislator and District 33 State House candidate Mike Buckingham has apparently taken over the Rapid City Journal website for a period of time with a massive campaign advertisement blitz.

Bringing Some Much-Needed Accountability to the Indian Health Service
By Sen. John Thune

The crisis plaguing the Indian Health Service (IHS) and its facilities throughout the Great Plains area isn’t new. In fact, if you ask Native Americans in South Dakota to share their personal experiences dealing with the agency, you’d be hard-pressed to find any positive reviews. The stories they’ve shared with me are heart-wrenching and call into question the commitment of the IHS leaders who are responsible for ensuring our tribal citizens get the quality care they deserve, but unfortunately haven’t been receiving.

It’s hard to imagine walking into a medical exam room that is anything less than clean and orderly, but based on some of the stories I’ve heard, a clean exam room would be a luxury for many IHS patients in South Dakota. The idea that medical professionals are sometimes relegated to using dirty and unsanitary equipment is hard enough to fathom, but we’ve also heard of patients being prematurely discharged from hospitals. This substandard environment is unacceptable, it’s dangerous, and it’s having a real and oftentimes devastating impact on Native Americans, their families, and their communities.

It is clear the IHS is ineffectively managed. For example, it settled an $80 million lawsuit with unions, $6.2 million was taken from Great Plains area service units alone. This all occurred because IHS could not properly manage an administrative task like overtime pay, and IHS took money that would have been better suited for patient care.

In February, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), the chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, invited me to participate in a hearing he organized to examine a number of these ongoing issues and try to determine what can be done to finally fix them. During the hearing, we heard from witnesses, including representatives from the Oglala and Rosebud Sioux tribes, about the abysmal conditions they’d been exposed to. The hearing was a good opportunity for my Senate colleagues to hear about these experiences firsthand, and it provided us with more than enough information to help craft a comprehensive bill that would address this crisis head on.

Sen. Barrasso and I have been working together for months to craft the right kind of bill that tackles patient care and safety issues and emphasizes the need for greater transparency and accountability at the agency. The IHS Accountability Act of 2016, which Sen. Barrasso and I just introduced, does just that. This bill would address some of the systemic failures at IHS by implementing several key, common-sense reforms.

Most importantly – it says it in its name – the IHS Accountability Act increases accountability. It creates an expedited procedure for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary, who oversees IHS, to terminate senior leaders at the agency who aren’t doing their jobs. Leadership starts at the top, so if an underperforming member of leadership is creating a barrier to fulfilling the agency’s core mission of providing quality care to patients, then it’s time for them to find a new line of work.

The bill also streamlines the hiring process so we can get more dedicated, hard-working people on the job faster and keep them there longer. Tribal input is key, which is why we built in a provision to the bill that ensures tribes are consulted during the hiring process for area directors, service unit CEOs, and other key officials. Retaining good employees has always been a problem, which is something we sought to correct by giving the HHS secretary greater flexibility to create competitive pay scales and reward employees for good performance.

Protecting whistleblowers was also an important goal of ours, which is why the bill requires the Government Accountability Office to review the protections that are currently in place and determine whether or not any changes are required to create additional layers of protection. And in the spirit of complete transparency, the bill requires the HHS Office of Inspector General to investigate each and every patient death in which the IHS is involved.

The IHS Accountability Act is hands-down the most comprehensive IHS bill introduced this Congress. And while this is an important step, it’s just the first step. Our effort will mean nothing unless we continue to engage with the tribes, solicit their input, and improve this bill where we can. I look forward to continuing that conversation and building on the important groundwork we’ve laid together.

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Overtime Rule Will Hurt South Dakota’s Workforce and Employers
By Sen. Mike Rounds

The Obama administration recently issued a new regulation—one of the 195 new regulations issued so far in 2016—to more than double the salary threshold under which employees can qualify for overtime pay of time and a half. Like so many of the administration’s regulations, the new overtime rule is a one-size-fits-all mandate that doesn’t take into account individual needs and regional differences. In fact, it will actually end up hurting the citizens it is meant to help: employees and the job creators who hire them.

Currently, employees making $23,660 or less per year automatically qualify for overtime after 40 hours per week. The new rule issued by the Department of Labor (DOL) would raise that threshold to $47,476, effective Dec. 1, 2016. Labor costs will go up, and many hard-working, mid-and-entry-level employees will feel the squeeze. Employers will be forced to either pay these new labor costs or reclassify salaried employees as hourly workers and limit their hours. Additionally, employees who will be converted from salaried to hourly will lose the flexibility they have today. Not only is this bad for business, it also makes it more difficult for new and mid-level workers, many of whom live paycheck-to-paycheck, to support their families and advance their career.

By forcing small businesses, restaurants, retailers, colleges and universities to comply with yet another costly new mandate, the administration is hindering economic growth and stifling innovation. The best way to strengthen the middle class is to boost our economy by lowering the tax burden, removing costly regulatory mandates and increasing workplace flexibility. Unfortunately, this new overtime rule will have the opposite effect.

Earlier this year, I cosponsored the Protecting Workplace Advancement and Opportunity Act, which would require DOL to pursue a balanced and responsible approach when updating federal overtime rules. Under this legislation, DOL would be required to perform a deeper analysis of the impact changes to overtime regulations will have on businesses, nonprofits, local economies, healthcare providers and colleges. Senator Lamar Alexander, Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, has pledged to file a Resolution of Disapproval to stop this new rule, which I wholeheartedly support.

Since the rule was first proposed in 2014, DOL received nearly 300,000 comments, many of which came from employees, business owners and local government officials, who tried to explain that the rule would stifle growth. Still, the DOL pushed forward with the rule, disregarding the input from those it says it is trying to help. Additionally, the administration failed to take into account regional differences when finalizing this new mandate.  What’s good for South Dakota may differ greatly from what’s good for California and New York. This is especially true when you’re talking about cost of living and family budgets.

Employees deserve fair pay for an honest day’s work, but forcing employers to comply with this rule is irresponsible. It threatens businesses, employees, state and local governments and the economy as a whole. If the president wants to truly help the middle class – he should start by withdrawing this misguided rule.

Paving Her Way
By Rep. Kristi Noem

Kassidy, our oldest daughter, graduated from SDSU a few weeks ago, officially making Bryon and I the parents of a bona fide college graduate. She finished in four years with her Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Business, something she earned while also being heavily involved in athletics, clubs, and intramural sports and working on the side. Kassidy is largely paying her own way, but she’s busy becoming a licensed appraiser now to start making a dent in those student loans.

I guess that pretty much sums up her last four years. Still, it doesn’t quite encapsulate the person she’s become in this time. To say that Bryon and I are proud of her would be an understatement. Kassidy is a hard worker. She’s incredibly responsible. She’s kind and adventurous – and perhaps most importantly, she has a deep love for the Lord.

As she walked across the platform in Frost Arena, my mind went back to the day she was born. It was several weeks after my dad had been killed in an accident at our family farm. We were struggling as a family to imagine a future without him. The days were filled with trying to make decisions, calve out the cows, and get the crop planted. The nights were filled with tears and wondering how God could have thought he needed a 49-year-old farmer in heaven when he still had so much to do here with us. I’ll be honest with you: I was mad and I felt devastated. The only thing that seemed to bring me any kind of peace was keeping busy with the cattle, so having a baby was not something I spent much time getting ready for.

Then came April 21 and everything changed. When Kassidy was born, she reminded our family how to be happy again. We started being optimistic about the future; I actually began to look forward to the next sunrise.

Kassidy, who we quickly nicknamed “Hop-a-long,” spent hours in tractors and combines and with Grandma Corinne. Even at three years old, she could sense when I was tired (and yes, maybe a little cranky). She’d look at me with these scolding eyes and remind me to fix my attitude, saying: “somebody’s crabby…!” She had a special love for animals. Almost everything was “pretty neat, huh?” And we always told her wonderful stories about her Grandpa Ron and how much he would have loved to meet her.

As Kassidy grew, more cousins were born and there was a lot for her to do. She kept them in line, made sure they behaved, and handed out chores like a boss. On my side of the family, she was the first cousin to play sports, go to school, drive, rodeo, and run equipment.

Today, Kassidy loves traveling, the outdoors, hunting and spending time with her family. She is often the one who volunteers to take long road trips with me when I need to attend meetings across the state. Time and again, she’s filled in for me if I have to be in DC as well.

Our second oldest, Kennedy, and I were discussing a trait of Kassidy’s the other day. Kennedy said, “I think Kass just has really high standards for other people.” I hadn’t really thought about it like that before, but Kennedy was right. Kassidy expects people to try to be their best, to be responsible, to serve the Lord, and to work hard, because she does. It may seem bossy to a little brother or type A to a friend, but it’s not a bad thing as long as it’s done with love.

Many families across South Dakota are celebrating graduations this time of year. It is a wonderful time to reflect on childhood memories and dream about the future. For our family, I’m excited to see what God has in store for Kassidy. While so much is unknown, I am confident that Grandpa Ron would have been proud.

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