There are times when comments are left that just plain force me to go look. Today was no exception.

Under the post where District 3 Democrat House Candidate Nikki Bootz explained that Legislators only deal with certain issues…

Someone left a notation from her Twitter feed which is either really eye-opening, or at the least, in-artfully stated:

@DaRealAmberRose Been retired for over 8 yrs from stripping, some people aren’t born with that #silverspoon #privledge.

— Nikki Bootz (@NikkiBootz) February 17, 2015

Um, yeah. OK.  I’m not sure I understand. So, which is retired from stripping? Another word composed of 3-5 characters added to the statement would have added a lot of clarity to that tweet.

Darn it.  Of course, with a statement like that, I had to go look and see what other pearls of wisdom that Democrat Candidate Ms. Boots decided to pass to the world. Suffice it to say that I wasn’t disappointed. (and pardon the language):

You didn’t happen to work in a Taco John’s recently, did you?

Say, I hate to mention it, but the whole “R” word thing isn’t really cool, you know.

Seriously, Nikki. Not cool. And thank God I’m done having children. 

Why do I think Democrats may have to offer her some sensitivity training?

Ohhh my. Lots and lots of sensitivity training. Yep.

Why do I think for Republicans, Nikki is the gift that’s going to keep on giving in District 3?

So, Nikki’s opinion is that “slave factory workers” are “morons?”  Not going to be a supporter of 3M in Aberdeen, is she?  Is there anyone left for her to offend?

“Theatre Class is hard? Since when  #f***Northern”

So, is #f***northern going to be a hash tag for everyday use of her campaign? Or is she saving that for when she’s elected to the legislature, and would be asked to vote on the budget for the Board of Regents?

Heidelberger, Briscoe, Bootz—District 3’s next Legislators at McGovern Day Sioux Falls #Democrats pic.twitter.com/YnX1G7DnaC

— CAHeidelberger (@coralhei) May 1, 2016

Sorry Cory. I’m thinking you’re going to be 0 for 3 on that one.

Secretary of State announces Petition challenge (18% ballot question) Unsuccessful

Pierre, SD – Today, Secretary of State Shantel Krebs announced that the challenge submitted for the initiated amendment to the South Dakota Constitution Limiting the Ability to Set Statutory Interest Rates for Loans (18%) was unsuccessful.

An Initiated Amendment to the Constitution Limiting Ability to Set Statutory Interest Rates for Loans (18% rate cap) was originally validated January 4^th and certified to be on the November 2016 general election ballot as a ballot measure the citizens will vote on. The sponsor turned in 63,772 signatures to the Secretary of state’s office. A Constitutional Amendment requires 27,741 signatures from South Dakota registered voters. Once the signed petitions were delivered to the Secretary of State’s office, a 5% random sampling was conducted in accordance with 2-1-16. It was determined that 66.17% or 42,195 of 63,772 signatures were in good standing.

The petition challenge was submitted by Cory Heidelberger of Aberdeen. The challenger submitted specific deficiencies on 1,219 signature lines to the Secretary of State’s office. The review concluded that 885 of the challenged signatures were invalid.

This will be Constitutional Amendment U.

An individual wishing to challenge the validity of the petitions can proceed to circuit court.

2-1-18.  Court challenge of validity of signatures.  Nothing in §§ 2-1-15 to 2-1-18, inclusive, prohibits any person from challenging in circuit court the validity of signatures or other information required on a petition by statute or administrative rule.

#30#

Noem Votes to Keep Services at Hot Springs and Other Rural VA Facilities

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Kristi Noem today joined the U.S. House of Representatives in passing legislation funding priorities for veterans, including language Noem has championed to prevent the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) from ending or limiting hospital-based services at facilities like the Hot Springs VA Hospital through FY2017.  The legislation – H.R.4974, the FY2017 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act – passed the House with bipartisan support, 295-129.

“South Dakota veterans have made clear how important it is to maintain services at the Hot Springs VA Hospital and yet the administration has gone to all lengths to reduce and eliminate services,” said Noem.  “Veterans and the Hot Springs community deserve long-term certainty about the future of this facility, but until we can do that in a way that preserves the care they’ve earned, I’m proud to once again prohibit the VA from spending money to shut down or limit services for rural veterans, including those who are treated in Hot Springs.”

Noem initially proposed this language as an amendment to last year’s Military Construction and Veterans Affairs appropriations bill, which was then included.  Understanding the importance of this provision, Noem’s language was built into this year’s legislation from the onset.

In addition to offering protections for rural health care facilities, like the Hot Springs VA Hospital, H.R.4974 would provide additional funding for VA medical services, including those that address mental health, suicide prevention, and traumatic brain injury.  Support was also given to help modernize the VA with electronic health records and address the ongoing claims and appeals backlog.  Additionally, H.R.4974 prevented the closure of Guantanamo Bay and prohibited funding for a facility in the U.S. for detainees.

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Being in the business of designing and selling campaign materials, I have to admit that sometimes something that sounds like a good idea, and something that looks attractive on the computer just doesn’t work.

I have to wonder if this is one of those times. Because I’m not sure what the designer was thinking.

No, I’m not stretching this out. This is how it really looks.

There’s multiple fonts and miscellaneous type-styles used at random, such as the  “Commitment Honesty & Integrity” which pivots over to “that you can count on,” as if they needed to go randomly to a script font.

There’s also the part where what looks like the candidate’s logo is hiding in the upper right hand corner, as if to acknowledge that there is a logo. But, it’s not allowed to this font party, so it’s waving at the rest of the piece, asking to be invited in to the conversation.

And I can’t help but notice that someone ran over this nice man with a steamroller, squooshing him tall.

It has all the material present where a nice piece could have been done. Unfortunately, someone decided to have a font party instead, and his logo wasn’t invited.

(Disclaimer: No comments made have anything to do with how good a candidate anyone is.  They’re just the innocent victim of questionable campaign material design) 

Apparently, District 3 Democrat State Legislative Candidate Nikki Bootz doesn’t think the legislature deals with issues such as abortion & gun rights.

Wow.

As you’re receiving campaign postcards in the mail, snap a photo, and send me a copy, especially the attack ones. I’d love to see them and share.

E-mail to me here.

Delegation Urges USDA to Reevaluate Selection Process for General CRP Sign-Ups
“We are very concerned that with CRP’s dwindling enrollment and loss of general CRP enrollment acres in South Dakota, our state will suffer damaging setbacks …”

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) and U.S. Rep. Kristi Noem (R-S.D.) today urged U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack to reevaluate the selection process for the general Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) sign-ups. The results of the 49th annual general CRP sign-up, which was conducted December 1, 2015, through February 26, 2016, were recently released, and although 727 South Dakota applications for more than 42,000 acres were submitted under the general CRP sign-up, only 101 acres were accepted by USDA.

“Drastically restricting the number of general CRP contract enrollment acres in our state removes the option for most expiring large landscape CRP contract acres from being reenrolled in CRP,” the delegation wrote. “And as a result, because they are denied the option to enroll in general CRP contracts, tens of thousands of acres of marginal land in expiring CRP contracts will be returned to crop production, resulting in higher costs to taxpayers due to increased commodity crop base acres and payments, and increased crop insurance subsidy and indemnity payments. In addition, South Dakota’s already shrinking grassland landscape will dwindle at an accelerated pace.”

Thune, Rounds, and Noem also requested that in the absence of a general CRP enrollment in South Dakota, USDA allocate sufficient continuous CRP acres in a timely manner when needed and requested.

While the delegation acknowledges that USDA has accepted more than 37,000 acres in continuous CRP practices effective at the beginning of 2017, they point out that large landscape contracts enrolled under general CRP sign-ups are critically important for reenrollment of expiring contracts and for maximizing CRP’s usefulness in South Dakota.

Full text of the letter can be found below:

Secretary Tom Vilsack
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, D.C. 20250

Dear Secretary Vilsack:

We are writing regarding the recently announced results of the 49th general Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) sign-up conducted December 1, 2015, through February 26, 2016. CRP has played a key role in South Dakota’s landscape, outdoor recreation, land stewardship efforts, and economy. However, we are very concerned that with CRP’s dwindling enrollment and loss of general CRP enrollment acres in South Dakota our state will suffer damaging setbacks in these critical areas.

South Dakota landowner interest in CRP remains at very high levels as evidenced by the 727 applications for more than 42,000 acres in the 49th sign-up by South Dakota landowners. However, we are very disappointed that for South Dakota only two CRP offers totaling 101 acres were accepted in the 49th general sign-up.

We appreciate that for fiscal year 2017 more than 37,000 acres have been accepted in continuous CRP in South Dakota as well as more than 18,600 acres in the Grasslands CRP initiative. However, we point out that acreage enrolled under general CRP sign-ups are larger landscape contracts that provide greater environmental and wildlife benefits than continuous CRP practices. In particular, larger acreage general CRP tracts play a critical role in support of South Dakota’s economically significant and treasured pheasant hunting heritage by supporting nesting pheasant needs.

Drastically restricting the number of general CRP contract enrollment acres in our state removes the option for most expiring large landscape CRP contract acres from being reenrolled in CRP. And as a result, because they are denied the option to enroll in general CRP contracts, tens of thousands of acres of marginal land in expiring CRP contracts will be returned to crop production, resulting in higher costs to taxpayers due to increased commodity crop base acres and payments, and increased crop insurance subsidy and indemnity payments. In addition, South Dakota’s already shrinking grassland landscape will dwindle at an accelerated pace.

We request that you reassess the selection process for general CRP sign-ups. It is imperative that each state’s cadre of CRP initiatives and programs that focus on and have successfully addressed specific environmental and wildlife needs remain balanced. An action such as the elimination of the 49th general CRP sign-up enrollment in our state leaves a significant void in CRP’s effectiveness.

We also request that in the absence of a general CRP enrollment in South Dakota that you timely allocate sufficient continuous CRP acres when needed and requested.

Please consider our requests so CRP can continue to successfully function in its key role as a land stewardship tool that protects South Dakota’s marginal land, water, and wildlife.

Sincerely,

John Thune
U.S. Senator

Mike Rounds
U.S. Senator

Kristi Noem
Member of Congress

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It’s that time of the election cycle again.

When spring is in the air, at a time when we’re likely to see no more snow, the fluorescent postcards begin to bloom, as courtesy of the Lautenschlager held South Dakota Gun Owners organization, they spread silliness and poo all over the state’s Republican primaries.

A reader received this one, and just snapped one side for me, but I’m sure there’s more of them coming. Just like last election, as you’ll see in this silly example from 2014, which was a lot of BS:

What’s the big difference from between this year, and last year?

Did I say South Dakota Gun Owners?  Um, that might be debatable. This year the fluorescent postcards are flocking in from on a Rocky Mountain High, as they arrive from Loveland, Colorado. Not Rapid City, where they they were formerly based. That’s because the head of the Lautenschlager group doing all the fluorescent attack postcards, Zach Lautenschlager, hasn’t been living in South Dakota for a while…

…hence the need for the attacks to be launched from two states away.

Can they legitimately call themselves the South Dakota Gun Owners PAC if it’s being ran out of Colorado?  Maybe they could put an asterisk behind it, for the sake of disclosure?  (We’ll watch for it on the others. Or at least the others that show up on time.)

Either way, some of this year’s postcards seem to be remarkable in that a few seem to be traipsing in from “elsewhere,” as they alternately cajole or cheer candidates,

Not just coming via the postcard from the South Dakota Colorado* Gun Owners  above, D35 Senate Candidate Tina Mulalley seems to be getting much of her campaign support from parts elsewhere, as there’s yet another cheer-leading postcard for her originating from several states away – this time, Indiana:

At least she didn’t note “Small Business Owner Supporting Indiana-Made Products” under her “Grow Jobs” section.

(*And no, it’s not that she didn’t use me, I’m completely up to my eyeballs this election season, and just keep getting busier. It’s just silly to go to Indiana to print or mail.)

Just got this in my e-mail.

Do you think there will be free stuff?  Like Political buttons? Or College Tuition? (one of those).

Sanders Campaign to Open South Dakota Office

May 18, 2016

Sioux Falls, S.D. – U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign on Wednesday will formally open its Sioux Falls field office. This is the campaign’s first office in the state.

South Dakota is one of the six states voting on June 7.

Here is the itinerary:

Wednesday, May 18
7 p.m. Sioux Falls Office Opening, Sioux Falls Campaign Office, 335 N. Main Street
Information for the public: Doors open at 6:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public, but RSVPs are strongly encouraged.

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Noem Testifies on Legislation Protecting Tribes from Costly Employer Mandate

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Kristi Noem today testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on her Tribal Employment and Jobs Protection Act, which would protect Native American tribes from the Affordable Care Act’s costly employer mandate. The federal government is already responsible for providing healthcare to tribal members.  Imposing the employer mandate on them is unnecessary and duplicative.  Without relief, tribal governments could be required to cut important services while tribally-owned businesses could be forced to cut jobs.