If you recall how Paula Hawks had been making moves towards running for Congress, it’s very interesting to read what democratic chairwoman Ann Tornberg is saying to the Associated Press this morning in light of Kristi Noem’s 1.2 million in the bank:

Noem campaign consultant Justin Brasell says he’s “thrilled” with the fundraising pace for the quarter. He says the contributions are reflective of Noem’s growing support across the state.

South Dakota Democratic Party chairwoman Ann Tornberg says the Republican congresswoman has a daunting bank account. But Tornberg says the state’s Democratic party hopes to run a candidate against Noem.

Read it here.

With Tornberg saying that Democrats “hope to run a candidate” in light of Paula Hawks previous comments that she was going to make a decision before July, it seems to be an indicator that Paula Hawks took a look at the congressional race and might have privately said “Hell No!” in light of Kristi Noem’s very strong fundraising and tremendous popularity in South Dakota.

Democrats are currently (and laughably) floating trial balloons to diminish expectations that they’ll have anyone competent stepping forth to run for Congress or the US Senate this year. The basic problem with this stream of consciousness is that you don’t raise 1.2 million overnight. 

Fundraising is a months long slog, and even more so if you could face a primary. 

Especially with a challenger effort that a democrat would face – your first task is to organize a semblance of a campaign that looks competent and capable enough to entice donors to spend money on you in the hopes that you might be able to achieve something resembling a positive result.

Campaigns take both time and money. And those are both resources in very short supply.

If a Democrat thinks that they’ll be OK starting a campaign sometime in February or March, I would just point out the example of Susan Wismer against Governor Daugaard. How did that work out for her? 

Or look at Congresswoman Noem’s last challenger Corinna Robinson. She started out in October and still fell woefully short.

Are there curveballs that could come about? There’s always the possibility, but I don’t think it’s in the cards. South Dakota is not a democrat state and this will not be a democrat wave election. 

But by all means Democrats, please feel free to wait until next March. It won’t bother us Republicans one bit. We look forward to your inattentiveness.

Shining a Light on Youth Suicide Crisis
By Senator John Thune

Nearly eight years after No Child Left Behind expired, I am glad Congress has finally passed legislation to reauthorize federal K-12 educational programs. The Every Child Achieves Act would reduce federal interference in education and restore control of education to the people who know their students best – parents, teachers, and school boards. Local control, not big-government Washington mandates, is the key to educational success for students around the country.

I introduced several amendments to this important legislation and was pleased that two measures related to the youth suicide crisis in Indian Country were included in the final bill.

There is no greater tragedy for a family than losing a child, sibling, or friend, especially to suicide. According to the Indian Health Service, suicide is the second leading cause of death for Native American youth in Indian Health Service areas, with a death rate four times the national average. I think it is important for us to get a better understanding of how we can address suicide prevention within our tribal communities, and this legislation was the appropriate vehicle for me to attach these amendments.

My first amendment would require federal agencies to report on efforts to address youth suicide on our reservations. The heads of relevant federal government agencies, like the Departments of Education, Interior, and Health and Human Services, would coordinate in this effort. My goal for these agencies would be to learn more about the current federal response to the high numbers of youth suicide in Indian Country, determine what types of federal resources are available to prevent and respond to these types of crises, and whether or not there are any barriers to program implementation. Tribal feedback on all of this information will be key.

My second measure would expand the use of Project School Emergency Response to Violence (Project SERV) funds to include initiating or strengthening prevention activities in cases of trauma or violence, similar to what is happening in Indian Country. Under current law, Project SERV funds can only be used to respond to crises.

My colleagues in the Senate understood the importance of these ‎amendments, which is why both were unanimously approved. My hope is that by taking these important steps, we can shine a light on the crisis that is impacting so many of our families in South Dakota and do everything within our power to prevent tragedies like these from happening in the future.

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Since it’s time for the second quarter reports to come in, I’ve been talking with some of the various political camps on how they’re doing. As you might have heard, Noem is posting 1.2 million cash on hand, and Thune is at 11 million.

But, there’s been little talk on how much South Dakota’s freshman Senator has raised to date. So, I got on the horn, and this is what I found out.

The campaign wing of the Rounds effort launched their leadership PAC, the Peter Norbeck PAC in June, and that’s been their primary area of focus. FOr the Norbeck PAC, they reportedly raised approx $101k, leaving $62k Cash on hand. At the same time, Rounds for Senate raised in the neighborhood of $40k, with $4k Cash on Hand.

But More importantly, I’m told the Rounds for Senate campaign will be DEBT FREE on next report, 1 year forward from a tough general election which saw plenty of out of state interests come in with negative campaigning against Rounds.

Just a heads up – It will probably be light posting this next week. A cat is forcing me to take a vacation.

No, really.

If you recall this past February, my wife’s father passed away. At the funeral my wife met up with her aunt from Florida who had been speaking with her brother over the preceding months while he was being treated for Leukemia. Apparently, he had talked quite a bit about his favorite cat, “Tony.”  And her Aunt offered to take the cat.

Long story short, while my oldest at home is working before she heads off to college, and a couple of kids are at TAR Camp this next week, the wife and I are driving Tony the cat to her Aunt’s residence in Venice, Florida. Yes, yes. It’s a hard job, but someone has to do it.

I think there will be a day or so stop at her brother’s lake cabin at Shell Knob, Missouri on the way down. And I’d love to stop at Diamond State Park on the way back.

But otherwise, it’s SDWC blogging from the road all next week. When I’m not driving, of course.

 

Senate Adopts Thune Provisions to Address Youth Suicide, Aid in Prevention Effort  

“Suicide is the second leading cause of death for Indian youth in Indian Health Service areas, with a death rate four times the national average.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) applauded the Senate’s adoption of his amendments to the Every Child Achieves Act (ECAA), a bill that would reduce federal interference in education, and put governors, school boards, parents, and teachers back in charge. Thune’s amendments would require the secretary of education to coordinate with other federal agencies to report on efforts to address youth suicides in Indian Country and expand the use of Project School Emergency Response to Violence (Project SERV) funds to include preventative efforts against youth suicide and other school violence.

“There is no greater tragedy for a family than losing a child, sibling, or friend, especially to suicide,” said Thune. “Sadly, according the Indian Health Service, suicide is the second leading cause of death for Indian youth in Indian Health Service areas, with a death rate four times the national average. While there is a wide range of known factors that contribute to youth suicide, I think it’s important for us to get a better understanding of how we can better address both prevention and response to suicide in Indian Country.”

Thune’s amendment would require, within 90 days from the date of enactment, the secretary of education to coordinate with the secretary of interior and secretary of health and human services to report on a variety of information, including:

• The federal response to the occurrence of high numbers of student suicide in Indian Country
• A list of federal resources available to prevent and respond to student suicide outbreaks, including the availability and use of tele-behavioral health
• Interagency collaboration efforts to streamline access to programs, including information on how the Departments of Education, Interior, and Health and Human Services work together on program administration
• Any existing barriers to timely program implementation or interagency collaboration
• Recommendations to improve or consolidate existing programs or resources
• Tribal feedback to the federal response

The Senate also adopted Thune’s amendment that would expand the authorized use of Project SERV funds to include initiating or strengthening prevention activities in cases of chronic trauma or violence, such as the suicide crisis in Indian Country or gang violence in schools.

Local educational agencies and institutions of higher education seeking approval to initiate or strengthen prevention activities would be required to:

• Demonstrate a continued disruption or a substantial risk of disruption to the learning environment that would be addressed by such activity
• Provide an explanation of proposed activities designed to restore and preserve the learning environment
• Provide a budget and budget narrative

Such requests would be subject to the discretion of the secretary and the availability of funds.

Thune also introduced amendments to ECAA that would exempt K-12 schools and higher education institutions from Obamacare’s employer mandate, allow Tribal Grant Schools to participate in the Federal Employees Health Benefits program, and provide parity for tribal colleges to compete for certain funding sources. These amendments were not adopted during the Senate’s consideration of ECAA.

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Rounds Applauds Senate Passage of Education Reauthorization Bill

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) today applauded the Senate passage of the bipartisan Every Child Achieves Act (ECAA), which included his Native American education amendment. It passed 81-17.

“I’m pleased the Senate came together to pass this important education reform bill,” said Rounds. “The Every Child Achieves Act lets states and local school boards decide the best curriculum for their students. ECAA eliminates ‘one-size-fits-all’ mandates and removes burdensome waiver requirements that have plagued our education system. Passage of the ECAA is a win for parents, teachers, state and local governments and most importantly, students.”

The ECAA passed out of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee unanimously earlier this year. It replaces No Child Left Behind, which expired in 2007. It allows states to set their own academic standards and will end the federal government’s ability to mandate or incentivize states to adopt or maintain any particular set of standards.

Here’s an interesting tactic that could be taken up by opponents of a tribal pot smoking business being opened up by the Flandreau Santee Sioux – a federal racketeering lawsuit: 

A federal law crafted to fight the mob is giving marijuana opponents a new strategy in their battle to stop the expanding industry: racketeering lawsuits.

A Colorado pot shop recently closed after a Washington-based group opposed to legal marijuana sued not just the pot shop but a laundry list of firms doing business with it — from its landlord and accountant to the Iowa bonding company guaranteeing its tax payments. One by one, many of the plaintiffs agreed to stop doing business with Medical Marijuana of the Rockies, until the mountain shop closed its doors and had to sell off its pot at fire-sale prices.

With another lawsuit pending in southern Colorado, the cases represent a new approach to fighting marijuana. If the federal government won’t stop its expansion, pot opponents say, federal racketeering lawsuits could. Marijuana may be legal under state law, but federal drug law still considers any marijuana business organized crime.

Read it all here.

This could also be a boon for pot opponents if medical or recreational pot interests try to set up in South Dakota if ballot measures succeed next fall.

And I wonder…. Could the AG file a lawsuit of this nature on behalf of the state against the tribe or it’s designers, should the Flandreau tribe continue down their path of opening up recreational pot use in the state?

That might be a drastic step. But it might also be a necessary one.

Former U.S. Senate Candidate Clayton Walker Indicted on Failure to Appear

PIERRE – Attorney General Marty Jackley announced today that Clayton G. Walker, 33, Black Hawk, was indicted July 14, 2015 by a Hughes County grand jury on Failure to Appear after Release on a Felony, class 6 felony, punishable by up to 2 years in the state penitentiary and/or a $4,000 fine.

A warrant for his arrest was issued on July 1, 2015 after he failed to appear in court. He was arrested in Rapid City on July 9th without incident.

Walker was indicted on June 17, 2014 for election law violations stemming from the 2014 U.S. Senate race. He was also charged on September 10, 2014 on three counts of threatening by electronic device. These charges stemmed from Walker’s continued phone calls to several state offices threatening and harassing employees.

Walker is presumed innocent until such time as proven guilty. Jury selection is scheduled to begin on Monday, July 20th in Hughes County.

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