New SDWC Advertisers! Welcome Rushmore PAC & Americans for Prosperity SD

300x200-SD-Obama-google-adsHuge welcome today to our newest advertiser, Americans for Prosperity – South Dakota!

You’ll note that their current effort being advertised here is to communicate to President Obama that it’s time to pass the Keystone XL pipeline.

Please take a moment to click on their link, and find out what they have to say.rushmorepac_ad

And in case you hadn’t noticed it, we’re also joined in the advertising rolls by long-time SDWC friend Rushmore PAC.

Rushmore PAC has been going for the last 2-3 election cycles, and has done quite a bit in working to get Republicans elected to office at the state and federal level.

Give them a click, read what they have to say, and drop them a little coin if you want to continue their mission of getting Republicans elected to office.

They join US Senator John Thune and Congresswoman Kristi Noem in supporting South Dakota’s #1 political web site, and helping us to keep the lights on.

Have you thought about putting your message in front of state legislators and opinion leaders? Dakotawarcollege.com is the place to do it.

Entering it’s 10th year of being on the Internet, Dakotawarcollege.com has consistently delivered on insightful discussion and South Dakota political news delivered to state residents and a national audience from a South Dakota based website. For several years, we’ve also been recognized as one of the state’s top political blogs by the Washington Post. SDWC authors have been quoted by CSpan, NPR’s All Things Considered, the New York Times, and other nationally recognized publications. We strive to bring coverage from Pierre to Washington, and from the floor of the state GOP Convention to the floor of the national GOP Convention.

We consistently generate well over 1.5 million page views yearly and we’re engaged with South Dakota’s political and opinion leaders.

Are you thinking of advertising? We have a few select spots left through the 2016 election. Contact the webmaster today for more information on advertising.

Tyler fired because she was Democrats’ illegal hire

I don’t think I can relate it better than Bob Mercer does this afternoon. But today, Kathy Tyler was fired as an illegal hire by the Democrats. Unless, she wants to work for free.

Why? Because she approved the budget she’s attempting to draw a paycheck from:

Now former Rep. Kathy Tyler also has been shown the door, or at least refused a state paycheck, as the House Democrats’ caucus secretary. The Republican leadership had strong grounds for that decision, however, because there is a ban in the state constitution against state contracts for legislators while they are in office and for one year after.

And…

Tyler’s hiring by the Democrats appears clearly illegal if she was to be paid with state funds.

Read it here.

You would have thought Tyler should have known about the legal prohibition as to the fact it is a conflict to draw a paycheck from the state within a year of departing office as a legislator.

Jackley: United States Supreme Court to Hear Same-Sex Marriage Cases

United States Supreme Court to Hear Same-Sex Marriage Cases

PIERRE, S.D. – Attorney General Marty Jackley announced today that the United States Supreme Court has agreed to hear the same-sex marriage cases. “I am pleased that the Supreme Court has decided to take up the issue. There needs to be a national resolution. The question before the Court goes to the heart of the States and their citizens’ traditional role in defining marriage.”

In September of 2014, South Dakota joined with 19 other bi-partisan States requesting that the United States Supreme Court determine whether the U.S. Constitution requires States to adopt and recognize same-sex marriages.

It is anticipated that the Court will hear arguments in April with a final ruling being entered next summer, probably late June.

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Release: 2015-2016 Officers Announced for Pennington Co. GOP.

From a release:

2015-2016 Officers Announced for Pennington Co. GOP.

penn_coOn Wednesday, January 7, 2015, the Pennington County Republicans disclosed the results of their biennial officer election. The new officers (all residents of Pennington County) are as follows:

Ben Treadwell – Chair
Patricia Johnson – Vice Chair
Heather Gosch – Secretary/Treasurer
Sandy Marlette – State Committeewoman
Jeff Marlette – State Committeeman

The Republican party’s by-laws dictate that only members of the county’s GOP Central Committee may vote for county officers. The five above were unanimously elected for the 2015 – 2016 term. Despite adverse weather, turnout for this election was greater than any internal election in the party’s recent memory, with more than eighty persons in attendance.

Release: Rounds Applauds Advancement of Powder River Training Complex Expansion

Rounds Applauds Advancement of Powder River Training Complex Expansion

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) made the following statement on the Air Force’s announcement that it has formalized its decision to expand the Powder River Training Complex:

“Today’s announcement is great news for our state, the federal budget, and our national security,” Rounds said. “The additional airspace the complex will provide to Ellsworth will greatly benefit the facility, strengthening the role the Air Force Base plays in national defense. Plus, it make sense fiscally – saving taxpayers millions of dollars annually. It’s good to have the FAA and Air Force work together on this effort and I look forward the FAA finalizing the expansion decision. I thank Sen. Thune and Rep. Noem on their work in previous sessions of Congress to see this important project advance and look forward to working with them to see it cross the finish line.”

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Annette Bosworth’s Latest fundraising plea. Marty Jackley runs DSS with his minions, Annette is 100% innocent, and other tall tales.

Is it February yet? I’m not sure it can’t come too soon, so the Bosworth circus can finally pack their tents up and break camp.

I was mentioning ‘Bosworthian’ fundraising pleas yesterday, when I was talking about Rick Weiland’s latest cash beg. Coincidentally, today brings us an ACTUAL new Bosworth fundraising plea.

Although it was dated for December, my correspondent received in the last few days. And as you might expect, it’s a bit much:

New Boz Letter

“That 8-page letter made it into the hands of Attorney General Marty Jackley as well as several of the other establishment politicians in South Dakota.

Well, no kidding. When you send out thousands of letters, a few are going to come back to SD for episodes of eye-rolling.   And people wondering exactly when all this alleged “preacher interrogation” took place that she keeps bringing up.  And if you thought that claim continues to be a stretch……..:

The Department of Social Services, run by AG Marty Jackley, receives hundreds of millions of dollars in federal money to care for them .

Did I miss it when the Governor handed over the Department of Social Services to the Attorney General?  No? Then I guess the letter would be lying here.

Which has an effect of impeaching it’s testimony in other places, such as where it claims – I AM 100 PERCENT INNOCENT.

The problem with this claim is that Bosworth has publicly admitted the conduct for which she’s been charged with. I’m not sure how that makes her 100% innocent.  Or even 75%.

Anyway, according to the letter, you can donate $500, $1000, or $2500 to Annette’s legal fund.  And even better, the donation form has a place for you to put all your credit card information on the donation form, including the CVV number for your card.

Oddly enough, much like many of the claims she makes in the letter, I’m not sure that I would be comfortable with that.

Is this “The Better” LRC?

(Editor’s Note: This column originally appeared my the daily original piece for the SDWC Daily Digest for 1/14/2015. Although I missed last night’s edition due to illness, it’s delivered daily for those who don’t monitor the blogs on a constant basis. If you’re not subscribing, you should be. Original content, a daily review, items of note and more.)

Is this “the better” LRC?

If you hadn’t heard, the South Dakota Legislative Research Council has taken a few hits in the last couple of years.

In recent years it had employees accused of sharing confidential legislative drafts with other legislators. It saw long-time hands & managers retire and be replaced, and had a decade-long veteran executive director resign after a critical review commissioned by the National Conference of State Legislatures which recommended sweeping changes, some of which were implemented.

A new Executive Director, Jason Hancock, was brought in in late summer/early fall from the Idaho Department of Education, where Hancock served as Deputy Director, and many claimed that this would right the ship from the problems that the LRC had in recent years.

However, for a ship that is supposed to be on a corrected course, the LRC seems to be somewhat limping along as it finds it’s way. For the past decade of on-line bill filing, pre-filed measures were available beginning in mid-December on the LRC’s web site. This year? They finally appeared a day or so before session.

In previous years, as measures had been introduced and filed by members, they had been promptly filed and placed on-line for public review. But the new LRC? We’ve ended two days of the legislation session, and nearly no new  measures (besides those pre-filed) are yet to appear on the LRC’s web site.   One Legislator I spoke with today echoed the lament, and noted that their performance was slower than any other year they’d ever seen. (And that’s saying it in a far nicer manner than they did.)

When it had been brought up by this and other web sites earlier, Capitol news stringer Bob Mercer was quick to rush to their defense, and claimed the LRC was “proceeding with caution.”

The LRC’s cautious speed might work for Bob, but for Legislators and the public, we were told this was going to be a better LRC.

We’re still waiting to see it.