State Senator Erin Tobin to seek Re-election to State Senate

Today Erin Tobin announces her intention to seek re-election to the South Dakota Senate, where she has served since first being elected in 2020. As a mother, nurse, and entrepreneur, Tobin is uniquely positioned to address the issues facing South Dakota head-on, and brings to Pierre a conservative, problem-solving mindset.

“I’m excited about what our legislature has accomplished over the last few years, and there is always more to do. I’m going to continue my fight for our farmers, business owners, and families. I’ve been honored to serve District 21, and look forward to earning their continued support over the coming months.”

Tobin lives in Winner, South Dakota, where she is raising her two children. In addition to her work as a mother and nurse, she has also recently announced the opening of her own business in Winner, ReJuve Health, which provides supplemental health solutions for those in rural communities.

To donate or to learn more about Erin’s campaign, please visit www.erintobinforsd.com. For press inquiries, please contact erin@erintobinforsd.com.

Interim update from State Rep. Chris Kassin, District 17 House

I shared earlier this summer that legislators take the opportunity outside of session to learn more about how projects supported by taxpayer funds are working to serve South Dakota. In September, the Joint Committee on Appropriations (JCA) completed a tour of several East River projects. I appreciate the opportunity to see first-hand how decisions in Pierre impact our communities across the state. As legislators, our responsibility is to ensure that the hard-earned tax dollars of our citizens are invested wisely. We do not take this duty lightly.

Several places we spent time visiting don’t always receive a lot of fanfare or grab headlines. Instead, they do an excellent job of helping directly improve the quality of life for our state’s children, including Children’s Home Society of South Dakota, South Dakota School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and McCrossan Boys Ranch.

When considering what role the government should play in the lives of our citizens, it’s essential to consider the care for our state’s most vulnerable populations – especially our children. The organizations that step in to fill these gaps sometimes receive little attention for various reasons. Still, their work for our children is vital and merits our appreciation and support.

Some examples we visited during the tour include a mutually beneficial partnership created between Northern State University and the South Dakota School for the Blind and Visually Impaired that provided a new home for the SDSBVI on the NSU campus. The state also relies on private organizations to help provide services by awarding grants and contracts. Organizations like McCrossan Boys Ranch and Children’s Home Society support at-risk children and provide the support and resources that can be a lifeline.

As I’ve highlighted before, due to our state’s excellent economic conditions, this past session, we made meaningful progress in supporting organizations such as McCrossan, Children’s Home, and other community support providers like SESDAC in Vermillion by following through on the state’s commitment to fund Medicaid at 100% of methodology. This fulfills our state’s obligations and enables these organizations to continue their life-changing work.

My children were a key reason and inspiration for me to serve in the legislation. Preserving the quality of life we enjoy in South Dakota, and ensuring the opportunity to grow and thrive for our children is the best investment in our future. I’m grateful for private organizations such as Children’s Home Society and McCrossan for helping preserve hope for these young people.

Another critical focus of the East River tour included reviewing the pressing need of our penitentiary system. The issue of how to best manage our corrections system’s needs has been an essential and multi-faceted conversation at the regional and state levels. There are pressing concerns that must be addressed. These are multi-year discussions with a variety of stakeholders. On-site visits provide an essential source of information and perspective much more meaningful than relying solely on testimony during sessions.

These visits to the various organizations and agencies by the JCA are part of our commitment to diligently address today’s pressing needs while maintaining a forward-looking perspective. Our ultimate goal is to keep South Dakota a great place to live, work, and raise a family.

We had so many great conversations with people covering various issues. The issue that connects them is the difference they are trying to make for their communities.

As our focus now turns to the 2024 legislative session, any ideas, thoughts, or concerns can be the foundation for future legislation. Please know that I’m listening. My email address is chris.kassin@sdlegislature.gov, or you can always call/text me at (605) 670-9698.

Thank you again for the opportunity to represent you.

Biden’s Energy Agenda: Unaffordable, Unreliable, and Unrealistic
By Sen. John Thune

Energy touches just about everything we do. More than just keeping the lights on, energy keeps America moving. It’s critical to bringing food and other goods to market. It supports our health care system and provides educational opportunities for students. And it powers critical technologies that keep businesses, farms, and ranches operating. Reliable and affordable energy is essential to modern life.

The Biden administration’s shortsighted energy agenda has put America’s energy security in jeopardy. For more than two years, the Biden administration has enacted policies to restrict energy development in the United States and raise the cost of producing conventional energy, which have caused uncertainty among America’s energy producers.

In September, the U.S. Department of the Interior took two significant actions that discourage producing conventional energy here in the United States. At the beginning of September, the department cancelled seven oil and gas leases in a small portion of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. These leases were required by law, they were supported by Alaskans, and the land has the potential to produce a significant amount of homegrown energy. Yet the Biden administration chose to follow its radical environmental agenda rather than safeguard our energy security. A few weeks later, the department announced it would hold the fewest offshore oil and gas leases sales ever – just three sales over five years. These decisions are just the latest instances of the president restricting conventional energy development on federal lands and waters for the sake of appeasing the far-left of his political base.

The president’s anti-conventional energy policies have consequences. Utility bills for electricity and natural gas, as well as prices for gasoline and diesel, have risen significantly during the Biden administration. In February, one of the nation’s largest grid operators warned that legacy power plants are being forced to retire faster than renewables can be brought on line. And just recently, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation identified “energy policy” as a risk to grid reliability. The president’s energy policies are liable to drive prices up further, lead to greater instability on our electric grid, and increase reliance on foreign energy.

President Biden and Democrats in Congress promise to boost renewable energy by leveraging billions in Green New Deal-type subsidies. I’ve long been a supporter of renewable energy, and I am proud that South Dakota is both a top producer of ethanol and that our state generates most of its electricity from renewable resources. But the fact of the matter is that energy technology has not advanced to the point where we can rely solely or even mostly on renewable energy for the entire country. We’re going to need conventional energy for some time, and it’s better that we produce it in the United States than buy it from other countries, many of which do not share our interests or values.

The president has occasionally paid lip service to our continuing need for conventional energy, but his actions stand in stark contrast to his words. There’s no substitute for energy security, and that starts with producing energy here at home. I’ll continue to advocate for an all-of-the-above energy strategy that uses America’s abundant domestic resources in an environmentally responsible way.

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The Big Three
By Rep. Dusty Johnson
October 6, 2023 

BIG Update

Ten years ago, Winter Storm Atlas came bearing down across western South Dakota. It brought record amounts of snow for the month of October, dumping 55 inches over Lead, South Dakota. Tens of thousands of livestock tragically perished in the storm, and many areas had power outages that lasted a week or longer.

Many of us have never experienced a storm like that in our lifetime, and hopefully never will again. The unprecedented nature of this storm brought people together to clear debris and restore damage over the following months. South Dakotans are tough and resilient. Neighbors helping neighbors, strangers helping strangers is the norm in South Dakota, even when times are tough.

The devastation endured by many is disheartening, but the strength of South Dakota remains.

BIG Idea

This week, I met with the South Dakota Association of Healthcare Organizations (SDAHO) to discuss the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) proposed rule to require nursing homes to have an onsite RN 24 hours, 7 days a week and mandate minimum hours for RNs and CNAs. This rule would force nursing homes across South Dakota to close because they can’t fulfill the requirement. In fact, the rule would cause nursing homes across America to close because Alaska is the only state that currently meets CMS’s baseline. If the outcome of this rule is thousands of nursing homes closing, that certainly isn’t the best for America. Like SDAHO, I oppose this decision, and I’ve been working in Congress to ensure CMS’s rule does not get finalized.

BIG News

Unfortunately, the House made history this week. On Tuesday, eight Republican members of Congress (only 4% of Republicans) voted with every single Democrat to remove the Speaker of the House from his post. It is a historic move with detrimental consequences to our country and to the slim House Republican majority. We were making progress on lowering spending and securing the border – these eight members brought that progress to a halt.

Without a Speaker of the House, no legislative business can be conducted on the House Floor. This situation is a giant waste of America’s time. We are 40 days away from a government shutdown and haven’t passed the necessary funding bills to pay our military, the aviation bill, or the Farm Bill. America deserves better. I came to Congress to solve problems, it’s unfortunate that eight of my colleagues don’t feel the same.

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Welcoming Home South Dakota’s Finest
by Governor Kristi Noem

Welcoming troops home has always been one of my favorite parts of this job. Seeing the joy that our soldiers feel when they are reunited with their families is truly greater than words could ever describe.

I recently had the privilege of welcoming home 50 South Dakota National Guard soldiers with the Alpha Battery 1^st Battalion 147^th Field Artillery. Their unit is based out of Watertown, South Dakota, and they were deployed to Eagle Pass, TX to defend our Southern border at the beginning of September.

These brave men and women were deployed to help with Operation Lone Star – an effort led by Texas Governor Greg Abbott to secure the border and stop the smuggling of drugs, weapons, and people into the United States of America. I have been to the border multiple times, and it is clear that President Biden’s policies have created a warzone. That’s why I was the first governor to send troops to the border back in 2021, and it’s why I sent these soldiers this year.

There is no one that I trust more to protect our state and nation than the members of the South Dakota National Guard. Between visiting our men and women in uniform at the Southern border and welcoming them home to South Dakota, these soldiers showed me exactly why we can trust them so much. I’d like to share just a couple stories that show the strength and bravery of our troops.

SPC Thomas Frankenhoff was recognized for his actions on static observation points along the Rio Grande River in Eagle Pass, TX. He observed 81 illegal aliens breach the concertina wire and ran to aid Texas law enforcement in the apprehension of 81 illegal aliens. His motivation boosted unit morale, and his actions along the concertina wire directly aided in the apprehension of 13,800 illegal aliens.

SPC Thomas Seppala volunteered to join this mission as a 68W combat medic. He served on a previous border mission with the 153^rd South Dakota Army National Guard. SPC Seppala is fluent in Spanish, and he knew that his ability to communicate with illegal immigrants made him an important asset to the mission.

These are just two examples of our soldiers going above and beyond the call of duty. So many more members of the South Dakota National Guard went the extra mile to help contribute to this mission and do their part to keep the United States secure.

I was honored to welcome the members of the Alpha Battery 1^st Battalion 147^th Field Artillery home to South Dakota. Our soldiers and their families sacrifice so much to serve our great state and nation. I could never thank them enough for their service.

Though our soldiers are home, the fight is not over. The situation at our Southern border is still a crisis. I am continuing to work with Republican governors across the country to do all we can to help, but federal action is needed. Thankfully, President Biden is finally starting to resume work on the border security wall – but it is too little, too late. I hope the Biden Administration will open their eyes to the warzone they have created and take action to secure our nation and ensure the safety of every American citizen.

South Dakota News Watch has an extensive profile of Congressman Dusty Johnson’s background and career, and opines whether our popular congressman could be the next Governor for the State of South Dakota.

“As voters, we either want someone who matches our ideology, or we want someone whom we believe will be more of a trustee and do the right thing for the people because they have more information. I think that’s going to be a challenge for Dusty because it appears to me that the state is moving in the direction that we are more ideological in terms of what we want from our leaders in the Republican Party. It’s a challenge, but it’s not clear if it will be a problem.”

and..

News Watch analysis, based on interviews with political pundits, officeholders and colleagues and mentors of Johnson, point toward him running for governor in 2026. He has met with potential donors and had nearly $3 million in his campaign committee as of the June 2023 filing date, plus about $65,000 in his leadership political action committee. He also established a state-level PAC in February.

“I hope he runs,” Daugaard, who served as governor from 2011 to 2019, told News Watch. “I think he will. And if he does, I am four-square behind him.”

and..

Dusty Johnson focused on rural economic issues and blasted Biden’s social spending. But vulnerabilities were exposed in a race pitting a well-known incumbent against “the least effective legislator in modern South Dakota history,” as Johnson characterized (Taffy) Howard.

and..

The parade of GOP primary opponents for 2026 could get crowded, with Lt. Gov. Larry Rhoden and Attorney General Marty Jackley the names most mentioned, along with Johnson. There will almost certainly be action from the party’s populist brigade, especially after Howard’s tally in the U.S. House primary.

Read the entire story here.

While I don’t agree with some of the author’s conclusions, it’s a wide-ranging article which provides an extensive background on our state’s congressman, which is well worth your time.

Making South Dakota Schools Safer
by Sen. Brent “B.R.” Hoffman

School safety isn’t one of the more popular topics of discussion in the storied hallways of the state capital.  It’s an uncomfortable problem that lacks obvious, cookie-cutter solutions, and nobody wants to talk about school shootings.  But if we’re to make our schools safer, we must think about the unthinkable.

Since the year 2000, there have been nearly 500 documented school shootings in America.  These shootings have become ever more common, ranging from isolated incidents to horrific mass murders, such as the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary in Newton, Connecticut, where a lone gunman took the lives of 20 first-graders before ending his own.  These incidents occur in big cities and small towns, elementary schools, middle schools and high schools, and in so-called red states and blue states.

Unfortunately, there has not been a strong, nationwide effort to prevent or respond to the next one.  A study by the American Legislative Exchange Council revealed “fewer than one-third of states have given any direction to local schools regarding solutions for securing their facilities that are based on experience, proven technology or best practices.”  While states that have experienced mass shootings have implemented stronger school safety laws, the majority of states remain unprepared for this very real threat.
Here in glorious, freedom-loving South Dakota, it’s tempting to think something like a school shooting can’t or won’t happen here.  That is wrong thinking.  While our state hasn’t experienced a mass shooting (there have been seven school shootings in our history), it’s impossible to predict the location, source, motivations or tactics of the next incident.  We can and should pray for our children’s safety, but we must also prepare for their safety.

As it stands, our school districts vary widely in resources, capabilities, facilities and training.  Many have proactively upgraded facilities and procedures, but only about 35% of schools have full control of access points, a panic button, an emergency operations plan and the means to implement it.  Less than 25% of our schools have a school resource officer or sentinel readily available to respond to a violent threat.  We can do better.  We must do better.

Since this past summer, a small team of educators, legislators and law enforcement have been working on a proposal to improve school safety.  Our draft bill incorporates best practices such as facility requirements and a security grant and stipend program.  We’re confident this proposal can dramatically improve our school safety posture, but it will not be easy or convenient.  There will be opposition.  It will cost money.

Within the next few weeks, we hope to fine-tune and release the draft language for this bill, titled “An Act to establish and modify provisions related to school safety.”  We humbly ask for your support or your suggestions to improve it.  For our schools.  For our kids.

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Gov. Noem Calls on Congress to Resolve Speaker Race, Support Israel

PIERRE, S.D. – Today, following her statement of support to the people of Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Governor Kristi Noem called on Congress to swiftly resolve the Speaker of the House race so that they may take action to support Israel:

“Israel is America’s most important friend and strategic ally, but they have been devastated by a barbaric invasion of their God-given homeland. During my time in Congress and on the House Armed Services Committee, I saw how important it is that Congress support Israel. That is truer today than it has ever been, but actions speak louder than words. Congress must act.

“Before Congress can act, the United States House of Representatives must resolve the Speaker of the House controversy. The best resolution is to rally in support of my friend and former colleague Jim Jordan. He clearly has the firmest support of his House Republican colleagues. Congressman Jordan will support Israel in their time of need while ensuring that Congress remains good stewards of the American people’s taxpayer dollars.

“I also call on the House to speed up their plans for resolving this controversy. The people of Israel cannot wait until Wednesday for Congress to act in their support. Congress should act no later than Monday. Lives depend on it.”

While Governor Noem served in Congress, she was a member of the House Armed Services Committee, which oversees the Department of Defense and numerous other aspects of our nation’s national security. Governor Noem has visited Israel numerous times to display her support for America’s most important strategic ally.

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Gov. Kristi Noem Supports Israel

PIERRE, S.D. – Today, in the wake of the devastating invasion of Israel by Hamas terrorists, Governor Kristi Noem issued a statement of support for the people of Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:

“Beloved people of Israel: your friends and allies in America stand with you. We support you in defending the homeland given to your people by God. These barbaric actions have shocked the conscience of the world. We share your anger at the viciousness of these attacks and the death, pain, and suffering it has caused, and we support your right to use all measures necessary to prevent future attacks.

“During my time on the House Armed Services Committee, I saw what regular violence perpetrated by Hamas terrorists against Israel looks like. This goes so far beyond that – this was an act of war, an invasion of your sacred home.

“We are praying for a swift resolution to this war; for safety and peace for the hostages taken by the Hamas terrorists; for comfort to the families who have lost loved ones or whose lives have otherwise been forever changed by this horrific day; for the first responders to act calmly and quickly in their work of healing and repair; for Prime Minister Netanyahu and his armed forces to strike swiftly, truly, and with justice; and for Hamas to be driven from the face of the Earth as a just consequence for their atrocities.

“In the coming days, all Americans – and the whole world – must stand firm in our resolve to support the Israeli people. As Prime Minister Netanyahu said, ‘This war will take time. She will be hard. Challenging days are ahead. But… with the help of God… we will win.’ Godspeed to you, my friend Prime Minister Netanyahu, and to your people. You will win, and you have our support every step of the way.”

While Governor Noem served in Congress, she was a member of the House Armed Services Committee, which oversees the Department of Defense and numerous other aspects of our nation’s national security. Governor Noem has visited Israel numerous times to display her support for America’s most important strategic ally.

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Had an e-mail with an announcement for Carl Perry running for Senate sent to my Yahoo account this AM by his marketing agency. I really hadn’t had a chance to look at it yet, because the first couple of lines had my eyes rolling so badly I was worried I’d have to visit my optometrist, so I set it aside until later.

But then my e-mail and text messages started blowing up, as people were noting that endorsements they made when he first ran for the House have now been ported over to his Senate campaign website without permission, and using them in a context several years later that they weren’t intended for.

First, the announcement which had me scoffing:

Carl had “six successful years in the State House of Representatives?” Are they kidding? Did they bother to actually read the record? As I noted in my previous post noting that Perry & Novstrup were switching chambers:

 His 2023 record for the bills he primed were 4 bills killed in committee, 4 bills withdrawn, so there’s no laurels for him to rest on.

Read that here.

His legislative record has been middling, at best. When he talks about “legislative victories,” he probably isn’t talking about this years’ House Bill 1083, where he tried to double the minimum amount of insurance required on vehicles, to make South Dakota the highest in the nation (higher than Massachusetts or California).

But aside from a couple of my gripes on puffery, after the release went out, what was more interesting were the unsolicited comments I started getting from people about endorsements that are on his website which were from several years ago in a different race.

“I’d say Carl’s “endorsements” aren’t overly honest.”  and

“Carl has updated his website. Problem is he hasn’t reached out to me to see if I am supporting him. He just assumes?”

Those were two people who had started to express interest in the candidacy of Katie Washnok for the District 3 Senate Seat before the announcement, and whom I suspect will be more forthcoming and vocal of their support.  That’s not a good look for Carl.

Candidates are going to wordsmith their resume and support to paint them in the most favorable light. But they need to know that too much puffery runs a risk of blowing up in their faces.

Look at what happened with Jolene Loetscher when she was running for Sioux Falls mayor in 2018. For example, when she claimed in her advertising that she was a “biotechnology pioneer” when she was actually had a business collecting dog poo and shipping it to a lab. And claimed the support of the police when she didn’t have it.

Puffery and embellishment were largely the cause of Loetscher’s woes and eventual loss. If Carl Perry isn’t careful, he’s going to be following her down that path.