From Twitter:
Scoop: Gov. @KristiNoem now owns her own flamethrower, a Christmas gift from her staff. pic.twitter.com/sYV1u9arrM
— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) December 25, 2022
Would they let me use one of those in town? I swear officer, it’s for burning weeds…
State Representative Kevin Jensen, first elected to the House in 2016, has announced his candidacy for State Republican Party chair against State Senator John Wiik, who has received endorsements from a significant portion of County GOP Elected officials, as well as nearly all statewide elected officials.
According to a report this morning from The Dakota Scout:
Canton lawmaker Kevin Jensen told The Dakota Scout Tuesday evening that he will formally announce his candidacy for the position being vacated next month by long-time state Republican chairman Dan Lederman.
Jensen will face off against John Wiik, the state senator from Watertown who has the backing of the GOP establishment, including nearly every statewide elected official.
“I like John, and John and I have run a lot of bills together,” Jensen said in a phone interview. “But we have different ideas on how the party should run.”
While Senator Wiik is closely allied with Governor Kristi Noem, this last election cycle as funded largely by his new seatmate Rep. – Elect Karla Lems, Jensen formed a political action committee called “Keep South Dakota Red.” The PAC backed at least a few candidates challenging incumbents, including Colin Paulsen, who challenged Senate President Pro Tempore Lee Schoenbeck, and the Steve Haugaard for Governor campaign running against Governor Noem.
Keep SD Red Disclosure by Pat Powers on Scribd
In the fall, Jensen’s PAC in part funded both his own and Karla Lems’ fall races for the House.
It remains to be seen how Jensen would gain the support of Senate Leadership and the Governor to achieve party goals after directing efforts against both.
Stay tuned. I’m sure we will be hearing more to come.
What to Expect
By Rep. Dusty Johnson
December 28, 2022
While many are planning their new year’s resolutions, getting ready to go back to school, and soaking up the last days of the holidays, Congress is gearing up for a shift in majority.
The top of many minds and news stories is the race for House Speaker. While there has been some uncertainty of a Speaker Kevin McCarthy (CA), I believe he will prevail. We have much more important things to focus on—like the border, inflation, China, and crime—so I am hopeful the Speaker vote will move quickly.
Here’s a few things to expect from a Republican-led House of Representatives:
Fiscal Responsibility-
America is more than $32 trillion in debt. This is not a problem to be ignored and left to our children to solve. A Republican-led House will be able to block any additional reckless spending by the Biden Administration and Congressional Democrats. Doing so will help slow inflation. Over the past two years, I have opposed more than $13 trillion in Democrat spending packages and will continue to do the same.
China-
China is not our friend. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continues to expand its authoritarian regime in multiple spheres of our lives. Their negative influence of TikTok content for American youth and increased purchases American farmland and ag businesses poses a geopolitical threat to our national security. Next Congress, Republicans will establish a Select Committee on China to investigate the CCP’s actions and propose policies to ensure America is prepared to tackle this security threat.
Border Security-
The situation at the southern border is a crisis—a humanitarian crisis, national security crisis, and public safety crisis. I’m grateful the end of Title 42 was delayed, preventing a greater influx of migrants at our border that is already under stress. I’m hopeful for bipartisan support in this area to secure our border and increase public safety.
Farm Bill-
Every five years, the Farm Bill gets reauthorized. The last Farm Bill was authorized in 2018, which means it needs adjusted and passed again in 2023. Some titles that are included are conservation, crop insurance, and nutrition programs. I’m hopeful to be a chairman of a subcommittee within the House Agriculture Committee, giving me a lead role in drafting parts of this bill.
The next Congress will be pretty busy, and I am looking forward to bringing home more wins for South Dakota.
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Attorney General releases Crime in South Dakota 2021 report
PIERRE, S.D. – The Office of the Attorney General today released the Crime in South Dakota
2021 report. This report is compiled annually by the Attorney General’s Criminal Statistical Analysis Center (SAC). Despite technical and staffing issues that affected the 2021 reporting, this publication is designed to reflect the actual arrest and reporting information by South Dakota law enforcement.
The 2021 report reflects the work of law enforcement professionals around the state and assists in final determinations regarding the allocation of personnel as well as information and technology resources.
“Criminal statistics are an indispensable asset to aid in identifying trends in criminal activity,” said Interim Director of the Division of Criminal Investigation Chad Mosteller. “And that helps law enforcement officers and agencies in their efforts to keep South Dakota communities safe.”
South Dakota law enforcement agencies reported a total of 38,160 arrests involving 69,277 offenses in 2021. More serious offenses accounted for a total of 15,210 arrests and include the following: murder (1st and 2nd degree)-9, sex offenses-76, assault-5,070, larceny/theft-908, fraud-574, drug/narcotic-6,928, prostitution-7, kidnapping-64, robbery-52, arson-17, burglary-204, motor vehicle theft-270, counterfeiting- 152, embezzlement-12, stolen property-167, destruction of property-386, pornography/obscene material- 26, and weapon law violations-274. Less serious offenses included the following; DUI-5,654, liquor law violations-1,526, and disorderly conduct-2,615.
In November 2022 the Attorney General’s Office hired a full-time Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Coordinator and, going forward, the Office will collect incidents investigated on Indian Country and report them in this publication. That information has not previously been included in the state totals and is not included in the 2021 report.
You can read the full report here.
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Former Libertarian Candidate for Governor and Libertarian candidate for District 23 State Senate CJ Abernathey is continuing his string of legal troubles since running for office.
After looking for bail money in 2019, being sued in Small Claims court in 2020, and having the Secretary of State Scold him for not filing a campaign finance report, he managed to get himself into serious trouble this year.
After the US Marshalls picked him up, and initial appearances were held in South Dakota, they shipped him over to North Carolina. On November 2nd, in the Eastern District of North Carolina Federal Couty, represented by a Federal Public Defender, Abernathey pled guilty to two counts of “Transmitting a Threat in Interstate Commerce,” while pleading not guilty to an additional count of transmitting a threat, and interstate stalking.
According to court documents, after attorneys discussed his “liberty status” in the 11/2 hearing, the judge in the matter remanded him to custody until his time of sentencing, set for the 2/7/23 term of court in North Carolina.
South Dakota Ethanol Officials: Unnecessary Delays in Summit Carbon Solutions’ Regulatory Proceedings Will Harm Our Economy
December 28, 2022 – Multiple officials from major South Dakota ethanol producers today argued that unnecessary delays to the regulatory proceedings around Summit Carbon Solutions proposed carbon capture, transportation, and storage project will cause significant harm to both the ethanol and agricultural industries.
This follows comments from the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission that they are considering a delay in the regulatory proceedings around this project.
“For years, the ethanol industry has served as the critical customer for corn growers in the state of South Dakota and across the Midwest, helping drive growth in commodity prices and land values in the process,” said Walt Wendland, President and CEO of Ringneck Energy in Onida, South Dakota. “Carbon capture projects like Summit Carbon Solutions are absolutely vital to ensuring ethanol producers remain competitive in the years and decades to come. Simply put, the future of the ethanol industry is uncertain at best without these critical investments in our infrastructure and delays in the regulatory process could come at a significant cost.”
The ethanol industry in South Dakota supports more than 5,000 jobs, contributes nearly $600 million annually to the state’s gross domestic product, and purchases more than half of all the corn grown in the state. Summit Carbon Solutions will allow its 32 ethanol plant partners to sell their product at a premium in the states and countries that have adopted policies incentivizing the use of low carbon fuels.
“We strongly encourage the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission to resist unwarranted efforts to delay the regulatory process in the state,” said Ron Alverson, Board Member at Dakota Ethanol in Wentworth, South Dakota. “With 2,300 landowners across the Midwest signing 3,800 easement agreements accounting for 56% of the proposed route, it’s clear that farmers are embracing the Summit Carbon Solutions project because they believe it’s critical for their bottom line. Those landowners deserve to have a formal hearing in April, which would meet South Dakota’s required statutory permit decision deadline of June 15.”
Other ethanol officials encouraging the South Dakota PUC to hold the Summit Carbon Solutions permitting hearing in April include:
To learn more, please visit www.DakotaEthanol.com, www.GlacialLakesEnergy.com, www.RedfieldEnergy.com, www.GlacialLakesEnergy.com, and www.RingneckEnergy.com.
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You go girl. Hot off the press this evening, Maggie Sutton, chair of the Minnehaha County Republican party is stepping up and clapping back at former legislator R. Shawn Tornow’s attempt at overthrowing GOP leadership.
Chairwoman Maggie notes Tornow is refusing to provide his alleged list of “20-percenters” and points out his effort will not be legal under party bylaws anyway:
From: Margaret Sutton
Date: December 27, 2022 at 10:32:09 PM CST
Subject: MINNEHAHA REPUBLICAN PARTYDear Minnehaha Central Committee Members:
Many of you recently received a notice of a Central Committee meeting to be held on December 29th. This notice did not come from the leadership of the Minnehaha Republican Party and was not a proper notice.
Issue one is that while they claim to have the signatures of 20% of the required members, Tornow Law Office has refused to provide a list to verify they met the 20% requirement.
Issue two, we have verified that a significant number of members were not notified of the meeting or did not receive the required five day notice. Again, Tornow Law Office refused to cooperate and refused to provide the list used for notification.
Because of these deficiencies in the process, and our inability to verify the accuracy of the claims, the officers have been advised by council not to attend this meeting. The bylaws require that a quorum must include at least two officers. Not having the required officers present will result in the lack of a quorum and thus this will not be a recognized meeting and any actions taken will be void.
While we agree that the bylaws do require holding two meetings a year, there is no penalty for failure to do so. A good faith effort was made to hold the second meeting on December 15th. Unfortunately, with no travel recommended for all of Minnehaha County the board made the prudent decision to cancel that meeting.
Due to Christmas, New Years, Inauguration, and the start of the legislative session all falling in the immediate future, a decision was made to hold elections later in January. This will still meet the requirement given in the bylaws.
Therefore, the officers of the Minnehaha Republican Party have unanimously decided to only attend the meeting planned for January 27th or 28th. A separate invitation will be sent in the next few days.
The Executive Board of the Minnehaha Republican Party
Maggie Sutton, ChairSD GOP Bylaws for County Central Committees:
Not being able to lay your cards on the table when it’s time to show what you’re holding might just be a problem when you’re playing poker.
See you at the end of January.
Just had this passed my way. Word on the street is that a group led by former legislator and former Sioux Falls City Attorney R. Shawn Tornow is supposedly attempting a coup to take over the Minnehaha County Republican Party, by holding their own meeting this coming Thursday in Sioux Falls.
As the note sent to me indicated:
“A small group of ..election deniers ..are attempting to hold an illegitimate central committee meeting in Minnehaha county this Thursday. They will not even provide a list of the members who called for the meeting.”
When I queried further and asked for names of those involved, I was told:
“Shawn Tornow seems to be the ring leader, Cindy Meyer and Vicky Buhr, Penny Baybridge and Jennifer Fuoss are also involved. I am sure they have more but I know those for sure. Its the same group that caused the *** storm at convention with Minnehaha County”
So, former State Rep Tornow, Cindy Meyer with the SD Canvassing Group, Vicky Buhr who is involved with Convention of States, Penny Baybridge who came in 4th out of 4 in the District 13 House race, and Sioux Falls Chiropractor Jennifer Foss who gave a nominating speech for Steve Haugaard at the 2022 SDGOP Convention (pictured at left) are said to be pushing to take over the Republican organization in Minnehaha County? I’m told there’s a letter floating around out there, which I’ll post as soon as I can chase a copy down.
Aside from questioning why they feel the need to try to be sneaky and overtake the already scheduled county elections in an effort which may fall flat on it’s face, what the organization needs to consider is what – if anything- the Minnehaha GOP would accomplish with a group of hardest of the hard-right activists at the helm.
If you go back a few years when Minnehaha County GOP chair David Rose resigned, turning the organization over to GOP (at the time) vice-chair Lora Hubbel, the implications were nothing short of a nuclear disaster for the county organization. Which has continued to reverberate to today.
Regular donors evaporated like mist. Businesspeople ended their support. Literally no one wanted to be associated with the group and actively abandoned what was once a vibrant well-funded group that actually had paid staff and an established headquarters for years and helped political races be competitive. Now a decade later the organization struggles to attract even a tenth of the attention and prestige (not to mention donors) it had in it’s heyday.
The job of a political party is to win elections. And when the most radically polarized are in charge, they don’t try to expand the tent and attract voters. They’re more interested in kicking out those they disagree with, and claiming “they won.”
Nevermind what they would win are diminishing returns, and a strong likelihood of being a liability more than an asset to the candidates which run under their banner.
*Update* – “Election integrity?”
So, I have this letter, and a couple of interesting points to go with it. Here are the important items…
Dear Minnehaha County Central Committee Members:
Please be informed that one-fifth of the Minnehaha County Central Committee members have called for a special meeting.
and..
This meeting was requested by more than 20% of the Central Committee Members, per the Central Committee bylaws; therefore, this meeting must be scheduled. The list of central committee members requesting this meeting can be viewed by contacting Tornow Law Office at 605-271-9006.
Tornow claims to have 20% who have signed on a meeting to conduct his coup against Minnehaha County GOP Leadership to supersede the election that has already been scheduled for a time when Legislators and other can be available to attend, and that their secret list can be viewed by contacting his law office. But I’ve spoken with at least two people who have called only to have the phone ring and ring to no avail to try to view this secret list.
Which makes one wonder.. Why would a list of the precinct people who are calling for a special election need to be secret in the first place? Why wouldn’t they just send that out so people could see who is calling for the meeting, and they would verify that the people he is claiming are calling for the meeting are actually eligible to do so?
Shouldn’t the group actually be open about it? They are elected from within the party, and a number of them appeared on the ballot.
I mean, they are for election integrity. Aren’t they?
It seemed like holiday travel this year was just a comedy of errors. Which reminded me a bit too much of the movie “Planes, Trains & Automobiles” with family members including myself having a bit of a time trying to settle in for the Holiday.
Monday, December 19:
It was 3 kids coming home for Christmas, plus one spouse and a dog. Except, a couple of days ago, that was changed to two kids and a dog, with the third who will linger a while after the holidays while she returns to Law School after the first of the year. No problem. Always happy to support my kids’ education.
So now, for those who would be present for Christmas, the kids were going to commute together from the DC area on the 21st or 22nd with my wife driving cross country.
But a wrench was thrown into the works. A Christmas storm started to loom. My son couldn’t leave his posting at the Navy for the holidays until his ship came into port after being dumped ashore the previous week due to a bout of tonsilitis. And those driving needed to get a move-on to beat the storm. So mom, daughter and dog took off at a breakneck pace across the country to beat the storm, leaving me to figure out the travel arrangements for my son, while he waited for his boat.
Tuesday, December 20:
Mom, daughter and dog take off at 5am Eastern time and start pushing hard to get back home. They would not be caught in the storm.
With travel arrangements made.. My son was set to get home on Thursday at around noon. No problem, right? ..Wait, plane tickets are how much when you buy them the day before you need to travel at Christmas? But flight UA 1678 on United Airlines was procured.
For the travelers by car, everything seemed to be going smoothly.. Weather on the drive was great for the travelers. Dog was a great passenger. They turned it around quickly at gas stops grabbing a bite at gas stations along the way and made it as far as Waterloo, Iowa the first night.
If it hadn’t have been so late, they might have pushed the rest of the way. But, why risk fatigue, right?
Wednesday, December 21:
5:09 AM Message from daughter: Mom not feeling good. We just got started. What’s going on? Probably food poisoning. Uh oh.
Snow is starting to blow just in time for the travelers to pick up a car at the Sioux Falls airport, but roads are good.
Mom, kid & dog got home, and literally slept for 18 hours. Mom vows not to eat gas station food while traveling ever again. And tomorrow was my turn for getting a kid home.
Thursday, December 22:
Son’s flight as scheduled was to land at 10 am, but delays at the Chicago Airport pushed it back to 11am. So, dad hops in the truck and takes off at 10:30 to meet him. A little snowy, and a little breezy, so I better grab my wife’s phone charger. And off I went down I-29. And 30 minutes later I was kind of regretting that decision as the snow whipped up, and the wind whipped up, and it became a complete white out.
Thankfully I got behind a semi-driver who knew how to drive on this stuff, as his rig remained visible the whole way, when the people punched up doing 35-40 weren’t visible through the white out. This was not a place I wanted to be, and I had the feeling that my son and I might be stranded in Sioux Falls for a while.
Around the time I hit the Baltic exit as I continued South on I-29, I got a call.. Dad, I’m back in Chicago. The plane turned around and brought us all back because of weather conditions. Uh oh.. “Siri, call Hilton Garden Inn Downtown“. If I was going to be stuck in Sioux Falls, I was at least going to be stuck in a place with a decent restaurant.
The only hiccup is that I came down in 3-layers of clothes for the weather. And a phone. And that was about it. After surviving the trip to Sioux Falls, I now had to survive Sioux Falls WalMart at Christmas time. Quickly grabbing a change in shorts, some pajamas, a toothbrush and toothpaste, socks, and a decent looking jacket/pullover I could wear at the restaurant, I made my way to the checkout. It’s South Dakota in winter, so I’m sure no one will pay me much mind with snowmobile boots.
I made it to the hotel to check-in as the storm continued to pick up, and walked into the front desk with three Walmart bags as my luggage, and went to my room until dinner. About that time, I noticed that when I went to put it on, while the hanger of the pull-over I bought said it was a 2x, the tag said Medium… and in no way, shape or form was going to fit. Leaving me to dress for dinner with my pick of two of the three layers I was wearing.
My son managed to find a room across from the Chicago airport, so we hunkered down in our separate locations to wait out the storm for the night, and he received notice that his delayed flight would now take off in the early evening.
Friday, December 23:
I had a bad feeling about today. Looking out my hotel window, that storm didn’t look like it was going to let up. Road reports were equally as poor as the night before. With my son coming in the early evening, just to be sure I had lodging, I got another night of the room. Even if he did get in, I didn’t think we’d be going anywhere.
I ventured out long enough to hit Barnes & Noble for a last minute gift for my daughter that my wife wanted me to grab. And I stopped off for a haircut at “Great Clips.”
“Same as last time?” Sure. Where after they got started, I noticed that my last haircut at that location must have been in the heat of the summer a couple of years ago, as they proceeded to literally shave my head. Okay.. I definitely got a haircut.
Reported back to my son that it looked like the Sioux Falls airport was reopening at 6pm, and all reports were looking good until they weren’t. About an hour after his flight was supposed to depart, he received notice that his estimated departure would be 9 hours and 47 minutes late. It was a little late for him to find a hotel, and the Chicago airport hotel rooms were running at $400 a night, because they could. So, he opted for a quiet space on the floor to wait out the storm and delays. Someone was nice enough to pay for his dinner and a beer because he’s in the Navy. A nice gesture for a service member stuck in the Chicago airport.
While he did that, I chose 2 of my 3 layers to go to dinner in, shaved head and all, and later went back to my room to wait out another night.
Christmas Eve, December 24:
I was up at 5am, checking road conditions, which looked more promising than they did the prior night. It was supposed to be nicer today, and only at -1.. when your past few days were -15 and -20 at times, you’re glad to see a balmy -1.
At 7:55 my son sent me a text noting that his plane had arrived at the gate. And at 8:55 it was almost boarding time, but he didn’t want to say anything for fear that he might jinx it, because the pilot had arrived. But.. where were the flight attendants? And then it was announced that they would have another announcement at 9:30. My son was ready to offer himself as a flight attendant at the time, if it would help an airbus full of weary and displaced travelers to get home. Then the next update was at 10AM.
Shortly thereafter, they let the travelers know that a flight crew was on it’s way, and they would be taking off at 12:15.
Finally flying in around 1:30 or so, my son arrived a little more than 2 days later than expected, but thankfully we had clear roads home.
I did notice that a lot of the traffic coming out of the airport and heading north on I-29 might have exceeded the speed limit, as I’m sure like me, there were plenty who just wanted to get home. Pulling on at 2:30 – 3ish in Brookings, everyone was excited to see my son, especially the family dogs who hadn’t seen him in a years’ time.
From there, we thankfully moved into a state of mundane Christmas bliss. And my youngest picked up a nice pull over which didn’t do me much good until I was able to re-gift it.
No more planes or automobiles for at least a few days, until they start on the journey home. And I pick up another child lodging for a while.
Enjoy the rest of the year, as we move towards 2023!
Johnson Applauds TikTok Ban on Government Devices
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Representative Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) applauded the final passage of the No TikTok on Government Devices Act led byU.S. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO). This bill bans the download and use of TikTok on federal government devices.
In September, Johnson has introduced a similar bill in the U.S. House of Representatives to block TikTok on federal government devices and on military bases and installations. Johnson’s Block the Tok Act would also prohibit China from accessing Americans’ user data from within China.
“TikTok is one of China’s Trojan horses,” said Johnson. “This app poses a national security threat and has safety implications for everyday Americans. I’m encouraged to see progress at both the federal and state level to prohibit TikTok on government devices, but there is still work to be done. I’m going to continue the effort to prohibit China’s access to Americans’ user data in the new Congress.”
19 states have banned the use and download of TikTok on state government devices.
Read the full text of Sen. Hawley’s No TikTok on Government Devices Act here.
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