(h/t SoDak Governors)

South Dakota’s first and only female Speaker of the House to date, Debra Anderson has passed away at her home after a long life in public service to South Dakota and our country .

Debra Rae Anderson, 73, passed away Thursday, November 10, 2022 at her home in Washington, DC.

Debra was born June 13, 1949 in Bryant, South Dakota to Dean and Marilyn Anderson. She was baptized and confirmed in the Lutheran faith. Debra graduated from Bryant High School in 1967 and cum laude from Augustana College in Sioux Falls, SD in 1971.

Debra entered the political arena with her election to the South Dakota House of Representatives in 1976. She became South Dakota’s first woman Speaker of the House in 1987. Debra resigned from the South Dakota House of Representatives in 1989 when President George H.W. Bush appointed her as Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Intergovernmental Affairs in The White House.

You can read the entire obituary here.

Deb was a tremendous and no-nonsense leader, and I remember her as Speaker when I was a lowly intern way, way back in 1988.

Both she and her father, Dean Anderson, who served in the House and as SD Secretary of Ag from 1995-1996, served South Dakota well during their time in State Government.  Please keep Deb’s family in your prayers today.

Governor Kristi Noem spoke to a reporter while at the Republican Governors Association today and echoed what many Republicans are thinking. That the Republican Party is more than just Donald Trump.

Noem told The New York Times on Wednesday that she didn’t think the former president, who filed paperwork Tuesday for another White House run, offered the “best chance” for the Republican Party in 2024.

“If we narrow our focus there, then we’re not talking to every single American. Our job is not just to talk to people who love Trump or hate Trump. Our job is to talk to every single American,” Noem told the Times while she was in Florida for the Republican Governor’s Association meeting.

Read it all here.

So, after a tough election day last week across much of the country where Republicans were expected to do much better, despite some advising him to the contrary, and some even blaming him for the GOP not doing as well as he should have, President Trump announced his re-election yesterday. And not everyone is excited.

Has the GOP run it’s course with Trump, or can he excite Republican voters to put him back in the White House? At the same time, some look to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as an attractive alternative, including members of the Texas GOP:

Republican voters in Texas support Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as the Republican nominee for the 2024 presidential election over former President Donald Trump by more than 10 percentage points, according to a new poll commissioned by the Republican Party of Texas.

The survey asked voters who are likely to participate in the 2024 Texas Republican primary election who they would vote for out of six Republican candidates including DeSantis and Trump. DeSantis was the top choice, with 43% of respondents saying they would vote for him if the primary election were held today. Trump came in second place with 32%. DeSantis’ support among the surveyed voters surged to 66% when they were asked about a situation in which Trump would decline to run in 2024.

Read that here.

Could DeSantis bring some of the party back who took a pass on election night (in both 2022 and 2020)?

Or are we better off giving Trump another go?

The floor is yours.

Thune Statement on Reelection as Republican Whip

“… I look forward to working with our entire conference as we unite in our fight to advance Republican principles and deliver commonsense solutions for families, farmers, and businesses across the country, especially those throughout South Dakota.”

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) today released the following statement after he was unanimously reelected by the Senate Republican Conference to serve a third term as whip for the 118th Congress:

“I am humbled and honored that my colleagues in the Senate Republican Conference have once again elected me to serve as whip,” said Thune. “I congratulate the newest members of our leadership team, Senators Capito and Daines, and I look forward to working with our entire conference as we unite in our fight to advance Republican principles and deliver commonsense solutions for families, farmers, and businesses across the country, especially those throughout South Dakota. Let’s get to work.”

In addition to serving as the Republican whip, a position he’s held since 2019, Thune has previously served as chairman of the Senate Republican Conference (SRC), SRC vice chairman, and chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee. Thune currently serves on the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee; the Committee on Finance; and the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee.

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In the general election  last week, one of the races had a particularly specific focus as Public Utilities Candidate Jeff Barth – almost to the exclusion of all else – ran his campaign on the basis of one issue. Barth ran on opposition to the pipelines currently being proposed and surveyed for transporting captured carbon to North Dakota where it would be stored in the ground. As noted in one story which talked about the Barth campaign adopting this as an issue..

In a press conference Thursday, Barth voiced his opposition to the Summit Carbon Solutions Pipeline. The project would transport liquified carbon dioxide through South Dakota for injection into underground geological formations in North Dakota.

Some farmers along the pipeline’s proposed route are concerned about its environmental impact. They’re also concerned that eminent domain will be used to obtain right-of-way for the pipeline without landowners’ consent.

“These pipelines will scar our land forever, and threaten our very lives,” Barth said. “No eminent domain for private gain.”

and..

Barth described his Republican opponent as a “nice guy,” but criticized him for not doing enough to prevent eminent domain from being used to build the pipeline.

Read that story here.

Barth literally ran every aspect of his campaign as a counterpoint to the pipeline. But did opposing the pipeline affect his campaign whatsoever?

Looking at a map of the counties that the Summit Carbon Solutions Pipeline will be operating in..

.. how did Barth do?

According to unofficial figures from the Secretary of State, from the counties that Summit self-identified as part of their operating areas:

County	Chris  Nelson	Jeffrey  Barth	Barth %
Beadle	4,163	1,461	26%
Brown (Vote Center)	8,946	4,280	32%
Clark	1,210	297	20%
Codington	7,729	2,583	25%
Edmunds	1,316	290	18%
Faulk	780	131	14%
Hamlin	2,141	446	17%
Hand	1,159	282	20%
Hyde (Vote Center)	436	119	21%
Kingsbury	1,848	554	23%
Lake	3,369	1,325	28%
Lincoln	17,898	8,462	32%
McCook	1,898	523	22%
McPherson	882	186	17%
Miner	738	203	22%
Minnehaha	41,364	28,572	41%
Sully (Vote Center)	619	154	20%
Turner	2,958	756	20%
TOTAL	99,454	50,624	34%

There was not a single county along the pipeline route that Barth won. His best showing came in Minnehaha County where he had been a County Commissioner for several years, but where he still only achieved 41%.

In several of the counties, he was defeated by margins of 2, 3, 4 and 5 to 1 against his Republican opponent Chris Nelson, who pledged to hear all matters in front of the Public Utilities Commission without preconceived notion or prejudice.

In fact, none of the 4 counties where Barth led (Buffalo, Dewey, Todd, and Oglala Lakota counties) were Summit pipeline counties, but rather Democrat strongholds.  Overall, on a statewide basis, Barth lost on a margin of 31% to Chris Nelson’s 69% – more than a 2-1 basis.

Could it be said that pipeline opposition is a winning issue for a candidate in the Public Utilities Commission race?

No. Not at all.

Dusty must have sensed my wife waiting in the ticketmaster queue yesterday…

It’s easier to cross our southern border illegally than it is to get Taylor Swift tickets. https://t.co/WM0SsuQljU

— Rep. Dusty Johnson (@RepDustyJohnson) November 16, 2022

From the Wall Street Journal, Governor Kristi Noem is openly questioning the leadership of the Republican National Committee as speculation continues that she might be interested in the job herself:

“Who loses this much and gets to keep their job?” Ms. Noem asked during an interview on the sidelines of the Republican Governors Association three-day meeting that started Monday. “We’ve got to evaluate the leadership of the Republican Party.”

and..

Asked whether she has spoken to Mr. Trump about the RNC job, she said, “He and I have not had that conversation. We should as a party have some self-evaluation on how we move forward.”

Read the entire story here.

 

Oh god. This does not sound good. The Rapid City Journal had a synopsis of the Bud May court appearance, and some of the statements offered by the prosecution are at least on the surface pretty shocking.

When asked if an alleged sexual interaction was consensual, a failed South Dakota House of Representatives Republican candidate said “I’m 6-foot-8, it’s all consensual,” according to the Pennington County State’s Attorneys Office on Tuesday morning.

and..

Referencing law enforcement reports, Magistrate Judge Scott Bogue said the woman was hiding behind a bar counter with dirt, blood and an abrasion on her face when law enforcement arrived. She said May raped her in multiple ways.

The woman told law enforcement the blood on her was May’s, who had been in an altercation before the alleged incident.

Read the entire story here in the Rapid City Journal.

May had lost his race last week as a Republican candidate for the House of Representatives.

John Thune is one of, if not the biggest dog on the porch in South Dakota politics. The question is whether he will have the opportunity to win the top spot in the US Senate during this next six years in office:

The Senator from South Dakota will now return to Washington for a historic fourth term, the second to do so since Karl Mundt in the 1960s. It’s a shift from this time a year ago when rumors were swirling about Thune considering whether he might not run again.

and..

Mike Card, a public policy emeritus professor at the University of South Dakota, said Thune’s been able to stay connected to the state. For McGovern and Daschle, Card said, both were accused of “losing touch” and were unseated in part because of those sentiments.

Schaff said Thune’s win was a “testament to his political skills and Thune has not done anything to run afoul with the State of South Dakota.”

Schaff noted Thune has not made serious enemies in the state and has almost “universal admiration” from the Republican party.

Read the entire story in the Argus Leader.

John is a good guy, and we need more of those in politics. I certainly hope he has the opportunity to rise to Majority Leader.

At the same time the South Dakota Senate committee assignments were released, the seating chart was also sent out: