After his win in this past June primary, Tom Pischke must be feeling secure in his britches as in today’s Rapid City Journal, he’s out attacking the current Senate President Pro Tempore Lee Schoenbeck for not drinking the kool-aid on the Citizens for Liberty Scorecard:

Senator Lee Schoenbeck’s recent op-ed in the Rapid City Journal trying to smear some of the state’s top conservative Republican legislators like Rep. Phil Jensen, Tony Randolph and Taffy Howard using the Elevate Rapid City scorecard as the tool, is like Congresswoman Liz Cheney telling us who’s a good conservative Republican using the Democratic party platform as the measuring stick.

and..

When it comes to scorecards, SD Citizen’s for Liberty scorecard is one of the best for showing how your legislators are voting in alliance with the Constitution and the South Dakota Republican party platform.

Read it in the Rapid City Journal.

What’s triggering Tom? Aside from sucking up to the cherry-picked scorecard idiots, and trying to continue the battle of the months-past primary election, where Pischke launched an ad campaign attempting to smear Senate President Pro Tempore Lee Schoenbeck (and a postcard or two that went out pointing out Pischke’s voting record), the word I’m hearing is that Senator-Elect Pischke hopes to leapfrog over all incumbent Senators and run for Senate Majority Leader when the group gets together after the election.

Tom Pischke as Senate Majority Leader? Hmm.. I think that most of us can think of nearly 30-some other people who would be more qualified to lead the Senate Republican majority over Tom Pischke.

But, that’s a battle for the end of the year.  Stay tuned.

This is the political ad that’s getting national and international attention today. As Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney enlists her father to appeal to voters to reject Donald Trump:

The former President holds great sway among Republican voters. Will the appeal of the former Vice President catapult his daughter into the Congressional seat?

Probably not, but it shows the divide in the GOP that future candidates have to navigate in running at a national level.

Christine Erickson, Executive Director of the SD Trucking Association and outgoing Sioux Falls City Councilor is blasting opponents of a proposed Sioux Falls Pork Plant for their NIMBY attitude on how and where the food supply is being produced:

“In South Dakota, we talk about being open for business,” said Christine Erickson, who began leading the South Dakota Trucking Association last year, shortly before the end of her eight-year term as a city councilor.

and..

Wholestone is a company brought here by the city and state’ business-friendly policies, and they’ve followed all the rules and received the necessary approvals, Erickson said.

“That precedent that’s being set is really, really damning,” she said. “If somebody doesn’t like your industry, somebody can just put it on the ballot.”

Read the entire story here in the Argus Leader.

With a processing plant already smack in the center of the community, does it make much sense to try to block more ag processing, especially on the edge of Sioux Falls?

Well that’s interesting. According to the most impossible to remember website name ever (https://www.cunningham4ethicalsdtreasurer.com/) Democrat State Treasurer candidate John Cunningham seems to be running to do a lot of things if he’s elected. It’s too bad that none of them are actually in the treasurer’s job description:

I envision a South Dakota State Treasurer that considers the ethical choice in all matters first. Government ethics applies to the processes, behavior, and policy of governments and the public officials who serve in elected or appointed positions.

and..

I envision a South Dakota State Treasury Office that aggressively searches for state financial activities that are improper, unethical or illegal activities such as the EB-5 and Gear Up scandals and exposes them to the public.

So, he’s going to what the what? Read that crazy-talk here.

What does South Dakota law say about Cunningham’s proposed bag of woke goofiness in relation to the treasurer’s office?  Well, here’s the actual duties of the State Treasurer:

1-10-1. General duties of treasurer.

The state treasurer shall have charge of and safely keep all public moneys which shall be paid into the state treasury, and pay out the same as directed by law, and perform such other duties as are required of him by law.

Read the duties of the Treasurer here.

So, where the part where they’re supposed to be the ethics czar and monitor what they deem the ethical choices for all processes, behavior, and policy of governments? I don’t see that in that section of law.   What about the part where they aggressively search for state financial activities that are improper, unethical or illegal.  Don’t some of those fall under the Attorney General’s duties or at least those of the State Auditor?

I mean, if he wanted to be Attorney General or State Auditor, he probably should have run for one of those jobs, instead of campaigning to be the manager of South Dakota’s bank accounts.

According to the State Treasurer, you can find a description of what the job actually entails here:

Yesterday, representatives of the Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline (which advertises on the right) distributed a fact sheet about the Summit Carbon pipeline and the economic impact it will have in the state, which gives me the opportunity to share it with you all here:

Summit Carbon Solutions – Economic Impact South Dakota by Pat Powers on Scribd

Big takeaways are that in the construction phase, the total South Dakota investment of the pipeline is $795 million, with total labor income in of South Dakota $440 million, and State and Local Taxes Paid by SCS (South Dakota) of $74 million with annual South Dakota expenditures thereafter of $37 million.

And..

2022-08-03 MEMO to Legislators – Project Update v2[79] by Pat Powers on Scribd

Read up, and find out more about the positive economic impact it will have for residents of the state, as well as the benefits it will provide to ethanol production in South Dakota.  And find out more by clicking here.

Gov. Noem & Colleagues Oppose Democrats’ Spending Bill

PIERRE, S.D. – Today, Governor Kristi Noem and 21 of her fellow Republican Governors issued the following joint statement opposing the Democrats’ Spending Bill:

“The Democrats’ solution to 40-year high inflation is passing another reckless tax and spending spree to the tune of $740 billion, affecting Americans in every tax bracket. While denying recession, Democrats want to raise taxes on businesses and manufacturers, which will force higher costs onto consumers, worsen inflation, and aggravate shortages. With sky high prices at the pump, the last thing Americans need is for Democrats to punish energy producers, which will ultimately hurt working families struggling to pay for gas, goods, food, and utilities. Our citizens cannot afford Joe Biden’s broken promises on taxes and Democrats’ inflationary spending that will only exacerbate the economic crisis they created.”

The statement was co-signed by South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Idaho Governor Brad Little, Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves, Missouri Governor Mike Parson, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte, Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Utah Governor Spencer Cox, Virginia Governor Glenn Younkin, and Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon.

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Flags at Half-Staff in Honor of U.S. Rep. Jackie Walorski

PIERRE, S.D. – Today, Governor Kristi Noem ordered that flags be flown at half-staff statewide effective immediately until midnight tonight (Thursday) in honor of U.S. Rep. Jackie Walorski of Indiana who died Wednesday in a vehicle crash.

“Jackie Walorski spent her whole life investing in people. She was a remarkable gift to me as a friend,” said Governor Noem. “I could always count on her for truth and common sense. Shattered that her work on earth is done, but grateful she is with her Lord. Bryon and I send our condolences and prayers to Jackie’s family, as well as the family of the two staff members who passed away.”

This order is in response to a directive by President Joseph R. Biden.

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If you thought politics at the state level could be rough, here’s a tale where one county elected official was trying to promise employment in exchange for taking out another.

There is a story in the Pierre Capital Journal today where the former Stanley County Treasurer is being charged with a crime after promising a job in her office in exchange for her running against someone. Peggy Dougherty is finding that quid pro quo with a county is a big no no:

I guess we have it confirmed who the placeholders are in the Democrat Party. Because they’ve been dropping like flies, and making it look like there are even more seats that they didn’t bother to challenge with serious candidates.

Yesterday was the deadline to withdraw from the General Election by 5:00 pm local time. And withdraw they did.  So far, we’ve had 1 Democrat dropping off the ballot in the Senate. Daniel Brandt dropped out in D19, giving Republican State Senator Kyle Schoenfish an unobstructed path to re-election.

And it got even crazier in the State House. In the House, so far 5 House Democrat candidates have said no-thank-you and withdrawn.

• Emily Meier dropped out in District 3 House, giving a clear path to Brandei Schaefbauer and Carl Perry.
• Travis Paulson dropped out in District 4, possibly giving Stephanie Sauder and Fred Deutsch unobstructed access to the legislature.
• In District 7, both Democrats – Lisa Johnsen and Mary Perpich abandoned ship, leaving the road to Pierre free and clear for Republicans Mellissa Heermann and Roger DeGroot.
• and in District 17, Paige Schroeder of Vermillion dropped it to a three-way race, meaning that at least one of the two Republicans (Chris Kassin or Bill Shorma) is guaranteed a seat, and they could easily take both against the remaining no-name Democrat, Rebecca Engquist-Schroeder.

This takes Democrats down to only challenging 11 of 35 Senate Seats – and that’s challenging, not winning.  And challenging 33 of 70 House seats.  In case you’d like to read the list, you can find it here. 

Even if they replace a couple of the placeholders, those numbers are still abysmal. They’ve conceded 2/3 of the Senate Seats, and a majority of the House seats.

The process to replace candidates who have withdrawn is conducted under SDCL 12-6-56, giving Democrats until the second Tuesday in August (basically, Tuesday next week) to fill the slots.

So, we have to wait until next week to find out if they can talk someone into running, or if they’re going to let Carl Perry, Fred Deutsch and others pump their arms and announce their win 3 months ahead of November.

*Bonus Bad News for Democrats* – when I was pulling the numbers for the legislature, I note that there are only 136 Democrats running at any level in South Dakota, versus 433 Republicans on the ballot across the state this year, meaning less than 24% of the candidates on the ballot in South Dakota are Democrats.

Co2 pipeline opponents fund themselves stymied at the Minnehaha County Commission today in their quest to stop things like ethanol and progress. As noted in the Argus Leader..

Minnehaha County commission’s five-member board voted down a one-year moratorium “on the issuance of any permits and/or approval of land uses for transmission pipelines,” with a 4-1 vote during its weekly meeting Tuesday morning.

Read that here. But the bigger story today is that Democrat PUC Candidate Jeff Barth gave those who are pro-pipeline more ammunition to prove bias to have him disqualified if he would ever elected to the quasi-judicial panel:

PUC candidate uses commission role to attack pipeline supporters at meeting

“I see Dan Lederman is here, who is a top lobbyist for Summit pipeline people and wearing their shirt emblazoned with Summit Pipeline Solutions,” Barth said. “How much are they paying you do that?”

Again, Read that here.

Jeff’s attacks and clearly demonstrated bias against the pipeline and it’s people are going to guarantee that, while he may be using it as a campaign issue, he’s never going to be allowed to hear a pipeline related matter if he should happen to be elected.