Argus Headline today: South Dakota Democrats see open AG, secretary of state contests as paths to statewide office.

Don’t they have to have candidates first?

They named someone who might be one of the poorest choices they’ve ever made for lieutenant governor In terms of shoring up where the gubernatorial candidate could use some help.

And so far there is only one candidate for anything else, with outgoing Minnehaha County Commissioner Jeff Barth running for Public Utilities Commission, against incumbent Chris Nelson.

They’ve got a long way to go to fill that ticket, and not much for bankable candidates.

According to South Dakota Right to Life, for the 2012-2022 session, Dem Lt Governor pick Jennifer Keintz is tied with several other House Dems for last place in how she voted on life issues during her 2 years of office.

At 33%, she joins Representatives Duba and Bordeaux in opposing bills supported by South Dakota Right to Life, according to the group’s Spring newsletter.

Lt. Gov. Rhoden Responds to Jamie Smith’s Liberal Running Mate

PIERRE, SOUTH DAKOTA – Today, Lieutenant Governor Larry Rhoden responded to Jamie Smith picking liberal State Representative Jennifer Keintz as his running mate.

“Jennifer Keintz and Jamie Smith want to bring Joe Biden’s America to South Dakota,” said Lieutenant Governor Larry Rhoden. “Their liberal policies would crush South Dakota families, farmers, and businesses.”

Jennifer Keintz is the most liberal legislator in the South Dakota state legislature, according to the American Conservative Union. By the same metric, Jamie Smith is one of the 10 most liberal legislators in South Dakota.

“Jamie Smith is following the Joe Biden playbook – including picking his ‘Kamala’ as a running mate,” said Ian Fury, Communications Director for Kristi for Governor.

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From the Argus, Dem for Gov Jamie Smith has made his Lt. Gov pick: State Rep Jennifer Keintz:

The Sioux Falls Democrat challenging Gov. Kristi Noem in this year’s gubernatorial election Thursday formally announced that he’s backing Rep. Jennifer Keintz, 48, a real estate broker and business owner from Eden, for the Democratic Party’s lieutenant governor candidate on the November ballot.

Read that here.

Interesting that real estate agent Jamie Smith has decided to diversify his ticket with real estate agent Jennifer Keintz.

Really?

I don’t even need to work that hard to poke holes in this elitist ticket, as I had already pointed it out less than 2 years ago :

To the Editor:

I earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from South Dakota State University in the 1990s. Immediately after graduating I moved to the East Coast, where many people I met couldn’t find South Dakota on a map and had certainly never heard of the university. I was able to find jobs with good companies in various large cities and to build a decent career. After a few years in the work force, it seemed to matter more where I had worked than where I went to college.

I was probably not called in to interview by some companies because I hadn’t attended a prestigious university, but there are plenty of great employers who look at more than alma mater. All that said, I’ve seen how attending certain schools opens many doors. It’s not a guarantee of success, but there’s no denying that graduates of top schools have a leg up.

I have a 2-year-old and I already think about where she’ll go to college. It will ultimately be her choice, but I will strongly suggest elite institutions. Despite my own positive experience and my desire for it to not matter, it absolutely does.

Jennifer Healy Keintz
Eden, S.D.

Read that here.

Good luck with that pick. Democrats are going to need it.

Here’s the most controversial political commercial in the country at the moment, in case you wanted to catch it before it involuntarily leaves Twitter..

Make Rifles Great Again 💪🏿

👉https://t.co/J7lHnodhku#JeroneForCongress#2A #SelfDefense pic.twitter.com/Gs6iAHVVAP

— Jerone Davison for Congress #AZCD4 (@Jerone4Congress) July 6, 2022

It’s a slow week, so who the Democrats are (or are not running) for constitutional office is a huge topic of discussion. And I’m amazed that even with the Democrat State Convention starting on July 8th, there is still no word of them running any candidates for office.

And really, who do they have among them who is seeking a higher profile of running for a constitutional office? Who are they going to run?  It’s not like the top of the ticket races where they say year after year “maybe we can get Billie, or Stephanie, or Brendan,” even though none of their dream team wants to move forward with a major race, much less a down-ticket affair.  With an almost unprecedented void of Democrat Candidates this election, I have this suspicion that Randy Seiler has earned a new honorary recognition among Democrats this week – “Randy Seiler: most likely to have his calls sent to voicemail” as he tries to scare up interest.

What’s the lay of the land for Democrats in the constitutional offices?

Jamie Smith’s call might be the second least-desired call as he seeks a Lt. Governor candidate.  This one is taking a while, so we’ll see what he comes up with to try to balance the ticket.

There’s likely no Democrat attorney who wants to get out and run for AG, because they know that’s an automatic loss against Marty Jackley who has it buttoned up among Sheriffs and States Attorneys.

Secretary of State might have an outside chance of some national money behind it, but even with token take-one-for-the-team money, that’s a pretty big gamble for a candidate. With Monae Johnson able to claim experience with the SOS office, they can’t just put up a warm body as they have in the past. They have to have someone with a “hook” into capturing people’s imagination as to why they should be in that office.

Auditor & Treasurer will be tough for Dems, because they have to find someone who can self-fund for these offices with no constituencies.  School and Lands might be able to draw someone, because of Brock Greenfield’s controversies a year or so back, but once you get past one press release, the candidate will have to have their act together, because that issue isn’t in the limelight anymore, alongside the fact they’ll be taking on a very experienced campaigner in Greenfield. Plus, Brock is fully backed by the GOP, whereas Democrats’ resources are far less.

There’s a rumor or two about the Public Utilities Commission race drawing an anti-pipeline candidate, but again, that’s a double edged sword as they’ll be setting themselves up to be anti-development in a race where the pro-development people have money, and the protesters don’t. And they’ll be running against a known and experienced Chris Nelson fully backed by the Republican party in a Republican state.

Not a lot of good options for Democrat candidates at this point.

So, who do you think they’ll run? And be realistic.

For Immediate Release – July 6, 2022

Monae Johnson thanks Secretary Barnett

(Rapid City, SD)— Monae Johnson thanked Secretary Barnett, “I want to take this opportunity to thank Steve Barnett for his years of service to the State of South Dakota, first as State Auditor for eight years, and then as Secretary of State for four years. Though we had policy differences, I know our love and commitment to South Dakota is equally shared. Steve and his family have been gracious, and I wish them the best on their future endeavors.”

As the Republican intra-party squabbling seemed to hit a crescendo a couple weeks ago in Watertown before it started dying down, I couldn’t help but notice that we aren’t hearing much from South Dakota Democrats.  Which is particularly interesting, as they have a convention in 3 days…. but there’s a distinct lack of noise about anyone running for anything.

They’ve got Brian Bengs to lose for US Senate in November.  And Jamie Smith, who we’re told is running for Governor, has yet to make a selection for a running mate. Lt. Governor is one of the things that the Democrat Party Convention is allegedly going to pick in three days hence, but we’ve heard nothing but crickets to this point.

Attorney General.. there was once early word that Randy Seiler might give it another run, if Jason Ravnsborg was the nominee. That did not happen, so guessing they need to find a Democrat Attorney who is willing to take one for the team.  Otherwise, Secretary of State, nothing. State Auditor, nothing, State Treasurer, nothing. School and Lands and Public Utilities Commission, nothing and nothing.

Literally, with three days to do, the prospects of statewide Democrat candidates willingly announcing that they’re running is looking pretty bleak.

Unless a person wants to be running on the Democrat ticket as a nominee, they might want to stay out of the bars in Pierre/Ft. Pierre this weekend.

Here’s an interesting tidbit from this weekend’s news cycle. If Steve Haugaard had his way in 2019, it would not have been his place to run for Lt. Gov:

Haugaard, a Sioux Falls Republican, in 2019 supported changing South Dakota laws on who controls the nomination of candidates for lieutenant governor.

He co-sponsored legislation that would have made candidates for governor solely responsible for deciding who would run with them for lieutenant governor. The legislation would have removed delegates at the political party’s convention from the decision process.

And..

KELOLAND News asked Haugaard about why he chose to take a path that he had once wanted to shut down. He hasn’t responded.

Read it here

There’s a strong possibility Haugaard may get his way 4 years later in this next session.

I haven’t gotten to this sooner, as I’ve been dealing with kids, and a massive resurgence of the summer head-cold that I thought I’d shook.  But it’s still worthwhile discussing a week later in the aftermath of convention.

A reckoning has been inching forward for how statewide candidates are selected in recent years, and after this last convention there has been more rumbling. And the last race at convention this year may have been the last nail in the coffin for convincing legislators that a change needs to be made in how the candidates for statewide office need to be selected.

After nearly a month of lead-time to declare his intent, in mid-afternoon on June 24^th, with nearly no -time to spare, Steve Haugaard, who lost the race for Governor on a 3-1 basis (76-24%) entered the race for Lt. Governor at convention, with about 24 hours to campaign.

With the make-up of convention delegates, Haugaard lost to Rhoden on a tighter weighted vote of 56% to 44%. Literally, the Governor who won on a 3-1 basis was within 10% of being saddled with a running mate who she not only soundly defeated, but a person who often maligned her with some pretty harsh attacks.  Which strongly raised a question that had been mentioned in passing as recently as the last time we went through this process – it is time to change the law and allow the Governor to appoint their running mate?

Many candidates for Governor do this in virtual terms now, by pre-announcing their running mate prior to convention, as Kristi did 4-years ago, and Democrats do in the run up to their convention. When things go as planned, it’s only a perfunctory blessing, but in a year like this, when voters clearly made their choice known, delegates elected to represent their precincts seem to have ignored their voters and gone awry.

I’ve heard chatter that there are legislators who want to move that pick directly to the Gubernatorial candidates. And really, unless we’re going to pick those offices individually, is there any justification to force a Lt. Governor onto the ticket with a Governor in a shotgun convention wedding?

After the convention results, there is also talk to move the selection of other candidates to the primary ballot.

There are those who think in addition of letting the Gov have their pick for their Lt Governor, Attorney General and Secretary of State could easily be sent to the Republican electorate as a whole in the primary election, making the primary elections a little larger, and giving all Republicans an opportunity to have a say in who their candidates are.

Going back to the results of what happened at the GOP Convention, there has been concerned expressed that precinct representatives of the counties were not representative of the area they represented. One example was how Brown County came in for Secretary of State Steve Barnett.. or how it didn’t.

Brown County Republican Convention delegates came in nearly 2-1 against Steve Barnett.In 2018, Barnett won Brown County in the general election on a 68-31% basis, even with Democrats voting. But at convention, the vote against him were the Republicans in his home county. Was there any great scandal or controversy to cause them to abandon him? No. Not at all.

Which is one example. And brings up the question whether delegates are elected to represent their precinct, or if they are there to represent their own views.

All this talk might be just that – talk. But it’s talk coming after a convention designed for unity saw a lack of unity from some of the people there. As they found themselves shut out from the June Primary ballot, some might say they made an effort to seize power at the next place they thought they could, at the convention.

But is the convention supposed to be about seizing power, or about the party coming together after a primary and moving the best candidates forward? Because when factions within the party are doing their best to block resolutions recognizing the top of the ticket as they did this year, someone’s crazy aunt needs to settle down at the table before they ruin the holiday for everyone.

We have a lot of months to go until the election, and we can hope that there’s more of a spirit of cooperation that comes to the surface in that time to help all Republican candidates in November.

Or not. And that’s when we’ll start losing elections.

In the words of Rodney King, “can’t we all just get along?”