After Alex Jensen, running for the At-Large City Council race, set a new record for fundraising in Sioux Falls City Council elections, his expected opponent – current City Councilperson Theresa Stehly – had no report of fundraising to file… and seems to be trying to figure out if she has a path forward, according to a report in the Argus Leader tonight:

“Right now, he’s the only declared candidate,” she (Councilor Christine Erickson) said. “I’m supporting Alex Jensen for many reasons, moving this city forward and the vision he has for the city of Sioux Falls.”

Stehly told the Argus Leader Monday that while she’s surprised to see the amount of financial energy around Jensen’s campaign, she’s not letting it distract her from her duties as a city councilor.

“I was surprised by the energy, especially considering the fact that I’ve been a loyal Republican, but who also loves Democrats and independents,” she said. “Maybe that’s the problem.”

Read that here.

While Theresa might not be “distracted,” she might also be deluding herself a bit.  Aside from the fact Alex is a pretty likeable person, I sincerely doubt Theresa’s problems are because she “loves” everyone, as opposed to the opposite. More likely, the problem is “Stehly’s scorched-earth approach,” “grandstanding” and “bullying behavior.”   

Stehly’s biggest handicap in the City Council race is herself, and the non-stop chaos she keeps trying to whip up.

If Stehly runs, she’s the incumbent and does have the advantage that incumbency provides. But much of that is based on voters believing they made a good decision in the last election. She’s not doing much to reinforce that impression. At all.

Just this year, no one forced her to run a political robocall on Easter weekend against someone the city council sought to hire. (One who’s cost isn’t disclosed in a campaign finance report, I might add.)  No one forced her to claim she’s in fear of being “Epstiened” over a recorded message. No one forced her to actually accuse her colleagues of being “corrupt” over using cell phones. No one forced her to block her critics on Facebook.  Not to mention all the other crazy she’s fostered on the council.

In talking to people in Sioux Falls across a broad political spectrum, they’re just kind of done with it. And they’re more than willing to support a candidate who wants to work for others, as opposed to seeking attention for themselves.

Stehly’s strength in the past has been in grassroots organization. In 2016 she faced politically less experienced opponents. In 2020, she faces former State Representative Jensen who is not just experienced politically, he’s a pretty good campaigner, doesn’t have an aura of negativity, and is already off and running while Stehly is indecisive.

Stehly’s indecision and failure to conduct a campaign might prove to be her downfall.

SECOND BALLOT QUESTION VALIDATED FOR 2020 GENERAL ELECTION 

PIERRE – Secretary of State Steve Barnett announced a petition submitted for an amendment to the South Dakota Constitution was validated and filed by his office today. This ballot measure would legalize, regulate, and tax marijuana and require the Legislature to pass laws regarding hemp, including laws to ensure access to marijuana for medical use. The measure will be titled Constitutional Amendment A and will appear on the 2020 General Election ballot on November 3, 2020.

A constitutional amendment currently requires 33,921 valid signatures in order to qualify for the ballot. “As outlined in South Dakota Codified Law § 2-1-16, our office conducted a random sample of the petition signatures and found 68.74 percent to be valid,” stated Secretary Barnett. Based on the results of the random sample, 36,707 signatures were deemed valid.

Upon the filing of a ballot measure, any citizen may challenge the Secretary of State’s validation of the measure under South Dakota Codified Law § 2-1-17.1. Citizens challenging the validation shall submit an original, signed affidavit to the Office of the Secretary of State no more than 30 days after validation. Electronic submissions of affidavits will not be accepted. For this measure, the deadline to file a challenge is Wednesday, February 5, 2020 at 5:00 p.m. central time.

This measure was the final ballot question submitted by the November 4, 2019 deadline. The South Dakota Legislature has the ability to include constitutional amendments on the 2020 Ballot and South Dakota citizens have the ability to submit a referendum petition concerning laws passed during the 2020 Legislative Session.

Detailed information on specific 2020 Ballot Questions may be found on the Secretary of State’s website at https://sdsos.gov/elections-voting/upcoming-elections/general-information/2020-ballot- questions.aspx.

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In a report filed today, Democratic Sioux Falls City Council Candidate (NW District) Julian Beaudion has three big dollar donors (besides himself) in his year end report. And one of them is quite noticeable for his political activity.

Democrat State Party Chair Randy Seiler dove straight into this race with Beaudion’s second largest donation, sending a $500 check. Which was only surpassed by fellow Democrat (and Director for the Center for Diversity & Community) Laura Chandler’s donation of $1000.

Interestingly, in the last city election. Beaudion was tied closely to Democrat Sioux Falls Mayoral Candidate Jolene Loetscher, standing with her at one of her press conferences, and was cited as one of the authors of her plan to split the police department into police precincts. Beaudion was also rumored to be Loetscher’s choice for Police Chief had she won in the election.

With his close association with Loetscher, and big bucks coming in from Seiler, Beaudion’s candidacy looks to be Democrat’s partisan beachhead in the non-partisan Sioux Falls City Council race.

Municipal Candidate Committee_ Julian Beaudion_ Campaign Finance Disclosure Report_ Northwest District (NW)… by Pat Powers on Scribd

(From http://danielhaggar.com/)

Daniel Haggar announces his candidacy for Minnehaha County State’s Attorney

Sioux Falls, SD – January 6, 2020– Daniel Haggar announces his candidacy for  Minnehaha County State’s Attorney.

I am running for Minnehaha County State’s Attorney to enforce our laws in a way that promotes justice. I will  provide fresh, hardworking leadership for the office and our communities. Keeping where we live safe is my top priority and essential for the continued growth of our County. My wife, Jennifer, and I were raised in Minnehaha County and we have chosen to raise our three young children here. I am invested in ensuring this a great place to live and raise a family.

I have extensive legal experience in the public sector. I have served as a public defender, state’s attorney, and city attorney. I prosecuted and defended criminal cases from arrest to trial. This helps me to understand the impact the criminal justice system has on individuals and our communities.

I believe Minnehaha County deserves a leader with fresh perspective, who values being present and working hard. There are many passionate, knowledgeable, and dedicated employees in the State’s Attorney Office who are currently doing excellent work. These employees deserve a working environment that fosters integrity and furthers justice. By serving alongside these employees I will improve the efficiency and organization of the office.

In Minnehaha County, I will collaborate with stakeholders to fight violent crime, find lasting ways to halt the current crime trends, and reduce the number of repeat offenders. I will find solutions which prioritize our communities, but also benefit our State. I have experience in the legislative process. When appropriate, I will be able to provide leadership when legislative questions arise.

The chief prosecutor in the most populous county in South Dakota needs to be a visible leader focused on safety, integrity and justice.  As Minnehaha County State’s Attorney I will be that leader.

Contact Daniel Haggar at 605-610-9338 or [email protected] with any questions.

Noem Appoints Schoenfish, Overweg to Serve District 19

PIERRE, S.D. – Governor Kristi Noem today announced that she has appointed current Representative Kyle Schoenfish to fill the District 19 vacancy in the South Dakota State Senate. The vacancy was created following the resignation of Stace Nelson. Schoenfish, a Scotland resident, has served in the House since 2013.

“It has been a tremendous honor to represent my community and home district in the House these last seven years, and I am grateful for the opportunity to now serve them in the Senate,” said Schoenfish.

Concurrently, Noem appointed Marty Overweg to represent District 19 in the State House of Representatives, succeeding Schoenfish.

“Serving in the South Dakota legislature is an incredible privilege and responsibility that I do not take lightly,” said Overweg. “I look forward to representing the people of my district and working with other legislators and Governor Noem to make a positive difference for our state.”

Overweg, a New Holland native, owns and operates Overweg Feed and Wagner Feed Supply. He and his wife have five children and nine grandchildren.

“I am thankful for the input of the people in District 19 as we’ve worked toward this decision,” said Noem. “Kyle and Marty are pillars in their communities and have excellent records of service. I am confident they will represent their district with boldness and innovation. I look forward to working with them in the weeks and months to come.”

Both appointments are effective immediately.

Greg Neitzert Raises More Than $13,500 for City Council Campaign

Sioux Falls, SD — Greg Neitzert, City Councilor for the Northwest District and candidate for reelection, has far exceeded his fundraising goal and ended the year with $13,586 in contributions.

Contributors donated between $15 and $1,000 and represent all walks of life.

“I am blown away by the support”, says Greg Neitzert.  “It has been humbling and I am incredibly thankful.  I have tirelessly worked to make informed decisions based on the long-term interests of the city and all citizens.  If I am honored with reelection by the voters, I pledge to continue to serve in the same way.  Now more than ever we need public servants who put the best interests of the city ahead of their own, and I strive to do that every day.”

As the son of an auto mechanic and a nurse raised in a working-class neighborhood of Northeast Sioux Falls, Greg learned firsthand the value of hard work and living on a tight budget.  Working his way through college and now raising a family, Greg understands the challenges citizens face.  In his career as a software engineer, Greg has developed strong analytical skills that allows him to break down complex problems and to find solutions.  These skills are essential to address the challenges and opportunities the city will encounter as it continues to grow.  Greg will continue to focus on improving the quality of life for all citizens, investing in critical infrastructure, and working to ensure sustainable growth while keeping Sioux Falls an affordable place to live, work, and play.

Greg Neitzert has served on the Sioux Falls City Council representing the Northwest District since 2016.  Before his election to City Council, he served on the Sioux Falls Zoning Board of Adjustment for 5 years.  Neitzert has served on various boards and task forces, most recently as Vice Chair of the City Council, Chair of the City Council Audit Committee, and member of the city’s Annexation Task Force and Billboard Task Force.  Neitzert has been married to his wife Jennifer for 17 years.  They have an eleven-year-old daughter, Olivia, who is a fifth-grader in the Sioux Falls public school system.

The Sioux Falls City Council election will be held on Tuesday April 14, 2020.

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Municipal Candidate Committee_ Greg Neitzert for City Council_ Campaign Finance Disclosure Report_ Northwes… by Pat Powers on Scribd

New Law Finally Puts Illegal Robocallers on Notice
By Sen. John Thune

If you’re a Seinfeld fan like me, you probably remember the episode where Jerry receives a phone call from a telemarketer, interrupting his conversation with other characters on the show. Jerry tells the person on the other end of the line that he’s busy, but says that if the telemarketer shares his home phone number, he would call him back later. The telemarketer says he won’t do that, and Jerry asks, “I guess you don’t want people calling you at home?” When he agrees, Jerry says, “Well, now you know how I feel.”

Jerry’s sentiment is something we all can relate to, and maybe you’ve even used his strategy a time or two when you’ve received an unwanted robocall or telemarketing call over the years.

As technology has evolved, traditional telemarketing calls have gone from a landline ringing during dinner to relentless, downright annoying – and sometimes illegal – phone calls that are barraging our home, work, and mobile phones at all hours of the day. I receive them. My friends receive them. Even my 100-year-old dad has received them.

For some people, the situation has gotten so bad that they’ve chosen to simply stop answering the phone all together. That’s an unacceptable position for Americans to feel forced into, particularly if they’re sacrificing answering legitimate calls in order to avoid the annoying nuisance ones.

While no one with a phone is immune to robocalls, some people are specifically targeted, often vulnerable populations like the elderly. If you don’t know someone who’s been tricked by one of these scammers, you’ve probably seen a story on the news or read about it online or in the newspaper. These guys will stop at nothing. Well, hopefully, until now.

As I travel around South Dakota, I get a good sense of what’s on folks’ minds. As the hot-button issues of the day change, the feedback I hear from people often changes, too. One issue that has never seemed to change, though, is the outrage people feel toward illegal robocallers.

Having been on the receiving end of these calls myself, I tried to harness this collective outrage when I drafted the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act, or TRACED Act, to formally put these scammers on notice. As Frank Costanza said during the annual “airing of grievances” on Seinfeld, “I’ve got a lot of problems with you people, and now you’re going to hear about it!”

This bipartisan bill is actually pretty straightforward. First, it gives federal agencies more authority to go after illegal robocallers, including by increasing the window in which they’re able to levy fines, and it significantly increases the amount robocallers can be fined in that expanded window. Second, it requires federal regulators to finalize rules that will require most carriers to adopt technology that will prevent these calls from reaching consumers in the first place. Finally, among other common-sense fixes, my bill adds teeth to the law’s enforcement mechanism by creating a credible threat of criminal prosecution – spending time behind bars.

It’s worth noting that the TRACED Act only targets those unwanted and illegal robocalls, like being offered a free trip to the Bahamas in exchange for a Social Security number and credit card information. It protects legitimate entities that use technology to contact consumers, like a bank flagging a potentially fraudulent transaction or a health care provider reminding a patient about an upcoming medical appointment.

My bill was approved by the Senate earlier this year with overwhelming support. Just before Congress adjourned in 2019, the Senate approved a slightly modified version by a simple voice vote, sending it to the president for his signature. On December 30, 2019, after years of work, the TRACED Act became the law of the land.

This effort, which I led with Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) was as unique as it was important. In today’s political environment, it’s not every day that you see a conservative Republican teaming up with a liberal Democrat on a bill that was nearly unanimously supported in a divided Congress. That’s why the Washington Post said the TRACED Act is “what good, old-fashioned legislating looks like.” That’s a badge of honor, in my opinion.

While this new law won’t immediately stop every single illegal robocall, it does mark the first major attempt to end this scourge in more than a decade, and it will lay important groundwork in the fight toward giving consumers greater peace of mind when their phone rings in 2020 and beyond.

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Two Years Later, Tax Reform Continues to Help South Dakota Families, Small Businesses
By U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.)

Historic tax reform legislation was signed into law by President Trump just over two years ago, and it has had a positive impact for South Dakota families and small businesses. Entrepreneurs are feeling optimistic about their businesses, and are reinvesting savings from tax cuts back into their businesses and their employees. Wages are rising and new jobs are being created. The average American household can expect a lifetime gain of around $25,000 thanks to tax reform.

One of the many reasons I voted in favor of tax reform was because of the benefits it included for small businesses. In our state, 99 percent of all businesses are small businesses. We are the home base for 85,000 small businesses that employ more than 200,000 South Dakotans. Each of these small businesses plays a critical role in our state’s economy. When they are doing well financially, they can hire more workers, pay employees higher wages, give out bonuses and increase charitable giving to benefit the community. Higher wages and better jobs can help families save for their children’s education, buy a home and invest for retirement.

We just wrapped up the biggest shopping season of the year. The holidays are a busy time for small businesses, and shopping locally can help to make sure they continue to succeed year after year. In 2019, the national economy continued its growth streak, and consumers felt confident spending their hard-earned money. Recent numbers showed that 83 percent of consumers planned to shop at a small business over the holidays, and 91 percent of consumers regularly shop at a small business at least once per week throughout the entire year.

During a visit to Sioux Falls late last year, I spent some time driving around the city to meet with small business owners ahead of the busy holiday season. From bakeries to retail shops, the majority of the people I met with felt confident that they’d end the year on solid footing. I’ve had a number of business owners from across the state tell me that while they’re doing well, they have trouble finding people to hire. We have so many jobs, but not a big enough workforce to fill all of them. I’ll continue working in the Senate to advance workforce development policies so businesses can fill open jobs and our economy can reach its full potential.

We also need to continue to finalize trade agreements to bring some stability back to the market for ag producers. As the administration continues to upgrade our trade policies with other countries, South Dakota’s ag producers have been at the tip of the spear. This month, we expect to finalize the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal, which will help South Dakota dairy producers and manufacturers. It will also give us some much-needed leverage to finalize trade deals in other parts of the world so all of our state’s ag producers can feel some relief. I appreciate President Trump’s commitment to corn farmers and ethanol producers that his administration will live up to the law and blend 15 billion gallons of ethanol into the nation’s fuel supply annually. Making sure the EPA follows through on that promise is important for corn producers in our part of the country. Agriculture is our state’s number one industry, and it’s critical that our farmers and ranchers have markets to sell their products.

Tax reform was a win for South Dakota families and small businesses, but we still have work ahead of us to make sure our economy continues to grow in all sectors. I look forward to tackling these issues in the year ahead.

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A Year in Review
By Rep. Dusty Johnson

Rep. Johnson speaks at an Agriculture Committee hearing.

It’s been nearly a year since I packed a suitcase and flew to our nation’s capital to be sworn in as South Dakota’s lone representative. It was a proud moment for my family and me. I stood on the U.S. House floor, raised my right hand, and swore my oath to the U.S. Constitution alongside my three boys and better half. A few weeks later, I was appointed to a leadership position as a Subcommittee Ranking Member on the Agriculture Committee – it’s been an honor helping to lead a committee that does such important work for South Dakota.

Since January 3, 2019, Congress has been nothing short of eventful. When I was sworn into office, the government was in a partial shutdown. For weeks, Speaker Pelosi and President Trump went back and forth on funding for border security. I stood with the president and supported a bill that reopened the government and provided funding for a border wall.

Every day, my main priority is South Dakota. I’ve taken three-hundred and fifty-eight meetings with South Dakotans while in Washington. In the last year, I’ve toured two-hundred and ninety-seven local businesses, hosted twenty-one in person townhalls, and met with dozens of community leaders throughout our great state. I’ve always had more energy to burn than most. I promised I would work hard to fight for South Dakota’s priorities, and I believe I’ve kept that promise. An average day in Washington begins at seven in the morning and lasts well into the ten o’clock evening hour. I’m also proud of our legislative successes – I introduced thirteen bills this year, two of which were signed into law by President Trump.

Rep. Johnson gives a constituent group a tour of the U.S. Capitol building.

I did take the opportunity to venture out on a few fact-finding missions outside of Washington. I toured areas along the southern border and Mexico because border security continues to be a primary concern of mine. Our immigration courts are dealing with more than 436,000 open cases and this unprecedented caseload is why I supported legislation to send humanitarian aid to the border and increase the number of immigration case judges. The president signed this bill into law in June.

South Dakota has had a tough year weather-wise. Crops were wiped out and thousands of acres flooded – multiple times. I came to Washington to tackle the life-altering problems. I am proud of the work our team put in to get the prevent plant harvest date moved from November to September this year. The FEEDD Act would formalize that important decision, and I am grateful the U.S. Department of Agriculture moved the harvest date in part because of my bipartisan legislation.

Few issues have been more important to me than trade. I never imagined it would take more than a year to pass the United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement (USMCA), but it did. I gave floor speech after floor speech, attended meeting after meeting, urging Speaker Pelosi to let the U.S. House vote on a deal that, according to the Office of the U. S. Trade Representative, will add 176,000 jobs and $68 billion to our economy. I delivered my last USMCA floor speech on December 19, 2019, moments before casting my vote in favor of the USMCA.

I’m tremendously proud of the work South Dakota’s congressional office has accomplished this year, and I hope you are too.

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