Little housekeeping.. SDWC political twitter feed is back, ads available, etcetera

@SoDakCampaigns

Just a few housekeeping items worth mentioning.

The SDWC Political Twitter feed is back for a trial run, as long as it manages not to bog down loading times. I had pared down a number of the scripts appearing on the page, but as soon as I went to cloudflare to kill some of the bots, traffic from China, and other things scanning my site, load times are much better so I’m able to give it a return shot.

I’ve had several inquiries, but I do still have a couple prime spots available for advertising on the website. Drop me a note today if you’d like to get locked in. (And as I love my long term advertisers, I do discount 1 month for every 6 month commitment.)

Had a speaking engagement with the SDSU Political Science Club last night, and it went very well. I’m usually pretty speaking-engagement averse, as I really hate talking about myself. And when I post, I edit and re-edit. But I managed to fill a half hour without too much difficulty and don’t think I sounded too stupid.  It’s my ultimate goal to start doing a weekly vlog post, so that might mean forward motion in that direction. We’ll see.

This morning, I had a legislator reach out on why I haven’t written anything about the House ‘Grouse’ redistricting map. I told him that important thing to note is the three previous columns on redistricting were all guest columns. If a member of the House committee wants to send me a column on why their map is best, if they want to write it up, I will run it.

And that goes the same for guest columns on other topics.  I always welcome those who want to contribute on current topics of political interest, as I’m usually crazy busy and that’s good content I don’t have to write.   Is that an invitation to send me stuff bashing candidates? No. It’s an invitation to expand the knowledge of readers on topics they might be misinformed about or should be better versed in.  Send me a note here, and we can discuss.

Other that that, as we’re getting into the campaign season, I’m planning to discuss candidate and campaign related topics. Any facet of campaigning you are interested in discussing or knowing more about? As I was telling the SDSU students last night, I’ve been doing this stuff for more than 30 years, so hopefully I can provide some insight candidates and workers can find useful. Leave a note in the comment section, and I’ll cover it in the weeks coming up.

Stay tuned!

Taffy Howard group photo from her congressional announcement this AM.

@SoDakCampaigns

So, Taffy Howard posted this photo from her announcement this AM in Sioux Falls..

Not a large crowd on this one.. I’m seeing State Rep. Tom Pischke, Former State Rep. Manny Steele, a couple family members, and a smattering of others.  Her announcement in Rapid City ended up being canceled due to weather.

Funny that Tom Pischke is there, as he was a big backer of Liz May last primary. I think May had more people at her announcement for that race.

What are your thoughts?

House redistricting team accuses Sen. Schoenbeck of being ‘intelligent’ in defense of their own map

@SoDakCampaigns

Members of the House Redistricting Committee have found an interesting way of countering arguments that they’ve drawn a map that protects their allies. They’re accusing State Senator Lee Schoenbeck of being intelligent:

Senate Pro Temp Lee Schoenbeck — one of the most influential Republican lawmakers — accused House members of maintaining “gerrymandered” boundaries in order to preserve current districts that are favorable to their plans for reelection.

“It looks like someone accidentally spilled something on the map,” he said of one district proposed by the House. “They are making a concerted effort to create or protect districts for people.”

and..

He (State Rep. Drew Dennert) charged that Schoenbeck was “a very intelligent political operative,” who had taken to attacking the House proposal because he was losing support.

Read it all here.

Well, darn that intelligent Schoenbeck. I’m sure Dennert is doing his best not to be accused of that same flaw.

Probably the most interesting thing that came up yesterday besides this story was that independent of it, I was contacted by a State House member who was asked his thoughts on how the map looked. They hadn’t been provided the House version, so they called me looking for it.

Just in case it was a fluke, I called another member of the House of Representatives. They hadn’t seen it either.

And we continue to move towards to the special session.

State Rep. Taffy Howard announcing for Congress… And signs on to letter calling for 2020 election to be de-certified.

@SoDakCampaigns

It looks like Taffy Howard is having a busy day. First, it looks like she’s done ‘exploring’ her run for congress, considering how ridiculous the exploring was in the first place when she was running the whole time:

And, according to one twitter source, Taffy also just singed on to a letter demanding a do-over for the 2020 election, which demands a forensic audit of the results of all 50 states:

“We have come to the conclusion that all 50 states need to be forensically audited. Voter rolls should be scrubbed with a canvass of the voters to ensure future integrity of our elections”

“We call on each state to decertify its electors where is has been shown the elections were certified prematurely and inaccurately”

Yeah.. kind of like trying to make someone un-pregnant after the baby is nearly a year old. It just isn’t a timely effort.

PUC Commissioner Gary Hanson announces this term is his last

Pat Powers

From an article in the Argus Leader, PUC Commissioner Gary Hanson has announced that his current term is his last:

Gary Hanson had been attending to the affairs of his father, as well as his duties on the PUC, this summer.

Next year will mark his 20th year on the PUC, having won a new six-year term in 2020. And when that term is over, Hanson said he is done with political office.

and..

All told, Hanson has run in 18 elections, including primaries, runoffs and general elections. He hasn’t lost one of them.

“Politics is my life,” he says.

Read the entire article here.

I’ve said before that 2026 is going to be the biggest year in politics that we’ve seen in a decade or two, and that continues to hold true.

Associated Press reporter focusing on citing Noem critics for attack piece on Governor

@SoDakCampaigns

The Governor’s Communications Director Ian Fury pointed out an interesting piece about the coverage the Associated Press is giving Governor Kristi Noem:

The story does serve as a counterpoint to Groves’ sources on a number of issues.

Groves going to Painter is troubling because he deceptively fails to mention that the professor is anything other than a partisan opponent of former President Donald J. Trump and his allies…

It is out-and-out fraudulent that Groves fails to mention that Painter ran for U.S. Senate in the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (MDFLP). The MDFLP functions as the local brand of the Democratic Party, and here he is telling voters that Trump is a Russian agent…

and..

Groves also relies on a local Noem-hater for his coverage, without giving the reader the proper context to frame his opinions in his October 1 article “South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem defends daughter’s licensure.”

Johnson is the owner of Johnson Appraisal, and in November 2020, he wrote in his “Watertown Public Opinion” column that Noem’s mask policy was endangering the public..

and..

Finally, in 2019, Noem took Johnson off the South Dakota Board of Water and Natural Resources, where he had served since 2003, including 14 years as board chairman.

Thus, it should come as no surprise that Johnson has been out in front going after Noem with his latest attack column: “Brad Johnson: Appraisers furious with Gov. Kristi Noem’s intervention on daughter’s behalf.”

Read the entire story here, and judge for yourself.