The Argus Leader and KELO land are out telling us what we already know today. The race for Governor is close, and it’s going to be hard fought up until the end:
In a survey of 625 registered Republican voters likely to cast their ballots in the election, 45 percent said they would vote for Kristi Noem if the race were held today. Forty-four percent, meanwhile, said they’d vote for Marty Jackley.
Noem’s Self-Proclaimed Double-Digit Lead Vanishes
PIERRE, SD: After repeatedly telling supporters her campaign holds a double-digit lead in the race for governor, Congresswoman Kristi Noem’s numbers are in a tailspin.
An Argus Leader/KELO poll shows the race in a dead heat.
Jackley’s ground game, which produced record-breaking fundraising and ballot petition numbers, could be the deciding factor.
In a last-ditch attempt to salvage her plummeting support, Noem launched a series of negative TV and radio ads attacking Attorney General Marty Jackley.
“Now we know why Congresswoman Noem launched her negative TV and radio attacks against Marty Jackley last week,” said Jackley for Governor campaign manager Jason Glodt. “Her poll numbers are in a freefall while Jackley is surging. The more people learn about both candidates, the higher our numbers rise.”
From Facebook, State Senator Stace Nelson and State Representative Liz May have apparently formed a Conservative Caucus club, separating themselves form the Republican Party, so they can declare themselves the “most conservative,” and send out rambling press releases:
As noted from the group’s facebook page, membership in this exclusive group is based on the scorecard produced by the Rapid City group “Citizens for Liberty”…
…as well as various grades from other organizations.
Since they’re basing inclusion in the group on the cherry-picked scorecard which was written up long after any votes, including issues not lobbied on by the group claiming ownership of the scorecards, one gets the impression that this Caucus isn’t anything more than the leaders of the group trying to declare themselves as better than other Republicans.
Meh. I hate to sound like the old guy, but groups like this (on either end of the ideological spectrum) have come and gone. So, while we wait for them to not raise any money and to fizzle out, the South Dakota GOP will still be around, actually getting candidates elected.
While this group throws rocks and tells everyone why they’re more conservative than everyone else.
From facebook, if you haven’t read or heard about the Poet’s Table incident, then you weren’t in front of your computer this weekend:
Not sure I’d want to be these girls, who have been caught. The Sheriff’s office is not releasing their names at this time. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
(Just ignore those sawing noises.)
FACT CHECK: Not Slander When True
Friends of Marty Jackley claim that saying government lawyer Marty Jackley delayed EB-5 charges, withheld critical information during the investigation, and let Pierre insiders off the hook is slander. But “slander” is, by definition, the “utterance of false charges,” and none of these charges are false.
Ironically, however, the ad makes a series of false attacks on Kristi Noem.
CHECK THE RECORD: Kristi Noem pushed for passage of a Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
CHECK THE RECORD: Kristi Noem got more than $6 trillion of spending cuts passed through the House.
Pierre Capital Journal: Some highlights of Noem’s tenure in office include: “Congress’s cutting of discretionary spending for the past two years, the House passage of a budget every year and her voting in favor of $6 trillion in spending cuts.”
CHECK THE RECORD: In addition to gutting Obamacare through tax reform, Kristi Noem pushed a full repeal of Obamacare through the House. It’s not accurate to blame Noem and the House for the Senate’s failings.
Argus Leader: Noem votes to repeal, replace Obamacare
The Hill: Congress repeals ObamaCare mandate, fulfilling longtime GOP goal
Politico: “At least two of the three Senate Republicans who blocked the repeal effort over the summer have no problem undoing the requirement that nearly all Americans carry insurance — a provision Democrats say is vital to keeping the Affordable Care Act afloat.”
THE KICKER: While trying to levy a false attack on Noem’s accomplishments, Friends of Marty Jackley feature pictures of Noem touting President Trump’s historic tax cuts plan, which was a promise made and a promise kept.
Revisiting the department of “people who should never be elected to anything because they’re awful human beings,” Lora Hubbel is dusting off her tin-foil hat and continues to talk about what she’s going to do if she is Governor.
A race she dropped out of at the end of March when she couldn’t talk enough people into signing her petitions.
While – as usual – Lora opens her usual trash-bags full of squirrel food, she keeps talking about things in the context of being Governor. She’s not talking about “when she’s State Senator,” the office that she’s actually running for in the GOP Primary, but Governor, the GOP Primary race she abandoned when she failed to collect enough signatures in March.
Despite not making the GOP ballot, Hubbel has also maintained her facebook presence as a candidate for Governor. AND she has yet to terminate her “Lora Hubbel for Governor” campaign committee, while at the same time reporting she’s neither raised or spent any money in the campaign for state senate. There has been far more activity on the Gubernatorial campaign than in her Senate campaign which has only 1 week to go.
There’s too much coincidence here to ignore. If she’s going to run, there’s one way Lora could be involved in a Gubernatorial race this year. And there’s previous precedent for it.
Coming off of her absolute loss for Governor to Dennis Daugaard in the 2014 GOP Primary, Lora abandoned the SDGOP after the State Republican Convention, and signed on to Independent Candidate Mike Myers’ campaign as his Lieutenant Governor. After that race, she joined and became chair of the Constitution Party.
Both the Constitution Party and Libertarian Parties have upcoming party conventions, where as a a result of a recent court decision and subsequent legislation, these “third party” groups are able to nominate a candidate for Governor at their convention.
While both minor parties have candidates already, the Constitution Party candidate is Terry Lee LaFleur, who like Lora also failed to make the GOP ballot in March. Unlike Lora, he’s never served in elected office. It would not come as much of a shock for Lora to switch back and rejoin the Constitution Party that she had chaired as recently as last year.
The Constitution Party State Convention is on Saturday, July 14th in Sioux Falls, coming after next week’s State Senate primary, where Hubbel is facing State Representative Wayne Steinhauer. If I were a betting man, given the way she keeps talking about being Governor, I might be tempted to wager some money on the possibility that the opportunistic Hubbel might roll the dice, and do another party switch after losing the State Senate contest.
What do you think? Are her continuing efforts in running for Governor, while at the same time ignoring the State Senate race, a tip off that she’s going to abandon the GOP again?
The comment section is yours.
From KSFY News, the Dusty Johnson campaign sent out a Cease and Desist letter to TV stations calling the recent Shantel Krebs attack ad that was rolled out an “exaggeration,” at best, if not outright untrue:
“The reality is that I was asked to serve to help eliminate a $127 million budget deficit without raising taxes,” Johnson said. “And I was happy to do that as Chief of Staff, but it simply didn’t happen in the timeline that secretary Krebs alleged.”
The ad goes on to say Johnson used a state plane for personal business and vacations, something else he said, just isn’t true.
“Things like luxurious vacations, I don’t know what that is,” Johnson said. “I never used any state assets to attend any personal events and nobody’s brought forth any proof to the contrary.”
An attorney for Johnson’s camp sent a cease and desist letter to KSFY News calling the ad, “defamatory,” and asking that it be pulled in, “any and all forms.”
and..
“Everything in the ad is an exaggeration if not outright untrue,” Johnson said. (note, article mistranscribes, but video had this correct quote -pp) “I understand that campaigns that are nervous about losing start to stretch the truth a little bit, but this has gone too far. At some point, facts matter.”
That was fast! The Marty Jackley campaign has responded to the Kristi Noem Campaign commercial, and issued their own commercial claiming Washington has changed Congresswoman Noem:
As always, let us know what you think!
