From my mailbox, Lance Russell has sent out another 2 mailers today, but this one is more attention grabbing:

 

There’s word this afternoon that South Dakota Democrats have possibly abandoned thoughts of running a candidate for Secretary of State, after exhausting the people they could scare up to be sacrificial lambs for 2018 on other statewide contests.

…..

Nope. They reconvened, and put one of the other candidates’ spouses in.

Randy Seiler is announced the Democratic Party’s nominee for AG

— Dana Ferguson (@bydanaferguson) June 15, 2018

Public Utilities Commissioner Kristie Fiegen is in Delegate mailboxes today with a card inviting people to her Hospitality suite at the GOP Convention next week.

 

The GOP Convention is next week – Best Political Party in South Dakota!

This is new.  Laura Kaiser, who won a judgement against the State of South Dakota and collected $1.5 Million for it, and filmed a commercial that was used against Attorney General Marty Jackley in the closing days of the 2018 Republican primary, has authored a letter in support of Lance Russell who is campaigning to succeed Jackley for the AG’s spot:

Laura Kaiser for Russell by Pat Powers on Scribd

*Update*

You might specifically note that this letter was NOT sent out by the Russell campaign, but by Blaine “Chip” Campbell’s group, Republican Direction PAC.   Yes, this is the same group that took 10K from a storefront in Washington DC.

Because Lance knows that it’s the “Division of Criminal Investigation,” and not the “Department of Criminal investigation” as the letter incorrectly states.

The Washington Post has an article on female candidates who are not incumbents who will be on the ballot in November. The article holds out Congresswoman Noem as one of three Republicans favored to win in November.

I’d caught this a few days ago, and with all the AG chatter, I was reminded to post.

Earlier this week, candidate for Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg sent a video to the Sioux Land Republican Women, as opposed to appearing at their forum, he’s apparently out of state for annual Army training in the run up to convention:

According to the the Rapid City Journal newspaper this morning, as candidates are jockeying for position in the run up to the State GOP Convention, the paper is reporting that the Fitzgerald campaign is getting aggressive against his opponents as battle lines are drawn:

This year’s race has grown competitive in recent weeks as Fitzgerald and his supporters have criticized what they describe as Ravnsborg’s lack of prosecutorial experience and Russell’s 2011 public censure by the state Supreme Court.

Fitzgerald has publicly alleged that Ravnsborg has never tried a case before a jury as a prosecutor. Ravnsborg did not respond to phone and email messages from the Rapid City Journal seeking a response.

As for Russell, his censure by the state Supreme Court is preserved in public documents from 2011.

Read that here.

Hm. Kind of wondering about what Seth Tupper is saying about Fitzgerald and his supporters going after Russell for the public censure. I’d been told he may have testified as a character witness on Lance’s behalf as part of that process.

If he was speaking positively of his character then, I’m not sure why a political campaign should change things? (Yes, that was written in a sardonic tone).

Seriously, I have heard this from two people now.

Larry Rhoden just updated his profile picture. I’m not on Facebook a ton, but I’m also pretty sure his profile picture has been him with a fish for a couple years. Sandy does Facebook, I don’t think Larry does. The new picture is sure a good one for someone who may be in the spot light soon.

Actually, there are two profiles out there for Larry, and one of them did very recently have this photo:

(That is a nice fish). But, a lot of people have noticed there is a new profile out there that has no material yet other than this photo:

Hmmm… No fish, but something else. That almost looks a little campaign-ish.  Is a nice guy – Larry Rhoden- going to finish first in the sweepstakes for Lt. Governor?

We’ll see…

According to SBPB, the Secretary of State is saying Senator Lance Russell, who just won his primary for State Senate and is also running for Attorney General, must choose one campaign by 5pm next Friday:

South Dakota codified law states that candidacy for more than one public office in a single election is prohibited.

Secretary of State Shantel Krebs says her office recommends the candidate submits a withdrawal from the senate seat nomination if that candidate intends to go forward with the nomination.

“That is state law that we do have a withdrawal process in place for any instance where there might be something that comes up extraordinarily unusual that that candidate cannot proceed to the general election,” Krebs says. “There’s statutes to follow for withdrawal.”

And…

Russell says if he feels he has a good shot at clinching the nomination in next week’s convention, he will withdraw from his Senate race.

“The local Republican Party, the precinct people from my district would be able to select my replacement,” Russell says. “If I feel like I have a good shot at being attorney general, then I would do that. If not, I will continue in the Senate.”

Russell needs to make the decision by next Friday.

Read it here.