Dusty Johnson Raises $100k for 6^th Consecutive Quarter
Continues to Set Records in Congressional Bid

MITCHELL, SD – The Dusty Johnson for Congress campaign announced today that they received over $100,000 in contributions during the first quarter of this year. This is the sixth quarter in a row that Dusty Johnson’s campaign has accomplished this feat, raising their overall fundraising to a record-breaking $700,000. This amount is more than any previous challenger or open seat candidate has raised for a congressional primary in South Dakota history.

“Running a successful statewide campaign takes time, resources and money,” said Dusty Johnson. “Our team is humbled by the willingness of South Dakotans to enthusiastically step up and support our efforts. Because of their hard work we have consistently outperformed our opponents on every metric: grassroots support, fundraising, and the issues. The support we’re seeing across South Dakota is so tremendous that we were able to be the first campaign for congress to get our ads in the newspaper and on the air. Thanks to our volunteers and supporters I know that we can keep building momentum, win this race, and make the conservative reforms in Congress that America needs.”

Dusty Johnson grew up in a working-class family in Central South Dakota and graduated from USD Vermillion. A former policy staff member for Governor Mike Rounds, Dusty learned early on he had a passion for public service. After serving on the Public Utilities Commission, Dusty became Governor Daugaard’s Chief of Staff and helped lead the state out of a $127 million deficit. Dusty currently works as Vice President at Vantage Point Solutions in Mitchell where he helps telecommunications companies deploy fiber and broadband into rural communities.

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I just heard a bit of a wild tale.

Remember this letter from the other day from Janet Brekke for Sioux Falls City Council that hit mailboxes last week?

This is a physical photograph of the hard copy of the letter that arrived in mailboxes. Which if you recall, I pointed out it’s awfulness, and disbelief it came out from a campaign because of glaring grammatical errors, etcetera.

After the letter hit the streets, I started hearing word of another letter and people were said to be unhappy because the above letter that went out might not be the letter that they’d agreed to sign.   I’ve been scouting around for that letter, and I was just able to get my hands on a screenshot of what, allegedly, people had been asked to sign at an early stage:

Now, the second letter has substantial similarities to the first one, including the line about sending Janet to help Theresa Stehly and Pat Starr. But there’s a glaring addition to the early letter that was a bit more explosive than the first edit: The line about there being a “culture of secrecy” and “the allegations of doctoring/tampering with public documents” was not part of the above letter that had been circulated around for signatures… but it was sure in the letter that had been mailed out.

Clearly, what I’m told was the original letter was a bit long and needed some trimming and minor edits. But what it was replaced with took a sharp enough turn from the original that people would have wanted to know what their names were on, and should have been cleared with them all before it went out.

Sometimes in the heat of campaigns, people make snap decisions to expedite things. But it’s a good lesson that when other people are putting their names on the line, you should probably get their explicit say-so first.

Previously committing to spend $300,000 of his own money on his campaign effort, Congressional Candidate Neal Tapio is looking to supplement his campaign pocketbook after spending a self-reported $115,000, as per his post on Facebook today asking for donations:

From my mailbox, looks like the Libertarians are going to have a showdown for Governor:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Steve Novotny

WINNER, S.D. — Steve Novotny, Winner, announced today he will seek the South Dakota Libertarian Party’s nomination for Governor.

Novotny, 61, is married to his wife of 42 years, Denise. The couple have two daughters, two sons in law, and four grandchildren. In addition to being a third-generation farmer on a century-old homestead, he also runs an aerial application business, utilizing helicopters in agricultural spraying. Novotny has also been a huge supporter of military veterans, he’s flown in parades and memorials, and has dedicated a lot of his time and energy helping people who have served the country.

Known by the nickname “Air Wolf”, Novotny says he knows the trials and tribulations of hard work and the dedication it takes to make a business succeed. He hopes to take his lifetime of experience to the Governor’s office in 2019.

In a release dated Monday, Novotny said it was time for the people to take back control from corrupt career politicians and make the state more prosperous and people-friendly.

“With years of corruption under the two-party government’s lack of leadership, it’s time to clean up South Dakota’s image,” Novotny said. “The trail of tears and corpses littered across this state must end, and non-politicians must take the controls to navigate South Dakota into the future.”

Novotny will seek nomination at the LPSD’s state convention in Sioux Falls on Saturday, April 14. If successful, he will go on to the general election on November 6 and face Democrat Billie Sutton and the winner of the Republican primary between Attorney General Marty Jackley and U.S. Representative Kristi Noem.

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My voter database shows Novotny was registered as a Republican up until recently, but unlike his opponent CJ Abernathey, actually changed to Libertarian before the campaign began, which I confirmed through the Secretary of State.

Moving on…

Mark this as the oddest endorsement press release so far this year. From my mailbox:

PRESS RELEASE
April 9, 2018

In light of recent City Council issues, Theresa Stehly has publicly endorsed Janet Brekke for City Council on Monday.

Stehly has been inspired by the enclosed endorsements done in the past by Christine Erickson and Dennis Daugaard for candidates running for office.

Theresa Stehly
(605) 929-8783
theresastehly@yahoo.com

Okay?

The Stehly endorsement doesn’t talk about Brekke’s qualifications or her background, or her issues or anything. But what we ARE seeing from the Lora Hubbel of the Sioux Falls City Council is that she’s endorsing because… others have endorsed others in the past?

Really? Is that her only reason?

Aside from the fact that the first attempt at the release didn’t have the endorsements it was claiming to attach (so it was sent again noting endorsements from Daugaard 6 years ago, and one from Christine Erickson last year).. I’m not sure why we really care that other people have endorsed people in the past.

Moving on…

GOPAC Announces 2018 Class of Emerging Leaders

Twenty-seven legislators selected for exclusive training in preparation to run for higher office or chamber leadership. 

Arlington, VA (April 9, 2018) – Today, GOPAC announced its 2018 Class of Emerging Leaders, a list of promising legislators selected for their potential and ability to impact their state and the Republican Party.

“Our 2018 Emerging Leaders highlight our efforts to promote Republicans who advocate for the personal and economic security of Americans. These men and women are a superb addition to the roster of Republicans we are developing nationwide to lead in their state legislatures and/or run for higher office.” said GOPAC Chairman David Avella.

The Emerging Leaders program is a yearlong initiative to coach and develop state legislators from across the country on how to be effective legislative leaders.

This year’s class will begin their involvement at the 8th Annual Emerging Leaders Summit, which takes place from June 11th to 14th. The Summit gives participants the opportunity to learn from policy experts, veteran lawmakers, communications professionals and seasoned political strategists. These leaders return to their states better equipped to advance the ideas they are championing and prepare for the rigors of campaigning for higher office.

To be selected, an Emerging Leader must be nominated by a member of the organization’s Legislative Leaders Advisory Board or the legislative leader in their state.

GOPAC’s 2018 Class of Emerging Leaders:

Alabama Senator Clyde Chambliss
Arkansas Senator Trent Garner
Arizona Senator Sine Kerr
Connecticut Senator George Logan
Indiana Senator John Ruckelshaus
Iowa Senator Charles Schneider
Kentucky Senator Wil Schroder
Minnesota Senator John Jasinski
Mississippi Senator Rita Potts Parks
Oklahoma Senator Greg Treat
South Dakota Senator Deb Peters
Virginia Senator Bill DeSteph
Wyoming Senator Affie Ellis
Florida Representative Daniel Perez
Georgia Representative Matt Hatchett
Indiana Representative Todd Huston
Kansas Representative Tom Cox
Louisiana Representative Julie Emerson
Michigan Representative Mary Whiteford
Mississippi Representative Dan Eubanks
North Carolina Representative Holly Grange
North Dakota Representative Shannon Roers Jones
Ohio Representative Theresa Gavarone
Tennessee Representative Kevin Vaughan
Virginia Delegate Emily Brewer
Wisconsin Representative Mike Rohrkaste
West Virginia Delegate Riley Moore

To learn more about the Class of 2018, visit our website at gopac.org/emerging-leaders.

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ABOUT GOPAC: GOPAC is the Republican Party’s premier center for educating and electing a new generation of Republican leaders. It’s a force in American politics as it ensures a healthy roster of prepared and tested state leaders are ready to lead in their legislatures and/or run for higher office.

From the Secretary of State, it definitely appears that one less Democrat is on the ballot:

 

And the first Democrat candidate falls.

I’m hearing word this weekend that Brookings Democrat & D7 State Senate Candidate Mary Perpich had her nominating petitions successfully challenged, and she has been knocked off the ballot for the November election.  The word is that Perpich’s petition signatures were challenged and after reviewing, all 66 of her 66 signatures were declared invalid.

What went wrong? I’m being told that the person (House Minority Leader Spence Hawley) who notarized the verification of circulator section on all five petition sheets apparently does not hold a current notary commission. And as a result, Perpich will not be placed on the ballot.

Unless an independent or third party candidate files petitions to run, this means that Republican Candidate VJ Smith will automatically win the election.

US Senator Mike Rounds was on Meet the Press this AM talking about the chemical weapon attack in Syria and the possibility of Chinese tariffs on American ag products:

There’s No Offseason for Wildfire Prevention
By Sen. John Thune

South Dakota is no stranger to wildfires. In fact, while we’re technically still in the offseason, it was only a few months ago that the Legion Fire scorched tens of thousands of acres in Custer State Park and forced numerous home evacuations in the area. Thankfully, no one was injured. It was a good reminder, though, that there’s no offseason when it comes to discussing ways to reduce the risk of future wildfire incidents, which is a good thing for the land, property owners, and local communities that often face the brunt of the damage and clean-up.

Congress recently took an important step in that direction. Included in a newly enacted law, which I supported in the Senate, was a package of proposals that will take a significant financial burden off of the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), one of the primary federal agencies that’s often tasked with both battling forest fires and helping to prevent them from happening in the first place.

Until this new bill was signed into law, wildfires weren’t treated the same as other natural disasters, like hurricanes. In those cases, dedicated federal funds were set aside to help with rescue operations and the subsequent clean-up. In bad wildfire years, like 2017, for example, the USFS was forced to use money that was set aside for other purposes, like tools for fire mitigation, to instead fight wildfires across the country. Every dollar intended for forest maintenance that’s spent battling a blaze is a dollar that isn’t being spent on future preventative measures.

Thanks to the change in the law, fire-borrowing (using previously allocated funds for unrelated fire suppression costs)will now be a thing of the past. A new contingency account will be established so the USFS can more efficiently prioritize its annual funding without having to worry about the uncertainty that can be created in bad wildfire years.

U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, who oversees the USFS, hailed the new law, saying, “Improving the way we fund wildfire suppression will help us better manage our forests. If we ensure that we have adequate resources for forest management, we can mitigate the frequency of wildfires and severity of future fire seasons.”

I’ve also introduced a handful of bills over the last few years – including the Prescribed Burn Approval Act, which was signed into law in 2016 – that would help with wildfire prevention and federal forest service management. Last August, I introduced the Forest Service Management Improvement Act. It would make several improvements to the forestry title of the farm bill by increasing the effectiveness of the Healthy Forest Restoration Act and improving the National Environmental Policy Act, which would help simplify and streamline federal forest management.

Several of these provisions were included in another bill, the Wildfire Prevention and Mitigation Act, which I cosponsored last fall with fellow senators from western and Great Plains states. While it’s still awaiting action in the Senate, I’m glad to see we’re already making good progress on reducing wildfire risk in other areas – an issue that I will continue to work with my colleagues, federal agencies, and landowners to strengthen.

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