Former Speaker and Lt. Governor Lowell Hansen Endorses Jackley

SIOUX FALLS, SD: Former Speaker of the South Dakota House of Representatives and Lieutenant Governor Lowell Hansen is casting his vote for Marty Jackley, and asks the Republicans of South Dakota to do the same in a new endorsement video.

“I served as Bill Janklow’s lieutenant governor for eight years, and I know what it takes to lead our state,” Hansen said. “Marty has the experience, the integrity, and the vision to lead South Dakota forward. He has a strong relationship with our legislators, the business community, and local mayors and commissioners, and that combination best positions him to lead as South Dakota’s CEO on day one.”

Hansen served six years in the state House before his election as lieutenant governor in 1978. In addition to his 14 years of public service, Hansen is respected across the state for his nearly 50 years of business experience, including the operation of ranches in both South Dakota and Wyoming.

“Lowell Hansen and Governor Bill Janklow made an incredible team, and their legacy of a stronger economy, improved education, tax reduction, and respect for law enforcement will endure for generations,” Jackley said. “It is because of the efforts of leaders like him that we live in a strong South Dakota that together we can make even greater, and I’m grateful for his support in this campaign.”

-30-

Sen. Jordan Youngberg Endorses Ravnsborg for Attorney General

MADISON, SD: District 8 Senator Jordan Youngberg endorsed Attorney General Candidate Jason Ravnsborg.

“Jason is extremely knowledgeable and has many ideas to make our state a safe place,” Youngberg said. “I have listened to all the candidates for Attorney General and he has clearly separated himself from the field with his ideas to move the State forward and keep South Dakotans safe.”

Senator Youngberg resides in Madison and represents constituents in Moody, Lake, Miner and Sanborn Counties. Youngberg is both a small business owner and is the Vice-Chair of the Senate Local Government Committee and a member of the Senate Agricultural and Natural Resources Committee. Youngberg is also a member of the State-Tribal Relations Committee and a member of the Extraordinary Cost Fund for Special Education Study Committee. Youngberg was also the Chairman of the 2017 Government Accountability Task Force.

“Jason is someone that I have asked in-depth policy and legal questions and he has answered them in a detailed understandable manner,” Youngberg said “Jason has already proven to me that he can do the job and work with legislators to understand and get legislation passed for our state.”

“Jason is a strong leader who has handled many stressful and challenging situations in his life, he has the judgment, temperament and leadership skills for the position” Youngberg said. “He will make an outstanding Attorney General and he has my full support”.

-30-

A couple more mailers have popped into my mailbox from Congressional hopeful Dusty Johnson since last week. (In case you haven’t seen them.)

The first is a generic piece on solving the country’s big problems.

The second ties more directly into Dusty’s recently launched commercial focusing on his children and the national debt.

CNN recently did a story on Kristi Noem and her current candidacy for South Dakota Governor, notably how she would be the first woman to hold that office in state history if she is successful:

While she rejects a notion that there are women’s issues and men’s issues, she said there is a women’s perspective on every single issue. She hopes many more women will follow her to Congress but says it may still be an uphill battle.

“It’s a challenging environment. You have to be a little bit tough. You have to be willing to sit up to the table and not back along the wall. But that perspective is really important,” Noem says.

But now, for her, Noem wants to sit at the head of the table.

Read it all here.

Jerauld County Farmer and Businessman Todd Swenson Endorses Jackley

WESSINGTON SPRINGS, SD: Jerauld County farmer and businessman Todd Swenson is the latest South Dakota producer to encourage his community to support Attorney General Marty Jackley for governor.

“He has an electrical engineering degree, he’s been U.S. attorney, attorney general, and chairman of the nation’s attorneys general—and he has a rural background,” Swenson said. “He sees agriculture from a rural perspective, and his ag and rail platforms are exactly what our state needs to move forward.”

Swenson attended South Dakota State University before starting his own diversified ag operation near Wessington Springs, where he has been farming for 37 years.

“As a father of three kids, education is important to me, and Marty is already taking action to improve our education in South Dakota,” Swenson said. “His tobacco settlement brought in $28 million for education without raising taxes, and that funding helps the school that my 12-year-old is attending.”

“Todd Swenson embodies the American Dream. He’s a loving husband and father who built an incredible ag operation in Wessington Springs, and his work ethic sets a standard for us all,” Jackley said. “Team Jackley is honored to have the friendship and support of producers like Todd in this race for governor.”

-30-

From a postcard making the rounds on Facebook, it looks like former legislator R. Shawn Tornow is really, really stretching the truth in a postcard he sent out to District 14 residents:

“Re-Elect Tornow?” Shouldn’t you be elected before you say re-elect?

Tornow was elected in 2010 for a term in District 14 before he was tossed out in the 2012 legislative primary. (He had some other problems as well.)

While he’s asking people to re-elect, he leaves off the part where he wasn’t elected in 2012. And 2014. And 2016.  So, maybe it’s just me, but “Re-Elect’ seems to be quite the stretch.

Ellsworth Only Getting Stronger
By Sen. John Thune

Ellsworth Air Force Base has a long and storied history near the Black Hills of South Dakota, and thanks to the U.S. Air Force’s recent update about its planned fleet of next-generation bombers, it looks like Ellsworth’s story will have yet another chapter.

After months of review, Air Force leaders recently announced that Ellsworth is among the three candidates to be a future B-21 bomber base. The Air Force intends to have three operational B-21 bases with a fleet of at least 100 aircraft, making Ellsworth well-positioned to be selected, following the completion of several government-required planning processes. If it is, it would help further cement the base’s place in America’s military and national defense history.

As we had expected, the Air Force has finalized its plan for the B-21 to eventually replace the existing B-1 fleet, of which Ellsworth is the home for two combat squadrons. In deciding where these new bombers will be bedded down, Air Force officials say that “Using the current bomber bases will minimize operational impact, reduce overhead, maximize re-use of facilities, and minimize cost.”

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson, former president of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology and someone who knows Ellsworth and the surrounding community well, said, “Our current bomber bases are best suited for the B-21,” reiterating the Air Force’s position. I’ll speak for all South Dakotans when I say, we couldn’t agree more!

While this recent news is certainly worth celebrating, it wasn’t that long ago when we were fighting the Pentagon just to keep Ellsworth’s runways open. More than a decade ago, Ellsworth found itself on the Department of Defense’s Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) list. If the Pentagon had its way, Ellsworth would be a thing of the past.

As a newly elected senator and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, I wasn’t willing to go down without a fight, so I made the case to save Ellsworth to anyone who would listen, including the BRAC commission itself. The battle was worth fighting. In late summer 2005, because of its strategic value to our national defense, BRAC commissioners, breaking from the Pentagon, agreed to keep the base open.

Ten years later, Ellsworth’s role in America’s national defense grew even larger with the activation of the 89^th remotely piloted MQ-9 Reaper Attack Squadron and the Air Force approval of our nearly decade-long effort to expand the Powder River Training Complex (PRTC) so aircraft and the airmen who support them could train on a much larger scale. The PRTC expansion quadrupled the training airspace, which is spread over South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming. It has allowed South Dakota to host airmen from across the country as they prepare for missions around the globe, and it will be essential for meeting the training needs of fifth generation aircraft like the B-21.

Taken as a whole – Ellsworth’s strategic military value, its unprecedented training ground, and its second-to-none group of airmen who support these missions – Ellsworth is the perfect location for the B-21 Raider. A new fleet of aircraft would also mean an upgrade to some of Ellsworth’s infrastructure, and in turn, a boost to the local economy. All-in-all, it’s good news for the Air Force, it’s good news for the base, and it’s good news for the community that has and will continue to be Ellsworth’s home.

###

Small Businesses are the Heartbeat of the American Economy
By U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.)

Each year during National Small Business Week, we celebrate the vital role of small businesses in American society today. Main street businesses are America’s job creators. Over the past two decades, small businesses have generated 65 percent of all net new jobs. In fact, small businesses represent half of all jobs in the U.S., half the U.S. GDP and account for two out of every three new jobs created in the U.S. today.

I had the opportunity this year to nominate a South Dakota small business, Dairy Queen of Madison, to be recognized by the Senate Small Business Committee as the “Small Business of the Day.” The restaurant has been in owner DeLon Mork’s family since 1964. He and his family are passionate about providing excellent service to their customers and giving back to their community. For the past 11 years, DeLon’s Dairy Queen has sold the most Blizzard treats of any Dairy Queen in North America to raise money for the Children’s Miracle Network. In a town of about 7,000 people, he sells close to 50,000 Blizzards in one day, year after year. We’re happy to be able to shine a light on his good work as a small business owner.

In Congress, we are working to enact pro-growth policies that will benefit small businesses like DeLon’s. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which was signed into law by President Trump late last year, has simplified the tax filing process and is allowing individuals and small businesses to keep more of their own money. With a lower tax rate, small businesses have additional resources available that they can use to grow and expand their operations. And with a significantly lower pass-through tax rate, small businesses are finally on a level playing field with the rest of the world, making them more competitive in the global marketplace. This is enhanced even further when coupled with the regulatory relief we’ve been working with the administration to achieve.

In addition to rolling back burdensome regulations administratively at federal agencies, Congress has been able to undo 16 major Obama-era rules under the Congressional Review Act. The Senate also recently passed a bipartisan bill to roll back burdensome regulations on our community banks and credit unions, which will help them be able to better serve local businesses and customers. By relieving businesses from time-consuming, outdated regulations, small businesses will no longer be bogged down by costly paperwork that has stifled innovation and slowed economic growth for far too long.

The National Federation of Independent Businesses is predicting that regulatory reform and the tax relief bill will result in “very strong growth, millions more jobs and higher pay for Americans.” And we’re already seeing that happen: Small business confidence has hit a record high, jobless claims are at record lows and the economy is growing faster than it has in a decade. We’re glad to see our policies are already having a positive effect on our small businesses and look forward to continuing to seek ways to create a business-friendly environment for them.

Small businesses are the backbone of our economy and the heartbeat of our communities. National Small Business Week is a time to highlight the significant contributions of small business owners across the country.

###

Motherly Advice
By Rep. Kristi Noem

My grandma gave me some of the best advice when I was pregnant with our oldest, Kassidy. It was simple. She said: “Say yes when you can, because as a parent, there’s a lot that you’re going to have to say no to.”

I’ve always loved that advice, and as a mom, I’ve tried to live by it. So, if the kids wanted to race down the driveway, it didn’t matter how tired I was, we did it. If they wanted to have their cousins over in the middle of planting corn, we made it work. If they wanted to jump through mud puddles, I said yes – even if it meant a little extra laundry that week.

Of course, none of this is to say that I didn’t ever said “no” (just ask my kids). But I do have to say that some of our best family memories are from the times when we took grandma’s advice.

I don’t know if my own mom got the same motherly insight when she was expecting, but I think back often on the guts it must have taken to let us kids step into the role we did after my dad died. She believed in her children enough to trust them to make important business decisions and grow into their new roles as managers of a family business. She took risks to ensure that no matter what, my dad’s dream of all his kids farming together could be realized, even after his death.

When I now see our children – her 16 grandchildren – growing up as close as brothers and sisters, I am overwhelmed by the unique blessing we enjoy because of her decision to say yes. There’s no doubt that I love her with all my heart, and I am so grateful God saw it fit for me to call her Mom.

This Mother’s Day, I encourage you to thank the moms in your life for all the times they said yes. Consider the opportunities those “yes” moments created and the memories they made.

To all the moms reading this article, I wish you a very happy Mother’s Day!

Appreciation For My Co-Workers
A column by Gov. Dennis Daugaard:

Aaron Scheibe has been instrumental in getting companies like Agropur and Terex to invest millions of dollars in South Dakota’s economy, and he played a key role in the development of Foundation Park, the state’s first mega industrial site. The economic development deputy commissioner’s work has helped bring jobs and companies to South Dakota.

Aaron is one of thousands of state employees I am proud to call a co-worker.

I have proclaimed Wednesday, May 9, as State Employee Recognition Day to highlight the work of our great public servants in South Dakota. Unlike Aaron, most of these individuals will not be recognized as part of a million-dollar deal, but they provide excellent customer service, invaluable institutional knowledge and essential work to keep our state running from day to day.

For instance, the Department of Corrections’ parole division leans heavily on Jeremy Ortman’s exceptional caseload management skills. Despite having a workload of over 122 percent of the expected rate, Jeremy is always willing to assist when needed. In 2017, he attained some of the highest ratings possible in performance indicators – 100 percent contact compliance and 100 percent compliance with the issuance of incentives.

Then there’s Merlin Weyer who has given 43 years of service in Child Protection for the Department of Social Services. As assistant division director, he was instrumental in the development and implementation of review processes to centralize intake. He also authored the division’s Five-Year Child and Family Service Plan. When he retires in June, his service to South Dakota families will have spanned eight governors and seven division directors. It’s no stretch to say that children in South Dakota are better off thanks to Merlin’s work.

Jill Kruger is the face of the South Dakota State Employee Benefits Program, giving presentation after presentation to help employees understand their health plan and benefits. It isn’t stand-up comedy material, but she has a contagious passion for it, and will stay until every last question is answered.

The Department of Agriculture has always operated with a light, two-person central finance office; but Jennifer Schrempp has been managing the Department of Agriculture’s daily financial operations for the last eight months by herself because of the unplanned absence of a colleague. She has exceeded all expectations and shown unmatched grit to keep everything going.

These are just a few examples of the great people who work for the citizens of South Dakota. I could go on and on, and fill page after page with more.

A governor gets much attention. My name is in the newspaper each week and people shake my hand at the grocery store. But it’s the 7,000 Executive Branch employees reporting to my office who deserve the credit. They make fulfilling my oath to the voters possible.

If you have a state employee in your life or you find yourself on the phone with one this week, thank them for all they do. Let them know you appreciate the role they play in running the State of South Dakota.

-30-