Dusty Johnson campaign at Dairyfest in Brookings today

Pat Powers

The summer campaign season is out in earnest today with campaigns appearing at the periphery of public events.

Team Dusty is at Dairy Fest today in Brookings, and I should have a report from the Ribfest in Sioux Falls later today. I’m hearing there are other public events in Huron and Sisseton today, so I’m sure we will see politicians out and about.

Campaign 2018 is upon us. Stay tuned!

Former Argus Editor saying Dems and Sutton blew announcement because it was too cowboy, and not enough Sioux Falls.

Pat Powers

Now there’s fighting words if I’d ever read them. 

Former Argus Leader Editor Patrick Lalley who is trying to establish himself at KSOO is saying that Democrats and Billie Sutton blew Sutton’s announcement because it was too cowboy, and not enough Sioux Falls:

How did they mess it up so badly?

and…

Billie Sutton could be a great candidate. He could be governor.

To do that he has to connect with the middle class households in the four to six counties surrounding Sioux Falls.

and…

To be blunt, the Democrats introduced Billie Sutton to the state by putting him up on a barren stage in the middle West River ranch country.

They emphasized rural life, solid work ethic and calf roping. It’s a beautiful South Dakota scene that we like to romanticize.

But it doesn’t look forward.

Read it all here.

I’d probably argue that Dems are trying to recapture the people who’s values they abandoned a long time ago, and they are not going to convince anyone, even with a Democrat who takes a  conservative view on abortion. They can try, but Sutton has a voting record. 

But in the meantime, I’m happy to sit back and watch the fireworks on Lalley’s thesis.

State Government According to Hubbel: They’re all in on it. Whatever “it” is.

Pat Powers

In case buying a domain name and pointing it to my columns about her wasn’t enough, I’ll probably make Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Lora Hubbel mad again when I point out that she’s not exactly inspiring the masses by claiming crazy stuff like this:

Can someone enlighten me? It’s pretty easy to say “They’re all in on it.”  But lacking any proof or substance, it’s a lot tougher to describe exactly what “it” is.

When Lora claims Sutton “gets the perks from GOED like any other corrupt establishment politician,” exactly what “perks from GOED” is Hubbel talking about? Did someone get a bag of those little plastic pins from tourism to pass out at an event, and she didn’t?

Exactly. It’s a load of made up crazy talk.

She can’t describe it. She can’t provide proof of it. But it’s happening. And she knows it! And we can expect to hear more of this kind of drivel over the course of a long election. Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time Lora has had unsubstantiated pronouncements like this, and it’s probably among the mildest.

Two years ago, when State Senator Deb Peters handed Hubbel her hat and beat her in the last election she was in, Lora was all over the media with statements claiming that “8 shotgun deaths emanated from the Governor’s Office of Economic Development.”

Was she claiming that a GOED shotgun death squad is roaming the countryside? Well....  Again, a shockingly bizarre claim, but true to form, Lora provided no substantive proof to back it up. I’m not sure what you do with this kind of garbage.

I’ve described it before as a candidate trying to say they’ll “govern by Facebook.” It’s giving the bizarre credence just because someone read a facebook post about it, no matter how ludicrous or unsubstantiated it is.

A quality we would want in our State’s chief executive? Absolutely not.

Sioux Falls City Councilor & former Legislator Christine Erickson endorses Cynthia Mickelson in Sioux Falls School Board race

Pat Powers

From the Argus Leader:

Christine Erickson, Sioux Falls.

I cannot think of anyone else who could better represent students, educators and taxpayers on the Sioux Falls School Board than Cynthia Mickelson. She has a big heart, valuable experience and most important, a great passion for education.

and…

Please vote for Cynthia Mickelson for Sioux Falls School Board on June 6.

Read the entire letter here.

Rounds Statement on President’s Decision to Exit Paris Climate Agreement

Pat Powers

Rounds Statement on President’s Decision to Exit Paris Climate Agreement

WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) today issued the following statement on President Trump’s decision to exit the Paris Climate Agreement:

“The Paris Climate Agreement placed costly new energy restrictions on the United States, which would be passed on to consumers in the form of higher electricity prices,” said Rounds. “President Trump understands that we cannot put the U.S. at a competitive disadvantage with the rest of the world, thereby shackling our economy and raising electricity costs without even meeting the agreement’s goal of having a tangible effect on climate change.

“In fact, under this agreement, major polluters like China, Russia, India and Iran are allowed to increase their greenhouse gas emissions, while our emissions reductions are estimated to cost 6.5 million American jobs and $3 trillion in economic output by 2040. Good energy policies include an ‘all of the above’ approach that will strengthen our economy, create jobs and enhance our energy independence. I am pleased with the president’s decision today to leave the misguided Paris Climate Agreement.”   

Earlier this year, Rounds wrote a weekly column about the misguided Paris Climate Agreement and, along with a number of his Senate colleagues, sent a letter to the president encouraging U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement.

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