People would rather be indy than Dem in 11 Counties

Pat Powers

Wow!  Have you caught one of the latest posts from Bob Mercer? In it, he points out the further deterioration of the Dem Base in the state:

Call them the “third column.” Heading into the June 5 statewide election, independent and no-party voters now rank second in 11 counties.

There are more “third-column” voters registered than Democrats in Butte, Lawrence, Pennington, Meade, Custer, Fall River, Brookings, Lincoln and Union counties.

Read that here.

28 thoughts on “People would rather be indy than Dem in 11 Counties”

  1. Some would think these are high times for the Republican Party. They would be wrong. The consolation is that the Democrat Party suffers more. When no discipline is needed, you need to redouble your efforts.

    1. Over the last 10 years it says GOP went up 8k but Dems are down approx. 50k

  4. What many are failing to realize is that they are using this as a cover up to there actually party loyalty. They know running as an independent greatly increases their chance of being elected. Republicans and true independents need to be very vigilant on this issue and do their homework so they are not actually electing a democrat.

      1. I was referring to commies. But it it confusing with the flip in color coding the media pulled a few years ago.

        1. Yeah. Republican used to be blue. With Democrats now embracing communism and socialism we should change that back.

  6. I would argue that the worst-kept secret in South Dakota is if you live in a district where Democrats can’t get elected, then you run as a Republican. There are whole lot of small-R republicans in the independent and third-party camps.

    Take me, for example. I’d still be in the party if the party followed its own platform. It took a small miracle to get the platform-accountability plank passed when I introduced it back in 2012 at the state convention in Sioux Falls. I will never forget the staunch opposition to it from party leadership, including then-Chairman Rave.

    This wasn’t some overreaching, burdensome measure, mind you. The plank simply encouraged anyone running as a Republican to read and familiarize themselves with the state platform. And it almost lost, as it had several times before. Kind of pathetic, if you ask me.

    That was the beginning of the end of my years of hauling water for the elephant. Nowadays, I rest easy knowing the porcupine doesn’t make me sacrifice my values in exchange for political favor.

      1. Found the D disguised as an R! 😁 –^

        But seriously, what is the point of a party if you’re not going to abide by your platform? If the GOP stands for A, B and C, why are its leadership and elected officials promoting X, Y and Z instead?

        1. Gideon, do you agree if elected never to run for 2 offices at the same time? If so that is good enough for me….you would definitely be an improvement over the current senator.

        2. I think its pretty rich when non-Republicans try to instruct the Republican party about who is a real Republican, or how do run the party, or anything else.

          1. To quote Bugs Bunny, “He don’t know my vewwy well, do he?” Over the years, I’ve spent more time in GOP meetings, booths and events than I care to even tally up.

            That said, frankly, I don’t expect folks who share your way of thinking to care about my opinions any more now than you did back when I had an R behind my name. But I guess that’s kind of the point of all this, isn’t it? 🙂

            2. having read alinsky’s rules for radicals, it seems to me that a plank enforcing adherence to all planks is something that an activist applies to a targeted opponent – you make them suffer by forcing them to over-adhere to their own rules, in order to freeze them and attack them. i don’t think party leaders like this being forced on them by their own partisans. as usual, lack of a dangerous left-leaning foe in the state has the right-leaning activists cannibalizing their own allies.

  7. Although at first glance this looks like voters leaving the Democrat Party. It should not be underestimated, the number of Republican leaning voters, especially young voters, who have not joined the Republican Party, because of all the infighting and extreme right views. This is especially true in the Black Hills.

  8. It is the angry crazy hard lefties that lack people skills that drive many reasonable Dems and Indies who would vote Dem away.

  10. Irish Catholics just overturned the country’s ban on abortion. South Dakota will forever be on the “Wrong Side Of History”.

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