It’s a jungle out there. Or, it looks like the jungle primary might be moving towards trying to get on the ballot as after backing from out-of-state interests, as the group has managed to pull together enough petition signatures on their 3rd, 4th? run at it to get on the ballot for another try:
Backers of each ballot measure said they’re turning in petitions this week, bringing the number of measures on the ballot or pending for addition to the ballot to six, with potential remaining for more. The deadline to submit petitions for a new law or law change is Tuesday. The deadline to refer a law passed by the Legislature to the ballot is June 25.
and..
He said the group (SD Open Primaries) is submitting about 46,000 signatures to the secretary of state, surpassing the 35,017 signatures required for a proposed constitutional amendment.
and..
The initiative to legalize adult recreational marijuana use in the state has more than enough signatures and will be submitted around noon Tuesday, according to Matthew Schweich, who is leading the effort. He said the group has yet to count its signatures, but it has a “good, healthy buffer,” beyond the 17,508 needed for proposed laws not amending the state constitution.
From a read of the article, the anti-ethanol group trying to repeal the landowner bill of rights also claim to be “confident they will collect the 17,508 it needs.” But that’s assuming a lot.
What we need to watch for this election is a higher likelihood of change coming at us with regards to the measures that were turned in this week.
The Jungle Primary ballot measure has a significant infusions of out-of-state cash into the effort which means that they may – emphasis on may – be able to run a competent campaign this year, unlike in the past. But while the State Republican Party is directly expressing their opposition to the effort, one boost the jungle primary may find they have is the schism within the Republican party itself.
Despite promises that the Republican party would find internal solutions as opposed to legislative solutions to issues during the last couple of elections with how the Lt. Governor and some constitutional officers were chosen, and the lack of representative governing by precinct people as South Dakota one of the last outliers of the nominees for those positions being chosen by a handful of activists at convention; solutions just have not happened.
With the rejection of the proposed legislative fix of all, or a few constitutional offices being elected among all Republicans in the state, there is a weariness among a number of Republicans to keep fighting the fight against the jungle primary measure. While they aren’t willing to be active supporters, there are those Republicans who have watched promises of internal party fixes pass on by enough that they just simply aren’t going to fight the jungle primary anymore, and are just as happy to vote for it because it does something to shake up a system that seems broken, but lacks sufficient momentum for reforms.
I’ve spoken with more than one solid long-time Republican who have told me privately that they’re going to vote for it, because nothing else seems to have worked. It might be the confluence between cash and internal strife that could put it over.
Recreational Marijuana also seems to also have added momentum this year. With South Dakota a couple years in on the legalization of Medical Marijuana, and the earth hasn’t ended, it may be pot’s year. What’s different? The spotlight is off of the Bob Newland’s and Melissa Mentele’s of the legalization movement and on the Deb Peters’, Kittrich Jeffries, Jeremiah Murphy’s and Dan Lederman’s of the business world who invest in it. It’s not about using. It’s about making money.
With legislators forming a framework under which the industry operates – and it is an industry now – outside of the open fields around Belle Fourche there has not been strong opposition, and despite further modification of the laws which brought it into effect, the medical industry survives, and they are hungry for the opportunities that expanding to fully legal would provide.
With South Dakota nestled between legalization states Minnesota and Montana, which are 2 of 24 that are legal, and North Dakota and Nebraska having decriminalized it to a point. Not to mention the US moving to allow it to be dispensed by prescription, and further relaxation of generational opposition as years go by, it may or may not be the year that South Dakota goes fully legal.
But they may stand a better chance now than in the past.
Keep your eyes on the ballot box. The election is growing more interesting as days pass.
SD GOP is going to be surprised at the liberalness of the votes this year. We will decide what freedom really means!
It will be interesting if Noem actively fights against the will of the people again wrt marijuana, or if she’s recognizing her already burning political capital may not carry the day again.
Of course she will fight it again. Killing dogs, lying about meeting foreign leaders, and nepotism are all wholesome family values in her book, but heaven forbid that someone tokes up on the weekend.
I’ll be voting in favor of both.
PS, I’m a republican.
Same here. SD GOP has turned into an echo chamber and their needs to be new ideas coming in which will not happen under current system. Also, if they tax weed like cigarettes, could open the possibility for reducing taxes elsewhere.
Weed is a money loser for states by quite a bit. The demand for support services will go up and so will taxes.
That’s just not true.
Ask Colorado!
If one makes claims, they cite their sources with reputable sources. (See “Writers Inc”.)
Until then, I’m smelling BS.
If Open Primaries is passed by voters, I will personally petition the voters to refer it back to a second vote. Open Primaries are bad, and will allow Democrats to vote in Republican primaries. I will also pay to bring a case into the circuit court to strike it down at the same time. All Democrats care about is cheating in our elections. We do not want Liberal, Democrats or Independents in our party primary.
Have the GOP pay for it then. Otherwise, I do not see why the State has to foot the bill for any election that restricts eligible voters from participating in it.
Democrats already vote in Republican primaries. They register as Republicans. Same with left leaning Indy’s. Did you not know this? With an almost non existent party in SD it is one of the few ways for Dems to have a say in who advances in the primaries since they most likely will not have a candidate. Did you just move to South Dakota or something of just unaware? Republicans most likely do it in blue states or districts often time to pick the least worst Dem.
it is always fun to hear a tea-party-bircher writhing in fear of democrats stealing elections, rigging votes, and destroying the republican party. the amount of election fraud they would have to commit to change anything in this gerrymandered deep red state is not possible to achieve. they re-register republican if they feel strongly enough that their voice should be heard in that echo chamber. the jungle primary is dumb. you’d get a better result with ranked voting in the general.
If we are going to have a jungle primary where everyone runs, why not just forgo the primary altogether and have everyone run in the general election. it would save a lot of money and everyone would stand a chance. Jungle primarie like those in California could result in many cases with candidates from only one party running in the general.
That’s what Louisiana does right now, and the Republican Party does quite well there. And my sneaking suspicion is that, should a top-2 primary system happen in South Dakota, that the Democratic Party there wouldn’t be that much farther ahead than they are now.
It is interesting that many Republicans are not going to fight the jungle primary any more.
For years the party recognized the problem of activists becoming precinct committee men and women, disrupting the convention, voting for the fringiest of the fringe, and yet the party did not want to fix it.
The reason given was always “People will get mad at us.”
So they didn’t do anything. and the legislature looked at it, and they didn’t want to fix it either, because “people will get mad at us.”
Bear in mind the only people who would get mad are the half dozen or so candidates for constitutional offices and about 300 of their minions.
Because neither the party nor the legislature wanted to face the ire of a few unhinged precinct committee people, now the whole state is mad, at everybody.