The Sioux Falls Mayoral race is heating up with South Dakota’s two major political parties choosing up sides in the contest, with Republicans backing former GOP Legislator, City Councilwoman, and Statewide association director Christine Erickson, and Democrats getting behind their Joe Biden supporter, former Dem Gubernatorial candidate Jamie Smith:
South Dakota Republican Party Chairman Jim Eschenbaum said the party’s executive board discussed the race and decided to endorse and back Erickson.
“If that’s the Democrats’ attempt to gain a foothold in the state of South Dakota, by electing a mayor of the largest city, I guess they can attempt to,” Eschenbaum said. “But the Republican Party is going to back the Republican in that race, even though it’s a nonpartisan election. We’re still going to back the Republican principles and ideals.”
and..
(Dan Ahlers) told South Dakota Searchlight recently it would mean “a lot” to have Sioux Falls led by a Democrat. He said a Smith victory would bring more balance to South Dakota politics and create an opportunity to show that Democrats can work across party lines and deliver results for everyone.
“So, I think having a person like that, with that kind of experience, is also incredibly important,” Ahlers said of Smith.
Two very different approaches. Remember last time Jamie Smith ran for a big office…
The ad plays two statements from Smith, with one immediately following the other: “I’m advocating for taxes on new things” and “We need more things to tax.” The ad is paid for by Kristi For Governor. The video comes from a Downtown Sioux Falls Rotary event on Monday; only Smith accepted the invitation for what was meant to be a debate between all three gubernatorial candidates.
and..
Smith did say “I’m advocating for taxes on new things.” And he did say “We need more things to tax.” But he did not make these statements one after the other, as the ad implies. He made the comments several minutes apart on Monday.
Well, good luck Sioux Falls..
I suppose since this is suppose to be non-partisan and clearly it’s not. Maybe it’s time for the SD Legislature to draft a bill next year going requiring party affiliation be included in all elections whether it’s city, county, state, or federal elections.
I believe this was tried and voted down. Most of the republican establishment sided with the democrats in the legislature to defeat it. I think in this era of politics party affiliation should be required for all elected offices. Why would you want to hide your affiliation unless you dont want voters informed.
Or, you know, voters could do research on a candidate instead of just depending on a letter behind someone’s name. Like you said – informed voters.
Because a lot of Republicans don’t actually want a lot of other Republicans elected. If yall wanna just destroy the state go for it. I’m sick of seeing the Democrats bail Republicans out from the problems they’ve created
it’s never been non-partisan.
What difference does it make that he made the statement “several minutes apart “? He still said it.
And he’s not wrong. Why is property tax so high? Because South Dakota doesn’t have diverse forms of revenue!
grudznick understood South Dakota has a relatively low property tax. By diverse forms of revenue, are you advocating for an income tax like most of our surrounding states have, along with their sales tax and property tax, Mr. Anonymous?
If so, grudznick says “BAH” to your advocation. You must want to be like NoDakia or Minnesoota. BAH to that.
Eschenbaum and the rest of the state exec board should not have even needed a discussion on this.
of course they should endorse the Republican candidate.
What they need to do now is have a plan to shut down any attempt by the convention delegates to endorse anybody in the party’s gubernatorial run-off.
It’s going to be intense.
Dan Ahlers saying it would mean a lot to have a Democrat mayor is not the same as the Republican Party making official endorsements in a non-partisan race. Of course Ahlers would say something like that. I do not see how both sides are doing this. Is there more evidence that the Democrats have endorsed Smith?
I don’t like this at all. The parties have historically stayed out of it.
Here’s the link to the SD Dem Facebook page promoting Smith in the runoff: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1b65CJfCLr/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Between Ahler’s comments and that post, I don’t know how that wouldn’t be seen as an endorsement.
Fair enough. That is close to an endorsement. I still don’t like either party getting into a non-partisan race. It was fine before. This won’t improve things.
Did they endorse or not? The answer is no, Jake.
What types of traditional republican / democrat issues do city residents really think they will encounter from a mayor? From my experience, it is mostly a rubber stamp for those that have money, and that won’t be isolated to a party, sadly. There may be some stuff with Smithfield or Wholestone in Sioux Falls, but the residents should decide, not just those with money to pay of a few. Then we are back to would a republican or democrat have different views on taking the money, again, from my experience, no. Every decision appears to be for sale today in modern politics.
It is nice to see with all the divides in the SD Gop that we can all rally around Erickson. Except Greg Jamison of course
Pat, this didn’t become partisan until folks in our party (like you) had an aneurysm that, God forbid, a long-time member of our party endorsed someone from a different party because they believed they would be better for the job.
I tend to follow your thinking on a lot of things, but I’m going to have to disagree with you on this.
Pretty sure the plans were laid to make it partisan before me as noted by Jake S.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1b65CJfCLr/?mibextid=wwXIfr
And here…
https://dakotawarcollege.com/promoted-as-ready-for-a-comeback-by-her-party-watch-for-the-next-democrat-candidate-to-announce-to-be-nikki-gronli/
That was from Last July.
Democrats have been making this race partisan as long as Smith has been in the race.
I think your reach is exceeding your grasp. You seem like a relatively reasonable Republican, why go so all out on this?
Sorry, Pat, but I’ll call BS on this one. I know our (idiotic) party chair lives on cheap conspiracy theories, but trying to convince me that a social media post from last July was their party making this race partisan with months of nothing else is…interesting.
I voted Christine the first time and plan to again in spite of you, but please stop posting this crap. It’s embarrassing for our party. We’re already filled with enough kooks.
It does seem like the fact that the Dems mentioned Jamie Smith a couple times has now turned into an excuse for all-out partisan attacks on Smith by the Republican Party.
Too much partisanship could backfire in this race.
All you fellows must admit that Mr. Smith is a saner fellow that Mr. Eischenbaum. I say, a wrestling match on the Miller Golf Course first hole green. Followed by $12 beers and a crock pot of pulled pork as a fund raiser for the Hand County GOP.