Have you ever heard an elected official do something dumb, and then try to shift the blame to others because they didn’t check their work? That would be State Senator Taffy Howard, who is doing just that.
And Howard is apparently taking to Social Media because she isn’t getting her way, increasing the volume because they can’t just give her a do-over:
So, elected State Senator Taffy Howard is the prime sponsor of a Constitutional Amendment on the ballot… claims she submitted a “pro” statement about the ballot measure.. but didn’t have a clue what letter was assigned to it, so she thinks they need to re-do all the ballots because it makes her look silly on a statewide basis?
Go to the SOS website – because That’s absolutely what Howard is doing. The statement provided to the Secretary of State by the Senator does just that – she submitted a statement where she makes it more than evident that she doesn’t know her own amendment:
Under Amendment J, Howard writes how people need to vote yes on what she’s calling Amendment G. But, Freudian slip, Taffy?If you recall, Amendment G was decided 2 years ago. And was “South Dakota Constitutional Amendment G, the Right to Abortion Initiative.” Two years too late.
That is just too funny.
There’s a good reason why Taffy should have checked her work. Because according to State Elections Director Christine Lehrkamp in the Secretary of State’s office, despite Taffy’s demands to edit her statement, they can’t. It’s against the law:
12-13-23. Distribution of public information.
The secretary of state shall distribute public information on any amendment to the Constitution, initiated measure, or referred law submitted to the electors for approval. The secretary of state shall compile the public information by printing a statement in support of the amendment to the Constitution, initiated measure, or referred law written by its proponents, if any can be identified, and a statement against the amendment to the Constitution, initiated measure, or referred law written by its opponents, if any can be identified. No statement written by a proponent or an opponent may exceed three hundred words in length. The secretary of state is not responsible for the contents, objectivity, or accuracy of the statements written by the proponents and opponents. The pamphlet shall also include the attorney general’s title, explanation, and a recitation of the effect of a “Yes” or “No” vote as written pursuant to § 12-13-9 or 12-13-25.1; number of pages and sections in the proposed or referred language; and, if applicable, a fiscal note.
It’s stated in the law that “The secretary of state is not responsible for the contents, objectivity, or accuracy of the statements written by the proponents and opponents.” According to Christine, it is the policy of the Secretary of State to follow the law, and they don’t edit the statements. Ever.
Additionally, it has already gone to print.
You know, when there’s a law that says the SOS is not responsible for informational measure submitted by the proponent, and they submit something completely incorrect, the law says what the law says. As a lawmaker bound to follow the laws of South Dakota, you’d think she would want to protect the integrity of the elections, since these are election materials?
You would think.
As for any mistakes? That’s on Taffy. Not the Secretary of State.
Plus her amendment does NOTHING. It us political demagoguery at best. Legislators need to do REAL WORK rather than spend time giving political sermons and trying to please other politicians.
Wow someone who is a lawmaker wants the SOS to break the law. Maybe Taffy needs to start reading every law and understand them before she starts attacking the SOS on social media.
Her explanation is about as useful as the constitutional amendment she’s peddling. What a disgrace to South Dakota.
So after Daffy Howard heads up the group, right wing crazies, to get SOS Johnson replaced she expects any kind of favors from SOS office? Howard is an embarressment to all but right wingers.
The new SOS elect is Taffy’s pet project, she’ll fold to anything Taffy pushes at her and it will need to be watched with a magnifying glass. The new SDGOP board has the statewide convention rigged. Thats why we are stuck with Heather Baxter and Lance Russell, two failed candidates who only work against Republicans, not for them, and can’t even get elected in their own districts. They’re all slime. All statewide positions need to be elected at the primary from now on, Russell and Baxter are clowns like Taffy. Out-of-state Libertarians and liberals brought into the state by the afforementioned crew have the SDGOP and the convention locked down in favor of the radicals who would never win a public vote. It’s broken system being ran by low-IQ RINOs and forced onto the rest of us.
Just by way of clarification, Baxter lost her election for legislator. However, Lance has been elected to State’s Atty a number of times. Please keep it accurate.
to be very accurate Lance Russell lost his bid for States Attorney General at Convention.
Further clarification – Heather Baxter is not the SoS-elect.
Pretty ravenous second-hand embarrassment, here.
She has nothing to offer South Dakota and I’m baffled why she has any shred of recognition in any community. Taffy Howard is a truly worthless individual and an overt narcissist– the 2nd biggest narcissist in the state next to Shad Olson. I hope she enjoys her last two years in office, she is finished. She wins on lies, operates based on lies, then acts like a whiny child everywhere in between. When people catch onto her she just moves onto her next victim. I will enjoy watching her fade into irrelevance and have to run for office in Iowa. I am proudly voting Democrat in D34 in November against Taffy Howard because I need a representative who works WITH Republicans. When was the last time Taffy went after the Democrats? She ONLY Targets Republicans. WAKE UP ALREADY. The left has infiltrated our party and its name is Taffy Howard.
👋 Hello. Michael Calabrese here, your D34 DemoSenate candidate running against Taffy Howard. I’d appreciate your support in November.
*Democratic
Support you? A Dimocrat? Not even if my life depended on it.
Not even against a sitting Senator who would rather see you dead than actually fund anything that may save your life? Okay.
So what’s the law say about accepting the Pro Medicaid statement late? Did the SOS office F that up and forget to ask for one, then accepted it late so they didn’t look dumb? This was a simple typo and they should’ve given Howard a heads up. And I say this as a non Howard fan who will be voting against the measure.
Excellent points made, and my thoughts exactly. Since 2020, there has been a real carnival sideshow atmosphere surrounding our elections and too much of our legislation in the “strongest, safest, freest” state in the entire dad-burned nation. And if Heather manages to get herself elected, it’s going to get a whole lot worse.
Logic has filed for a restraining order on this one. I mean the words individually make sense. It’s just when you put them all together there’s a problem. “You have to be a United States citizen to vote, but there’s nothing stopping non-citizens from voting.” (Paraphrasing). Sure, except for the fact that our constitution already requires you to be a US citizen to vote. Having the wrong amendment letter in there is far from the biggest thing she missed on this explanation.
The party of personal responsibility is at it again.
Typical extreme right-wing nut case, always blame someone else. I am seeing more people planning on voting for a Democrat for the first time in many years realizing Baxter is a disaster.
Here’s the weird thing about this amendment. It doesn’t change anything. There’s a very strange dude from Minnesota using it as a fundraising scam. We killed it two years ago. He even offered a bribe to get it out of committee. I forget his name, but google his domestic issues – this is no pro family guy. Just a weirdo sucking political cash of people he can fool into keeping gas in his tank .
Ahhhh the big mahoff comes down the mountain. Love your lawyer type billboard ads with the rolled up sleeves. Implies you are going to fight for the little guy. NOT. Remember when you tried to stop Medicaid expansion.
Should’ve used AI to proof it.
It’s interesting that after Monae Johnson won in the last election for SOS, Taffy was going on podcasts bragging that her crew (Freedom Caucus) brought people to the convention on a bus to vote and got Monae elected. That wasn’t why she was elected. There were plenty on both the Freedom Caucus and normal Republicans sides that elected Monae because she ran on hand counting (for the crazies) but also because people just had respect for Monae and she was likable. The pac that supported her, as well as Daffy, have now turned on Monae and are supporting Heather Baxter. Daffy has no loyalty. Like someone said above, you never hear her criticize Dems personally, but every successful Republican is a “Rhino.” I guess it’s just jealousy but she has no shame and she’s one of the most shameful people I know, trying to place blame on something that was her own fault. Why do people in her district keep electing her? She’s not a Republican but she is an embarrassmemt. She needs to go.
Revisionist history and blame deflection. Taffy is MAGA. MAGA is Republican. You sowed, you reap.
On the sowing and reaping – Exactly!
Many members of the Republican party still can’t recognize (refuse to acknowledge?) why MAGA emerged on June 16, 2015.
Republicans are MAGA, Daffy is not MAGA she is only for herself not the party.
Yep they will do the same thing to Baxter, i believe heather has a smart brain. She will get in there and see the hysteria is just that, like Monae. As soon as she tell the crazies there is no hysteria they will nail her to the cross. You heard it here first !!
Ms. Taffy is prolly working on her rebuttal to blog here, folks. Let us all cut her a little slack for a short bit.