So did Dems look to third tier candidates to fill ticket? Kind of looks like it.

Pat Powers

This past weekend saw South Dakota Democrats bringing forth a group of people to run for their constitutional offices. An you have to wonder what they were thinking:

Lieutenant Governor – Michelle Lavallee. From Sioux Falls. Former Chair of the Paul TenHaken campaign. Has some money, but not many have ever heard of her.

Secretary of State – Alexandra Fredrick. From Okreek, late addition to ballot, married to PUC Candidate.

Attorney General – Randy Seiler. From Fort Pierre, Interim US Atty. Nice guy, but not well known.

Auditor – Tom Cool. From Sioux Falls, manages noon Dem Forum. Lost election for State Senate 4 times in a row (2010, 2012 ,2014, 2016).

Treasurer – Aaron Matson.  Sioux Falls. An ELCA pastor with Master’s Degree in Divinity & a doctoral degree in political science. Who works as a Dem party staffer.

Commissioner of School and Public Lands – Woody Hauser. From Beresford. Local real estate agent.

Public Utilities Commissioner – Wayne Fredrick, Okreek. And nobody knows him either.

You have to question if they tried to tap their B squad for the fall political races, as most of these people haven’t campaigned for anything before. No current lawmakers. No past officeholders. The closest thing they have is Tom Cool, who will soon complete a hand’s count worth of political losses with 2018.

Outside of Seiler, who was the only candidate announced prior to the convention, the rest of the bunch were scraped up, shaken from the trees, or found in the couch cushions of the Dem’s biennial political gathering.

I will give it to them that they’re managed to talk people into running for all the seats.

But you also have to recognize that anyone they have with any experience is looking at the electoral map… and saying “nope.”

10 thoughts on “So did Dems look to third tier candidates to fill ticket? Kind of looks like it.”

  1. Matson needs to go down for bringing his liberalism into the church.

    SD is not pro-choice.

      1. yes…the public was sold a bill of goods that it would cost us millions in legal costs

    2. Never heard of him, but if he is pro-choice I’m not sure where he finds support in the Bible.

  3. If we are talking South Dakota candidates in general at least the Dems to my knowledge they do not have any that wish to refuse service based on the color of their skin.

  4. It’s sad that the SDDP is reduced to submitting sacrificial lambs for the fall election. I wonder if Noem’s primary win sucked out most of the limited air supply from the SDDP, especially since the national media has paid attention to Noem’s candidacy.

    I also think that Noem’s candidacy strikes a nerve in SD Dems because she made the DC-to-Pierre pivot that SHS should have done in 2010. (Yeah, that “what if” is debatable and its own discussion topic.)

    1. Yep, it strikes “a nerve” all right, when one just finished their undergraduate work, while an other has been asked to be a president of an university…. Obviously, Augie knows something that the SD GOP needs to learn…

  5. Wayne Fredrick was a former RST board member. Interestingly the RST is known for their corruption and Rep Shawn Bordeaux is running to for their counsel. Apparently we need more laws to limit this conflict of interest.

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