As announced a week ago, Jon Ellis with the Argus Leader had mentioned during the 100 eyes program that Democrats allegedly had a candidate for Congress that “was a good one,” who would be announcing their candidacy at the annual Democrat state dinner.
But by the end of the night, there was nothing. No announcement other that Debbie Wasserman Schultz proclaiming that (without money or candidates), Dems would somehow prevail at this next election.
Well, good luck with that.
The fact of the matter is that they’re quickly moving towards the “sell by” date on legitimate candidacies, and are readying the yellow “priced for fast sale” stickers.
If we look at recent history at this point in the last cycle, Mike Rounds had announced, and had been campaigning for 4-5 months. And Rick Weiland was only days away from announcing (about May 8th, 2013). Having ran before (twice previously) Weiland knew that a competent campaign needed to get in the field and raise money constantly to support a major statewide campaign.
Not that he ran a competent campaign, but at least he pretended. Unlike others.
At this point, Corinna Robinson was months away from announcing (October in the year before the election) but she was crushed by a 33% margin, never had the funds to go on TV, and ended the campaign writing off nearly 12,000 of a 20,000 personal loan.
Not the kind of campaign an aspiring statewide candidate should want to emulate.
With Senate Bill 69 having been passed and signed by the Governor this year to allow additional time for petition challenges and facilitate military voting, the petition portion of the campaign season has been pushed back into December, demanding that legitimate candidates show their hand even sooner than in past election cycles.
With the mystery candidate for the congressional seat (rumored to be Paula Hawks) sitting on his or her hands at the moment, every day that ticks away with them not out fundraising and campaigning only adds to the inevitability that they face a world class shellacking at the hands of Congresswoman Noem, who is arguably at the height of her power.
And let’s not forget United States Senator John Thune whom the Dems couldn’t challenge 6 years ago – he’s 6 years stronger, and has had all that time to raise money. It’s not an exaggeration to state that it’s looking more and more that he may not be challenged once again, representing an utter embarrassment & failure of a basic test of competence for the South Dakota Democratic Party – actually running candidates for office.
With a shortened campaign season, and opponents at the height of their power and popularity, a lack of candidates is not a good sign of health for the South Dakota Democratic Party. And it looks more and more that Democrats are consigned to yet another dismal electoral cycle, representing their continued failure as a party in South Dakota.