Several days back, I had made note of the Libertarian convention taking place last weekend, to which Libertarian Party Chairman Gideon Oakes made note “We’ll be sure to send you a release with the full slate.”
Fast forward to several days later.. and it’s unclear exactly who will be running for office under the Libertarian banner. No press releases. No media coverage. No mention from the Libertarian party. Zilch. Not to mention nothing has been filed with the Secretary of State, which technically means that no one is yet a candidate, no matter what they might proclaim in facebook posts.
Since there is no actual release or list out there.. here’s what I have been able to glean.
Statewide:
There was a report a month ago that perennial Senate candidate Kurt Evans was going to run, but there’s been no mention of the nomination taking place. Evans has run and dropped out of that race more times than 99.9% of anyone else in the US population, so there’s that.
It appears they nominated the Libertarian party’s “communications director” Devin Saxon for the Public Utilities Commission. Given the level of communication on who the Libertarian Party’s candidates actually are.. we see where this candidacy will be going.
Legislative:
District 4 Senate – Daryl Root is declaring on Facebook that he’s saddling up for another defeat as a Libertarian, this time against John Wiik, after receiving 2.5% of the vote in a 5 way House race last election.
District 5 Senate – Adam Jewell of Watertown is claiming he was nominated at the Libertarian convention. This would be against Republican Senator Lee Schoenbeck, one of the most indefatigable political campaigners over the last few decades of the GOP.
District 13 Senate – Cullen Mack is declaring he was a nominee. I believe he was a former track & field athlete for SDSU. He’s running against Jack Kolbeck. I’m sure he’ll figure it out and switch parties at some point after how he sees it will go in November.
District 17 Senate – Greg Baldwin is also saying he’s in. He’s another one who spent time running last election in D17 House. He spent a lot of time on facebook last election claiming Libertarians were going to do well. This time, he is also making a likely ill-fated attempt for the Senate after finishing 4th in a 4-way House race with 6.3% of the vote in 2018.
District 20 Senate – Alexander Martin filed the traditional way, with signatures, several weeks ago on 3/4/20.
District 23 Senate – CJ Abernathey who Libertarians ejected as their nominee for Governor last election claims to have been nominated. We’ve written about him several times, so no need to rehash the fact he’s an awful person. I’m not sure this will get beyond the facebook rant stage, much less an actual campaign.
District 29 Senate – Kent Wilsey, originally from Brandon is the District 29 Candidate.
District 30 Senate – Gideon Oakes had already claimed he’s running so we’ll assume the state chair is in. In 2018 Gideon Oakes fared the best of any Libertarian in the state, getting 18.2% of the vote in a 3 way primary.. and even closing within 10% of the Democrat in the race (who had 25.1%).
And that’s what I‘ve been able to pick up to date.
This slate might represent one of the deeper efforts of the Libertarians to give the façade of being a real political party, if they’ve managed to fill that many State Senate positions. We’ll just skip over the part where it seems to be a bunch of white males between 18-40, and has the diversity of a LAN Party.
They’re approaching Democrat numbers in filing for office for at least the State Senate. Not sure if that’s a positive statement for them, or a really sad statement for Democrats. Or both.
Again, unless and until this is all filed with the Secretary of State’s office, it’s a moot point.
I very strongly support Sens Lee Schoenbeck and Jack Kolbeck.
SDLP Chair Gideon Oaks seems a bright guy & his mom is a nice lady. He could earn a decent fraction of the D30 vote. That’ll be interesting to watch.
Thank you for the kind words, AFOE. My mom is, indeed, a nice lady. 🙂
Where’s George Hendrickson? I liked that guy
SDCL 12-5-22 requires that the certification of the convention nominees be filed with the Secretary of State within 3 days of the close of the convention. Their convention was on May 9 and today is May 13. So the SOS could easily say that the certification is late and not accept it for filing.
@Pat – Thank you for the coverage. It’s been an exceptionally busy week and the responsibility for the delayed press release rests firmly on my shoulders. As noted before, you’ll absolutely be sent a copy once it’s issued. Your list isn’t far off.
@Anonymous 11:05 am – Your concern is appreciated. Our convention adjourned Saturday evening. The certification was submitted via email to the SD SOS on Monday at 3:49 pm MDT.
I’m glad to hear that. I was honestly surprised that we hadn’t seen it yet. It should be up on the SOS website. The lag must be on their end.
I’m guessing they’re very busy with CFR and pre-primary stuff right now. They are generally very prompt, and always extremely helpful.
I wish Gideon would run as a Republican so he’d have a chance to win. We could use his brand of conservatism in Pierre.
He could run as a Republican, but then he would probably win and actually have to show up and serve in the legislature. He doesn’t want to do THAT. That would be too much trouble. Running as a third party candidate is more fun, gets people to pay attention to him without having to commit to doing any work.
Gideon is one of the most hardworking people I’ve ever met.
If you are tired of the same ole same ole one party monopoly, we will sure welcome you to the Libertarian party. Gideon is a great leader that gives people an alternative choice.
Gideon has managed to make a name for himself without taking on any responsibility. That’s not leadership. I would love to see him join the Republican Party and actually accomplish something.
A lot of people were raised with too much admiration for Robert Frost’s taking “the road less travelled.”
There’s a reason that road was less-travelled. It didn’t go anywhere.
I’m sure sorry to hear my last decade of community service hasn’t meant anything simply because I have the wrong letter behind my name.
Gideon is juggling a young family, a successful career, and a mountain of administrative work for the Libertarian Party. The claim that he hasn’t taken on any responsibility is ridiculous.