South Dakota Searchlight went on the hard attack this morning in an editorial from Dana Hess, accusing Governor Rhoden for “running a shadow reelection campaign through his open for opportunity tour.”
Since mid-March, the governor has been running a shadow reelection campaign through his Open for Opportunity Tour.
and..
An unscientific search of state news releases found that since March 17 Rhoden has made 17 Open for Opportunity trips to 25 communities. From Sioux Falls to the Standing Rock Reservation, from Mud Butte to Mitchell, from Box Elder to Huron, Rhoden is getting to know the business leaders in each community as well as fattening his Rolodex.
and..
While South Dakota is Open for Opportunity, one of those opportunities has been for Rhoden to run a political campaign using state funds. In essence, the governor is using an office he wasn’t elected to as a means to jumpstart a campaign he hasn’t announced yet. Now that’s quite an opportunity.
Read the entire Editorial here.
I’ve said it many times – the Governor is literally the state’s biggest cheerleader for business and growth. If he isn’t out telling our state’s story, who IS supposed to do it?
I think we are all just surprised he can do this without a private leer jet.
I’m all for critical journalism but Dana Hess’s commentary tends to have a significant liberal bias. It’s mostly to the point of “mad liberal man yelling at clouds”. Take it with a big ole grain of salt.
You being for critical journalism hardly rings true Jake.
The thought did cross my mind – that all of this travel around the state is a great way of campaigning. However, no one else is out and about championing our state and the great things happening so……. We are going to need all the positive economic development stories we can muster when the 2026 legislative session rolls along. Just sayin.
I’m for Dusty, but this is a stupid piece by Hess. If Rhoden didn’t go anywhere, Dana would be writing that we never see the Governor and why won’t he meet with the people. Yes, the Open for Opportunity tour is convenient for him and certainly trite, but I give him credit for getting out of Pierre and Union Center.
No idea who Dana Hess is, but I suspect he needs a little civics and history lesson. Check EVERY Governors’ calendar and you’ll find the good ones were getting out and about in our state multiple times a week. It’s called THE JOB.
Remember the Capitol for a Day program, for example.
Kind of an odd cheap shot column.
Dana Hess supposedly covered the state legislature for years, but no one knows him. I see that Lee Schoenbeck doesn’t know who he is. He seems like a sad little man who sits in a dark room and lashes out in people in his editorials. I don’t understand why anyone pays him, or cares what his views are. I certainly don’t.
Larry Rhoden is a clown.
What do you want a the governor to do … sit in his office? I would much rather they are out promoting our state, listening and learning and being accessible. Dana Hess has to be another angry, uniformed Democrat simply writing worthless articles.
You have to ask yourself, “who among the current field of gubernatorial candidates would commission a ‘free-lance journalist’ (who literally accept money in exchange for written pieces of their work) to craft this hit piece to be placed under the guise of ‘non-profit journalism’?”
Hints:
One would have simply made Facebook posts about it, directly attacking the Governor.
It ain’t Hansen/Lems.
Who else would be motivated to place a third party hit piece in order to place an attack piece while maintaining an image of Mr Clean and Wholesome?