The fallout from the cross-party endorsement in Secretary of State’s race

Now there has been a day for things to settle from Secretary of State Monae Johnson’s endorsement of Terrence Davis for Secretary of State, I thought it would be interesting to look at the fallout from her monumental decision to cross party lines to endorse a Democrat for the office.

Unsuccessful GOP Gubernatorial primary candidate Toby Doeden was one of the few who decided to go off about it, via social media. Except it was a weird post where he compared Johnson’s rejection of Heather Baxter, and said it was just like Jon Hansen refusing to campaign for him:

Because, ultimately, it’s all about Toby, isn’t it?  The object of Toby’s ire, Jon Hansen also sprang to Baxter’s defense via facebook.

About an hour ago, fully one day later, the South Dakota Republican Party finally got around to posting a statement on facebook from the State Republican Party Executive Board.

I don’t think they sent it out to any media, they just posted it:

It basically says well, that’s who the delegates picked “wholeheartedly.” Wholeheartedly at 59% of the Republicans who went to convention. Which isn’t really representative of the Republican party statewide, just of the people who were in the room at that given moment.

For the Republican candidate herself, Baxter’s immediate response was to tell media that Party affiliation was what they needed to look at when making their choice:

In a statement, Baxter told POLITICO her party affiliation was reason enough to side with her in the general election.

“In June, Republican delegates considered the record and nominated me over incumbent Secretary of State Monae Johnson, 59 percent to 41 percent. That was not confusion,” she said. “That was self-government in action. The letter beside a name is not decoration.”

Read that here.

Well, I guess that’s one way to respond.