Except for parade and festival activity by incumbents over the 4th of July weekend, during this off-year the summer has been fairly devoid of political activity. And it’s leaving those of us who consume such news with excitement and zeal… well, it’s boring. There really hasn’t been much going on. But I have caught whiff of a few things in the wind that are worth reporting on for the primary election, even if just for the sake of mild amusement.
So what am I hearing?
In the US Senate, the Mark Mowry campaign called my phone today and his wife/campaign manager left a message asking if I was interested in getting involved in the Mowry campaign. Wait, what?
Yes. that actually happened. I’m guessing they don’t read the political “internets.”
Aside from the fact I’m happy to support US Senator John Thune and appreciate all he’s done to get Republicans elected during his time in office, there’s also the part where his opponent Mowry alleges a January 6 conspiracy, claimed that the Nashville bombing was done to hide fraud with Dominion voting machines, and even more egregious, was on facebook telling people that mass shootings “sure could be” orchestrated to get people to accept gun control.
So, am I interested in getting involved in the Mowry campaign? How about NO!, in case I have not been clear enough about my opinion.
In the Congressional race, Congressman Dusty Johnson can apparently do no wrong as he continues to be buoyed by the very positive SDSU poll (which also tells us we love Sen. Thune and Gov. Noem), and earning high marks as the most effective Republican Congressman on Ag issues. I’m hearing that State Rep Liz May is said to be passing on taking another solid shellacking at Dusty’s hands.
But then there’s the chatter that the hard right is said to be teeing up someone else.
In conjunction with the Sioux Falls “America First” rally at the Farmer’s Market featuring Gays for Trump leader Scott Presler, a group trying to gin up a Dusty opponent was on Facebook declaring that State Representative Taffy Howard is also going to be speaking at the event.
That’s awfully interesting, as Howard has been a fairly vocal critic of Governor Kristi Noem over the past couple of years, and there has been speculation that she might have been a primary opponent for the Governor.
Howard had previously attacked the Governor over a series of grants to expand rural broadband access in South Dakota. And more recently, Taffy had attacked the Governor claiming that her appointments to the Board of Regents weren’t sufficiently conservative – an attack that earned Howard a rebuke from Pennington County GOP Committeeman Ed Randazzo, who claiming that Howard’s “victim mentality is a cloak.”
But as opposed to taking on Governor Noem, the rumor mill has been that recently Representative Howard’s name is more associated with a challenge to Congressman Johnson than Governor Noem. I was speaking with one correspondent today who indicated that he’d heard there may be some calling around trying to drum up support for her. And with this one appearance she’s already going to Sioux Falls more than Liz May ever did in her campaign.
Is Taffy going to try giving a statewide campaign a spin? We’ll see.
As for primary campaign activity in the Gubernatorial race.. Don’t kid yourself. There’s no one who seriously thinks they could challenge Governor Kristi Noem in a GOP primary.
There was talk at one time that State Rep. Steve Haugaard might be looking at it. And he is termed out after this election.
But that was dicey even before Kristi became one of the county’s GOP success stories for holding her state together during COVID. Yes, yes, Democrats are going to complain and disagree. But they’re chattering in an echo chamber when it comes to that issue, which might be why they seems to be throwing anything else they can at the Governor.
Intra-party, at this point, I’m doubtful that any Republican challenge to the state’s first woman Governor is going to happen. And even Lora Hubbel who has switched parties back and claims that she’s going to run against the Governor (in the midst of saying other goofy things on facebook) sounds as if she’s going to run as an indy in the general versus trying to get party members to select her in the GOP primary.
A GOP Challenge to the person in the big chair on the second floor? Not going to happen, or at the least, if it does it will be last minute and won’t be anything serious.
That’s what I’m hearing tonight in early July.
Stay tuned for more.
Very short-sighted by any would-be challengers (don’t forget about Dollar Store Bruce). All money and efforts should be focused on re-electing Kristi. She’s the only one susceptible in the general to a Dem like Sutton. She’ll again need the help of Thune and Dusty and they shouldn’t have to waste time and money on primary opponents who have no chance of winning.
Young Ms. Taffy is almost as pretty and almost as smart as Ms. Hubbel, and being also insaner than most will insure she is crushed in the primary. It will be great fun to watch.
Taffy Howard is a very intelligent woman and is beautiful both inside and out. She would be so much better than Dustbin or Thune, for that matter! She actually adhears much closer to the Republican platofrm than either of them. Maybe you should review the Republican Platform and the Constitution yourself and weigh the voting records of Howdy Doody Johnson and Sellout Thune against it. They should both have the D behind their names.
That’s right, Lorraine. Thune and Dusty Johnson vote pro-choice. They’re for tax increases. They are pro-regulation and support liberal judges. All of that RINO stuff they do. Right? Right, Lorraine?
Facebook… Your Source for News!
Adhears, you say?
I think that means she couldn’t hear reason through all the facebook ads.
Boy Lorraine, with your name calling, its seems that you would fit in better on Dakota Free Press with Cory H.
There are a lot of out-of-state name-callers over there. Sometimes it seems like studyhall in Junior High when Mr. Stebbins, the shop teacher, stepped out to toke up on a doobie.
The dwarf king should rename his site the Hate South Dakota Press. That’s all it is over there……how much more I hate SD than you.
grudznick – labels of insanity are a short cut. Need something substantive. “good looking” (or not) is also not good enough.
You are probably right that the incumbents will win, but they will do it without my vote this time. And I think I speak for a lot of the South Dakota voters. I will not forget that they did not support investigating obvious voting irregularities and basically dissed Trump supporters.
Taffy should run for the gold ring and go for Senate. Skip the brass ring competition.
When Trump is reinstated next month, what will he do with Mike Pence?
When the extent of the fraud comes out it will be interesting to watch Thune and Rounds do all their political manipulating to stay in power and excuse their lack of leadership. There is a reason both of them were so eerily silent about all this election fraud…ignorance? involvement? I think the establishment republicans (of which there are many in this state) are terrified of losing their federal money gravy train. I also suspect that many businessmen in South Dakota are terrified of losing their high-ranking buddy in Washington keeping that flow of federal cash flowing. What are you all gonna do when you have to actually run a solvent business for a living rather than living of off government contracts and subsidies?! That’s the real terror haunting Thune and his buddies.
I’m excited and proud to cast my primary and general election for some of the most capable and conscientious leaders in the Untited States- Senator Thune, Congressman Johnson, & Governor Noem.
When the votes are counted, I’m confident a lot of South Dakota voters will speak for themselves in support of these great public servants.
Regarding Thune’s competency, I have some questions about his discernment:
https://plainstribune.com/podcast/?service=podcast.PodCastDetail&streamId=8851267fc63e6dd400f42bf2e52a39b1
Maybe it won’t be a deal breaker for him.
Johnson seems well enough. He’d do better by shaking-up his advisors.
I’m in Noem’s corner (duh).
Rounds? It all depends on the candidate.
These days I’ve been keenly interested in compiling dossiers on key bureaucratic figures. At the moment, the SD Department of Labor’s integration with other agencies concerns me deeply, as does the lack of support (fiscal resources, innovation resources, objective product marketing analysis) for small business.
— Mowry alleges a January 6 conspiracy —
I have receipts on this:
https://plainstribune.com/podcast/?service=podcast.PodCastDetail&streamId=878d9871c63e6dd400f42bf297a26a86
— claimed that the Nashville bombing was done to hide fraud with Dominion voting machines —
There was a dubious coincidence in that Dominion was very close to the very strange explosion (have you seen slow-mo of the video of the explosion?).
— mass shootings “sure could be” orchestrated to get people to accept gun control —
LOL – this has happened several times throughout history, that it could happen here is not a stretch.
I’m not sure who I’m voting for, if I do for Senate. But I have to be painstakingly honest, if there isn’t a candidate that I don’t think will do the job, I won’t vote in that category (I’ll let other people choose between a tall douche with a great smile, and anyone else that doesn’t know how to take-on the bureaucracy).
Looking forward to seeing debates and perhaps even being able to ask questions (collective shudder).
Are you living in some kind of western protectionist bubble? Do you not know what people do in the face of tyrannical communist governments!? Get a history book out and read it before you criticize Mowry on his comments about gun confiscation. You ever been to out of the country and not hiding out at a resort? How insulting to the millions who have suffered under terrible totalitarian regimes that we spout such ignorance about history. It was well said once that “You vote your way into communism, but you have to shoot your way out.”
If we still have a republic in a little over a year:
Thune’s leadership of the Senate would have been guaranteed for decades by standing up to McConnell.
Things may still work-out, but John Thune is carrying a lot more baggage than he should be carrying.
I was sad to hear Thune whipped votes against a discerning look at the vote.
In my view, the election had major problems. If it was stolen (we’ll find-out after proper forensic audits), it’s extremely sad that Senator Thune wasn’t quicker on the draw.
Lastly, I’ll leave you with this historical remnant to tickle your analyzers:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Masonic_Party
I think Noem has serious friction in her candidacy in her Lieutenant selection.
If there’s a legit, viable candidate w/ the clout to challenge & defenestrate one of the top officeholders, I certainly haven’t heard about him/her.
I will say, I may have misunderstood the post by John Dale the spacing of the text made it hard for me to know what thoughts belonged to John and which were belonging to Mark. But to anyone who says that people aren’t getting fed up to the point of taking physical action is living in a delusion.