It’s not just a double punch for Brian Bengs – it’s a flurry of body blows as South Dakota remembers it’s roots and prepares to send one of it’s own back to the US Senate, shaking off the carpetbagger dreams of someone who has only lived in the State for 9 years. At least, according to SD News Watch:
Republican Sen. Mike Rounds leads Independent challenger Brian Bengs 56% to 37%, according to the latest South Dakota Poll sponsored by News Watch and the Chiesman Center for Democracy at the University of South Dakota.
The Oct. 12-14 survey of 500 likely voters by Mason-Dixon Polling and Strategy, ranked as one of the least-biased and most-factual pollsters, also found that 62% of independents support Bengs, while 30% support Rounds and 8% of independents are undecided.
and..
“The Bengs campaign (has) spent over $100,000 on polling from various pollsters to get an accurate read of where the race is. Some have us up, some have us down. But the fact is that Mike Rounds’ allies wouldn’t be dumping so much money into this race if they really thought it was safe,” Clara Bronikowski, a representative from the Bengs campaign, said to News Watch in a statement.
and..
“Rounds is the junior senator. He also was a beloved governor who did really well as governor. That protects him, but he also really stays away from some of the more D.C.-esque concerning things. I think Rounds has very purposefully, maybe even strategically, tried to to stay away from falling into that trap, if you will. And so I’m not surprised by by that at all,” Hellwege said.
I’m kind of thinking that Bengs’ $100k that he blew on goofy polling would have been better spent on helping to raise his name ID.
Here’s the reality from the ground. South Dakotans like Mike Rounds. He was a good governor, he’s a good senator and an all around good guy. I don’t care how many TV ads you run, if you tell South Dakotans an obvious falsehood we’ll reject it, like the lie that grown a$$ adult men belong in a girls bathroom.
Be careful now. That kind of to the point talk is bound to trigger the fragile feelings of various liberal boneheads on this blog.
I don’t think Bengs reads this blog. A few of his people might.
Baby killing liberals like Bangin Bengs who believe in insider trading, open boarders, will never hold a office in South Dakota.
Bangin bengs will disappear like blm and the China flu in less than two weeks.
RLTW
Thanks (or not) for your hateful Republican comments Steve.
Just saw that neato fatcat “Senator” ad that shows him swilling Scotch on a Lear Jet, who looks like a fatter and smugger version of Mr. Ahlers. grudznick is still confused why the Bangin Bengs camps are portraying Mr. Sen. Rounds with an Ahlers doppleganger.
Early voting has Republicans down 20% and Democrats up 10% from 2022. I guess if you believe that 95% of Republicans will vote for Rounds – you are right, Bengs can pack up and go home. Fortunately for South Dakota it will be closer to 75%
Rounds has been winning in South Dakota for nearly a quarter century. The people trust him, and so do I. He is the real deal. Not perfect, but in this day and age, far better than many Senators and Representatives.
I was down at the auditor’s office voting early, the minute they opened early voting.
“For the conspiracy buffs: only once.”
Ah yes, because Dems and Independents have been peddling election conspiracies since 2016. Not the GOP nor the President.
Even though I find you to be a disingenuous turd, you are right that Rounds will keep winning. I am voting for him too.
Rounds is headed back. Isn’t it going to be fun to hear him complain about the national debt if a non-Republican gets elected president in 2018. But will he have any ground to stand on there? By the end of Trump’s second term, our national debt will be at about $47 Trillion. Of that, one-third was added by Mike Rounds and Donald Trump. One-third of our entire debt in only three percent of our nation’s existence.
Mike Rounds seems like a nice guy but, explain how he was a great governor. I think he wasted 8 years.
Rounds pumped out the Homestake deep hole and turned it into a deep underground science lab.
His 2010 plan for SD included economic expansion and the inauguration of South Dakota Angus branded beef. (My jokester dad says “once you skin ‘em it’s all angus.”)
Before ACA, Rounds advocated removing border restrictions and organizing multistate pools to bring health costs down. (We may need to bring that idea back up again someday.). Rounds promoted the Heartland Express transportation corridor to and from Canada to the western plains. If we ever fix our relationship with Canada we’ll need to keep after that too.
Rounds’ greatest value might be in national defense and security matters. His time as governor saw numerous deployments of SDNG units to serve in the Middle East, and he keeps his finger on the pulse of things affecting Ellsworth and the nation, to good effect.
I early voted asap for Bengs because the value of the things I listed are cancelled out by the wholesale rubber stamping of Trump’s erratic mission to destabilize the world, use up all of our international good will, and enrich himself and his kin and cronies ON OUR BACKS.
For all his track record of success, Rounds will be no good at the single thing that needs doing – i.e. correct the abuses and stem the corruption of Trump. No good at all.
I appreciate an honest attempt to answer the question. I still feel like the list you provided is pretty weak for 8 years in office. The Homestake Lab was pretty much ready to go by the time Janklow left office.
I felt like the Rounds years were a waste of a Governor’s seat.
You’re a Noem lover then, they always forget Rounds when they’re shining up her brave record of action which came later.
Also, Rounds and T Denny Sanford were practically joined at the hip in getting Homestake over the finish line.
I do think some can forget that SD never wanted to be a red wall of loyalty like WY is. We are the state of Janklow Democrats and Daschle Republicans – many great and very thoughtful bipartisan voters who understood the whole game of politics the people need to play in our country.
We are all still out here, and we’ll see if a wave resurfaces in about a week.
The last two years for sure.