I went out and voted earlier this week.
Who did I cast my ballot for? I voted to give Governor Larry Rhoden a full term of office, of course. It was a pretty easy vote too.
Larry wasn’t my first choice in the original race. I was a Dusty person, as I liked his position on jobs and development, and I believe elections are about the future. But I bore no ill will towards Larry. I’ve been acquainted with him for years, since his time in the State Legislature, and Larry is just plain-off a good guy.
And again – it’s an easy vote. You know what you’re going to get, as Larry fulfills all of the elements of the critical “know-like-trust” test for candidates. In a political race, you have to meet three tests. Voters won’t vote for you if they don’t know you. They vote for the person they know. If they know them both, then they vote for the one they like. If they like them both equally – they will ultimately go with the person they trust.
If Larry says he’s doing something, or lays out a position, I can trust Larry. Larry Rhoden is a trustworthy guy.
The challenge, and the problem with Toby Doeden, is that he really doesn’t pass that “know-like-trust” very well.
What we know of Toby is from commercials. They’ve done him well, but I don’t believe I know him. The jury is out on the like part, for sure. And I have no ability to trust him, because I have no idea – no track record – on what he would do if he wins. I think there’s far too much that’s up in the air, and a lot of his proposals have less substance than smoke. I CAN’T TRUST I’M GOING TO GET WHAT I’M BEING SOLD in the commercials.
What are the problems I see? Here’s two of the things weighing most heavily:
- Who on earth is Doeden going to choose as his Lt. Gov, and/or populate his administration with? Because right now, all I see is a circus surrounding Toby Doeden, and I don’t want to turn State Government into a clown car. We don’t know what we don’t know at this point. We might very likely have the awful Taffy Howard as Lt. Governor. Or, we could have California Carley. Who knows? Phil Jensen? This is not a stable of people that would want a heartbeat away from the Governor’s chair. Maybe Steve Haugaard might be in line, with all the lip service he’s giving Toby on Facebook.
Doeden has surrounded himself with sycophants and a number of people who are not trustworthy to watch a person’s dog much less entrust with a government. This does not give me a lot of confidence in a potential Doeden administration. There are too many unknowns. So many so, that even if he did get through the primary, he’d need to show much more of the hand he’s holding before I’d even think about voting for him in the fall.It’s that bad.
- Does Toby Doeden actually have a plan? Because all I’m hearing are slogans that he keeps retreating from. For example, from South Dakota Searchlight, Toby’s plan for property taxes.. or what they were depending on the day..
A Doeden campaign postcard mailed earlier this year carried the heading “eliminate property taxes,” without any language limiting the pledge to homeowners. The text under the heading was also devoid of qualifying language: “South Dakota residents are getting crushed under the weight of property taxes. Toby Doeden will phase out property taxes once and for all.”
and yet, the slogans/narrative changes as needed depending on who is asking the questions..
Doeden’s campaign spokesperson Matt Hurley said this week that Doeden’s plan has never applied to any classes of property beyond owner-occupied homes. They produce about $815 million in local tax revenue. Eliminating property taxes for homeowners — and nobody else — has “always been the plan,” Hurley said.
Let’t not forget Toby’s rhetoric on “external revenue,” and how he was going to go after trusts. Or not:
Doeden also mentioned charging a “small fee like every other state does” in an interview with South Dakota Searchlight earlier this year. No specific fees were given. Following the SD Searchlight interview, the idea of “taxing trusts,” though Doeden only ever mentioned imposing “fees,” drew criticism from some. That included an opinion piece on The Dakota Scout, series of commentary on the South Dakota Standard and on the conservative blog site Dakota War College.
This stands in stark contrast to remarks made by Doeden on the Dakota Town Hall podcast last week. When asked if he’s planning to create a luxury tax or tax on trusts, Doeden called bringing in big banks and trusts “the best thing that happened” to South Dakota. He responded to Brad Jurgensen saying he thought Doeden wanted to tax trusts, adding “the trust thing is fake.”
Are you filled with confidence? I’m not.
I could go on and on and on.. and I have for far too many months, as I’ve broken the stories on Toby never voting in a Republican primary (before 2024), and taking over a million dollars of free COVID money from the Gov’t which he never seems to want to talk about.
But the bottom line is that for well over a year now, we’ve been seeing the previews of what a Doeden administration would look like. In story after story, anecdote after anecdote, when you read stories like this from Dakota News Now in 2022:
Ashley Washagesic, a single mother from Aberdeen, saw her rent go up by 48% this year.
Washagesic began renting a home on north Lloyd Street in May of 2020. She paid $775 for the two-bedroom house each month. Washagesic shared the home with her two daughters.
In August, Plaza Rentals bought the property and increased Washagesic’s rent to $1,150 a month. She accepted that she would have to pay another $375 a month, but she just wanted to know why.
and..
Dakota News Now reached out to Plaza Rentals for a statement. When asked if inflation of the housing market and other consumer goods had to do with the rent increase, Plaza Rentals owner Toby Doeden gave the following statement:
“The overwhelming majority of inflation in Aberdeen, like the rest of the Country, was caused by President Biden and his administration’s failed policies. This one particular example has absolutely nothing to do with inflation and Dakota News Now is well aware of this fact. We paid market value for the house and because of that were forced to adjust the rent to market value.
..You’re left scratching your head wondering “what on earth did Toby just say?” Because it sounds like he was just pulling gobbeldygook out of his rear-end to deflect criticism and blame so none of it landed on him.
It’s much like his campaign – slogans and campaign ideas that crumble to dust when they start hitting the light of day.
All I get is the impression that these things we’ve seen over the intervening months and years are just previews of what we would get with a Doeden administration. And as far as I’m concerned, all the previews are awful. And they don’t give me the impression that I want to see this movie playing in our State Capitol anytime soon.
Get out and vote early, or vote on Tuesday, but just go vote.
His ad of his wife begging us to just trust him…God no.
It’s hard for Dusty voters to go from Dusty to door number 2. Dusty’s vision was strong and about the future.
Dusty is about Dusty. He’s dirty.
Foolish statement!!
Accurate statement. Dusty ran for Governor because Dustyvhas always wanted to be Governor. Dusty will do anything to be Governor.
Never had an experience with the man that made it seem he was self-interested. Hes literally the exact opposite…quite selfless if you ask me.
And y’all voted for Trump. I can tell how good your judgement is Pat.
People do stupid things til they learn not to do that. Keep having faith.
These people think a properly applied concrete coating can be destroyed with a razor blade. That is how intelligent these people are. For those of us who have dealt with coatings to concrete, tanks, and other industrial applications know that the only way to remove a job done right would take months with a grinder if you are lucky. They will never take accountability for their poor decisions and it is always some liberal or biden who caused their problems. Trump and his supporters are a joke.
And you voted for Harris? Now how good is your judgement?
That judgement for Harris is excellent. The only people who prefer Trump are brainwashed by the Fox News lie that she whored her way to the top. Lie. Truth? She was an effective top prosecutor in California, worked her way through college and law school, and by virtue of her experience and chutzpah, she was and is the most qualified woman to be POTUS.
Trump is a wretched grifting monster by comparison to her. So yeah, Harris voters feel fully vindicated by events.
anonymous at 10:43
considering the alternative, oh yes, we voted for Trump
It’s not as if the Democrats could find somebody who wasn’t brain damaged, drunk or senile to run against him.
How anybody could watch Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden or Kamala Harris and not realize something was very wrong with each of them is strange..Very strange.
Have you listened to the demented fool running the country lately?
Your post is so sophmoric……. the name calling is an on going defense for a mistake Republicans made in bringing back Trump
Anonymous 6:05PM – saying a thing over and over – Democrats are drunk / senile / traitorous / communist / unfit – – doesn’t mean a thing.
You say the thing as if saying it PROVES it then there’s never any actual proof, just a cloud of your lies.
If you find something other than Trump which has driven us trillions deep in unimaginable debt, PLEASE BRING PROOF and not just your echo-chamber mantras. Otherwise, it’s Trump. And Thune and Rounds, who rubber-stamp his thievings.
Hillary Clinton was noted by staff in the State Department to be forgetful. She was noticeably missing when Benghazi happened and Susan Rice was sent out to cover for her on all the Sunday morning talk shows. Where was she???
During the 2016 campaign Bill Clinton related that “she had a fall, and had physical therapy for six months after that.”
Those of us in the health care professions suspected a stroke.
Joe Biden was obviously unaware of what was going on and Covid provided the explanation for why he wasn’t out on the campaign trail in 2020. In one televised speech, broadcast from his home, he ended it and looked like a deer caught in the headlights. Jill stepped into the frame, kissed him on the cheek, and basically finished the speech.
When he appeared in public, his gait was the giveaway that dementia had taken hold of him. Again, something that was a red flag to health care professionals might have been missed by a lot of people.
Kamala was beyond comprehension. Lindy Li’s explanation that she is an intelligent woman but when she is in front of a camera “her brain melts,” doesn’t explain what was going on. We don’t know if it was alcohol or anxiety, but something was clearly wrong with her.
If you watched them and thought “well I didn’t know what was wrong with them but I voted for them anyway,” there is something wrong with you.
We know what’s wrong with Trump, he’s a narcissist with ADHD. He’s not incompetent, and his brain doesn’t melt. We might not want him as a houseguest but we are ok with him in the White House.
Compared to those Democrats, Trump was the sensible choice.
Brain melt from a dubious single source. Stroke alleged for someone who has no classic residual effects of even the most minor stroke.
TYPICAL lying B-S – especially the part where you allege that Trump is competent. Competent to stand trial maybe but not at anything else.
There are a couple of incidental things wrong with me, but you’re stating untruth and that is intentional.
Toby is going to do what Trump did to our federal economy. Destroy it. WE aren’t going to be able to repair things fast enough and our working class will suffer the most. I’ll never understand how so many people are gullible to fall for these conmen.
Our economy has been destroyed? How have i not noticed?
Our money has been devalued and doesn’t buy as much as it used to, but people are still working and the shelves at the grocery store are still filled.
There’s new construction all around, new houses going up everywhere. Somebody’s buying them.
You can tell when the economy tanks: people can’t pay their mortgages and the housing market stalls. You see lots of “For Sale” signs and little movement. . We went through that in the mid-80s.
Saying the economy is bad does not make it so.
South Dakota has long been a prototype for a lean mean conservative government and economy – the deprivations hitting the rest of the country are hard to detect here because we’re already at the place where Trump is taking everybody else.
South Dakota is a largely wealthless place, with pockets of the nation’s worst poverty. If the whole nation is dragged down to that fate, how would we even feel it or even have empathy for them? Answer: we would have what we have now, people using the evidence of their immediate vicinity to “prove” Trump and MAGA are economic geniuses, because for us nothing changed.
The housing market IS struggling, you dishonest dingus.
Housing Market Shrinks as Residential Investment Falls 8% https://share.google/7Azeoun19hUSH3KBd
that’s nationwide. not happening here
look around
The original debate was about the President of the United States and the US economy. Your point about “South Dakota’s great” is not relevant. Stop moving the goal posts and just admit you screwed up. It’s ok to be wrong.
What’s more concerning to me than Doeden are the number of people that buy into his surface level nonsense. The guy is the textbook definition of a “demagogue.” I would be very curious to see the average level of education of his supporters.
Toby made a big error by embracing Jensen, Aylward, Schaefbauer, Garcia etc.
Taffy benefited him. The others are so far out and at war with the Hansen, Lems and Odebbach wing of the GOP that he can’t coalesce the actual GOP base now.
Also Venhuizen has not helped Larry coalesce voters. He’s not a good choice. Many are holding their nose and voting for Larry anyway.
Larry leads from behind.
He opposed HB 1052, tried to stop it, then signed it.
That is totally false. You heard the rumor mill say that and you just passed the lie on.
I was there as where you Ian.. Larry and Kristi supported the project until Tony rolled his 8 sided die and calculated this would help them with the RINOs (Hansen supporters).
Tell me lies tell me sweet little lies.
The rumors out there on Doeden’s team are crazy. Especially to reward his legislative friends that just lost.
Taffy Howard as Lt. Gov
John Carley as BFM Commissioner
Dylan Jordan in the office
Logan Manhart as a policy advisor
Josephine Garcia as Sec of Health
Brandei Schaefbauer as Sec of DSS
Tamara Grove as Sec of DHS
Steve Haugaard as Secretary of Corrections
Drew Dennert as Sec of Ag
Rumor that Phil Jensen might will resign from the legislature to be Secretary of Education.
Matt Smith as Press Secretary
These are the the people championing Doeden and vying to be in his office. Basically the Dunning-Kruger Effect cabinet.
Can Brandei spell DSS?
dear god
Anyone got a breath mint? I just threw up in my mouth a bit.
I’m glad you put Matt Smith on there. Is he on Doeden’s payroll? I’ve always wanted to ask, because I’ve never seen such a “Pick me! I’m a good boy!” grown man in my life. I don’t know if it’s funny or just plain sad.
If I needed yet another reason to vote Rhoden.
And, although it’s typically a rubber stamp process, I cannot imagine the (much saner) Senate would confirm most of these cabinet picks. Still, thanks for the nightmare fuel.
Why vote for Larry? He’s a good guy.
Easy. +1
He picked Tony as his Lt.
Oh. -1
Who is Matt Smith?
If you have Facebook look him up. He’s a complete fan girlie for Doeden. Almost all his posts are about Doeden…and almost all are complete A.I. slop (for those of you against data centers, guess what is the main driver of all these new data centers? A.I.! Think about that when you are liking all the A.I. on social media).
Or you can go to any post Toby makes. And look for matt. He will be there “Oh yes Daddy Toby! You are awesome! Pick me! Choose me!”
Same here with my early vote.
Yes I’d go to a movie with awful reviews. I prefer to make up my own mind rather than having someone tell me how and what to think.
You never get back those 2 hours of your life when you sat through Benigni’s re-imagined adaptation of Pinocchio, a real movie by the way, when you go against the 96% of the betting market that say’s you’ll like that solid cowboy western with guns, gold and girls. But you enjoy the nose growing.
the movie analogy was a fail. Voting for Doeden is more like buying a used car without checking the carfax
Krirti endorsed Rhoden on her Facebook page. Good ‘enuf for me
I suppose you are one of the Dems who thinks that Dan Ahlers, who got only 34% of the vote the last time he was on a statewide general election ballot and isn’t even bothering to campaign now he’s the SDDP nominee, can beat Doeden?
Anyone who thinks that is delusional. Unless Ahlers drops out and is replaced with Herseth-Sandlin, Whoever wins on Tuesday is going to be our next governor.
Correct.
Please, please, someone try to shut Noem up. She is persona non grata and her stumping for Rhoden is doing more harm than good.
The wingnuts iin SD are ludicrous! Toby, being supported by wingnuts such as Taffy Howard, Phil Jensen, and the Fry sisters, speaks volumes as to how unhinged and dangerous he is!!!!
Larry and Tony are doing a good job.