By Denise Ross

I got a good on-the-ground report from a Republican friend about the state of politics in Lawrence County, a red county in our (last time I checked, still) red state.

Word is that Dem Nyla Griffith’s Senate campaign is going gang-busters, with the expectation that much or all of the take from the upcoming Williams & Ree event - documented by my pal Ruth at DakotaDiscography - will be funneled to Griffith’s campaign war chest, courtesy of SD Senate Minority Leader Scott Heidepriem, who’s expected to be at the event.

(UPDATE/CORRECTION: Nyla called to clarify that the Williams & Ree proceeds will go to the Lawrence County Dems, who will then decide how to funnel it out to candidates. She has a separate fundraiser set for Sept. 5 with/at the Matthews Opera House in Spearfish. That is the event Sen. Heidepriem will attend. He isn’t expected to attend the Williams & Ree show. My apologies for the confusion. -Denise. Now, back to the original post.)

Spread the word

Hide Sites

By Denise Ross

You’ll no doubt see this most everywhere soon, but it made me laugh heartily at an hour I’m not prone to much emotion at all so it had to be on the Hoghouse.

Here it is:

Spread the word

Hide Sites

By Denise Ross

I was interviewing John Thune recently, writing a newspaper column about his efforts to boost the number of law enforcement officers on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. And I broke one of the cardinal rules of interviewing. I had a “Holy cow!” reaction to something he said:

I was talking to Hillary Clinton about this after she visited Pine Ridge, and she wants to help.

“Wait, wait,” I said. “You were talking to Hillary Clinton about crime on South Dakota’s Indian reservations?” (With emphasis on the you and the Hillary.) Thune realized I wanted to pursue this further — which is why interviewers should not react as I did – and he shut it down.

He said something like: Well, it was on the Senate floor, not in South Dakota. And she just said, “Hey, if there’s anything I can do to help, let me know.”

Spread the word

Hide Sites

By Denise Ross

Native readers of Hoghouse and those plugged into the Native community were probably well aware of a walk being led by Dennis Banks from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. I happened to stumble into news of it over the weekend and found a few more reports online about the Longest Walk 2.

This from Sky News:

Thirty years ago, 40,000 Native Americans and their supporters participated in an historic cross-country march called the Longest Walk. 

They travelled 3,600 miles from San Francisco to Washington gathering support to successfully halt bills before Congress, that Native Americans said threatened their sovereignty.

Commemorating that event, two groups of walkers set out from Alcatraz Island last February. 

The Longest Walk 2 was longer by demand according to organiser Dennis Banks, who founded the first walk in 1978.

Spread the word

Hide Sites

By Denise Ross

The Washington Post issued another list of VP contenders, and - as per usual - a South Dakota name made the list.

5. John Thune: The South Dakota senator is playing the tortoise in the veepstakes, content to hang in the back of the pack until the final decision days. In an interview with a South Dakota television station, Thune played that part to the hilt “I don’t have, as I said before, any intentions on that job. And I don’t expect to be asked.” We still think Thune will be a veepstakes finalist, however, because of his age (he’s 47), his strong support for McCain during the rollercoaster candidacy of the past year and his ability to appeal to social and fiscal conservatives. The biggest drawback for Thune? With no Senator having been directly elected to the White House in 48 years, does McCain really want to double down on his Washington ties given that Congress is as popular as used car salesman at the moment? (Previous ranking: 3)

Spread the word

Hide Sites

By Denise Ross

If you don’t have to reread this a few times, your ability to grasp the world on the other side of the looking glass is more agile than my own.

This from the London Times’ literary supplement:

In (the book’s) foreground – and here the wary reader starts doing some research to see how dodgy these particular pieces of non-fiction are – are the cases of Bill Janklow, the former Governor of South Dakota who was convicted of manslaughter, Jacinta Eagle Deer, allegedly raped, possibly murdered, and Leonard Peltier of AIM (the American Indian Movement) who was jailed for shooting two FBI agents. Custer gets re-enacted but not Wounded Knee, though that lives on in Kevin Costner, while AIM confronts the still-extant BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs), of unsavoury reputation.

Spread the word

Hide Sites

By Denise Ross

Cindy McCain is grabbing the headlines, but SD’s own Tom Daschle will be along next week on a trip to Rwanda, the African country best known for the mid-1990s genocide, the hand-wringing - and little else - over it from the rest of the world, and Hollywood’s depiction in Hotel Rwanda.

CNN is reporting on the upcoming trip:

The wife of presumptive Republican nominee John McCain plans to spend four days on the ground in the war-torn African nation on a trip organized by the non-partisan ONE campaign, as part of a group visiting USAID health clinics, schools, and an orphanage. Former Senator Tom Daschle will be joining the trip on behalf of Democrat Barack Obama’s campaign.

Daschle and former Senator Bill Frist are co-chairmen of the group’s ONE Vote ‘08 initiative.

Faithful Hoghouse Blog readers might remember Daschle’s role in founding the ONE campaign last year.

Spread the word

Hide Sites

By Denise Ross

Either I’m terribly out of sync with the latest political gossip - which is entirely possible - or there has been a major glitch to hit the SoDak matrix.

I offer this from the Swing State Project . I double-checked the date and it is, indeed, current:

LOOKING FORWARD: SENATE 2010 …

…  SD - Rounds vs. Herseth (Thune may run for Governor. Rounds and Herseth are both popular and would make this an extremely tight race. Should Thune pass up a run for governorship, then expect this seat to remain in Republican hands. Should it be a Rounds vs. Herseth match then a close race would be on the horizon).  Forecast: Safe Rep/Toss Up

Thune may run for governor? Anyone else heard this? I can’t see Thune leaving as a single-term senator, unless it’s to become VP. And then Rounds appoints his replacement anyway. (Hey, here’s a new parlor game to play! Who would Rounds pick? The possibilities are both endless and delicious.)

Spread the word

Hide Sites

By Denise Ross

The Politico report that SD’s own John Thune has made it to the finals of the GOP veep-stakes - he’s in the top 3 - is getting plenty of play. (And with Obama making a big play for Evangelicals, that would seem to tip the scales away from the Mormon Mitt Romney towards the Baptist Thune as a way to shore that demographic up.)

What hasn’t gotten as much discussion is something Barack Obama said that was highlighted on the Chris Matthews Show .

This from the transcript:

Sen. OBAMA: (Wednesday) I want somebody who can be a good president if
anything happened to me. And I want somebody who can be a good adviser and counsel to me and tell me where he or she thinks I’m wrong, not just on
national security policy, but on domestic policy as well.

Spread the word

Hide Sites