By Denise Ross

Last I’d heard, McCain had a 7-point lead on Obama here in dear ol’ SD. Now there’s a poll done by the Tim Johnson campaign that shows it at either a 5-point difference, or a 4-point difference - as it appears there might have been a typo in tallying the results.

The summary shows Obama getting 40 percent of the vote, McCain 45 percent, Nader 4 and “other candidate,” 1. The remaining 10 percent are undecided, which seems high, but there you have it.

In the breakdown of the questions, however, it shows that 42 % of respondents said they would definitely vote for McCain, and another 2 % said they were leaning that way. Now, journalists are notoriously lousy at math, but I’m pretty sure that adds up to 44. (Obama had 39 % definite votes and 1 % leaners.)

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By Denise Ross

I saw this story out of Minneapolis over the weekend and thought it would immediately enter the debate over the abortion ban on South Dakota’s ballot next week. That doesn’t seem to have happened.

In any case, I was fascinated by how a couple’s story of twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome further illuminates the treatments available for that problem.

Unlike the Campbell family featured in ads for the SD Healthy Families campaign working to defeat the ban, the Cassellius family opted for an experimental (emphasis mine) treatment in an effort to save both of their identical twin boys. The odds were against them.

Even with the procedure, officials said the chance of both boys surviving was around just 40 percent.

“We don’t know what the outcome is going to be for several weeks,” the surgeon said.

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By Denise Ross

My documentary about the 2006 abortion ban vote will screen this evening, 6:30 pm at the Elks Theatre in Rapid City. This is part of the Voices of the Heartland Film series, and tickets are $5.

Here’s the trailer for Unplanned Democracy: America’s First Vote on Abortion:  

Anyone looking for a Monday night activity or for a satisfying film experience, and you’ll be in the Rapid City area this evening, check it out.

There will be a shorter film, a bit more than 20 minutes, produced by the Democracy in Action group. I haven’t seen their film but understand it to take a posture against the abortion ban that’s on the 2008 ballot. (My film doesn’t take a side.)

There will be a panel discussion after both films, for which I might or might not still be awake.

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By Denise Ross

Former US Sen. Larry Pressler, R-SD, has cast his first ballot for a Democrat for president.

Pressler, who said that in addition to casting an absentee ballot for Obama he’d donated $500 to the Illinois senator’s campaign, cited the Democrat’s response to the financial crisis as the primary reason for his decision.

That’s the report today at Politico.com.

John McCain’s “handling of the financial crisis made me feel nervous.”

Pressler has mailed his ballot, cast for Obama, but says he’s all torn up about it. Pressler handed off the Senate Commerce Committee gavel to McCain a decade ago.

But Pressler says he will fight to keep the moderate wing of the GOP in domination, especially on fiscal policy - which extends to the money the nation has spent on Iraq.

Discuss.

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By Denise Ross

As Election Day draws nigh, we are hearing more about trouble with voter registration and accusations of voter suppression, especially in the swing states.

Sure, there’s plenty of time devoted to arguing over who’s more un-American than who and hand-wringing over who’s TV ad is more negative.

But there still seems to be some time and space left over for addressing problems that might be threatening the very integrity of our electoral process. 

In recent weeks, ACORN has become synonomous with Mickey Mouse and Superman registering to vote. It all sounds way too familiar, so I wrote last week’s newspaper column about how very similar events left South Dakota a little worse for the wear back in 2002.

Nichols, hired … while on work release from the Pennington County Jail, had been paid $3 per voter registration card filled out. He enlisted a few friends to help, paying them each $1 per card.

Nichols told the judge he and his pals grabbed a phone book … and set to work copying information from the phone book to the voter cards. And, oh yes, they also set to work drinking. When the judge asked if Nichols and his friends were “intoxicated” when they did their work, the man replied, “Oh, yeah! Definitely!” with such enthusiasm that the courtroom erupted in giggles.

To read the entire column, click CLICK HERE below.

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By Denise Ross

The Hoghouse Blog news team did not have the stamina for all of Thursday evening’s legislative candidate forum, especially after it got underway about a half-hour late.

So we can’t bring you reports on what every legislative candidate from the greater Rapid City area said.

(Photos by David Larson)

A fraction of the candidates featured at SDSM&T in Rapid City Thursday night waited for the event to begin.  

What we can bring you are photos of folks who were there, most taken before the speeches started.

Republican Senate candidate Stan Adelstein, left, talks to Rep. Brian Dreyer, R-Rapid City.

Rep. David Lust, R-Rapid City, at right, talks to former Rapid City school finance man Dan Dryden. I’ve seen both of them look a lot more cheery.

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By Denise Ross

(Photos by David Larson)

There’s a scurrilous piece of information being put out by my opponent that’s totally untrue.

That’s how former state Rep. and Sen. Stan Adelstein, R-Rapid City, opened his remarks at Thursday night’s candidate form at the SD School of Mines & Technology in Rapid City.

The misinformation has to do with the 2nd Amendment, Stan said, but he didn’t say much else except to direct the audience to a brochure, which outlines his support for the 2nd Amendment. (To see the brochure, CLICK HERE.)

The Rapid City businessman and philanthropist also shared this tid-bit from his past. When the credit market wasn’t so liquid in 1970, much like today, he floated a $300,000 payroll bill between a Tuesday and a Friday, simply hoping that the bank would come through with a line of credit. If not, the payroll checks would have bounced, he said.

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By Denise Ross

I was braced for a rather boring rundown of biographies and glittering generalities on a few issues when I saw the few dozen legislative candidates lined up to speak at Thursday night’s candidate forum in Rapid City.

But the first candidate at the podium, Rep. Gordon Howie, R-Rapid City, delivered fireworks right out of the chute.

(Photos by David Larson)

Howie, who is seeking the District 30 Senate seat, proclaimed his opponent, David Melmer, “a flaming liberal masquerading as a moderate.” Howie said he had thought Melmer to be a nice person with whom he simply had some disagreements. But he has found him to be not such a nice person after all.

He said he had just the day before stumbled onto a website on which Melmer had delivered “a slanderous attack against me” and encouraged the audience to go read the site for themselves.

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By Denise Ross

The nation is so far in the ditch that, as the next president attempts to drive us out, we won’t like the bumpy ride any better than we like being in the ditch. And we’ll probably take it out on our new driver.

So predicts Joe Biden and Tom Daschle, according to this blog post at National Review Online.

Tom Daschle told a Washington power breakfast that he thought the winner of the election would have a 50 per cent chance at best - at best - of winning a second term in 2012.

And Biden is quoted this way:

Because I promise you, you all are gonna be sitting here a year from now going, ‘Oh my God, why are they there in the polls? Why is the polling so down? Why is this thing so tough?’

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By Denise Ross

First a well-known GOP pundit compares Steve Hildebrand to Gen. David Patraeus. Then the Miami Herald makes much of his presence in Miami Beach.

Try as he might to avoid it, one of South Dakota’s pre-emiminent political operatives of his day makes news fairly routinely.

Here’s what Kathleen Parker said about Hilde on the Chris Mathews Show over the weekend:

Ms. PARKER: The Democratic Party is organizing a surge in Florida. They
have dispatched two of their top generals, the equivalent of Petraeus and
McKiernan. Steve Hildebrandt and Paul Tewes have set up shop in Miami and
Tampa.

(At least the Herald spelled his name right, eh?) Paul Tewes, btw, is Hilde’s business partner in the Hildebrand Tewes consulting / lobbying firm.

Parker propelled herself into national prominence a few weeks ago when she suggested that Sarah Palin ought to resign her Republican VP candidacy because her performance had been so cringe-inducing as to harm the GOP.

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