By Denise Ross

“My name is Jim Abourezk, and I used to work for the government.” That was the opening line - and an applause generator - at a Friday night fundraiser in Rapid City. The local labor temple, a favorite of local Democrats, is a dimly lit cinder block cavern made cozy by well-worn vinyl flooring and metal folding chairs. This makes it an unlikely venue for a statewide barnstorming tour of not one but two iconoclasts.

What the place lacked in warmth former Sens. Jim Abourezk and George McGovern delivered - Abourezk in a fiery, unapologetic screed against a corrupt GOP and McGovern in a heart-warming, professorial, self-effacing essay about the greater good. (Disclosure: I’m assuming that’s all that McGovern’s speech was, as I had to leave in the middle of it - baby’s bed time and all. That’s what it was up until my departure, and that’s McGovern’s signature style.)

Spread the word

Hide Sites

By Denise Ross

State Sen. Jason Gant, R-Sioux Falls, made a swing out to the Black Hills recently in his bid to become South Dakota’s next Secretary of State. (He attended a Pennington County GOP picnic that was held during the worst picnic weather short of a blizzard, so he’s serious about this.) See his campaign brochure on the jump.

Gant was an open government champion before it was cool - he even has been accused of being a closet Democrat - and he’s got a plan for how to make the Secretary of State’s Office even more open. I’d argue that it already is one of South Dakota’s most open government offices, with the Legislative Research Council probably leading the way. But in our beloved state, the bar for open government hasn’t been set very high.

Gant envisions an SOS office that takes full advantage of the world wide web for both openness and efficiency.

Hopefully we will put as many records as possible right there, get that stuff online, he said. We have to remember who our boss is and who’s paying for it.

Gant would put all the public records maintained by the SOS online - from corporate filings to campaign finance reports - on the website in searchable form, not the pdfs we now have access to. In addition, he would set up a system under which those forms could be filled out entirely online, thus saving the staff the trouble of re-typing the information into another computer. (Right now we can do some of this online, but ultimately the forms get printed out and mailed in - and then re-typed.)

Gant also hopes to visit high school government classes where he would encourage the 18-year-olds to register to vote.

And he said he’d do more to assist small jursidictions with elections while promoting best practices when it comes to those local elections. Like most states, South Dakota doesn’t have an entirely uniform set of elections practices, but Gant thinks maybe we should think about doing that.

For the GOP nomination, Gant faces Teresa Bray who currently works in the SOS office and who Gant expects will have the support of current SOS Chris Nelson. But he’s not worried about that. At the moment, he’s traveling the state meeting with Republican delegates. As in old machine-style politics, in these statewide offices below the governor, it is delegates that win one a primary victory.

To read Gant’s campaign brochure, click “CLICK HERE” below.  

Spread the word

Hide Sites

By Denise Ross

I had a number of back-channel communications letting me know that Dennis Daugaard will not be the first South Dakota gubernatorial candidate to hire a Beltway media firm for his campaign.

In fact, Paul Wilson (see post below for more details) was hired by George Mickelson for both of his campaigns in the 1980s and by Mickelson’s lieutenant governor Walter Dale Miller when he ran in a primary against Bill Janklow in 1994.

So, welcome back to South Dakota Mr. Wilson.

Spread the word

Hide Sites

By Denise Ross

Rounding out my interview with Lt. Gov. Dennis Daugaard, let’s look at his campaign team. He’s hired his son and his son-in-law, and he knows what you all think of that. He’s also hired a professional political media outfit and that tried-and-true Sioux Falls ad agency to GOP govs, Lawrence & Schiller.

Daugaard’s son, Chris, graduated in May from SDSU (Go Jacks!) after achieving his own electoral success as student body president. (He majored in poli sci.) After a stint kickin’ it in Europe, Chris is on board with his dad’s campaign and with any luck just might wind up with a state government job in Pierre in 18 months. That is just one possibility, of course. (Chris writes in to say he’ll be off to grad school after the campaign is over. A sound plan. Law? Business? Anything certain on that front?)

Spread the word

Hide Sites

By Denise Ross

There’s a good explanation for the lull at the Hoghouse, untimely as the GOP gubernatorial candidates are making noise and health care is going hog wild on Capitol Hill. Hoghouse HQ now has a lovely new front deck, and Mr. Hoghouse is quite the taskmaster! (I’ll post a photo soon.)

Meanwhile, back to my interview with Lt. Gov. Dennis Daugaard earlier this month. One of Daugaard’s challenges has been, oddly enough, his unfaltering loyalty to a popular governor. Since his election in 2002, Gov. Mike Rounds has remained popular with the electorate. He’s also managed to frustrate and madden several groups used to operating more symbiotically with state government. A lot of the individuals key to those groups also happen to write campaign donation checks. And Daugaard laughs knowingly when asked about suffering backlash from those upset with Rounds.

Spread the word

Hide Sites

By Denise Ross

Lt. Gov. Dennis Daugaard has been largely absent from this summer’s fairs-and-parades circuit, and it’s been by design. The GOP gubernatorial candidate isn’t interested in starting his 2010 campaign much before 2010.

And even though he’s not been shy about his intentions to seek South Dakota’s chief executive job and has been raising money towards that goal literally for years, Daugaard won’t officially announce his candidacy for another month.

Dennis Daugaard in action in the SD Senate. (I neglected to get my own photo of Daugaard, which is too bad because he held my baby through much of our visit.)

Daugaard was in Rapid City this week, along with his son Chris - a recent SDSU grad (go Jacks!), and he looked up the Hoghouse for a chat.

Spread the word

Hide Sites

By Denise RossState Senate Majority Leader Dave Knudson, R-Sioux Falls, was in Rapid City this week, and he dialed up the Hoghouse for a chat. Knudson says he’s spending the last week of each month “out west” in preparation for the June 2010 GOP gubernatorial primary.While he’s getting more comfortable with South Dakota’s great tradition of retail politics - what he refers to as “the fairs” - he’s also coming to realize the geographic vastness that is South Dakota.

I’ve gotten so I enjoy going to fairs. They were very awkward for me.

He then ticks off the events he’s hit recently - DakotaFest, the Sioux Empire Fair, the Central States Fair and River Boat Days. In addition to spending a week each month West River, Knudson estimates he travels about half of every week.

There are certain events you need to go to, and they’re never neatly geographically aligned.

So it goes. No doubt his fellow GOP candidates - Lt. Gov. Dennis Daugaard, Brookings Mayor Scott Munsterman and Buffalo Gap rancher Ken Knuppe - are finding that out as well. As is the lone Democrat in the race, state Senate Minority Leader Scott Heidepriem, D-Sioux Falls.

On the jump is a look at some of the literature Knudson’s handing out as he traverses the Rushmore State (a namesake that comes from, I might note, West River territory.) To see them, click “CLICK HERE” below.

Spread the word

Hide Sites

By Denise Ross

I won’t be redundant, but the fracas that’s erupted over Dem Scott Heidepriem’s entry into the 2010 gubernatorial race is getting good - and it’s only been a day.

First, the SD War College has the state GOP’s, um, missive titled The phoniest man in South Dakota to run for governor. You’d think there’d be nowhere but nicer to go from there, but the GOP has proven you wrong.

Says the not-a-bit-delicate PP:

OUCH!

I think my jaw is still a little slack after reading this. The SDGOP didn’t pull any punches. At all.

Second, Heidepriem responds on the Decorum Forum calling the SD GOP liars, liars, pants on fires. He doesn’t own a BMW, he says, so how can he be selling one as they claim he is? If his Sioux Falls home is a mansion, he’s still living in it, which they claim he’s not. And he’s still in good standing at his country club, which they also claim he’s not. (Yes, Heidepriem is the Democrat in the race.)

Spread the word

Hide Sites

By Denise Ross

CQPolitics examines an intriguing dynamic in South Dakota’s upcoming gubernatorial election process and neglects to mention a key fact. (Read it all here.)

First, the omission, in a name, is Steve Jarding. Since Jarding is advising all-but-declared Democratic candidate Scott Heidepriem - and one presumes will manage the campaign - Republicans ought not breathe too easily since Congreswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin bowed out. Jarding plays to win, is a national expert in electing Democrats in red states and has a solid track record. He’s like the Democrats’ Dick Wadhams. Combine him with a credible candidate and watch out.

Next, the intriguing dynamic - Republicans could be so fractured after a primary contest that the winner would be sufficiently weakened for a general election defeat. Sorta like 1986 when Tom Daschle won his Senate seat after Sen. Jim Abdnor narrowly defeated Gov. Bill Janklow in a, um, spirited primary.

Spread the word

Hide Sites

By Denise Ross

John Thune’s new campaign manager doesn’t sound paranoid, but ever since I interviewed him for a recent newspaper column I’ve been racking my brain trying to think of what threats he sees. And he does see them, SHS notwithstanding. (Read the full column on the jump.)

 We always said Sen. McConnell was going to have a tough race. It just took awhile to convince others that would be the case. It’s the same situation here, said Justin Brasell, who managed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s close 2008 re-election race in Kentucky.

…

We’ve gone from 55 Republican senators to 40. Sen. Thune has seen lot of his GOP colleagues not return because they had tougher races than expected.

True enough. But I still can’t identify a Democrat who could seemingly unseat Thune. Then again, South Dakota is home to the unlikely governor. Thune himself has won his share of contests as the supposed underdog.

As for Brasell and his distinct Mississippi drawl, he seemed easy-going over the phone and was able to laugh at our often ridiculously cold winter weather. (He arrived in Sioux Falls in January. Poor thing.) At 32 he has already scaled the ranks of the campaign world. A young chap like that must be looking for bigger and better things down the road, wouldn’t you think?

Now that Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin is officially out of the Senate picture for next year, let’s hope young Master Brasell doesn’t get too bored here in the Rushmore state.

To read the full column, click “CLICK HERE” below.

Spread the word

Hide Sites