Republican blogger John Tsitrian still thinks Democratic candidate for U.S. House Paula Hawks is a longshot, but he comes away from his 45-minute conversation with her impressed:
As a high school science teacher, daughter of farmers in the eastern part of the state, wife of a rancher from Faith, she probably knows the ins and outs of South Dakota as well as anyone, particularly when it comes to matters involving the same agricultural community that spawned Kristi Noem. During our visit I probed Hawks on issues like country of origin labeling, medicaid expansion, defunding of Planned Parenthood, ethanol, the Keystone pipeline, meatpacker concentration and a few others. She was responsive and knowledgeable. As an elected official, Hawks knows how to engage the public. Most appealing to me is that she really didn’t come across as an ideologue with a fixed and inflexible approach to any of the topics we discussed. I have no doubt that during her forums with Noem, Hawks will come across as conversant on any subject that comes up and reasonable about her position on it [John Tsitrian, “It’s All Uphill From Here, Paula, But You’ve Got The Moxie And The Spirit. I Wish You Well,” The Constant Commoner, 2015.09.25].
Tsitrian would have been similarly impressed with Hawks at last night’s Democratic fundraiser in Rapid City. Hawks talked about growing up on the family farm near Flandreau during the farm crisis on the 1980s. She talked about her family surviving bankruptcy but seeing lots of family farms lost. That grim experience formed Hawks’s determination to craft farm policy that protects family farms instead of providing corporate welfare to Big Ag.
Perhaps unintentionally (but come now: those of us from the Mary Haug school of literary analysis understand that authors always have intent), Hawks also laid the groundwork for a way to defuse her opponent’s sob-story farm cred. Rep. Kristi Noem regularly campaigns on her father’s grave, talking about how Ron Arnold died in a grain bin accident in 1994 and how the family almost lost the farm to that evil estate tax. The Arnold clan recovered from their calamity, which could have been averted with some better financial planning, by cashing in on millions of dollars in farm subsidies. As noted here previously, Hawks’s father Hugh Hagel claimed his own chunk of farm subsidies, taking about $133K, the majority of it for conservation, over the same period that Noem’s clan slurped millions from Uncle Sam. But somehow, Hagel rode out an industry-wide economic disaster and farmed on without nearly as much government assistance as the now-famous Republicans up the road needed after their personal calamity.
Paula Hawks has a story to tell. And it sounds better than Kristi Noem’s.
Paula is a work horse, not a show horse. She knows what needs to be done and gets it done. No sob sister stories from her. Check out the real deal!!
I’ve never completely bought Noem’s story of nearly loosing the farm to the Federal estate tax when her father died. Isn’t there a spousal exemption in place to prevent throwing widows out in the street? The farm would have passed to Mom, and any tax due would have been deferred until her death. If this isn’t true I would appreciate someone with technical knowledge of the laws in place in 1994 to explain why it isn’t.
It’s ‘losing’ Nick. I agree with your assessment of the Noem sob story. What is the real story? Life Insurance would have helped a lot here, and I’m wondering if the Noem’s never got around to buying life insurance.
Paula Hawks has been a good friend of renewable energy proponents in the legislature.
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2199&dat=19970226&id=k7tfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=zucFAAAAIBAJ&pg=6628,4739447&hl=en
In 1997,the first $600,000 of a farm estate was non-taxable,up to twice that amount for a husband and wife. Read on.
Make sure you read the entire article. Noem’s family may not have been subject to estate taxes.
The time for Paula to speak to South Dakotans is now.
As we all know by now House Speaker John Boehner has resigned, being forced out by the extreme wing of the republican party, the inmates are poised to takeover the asylum at the end of October.
Kristi Noem will be voting on another government shutdown, remember the blizzard Atlas that struck South Dakota the last time Kristi voted to shutdown the government? Will she vote to shutdown America’s government again regardless of the cost?
Paula can make a name for herself in South Dakota in the next 30 days by a continued commentary on the GOP meltdown in Washington.
John Tristan is right about Paula, she does have moxie, but she needs to show us that moxie and start today. I suspect that Mr. Tristan is not the only South Dakota republican not impressed by Kristi, court those republicans Paula.
Cory, was there any discussion of cannabis at the Dem confab?
Nick, there has always been an unlimited spousal exemption. Kristi’s dad could have given her a billion and no federal estate tax would have been due at that time, but of course on the mother’s death it would have applied.
However, if the father willed a bunch of assets (an amount more than his lifetime exclusion) directly to the children at his death there could have been a federal estate tax implication on the amount that excluded his lifetime exclusion.
Bottom line is that if they did some legitimate estate planning there probably would have been no worries, but most people don’t have good estate planning – even though it’s desperately needed.
Then there is the possibility that Kristi “embellished” the situation. Naaaahhh, that could not have happened!
Doesn’t this endorsement melt your marshmallows, Powers? No wonder he’s been so anxious. ?
I am not surprised that the 80s farm disaster had an affect on Hawks. That’s when we lost our farm. I doubt any of us, meaning my parents and 5 siblings, will ever forget the day of the farm sale. I hated that day. Without question that has influenced my feelings about farm policies. Such experiences should.
Back to Hawks. I like what I’m hearing about her. Thanks for keeping us updated Cory.
Larry, sorry to leave your question hanging for so long. I heard no cannabis commentary from the podium. Neither Joe Lowe nor I mentioned cannabis in our remarks at the donor reception at his gallery prior to dinner. I heard no cannabis discussion at my dinner table or in any of the mingling conversations in which I participated. We’re doomed, right? ;-)
No worries, Cory: it’s coming. I expect to testify about my template before the legislature during the upcoming session.