Last updated on 2016-06-04
Jay Williams is working both sides of the Clinton/Sanders rope.
Our Democratic U.S. Senate candidate announced Thursday that his campaign co-chairs will be retiring Democratic legislators Senator Bernie Hunhoff (D-18/Yankton) and Rep. Peggy Gibson (D-22/Huron). I don’t have Senator Hunhoff’s impending primary vote on the record, but Rep. Gibson has declared her support for Hillary Clinton.
While Williams is bulking up his campaign team with mainstream Democrats, he’s wading into Bernie Sanders territory with his tour of college campuses. Monday Williams heads to Vermillion to visit USD and speak with Matt Glanzer on 2Guys1Mic on campus radio station KAOR at 2 p.m. Central. In town, you can hear the Williams interview on 91.1 FM; farther afield, you can tune in to KAOR’s livestream online. Clay County Democratic organizer and District 17 House candidate Mark Winegar has reported strong support for Sanders among USD’s young people.
Williams then heads up the road Tuesday to visit the Augustana Democrats, who will host a public forum with Williams at 7 p.m. in the Halverson Room, Morrison Commons, in the middle of campus. But don’t assume all those young kids are Sanders supporters. Augie Dems president Spencer O’Hara and rising Viking Ryan Solberg, as well as their sociology prof Carolyn Ly, are all on Clinton’s delegate slate.
Bonus Policy Statement! Clinton people and Sanders people should be able to agree that Williams understands the significance of TransCanada’s Keystone pipeline accident near Freeman. While Senator John Thune has maintained an awkward silence about the foreign project that leaked at least 400 barrels of tar sands oil and other mystery chemicals onto Hutchinson County last weekend, Jay Williams says TransCanada’s boo-boo underscores the need to get off fossil fuels:
The current leak in the existing Keystone Pipeline illustrates again the bankrupt policy of fossil fuel energy. TransCanada claimed the existing Keystone pipeline has sensors that collect data from 20,000 different points along the pipeline. The leak was discovered by a landowner – not TransCanada. TransCanada touts their ability to instantly detect pipeline pressure changes and “fail-safe” mechanisms and human monitoring all designed to ensure the pipeline is safe and secure.
This current leak calls all that into question. Not only was the leak detected by someone other than TransCanada, it took them nearly a week to discover the source of the leak. TransCanada says the pipeline environmental impact of this leak is minimal, and we all hope that is true. But this leak illustrates the danger of building more fossil fuel infrastructure in a time when me MUST be moving away from fossil fuel energy [Jay Williams, Facebook post, 2016.04.09].
Whether you like Sanders or Clinton, remember that Jay Williams will do more to advance our next Democratic President’s agenda than obstructionist John Thune will.
Also, remember that Secretary Clinton was for the Pipeline before she was against it, and she was SOS when Keystone I was snuck through the State Department, with nary a whimper and when the cheaper, thinner pipe from India was approved.
That’s how you do it Mr. Williams. Senator Thune not addressing the leak is an impressive display of non-leadership.
The petroleum and chemicals that leaked from Keystone should lubricate the soil for years to come, acting as fertilizer and supercharging crop growth. We should all thank TransCanada for boosting the local economy in Menno and providing people for whom the locals could serve lunch.
Sen. Thoon
Went by there yesterday lots of cars up there do they need that many to clean a spill up or is a used car lot.
I see Jay is going to “bring it” as Thune has focused for years on his personal running times and his abs.
There is a man in the room, senator thune. gonna need that $10-12 million, and I know, Jay’s gotta kno this is going to be very tough, as $10-12 million of somebody’s money can buy ANYTHING. but not integrity.
Integrity vs. abs.
and rounds has his airplanes and home on the river. he didn’t build those.
Paula, coordinate with Jay and take down Kristie. best of luck! Kristie has her speeding tickets, infamous Rep. Aaron Schock, and her subsidized family ranch, is it? has her work with suicide and sex traffic worked for the good that her lost effort taking the IRS down has (not)?
republican schills all three. nothing more.
Jay Williams will be a Senator who acts on facts and science rather than another obstructionist like John Thune.
Mr. Winegar, that seems to be a presumptuous and pompous statement.
I submit that it is 99% certain that Mr. Williams will not be a Senator.
Does this statement represent the sort of thing you might make on the floors of the legislatures?
Peggy Gibson is looking great! She should have no problem stepping in in August for the senate placeholder and trouncing that White fellow.
Ms. Gibson is indeed a very pretty woman.
Went and heard Jay last night. He’s impassioned and is taking strong stances on real issues. He’s for renewable energy, not more leaky pipelines! He’s for encouraging home grown SD entrepreneurs instead of always trying to bring in big capital and big corporations who come here to take advantage of our laws and our workers!
Please, make time to hear him speak! He is, indeed, a man of integrity and real progressive ideas! Check him out at http://www.jaywilliams2016.com.
Passion, strong stances, renewable energy, homegrown entrepreneurship… sounds like a good speech to me! On the economic development side, did Williams present some Congressional action that could support that goal?