Another battle brews in the sidebar! Reynold Nesiba for District 15 Senate signs on today as Dakota Free Press sponsor #8. Augustana economics professor Nesiba goes ad to ad with his opponent in the winner-take-all Democratic primary, current District 15 Representative Patrick Kirschman. Having served eight years in the House, Kirschman is termed out of his current seat.
As attack-PAC blogger Ken Santema notes, Kirschman has no online presence other than his ad on this blog. I could suggest that if you’re on Dakota Free Press, you’ve got all the South Dakota Web presence you need. But belt-and-suspenders Nesiba has his own website and a pretty busy Facebook page updating interested voters on his campaigning, the progress of his Initiated Measure 21 (which enjoyed another victory against the nefarious payday lenders with Secretary of State Shantel Krebs’s rejection of their specious petition challenge this week), and local events.
Online campaigning does not replace good old door-to-door politicking, but when a candidate can post a picture of himself with a national figure like Bernie Sanders and post it to hundreds of followers and countless Web surfers at a cost of zero dollars and thirty minutes of pressing buttons, it only makes sense to add that value to the campaign. Join the fun, Pat!
There is no Republican candidate for the District 15 Senate seat, so central Sioux Falls Democratic and Independent voters will choose their next Senator on June 7.
Pat Kirschman’s presence as a legislator begins and ends when he lumbers his heavy frame into the House and plops down in his seat. He sits and votes. That’s about it. My generous appraisal of his talent for lumbering and sitting is based on years of observation in person and on SDPTV. In his day, he would volunteer for Democrats, especially those with a positive relationship with St. Joseph Cathedral’s hierarchy. If having it listed in Pat’s obituary that he was lucky enough to be elected to office, then his eight years in the House is payment enough for his years of volunteer work.
District 15 has done much better with its Senators than Kirschman. With Reynold Nesiba, District 15 may have its best State Senator ever and Democrats in Pierre will have improved the IQ gene pool of the legislature quite a lot. This ought to be an easy choice for District 15 once voters take more than two seconds to size up their two alternatives.
Nothing against Reynold but Pat Kirschman helped me get elected by 40 votes. He knocked on doors, made phone calls, registered voters, and brought absentee ballots to people. Pat might be retired from work but he’s not retired from Democracy!
96 Tears,
On the other hand…
Reynold Nesiba has always been a disruptive figure in Minnehaha County. He embarrassed himself and fellow Democrats when he ran for the County Commission in 2010 and interrupted a debate between Governor Daugaard and Scott Heidepriem. The governor asked him to stop making comments from the audience and Reynold had to be escorted out of the debate. The incident made the front page of the Argus Leader. Reynold lost badly but, like Donald Trump, he is good at making himself the center of attention.
Having to relocate last year after his second divorce, Reynold could have chosen to live in any of the eight legislative districts in Minnehaha County and run for any of the County’s 24 legislative seats. The Democratic Party had difficulty fielding candidates in many of these districts, even the 6 to 8 that are easily winnable, including the seat Paula Hawks vacated to run against Kristi Noem. Instead he chose to move into an apartment in solidly Democratic District 15, challenge one of Minnehaha’s few seating Democratic Legislators and stir up the ideological battle which has handicapped Democrats for 45 years. He could have chosen to help expand the Democratic Party and push for progressive change in South Dakota. Instead he chose to promote himself. To Reynold everything is all about Reynold and he thinks the Democratic Party should be all about Reynold too.
96 well well.If Nesiba gets elected he will will let them know he is there, he will not be a fighter for the worker in South Dakota and thats more than we have now.
Excuse me he will be a fighter for the working class .
Dist 15 Dems (and Indies) – please show up and vote. Do the right thing!
Hey all,
Not sure what I did to earn the praise of 96Tears or the ire of JudyJudyJudy. I’d like to be a progressive voice for the Democratic Party in SD. I do think I would be better on that than my opponent as a state senator from District 15.
I have a record of standing up for working people and for good government. I worked hard as Democratic county party chair in 2002 and we played some role in getting Tim Johnson re-elected to the US Senate. I worked on the repeal of the food tax in 2004. We lost, but it is still a good idea that I would fight for in Pierre. In 2006 I led the effort to limit the use of the state airplane to state business. As the son of two 8th grade drop outs–my mom ran a cafe and my dad was a mechanic–I don’t have much patience for elected officials who use public assets or public office for their own benefit. Hence, I led the successful effort to limit the use of state airplanes to state business. In 2014 I helped on the effort to raise the minimum wage by gathering petition signatures, writing a letter to the editor, and speaking at a number of places in support of the measure. For the last couple of years I’ve been working on Initiated Measure 21 to put a cap on the interest rates and fees that payday, car title, and installment lenders can charge. I hope we win that. Win or lose on that, we need people in Pierre who will stand up and fight for sensible regulations for consumers and who won’t take money and be influenced by these predatory lenders. I would like to be that person.
Pat has done good work for the Democratic Party in this state for a long time. He registers voters, helps with lots of absentee ballots, puts up yard signs for candidates, and has been an important part of this district. I respect him and am grateful for all that he has done. At this particular time, I simply think that in a safe District like 15 we should elect a Senator who is more comfortable speaking up in caucus, speaking up from the floor of the Senate, and getting in front of a KELO TV camera or speaking with an Argus reporter once in a while to communicate the values and perspective of the Democratic party. In 12 days the people of this district will decide which of us will go to Pierre. There is no general election opponent. I’m working hard to win and I’m buoyed by a number of volunteers and friends who support me.
By the way, I bought my townhouse at 10th and Menlo. I have no plans to move anywhere. I like being able to walk downtown, bike to work, and easily walk to Pho Quynh and Lalibela for lunch or dinner and to Black Sheep for coffee. I have lived in Sioux Falls for 21 years and have been active in politics most of that time.
Thank you for the kind words up top Cory. I’m glad to support Dakota Free Press with an ad.
Reynold Nesiba would raise the IQ level in Pierre.
Give a voice to those not represented.
Ask the right questions.
Challenge the ideologues who’s rely on bumper stickers and out of state movements to tell them how to think.
That’s not a bad thing.
Considering Judy^3’s critique, let me pose this question: might a legislator who is interested in drawing a lot of attention be a plus for District 15 and the Democrats?
First, this is not the only blog that has Kirschman’s ad. He is also on South Dacola, which is the only other blog that I look at sometimes. http://www.southdacola.com/blog/
I got at least 7 personalized mailers from Kirschman in the last three weeks, asking for my vote. I have called Mr Kirschman as well as emailing him as I did with all the other legilators asking for his vote on taxation issues, since I moved into his district last year. He had the chance to speak at the Democratic forum, but sent a surrogate, primarily from what I heard, because he was a shy public speaker. Is that what District 15 and the Dems need in Pierre?
Here is the letter that I sent to the Argus.
With just two weeks until the primary election, voters in District 15 are faced with a dilemma. On one hand they have 4 time incumbent, Pat Kirschman, on the other they have Professor of Economics at Augustana, Reynold Nesiba. The professor, being the progressive that he is, understands the impact of sales tax on the poor and middle class. Incumbent Kirschman on the other hand was a cosponsor of HB 1116, who also sat on the taxation committee which referred this bill to the full House, apparently does not have that same understanding.
You see, what this bill would have done, if it had not been defeated on the floor of the Senate, was to allow cities and municipalities to add a third penny sales tax. That would be in addition to the property tax that they already collect. I know how I intend to vote, Reynold Nesiba.
One other thing about Reynold Nesiba as regards the Initiative to cap interest at 36%. Not only did he travel recently to a Democratic forum in Huron and along with Cathy Brechtelsbauer work toward getting people behind educating the public on the difference between that initiative and the fake 18% cap in the referendum, he dedicated his Saturday morning’s at the Farmers market at Falls Park, all last summer to gathering signatures to get the initiative on the ballot. That is citizenship at its finest and trumps campaigning for political candidates 10 to 1 in my opinion.
Some candidates seem to inspire magical thinking. If any voter thinks that Dr. Nesiba shaking his fist at Republicans while arguing the need for a less regressive tax system will change one vote, they are dreaming.
His interest in being more visible to the press? Does he plan on running for Senate Leadership because they speak for the caucus. A struggling minority party with competing talking points isn’t effective.
Larry Russell liked to talk a lot and got a bunch of press attention. He got booted from caucus and a seat up in front of the chamber so he wouldn’t bother his neighbors with his talking. No one suggested his behavior was a plus for drawing attention to his district.
Dr. Nesiba is a political and rhetorical bomb thrower. Republicans don’t like the bomb throwers in their own caucus and are even less tolerant of Democrat bomb throwers. He won’t get anything through committee.
Monty, you sound like a Republican. Discredit the guy before he even has a chance to get elected. I discredited Mr Kirschman, my legislator based on his actions as MY representative. You are probably one of the guys behind getting Kathy Tyler discredited as well, because she had the temerity to ask her colleagues to open a investigation into EB-5 in November of 2013 before the 2014 session.
The rest of her Dems sat on their hands and wouldn’t lift a finger to get that job done. Now three years later something is finally being done, but enough has been swept under the rug to where the real culprits will get off the hook.
You’d rather have self interested Dems in the legislature who would be like Frerichs, who wanted the sales tax lifted from farm equipment in that teacher pay 1/2 cent sales tax increase, in spite of the fact that he also got property tax relief out of the deal.
Lanny – re: Kathy Tyler. Yes, where were the Democrats, including the Leadership and the D’s who had no opposition? Where was District 15 Senator Buhl who was unopposed in the General? Only Jeff Barth and Tom Fishbach – County Commissioners! – went after the story.
I signed the petition to remove the sales tax on food. The voters disagreed with my point of view and voted to keep it. I don’t think they were stupid or cast their vote in some sort of error. I want to get rid of the sales tax but most voters said they want to keep it. I’m not a particular fan of Frerichs but I’m guessing most of the farmers in his district wanted a reduced sales tax on equipment so I would not criticize him for hearing them and voting in the interests of his constituents. That’s not self interest.
IMO, Nesiba did good work on ballot issues, but he didn’t do it alone. And it won’t endear him to his colleagues in Pierre and nothing gets done without a majority of votes.
Lots of Democrats never have one of their bills signed by the Governor. Kirschman has had a couple.
Frerichs has a lot more constituents who don’t buy farm equipment than do, so I am afraid that I would have to disagree with you that it was not a self interest thing.
As far as Kirschman getting bills signed, had he got that municipal sales tax bill through the Senate, I am sure he would have one more bill signed and it would mean that in Sioux Falls at least and probably most places in the State, we would be paying 7 1/2% sales tax on everything, food included.
As advocate, extraordinaire, Cathy Brechtelsbauer would point out, folks on fixed income and the poor, would have to do without food 2 days a month based on the 6 1/2% that we will now be paying and it would go up to 2.25 days if we had a 7 1/2% sales tax.
It is going to be funny, either way it works out. I’m just sayin…
Right now, Mr. Nesiba is leading but just by a tiny amount for the grudznick endorsement. grudznick does not yet endorse Mr. Nesiba, as I think we still need to hear from Mr. Kirschman, and I like the cut of his jib.
Sorry Grudz, just like he doesn’t like to speak in public, he doesn’t blog.
The evolution of the haircut of Mr. Kirschman speaks enough to get him re-elected all by itself. We will see if grudznick’s endorsement or lack thereof plays a role in the coming weeks.
However, if Mr. Nesiba is a bomb-thrower who shakes his fists and waves his arms…well golly.
The grudznick endorsement is hereby given to our own Mr. H, in the Democratic primary. grudznick wants bomb throwers in the legislatures.