Pat Powers notices that his RSS feed shows that Democrat Chris Martian of Rapid City has filed a statement of organization with the Federal Election Commission to run for U.S. House in 2018.
What does the Internet tell us about Martian?
- According to his LinkedIn profile, Martian has a bachelor’s degree in information and computer science.
- He developed websites for Arobba Consulting in Rapid City for two years, programmed computers for the Rapid City school district for five years, directed info-tech at Douglas schools for a year and a half, and most recently spent eight months managing data systems for the Pasco school district in Washington.
- In 2012, he served on the South Dakota Department of Education’s advisory council for Infinite Campus, the statewide K-12 school online information system.
- He drops f-bombs on the Internet. Pat Powers finds this obscenity spinworthy but ignores the target of Martian’s f-strikes: Kristi Noem’s lack of any scheduled town halls during the Easter recess and Mike Rounds’s short notice of a town hall in Murdo at 9 a.m. this morning.
- Martian says he can’t stand either major political party and finds party labels a hindrance to intelligent political discourse:
What the f— difference does it make? Ever? In any situation? It doesn’t. It’s there so that people don’t have to think for themselves. They can shut their brains off and coast. It’s political comfort food.
When I express concern over the actual number of jobs the DAPL will produce, I’m called a libtard snowflake.
When I conclude that Gorsuch probably won’t turn SCOTUS upside down, I’m called a Trumpster or an idiot conservative.
I can’t have ONE political conversation without everyone sporting jerseys and shouting about whose team is better [Chris Martian, “As a conservative Republican or a liberal Democrat, what is the one thing you can’t stand about the opposing party?” Quora, 2017.03.29].
- Martian’s FEC filing lists his party affiliation as “DEM”; however, the Secretary of State’s records show Martian registered as an independent. Labels may not matter to Martian, but they do matter to the FEC, the SOS, and election law. If Martian is running as a Democrat, he’ll need to gather 706 petition signatures between January 1 and March 27, 2018. If Martian is running as an independent, he’ll need to gather 2,774 signatures between January 1 and April 30, 2018.
His profanity doesn’t bother me. It’s actually an eloquent way to express the frustration that so many people have about their government.
The profanity doesn’t bother Pat Powers either, or he would have been whining up a storm about the GOP Party presidential nominee’s coarse language during the campaign. He’s just latching on to that for lack of anything more substantive to criticize Martian about.
Powers doesn’t even care about Martian; he’s just looking for a way to slam Ann Tornberg and the SDDP, when a closer look at Martian indicates he may not be connected with the party at all. Too bad Pat can’t do homework… and too bad his party rewards those who don’t do homework.
“When I express concern over the actual number of jobs the DAPL will produce, I’m called a libtard snowflake.”
That’s because liberals don’t acknowledge the real growth from DAPL and they only look at the jobs that explicitly pertain to DAPL employment. 15k or 20k jobs as a result is pretty easy to get to when you look at the growth of oil moving out of the bakken. It isn’t just pipeline workers, it’s welders, truckers, doctors, home builders, dentists, grocery store workers, fast food workers, teachers, daycare workers and many other jobs. When oil grows, so does everything else. When ag grows here, so does everything else. Why don’t they acknowledge that growth?
“I can’t have ONE political conversation without everyone sporting jerseys and shouting about whose team is better”
It’s like SOP for most places including blogs. They are all echo chambers that even if you have a valid point, you get the broken record posters that scream the loudest and quell any sort of intelligent conversation. I’m sure they will be in this thread shortly.
Can a farmer grow crops in an oil spill? Will corn or soybeans grow where the ground is saturated from spilled oil and then the field is all torn up to find/fix leak that didn’t have to happen? This pipeline would have happened regardless of whether farmers signed up or not. Eminent domain for pipelines should not be allowed. It is un-amerikan.
I have noticed that most roads and railbeds do not traverse cropland.
News Flash to Daniel B. The pipeline is full of oil. Get it. As I like to ask regarding trump, where are those jobs? I looked and did not see one dentist putting up a sign that said “thanks DAPL for the job” Those jobs you speak of are not being added, they are being subtracted. The only intelligence that is needed is just to read reports. Look at the markets. Better yet, look at reality http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-northdakota-bust/
You know that I can’t recall Pat Powers having any great outrage about his president Trump and his continued supply of profanity during the 2016 election.
Pat’s president will go down in history for many of his abuses against women and minorities, but most notably for his “grab ’em by the pussy” that helped get him elected.
I’m not to fond of anyone dropping F bombs in public but I get outraged by people like Trump referring to women in such derogatory terms.
No chance for Martian for even a city council race, or legislative seat. US House? Good grief. Happy to see him getting jazzed about running. He should get involved at the grass roots level, learn the issues a bit, learn how to communicate, lead something, accomplish something, get others behind some ideas. What we know about him is he gets frustrated and has a mouth and no one to share it with but a twitter account with less than two dozen followers.
You guys should recruit our mutual friend Todd Epp to something. He’s knows SD politics and state law well. He’s current on issues and has ideas. He knows people and is known. He’s reasonable and well thought of by some I know on the other side of the aisle. I’d think he say he’s an independent these days but that’s an easier sell statewide than someone over on the angry left. He cares about people, loves the state, has a keen sense for our most significant problems and ideas for what needs fixing. I bet I’d even like some of his ideas.
And you should ask Bernie Hunhoff to embark on a talent and recruitment search statewide. Or run for governor, again. If he rides off into the sunset before fanning the flames of your state party somehow then it’s another nail in the coffin of the SDDP. Bernie is a great guy and we even agree on some things.
The far right in SD might say the GOP supermajority in SD is corrupt. They aren’t corrupt, they are just in control and losing the vital sense of accountability and responsibility to the public trust. I’d say a case could be made there is some tyranny of the majority in our state with Republican power virtually unchecked.
And the SDDP is what, leaderless. The only wins in recent years have been policy wins, some significant ones, but only on ballot issues these last few election cycles, (and there will be voter fatigue on those really soon). If there was a (D) next to the ballot issues Democrats were championing, every one would have gone down in flames, except IM21 – rate cap on loan sharks ;-)
Dems in SD freak out over any whiff of state GOP corruption but still can’t think of why so many voters saw Hillary as the most corrupt person ever in public office. This tells me everything is partisan with you too, as it is on the right side of the aisle.
Your best leaders are presently leading something, somewhere in our state. They are not those bitching on the sidelines showing up at townhill meetings griping about the other party. They aren’t dropping f-bombs on twitter on their lunch break from their work cubicle. They are reading. They are watching and listening. They haven’t been writing checks because they are smart enough to not put a nickel toward someone they would probably never hire themselves if the opportunity presented itself. They are in our churches which should mean they have scruples, they care about others more than themselves, and live with a healthy fear of God. They don’t need another thing to do. They need someone or something to inspire them to public service.
There isn’t a better public servant in our state than Scott Munsterman. He was successful in his vocation, and still is. He showed up each year in Pierre with loads of ideas and bill possibilities. Honest to the core. He had personal challenges that would fully justify him to sit on the sidelines. Before he ran he spent two years working on a book of his vision to make the state a better place. These are the people you need to find.
Who do I send the bill to for my consulting work here?
Mr. Hickey, the blog here by Mr. H is awash in tax free cash from his donation jar. He definitely should not be charging you for your straight talk.
Hi Steve, I think your best chance to get paid is by billing President Trump. He pays some of the folks who work for his businesses. You might just get lucky!
Daniel B, Martian’s point is that he’s not a “liberal”. He just takes issue one estimate of economic impact, a policy point that ought to be debatable with evidence, not angry labels.
(Grudz, my tip jar is not tax-free income. I just filed my taxes with Schedule C and Schedule SE documenting my blog income and expenses and paying taxes thereupon.)
Todd Epp for U.S. House? I think he likes working in media too much. But I would welcome his and Bernie’s intellect and caring in any statewide political discussion.
I’ll interview Martian this week and see just how much a chance he has… or at least how much of a chance he thinks he has. I don’t see any evidence yet that justifies Hickey’s hasty claim that Martian has no chance. Many of us said that about Trump….