Golly, even Senator John Thune thinks a good Democrat can run a competitive race for Governor in 2018:
Student: With Gov. Daugaard’s time coming to a close, who do you think is most likely to be the next governor of South Dakota?
Thune: The next governor of South Dakota? Well, I don’t want to jinx anyone by saying who I predict will win. There are a lot of good candidates out there. There are already a few good Republicans who have put their name out there. I don’t know if there is a Democrat out there yet. I am sure there will be. It is kind of a year where with the open seat it will be a very competitive race. I don’t think that anyone at this point has the inside track. I think you have to assume in our state, that unless something goes terribly wrong, the Republican nominee has a built in advantage. That said, good Democrats in South Dakota can get elected. That has been proven in the past, particularly in the federal races. If a good Democrat is nominated it will be a competitive race. In terms of the Republican primary, we have a couple of top tier candidates, and I assume there will be a few more who put their name in the ring [Senator John Thune, transcript, Q&A with Yankton High School students, 2017.05.12].
I’m sure there’s some trick there in Thune’s use of the words good and Democrat in the same sentence. But for now, let’s take our senior Senator at his word and keep an eye out for that competitive nominee.
Let’s also be patient. The primary is more than a year away. Let Thune and everyone else wonder….
Now that we have that out of the way John when can we expect you to have a town hall meeting that your fellow South Dakotans can actually attend with having to pay for it…aka Mike Rounds?
Here’s what Mr. Thune, who I disagree with on some of his recent comments, essentially said:
There’s 3 new bumper stickers for you all:
* Sutton is not a Glutton
* No Go, Joe Lowe
* Wismer whatsa mahoomajang no clue?
Owen,
In a today’s editorial the conservative Rapid City Journal is asking the same question, when will Thune, Rounds, and Noem have some town halls?
There already have been plenty of good Democrats here in South Dakota, some are even excellent. The problem South Dakota voters have is they can not recognize a good thing when they have it.
You need to run, Mr. C. Show them all. I will put signs up for you.
Roger, I think we can convince them. I think Grudz underestimates Joe Lowe’s appeal in a general election.
Run, grudz? Most of the time I can barely walk.
Joe Lowe was an excellent candidate last time around and would be an excellent candidate this time around.
Joe would make a great governor. If republicans had any smarts they would support and vote for him.
Joe Lowe is that “good Democrat” that Thune is priming the pump for. Priming the pump?, damn, I just came up with that one! I think it is pretty good as I have never ever heard that before I wrote it.
I disagree with John Thune, Cory’s take on Thune’s statement, and Grudz can GFHS, entirely, on this one.
People, if a Democratic candidate can’t viably and attractively answer the question, “why is South Dakota so conservative?” then there will never be a point to another Dem running in a statewide SD race ever again.
Hint: you gotta be ready, willing and able to explain how SD conserva-voters are currently on autopilot, how they’ve been scammed by phonies, and how/why this has to change.
If that pitch fails, then SD is still too anti-liberal, indoctrinated, and simple-minded to see things any different than the GOP machine tells them.
Dems need a ‘culture changing’ excersise in SD, and I’ve grown weary being the only one I’ve known to push the idea. Today’s isolationist rural conserva-culture has no place in managing the greater population at large. FAR too many SD conserva-voters believe that the voting booth is designed to give them a choice between God or government and they are motivated by God alone.
A lot of things have to change for a Dem in SD to have a chance at a statewide race, and John Thune knows it. However, he treats us all like we’re as dumb as a Trumptard when he makes statements about “a good Democrat…”
Adam: “I’ve grown weary being the only one I’ve known to push the idea.”
Pretty much sums it up.
@Adam … South Dakota isn’t “so conservative”. South Dakota only votes “so conservative” because South Dakotans don’t give a damn about politics, for the majority ignore politics until a week before an election and then just vote the way their parents did. That you’re the only one to push the ideas proves my assertion. A lot of things have changed and one thing has really changed. Don the Con Trump cheated his way to an invalid Presidency. The number of women posting and reading the SDDP Facebook page has easily tripled since last year. Ignore it, Republicans. A sneak attack is always your opponent’s best first attack.
Adam, I’ll take a shot at an answer. SD, for the most part, is insulated (or sees itself as insulated) from most of the national economics – the big swings at least. That makes the state prime for “culture war” issues – especially anti-abortion. I think SD goes so solid GOP (autopilot as you put it) because GOP owns the pro-life rhetoric in SD. When separated from party affiliation, progressive/liberal/Democrat issues seem to do far better with voters. So I say it is the pro-life connotation bestowed to the GOP that pulls voters to candidates.
Porter, do you see the GOP viewed/portrayed as “us” and the Democrats viewed as “them” – the outsiders – is SD politics?
I do, “O” … and even more so since the short skirted, blonde FoxNews ladies became the go to TV network.
PRO-CHOICE … I really don’t believe the majority of SoDak women are against the national abortion law, Roe v Wade. I believe since abortion IS totally legal and the doctors and clinics in Minnesota are better, cleaner and away from the town gossip, women choose their battles and this isn’t one that needs to be fought in public. Perhaps the best thing that could happen to SDDP would be for Repubs to overturn Roe v Wade and spit in the faces of South Dakota women’s rights and health. I believe at that point women would come to the front and vote blue, big time.
Because the down deep truth is …
Every woman in South Dakota has the natural right to fall in love with whom they want, get married to whom they want and to have children and become a Mother when they want … the intimate details of which are none of any Republican overbearing, male’s business.
When John Thune says, “a good Democrat can run a competitive race for Governor in 2018” he’s trying to make it look like South Dakotans haven’t been completely indoctrinated – it’s NOTHING BUT a political strategy to make his base appear less indoctrinated and inflexible than they are.
I like Adam’s take on the trick I hear in Thune’s use of the term “good Democrat.” He makes it sound like his base is reasonable and open-minded, but then when Democrats do nominate a good candidate, he’ll eagerly fund the rabid efforts to do what O says they’ll do: marginalize that Democrat, make that Democrat sound like an outsider, one of “them.” Then Thune’s brainwashed base will say, “We’re not brainwashed! We would have voted for a good Democrat, but those darn Democrats didn’t put up a good Democrat!”
Insulated from national economic trends? How about we take health insurance away from a few ten thousand South Dakotans—then we’ll see how insulated everyone feels.