Carl Perry wants to move up from moderating candidate forums to participating. This morning’s print edition of the Aberdeen American News says Republican Perry wants to run for the District 3 House seat that Rep. Dan Kaiser is vacating to run for Brown County sheriff.
Perry will make a more formidable candidate for District 3 House than Facebookily declared Kaleb Weis. As I noted when Perry applied for an Aberdeen City Council vacancy in June 2016, Perry is well-spoken and well-informed about public policy issues. He works in marketing (gaacckkk!) and is well connected around town with his involvement with the Chamber of Commerce, the Airport Board, and the Exchange Club.
And while Perry is a Republican and I’ll be promoting alternatives to his maintaining one-party rule in Pierre, I am happy to observe that Perry’s Facebooking is blissfully Trump-free, focusing instead on family and community boosterism.
No one else has publicly declared Legislative intentions for District 3. But consider: If Weis follows through with his Facebook intentions, and if Rep. Drew Dennert decides he wants to go back to Pierre for seconds, District 3 will have a GOP primary like 2016, when Kaiser, Dennert, and the now sadly departed Todd Kolden contended for the two GOP House nominations. If that contest materializes, expect Perry and Dennert to rush to tag-team just as Dennert and Kaiser did in 2016.