Video: Jenae Hansen Talks About District 2 House Bid

Jenae Hansen, Democratic candidate for District 2 House, spoke to about 20* interested citizens at the Brown County Democratic Forum in Aberdeen yesterday. The Turton social worker and lobbyist opened with a fifteen-minute campaign pitch…

…then took questions for over twenty minutes:

Among the highlights:

• Hansen said that her dual master’s degree in social work and public administration makes all sorts of sense, since public policy in almost every field affects the ability of individuals and families to thrive. For example, Hansen said tax policy makes a difference not just in the resources social workers have to provide services but in how much money families have and whether they must turn to social workers for assistance.
• One of the main factors motivating farm girl Hansen’s run is the absence of agricultural experience in among largely rural District 2’s current delegation. Current Rep. Lana Greenfield is a retired teacher and gas station operator; son Senator Brock Greenfield helps out at the family gas station and substitute teaches. Retiring Rep. Burt Tulson is retired contractor and substitute teacher.
• Responding to the first question (off-video), Hansen said Democrats can counter the Republican propaganda that we just “spenders” by pointing out that we tend to spend money more wisely.
• Hansen erred in Q&A by saying that the bills proposed by the Interim Initiative & Referendum Task Force are mostly “reasonable compromises.” As DFP readers know, five of the ten bills proposed by the I&R Task Force are unreasonable and deserve straight Nays. Two more need clarification and/or amendment to warrants Yeas.
• Hansen pointed to Nebraska’s 1967 adoption of income tax to rectify the inequities of its prior regressive system of sales and property taxes as an example South Dakota should study to fix its own regressive and inadequate tax system.
• Hansen said she will be hosting a campaign kickoff event in Turton on March 24. She also noted that Turton is one of the few South Dakota towns settled largely by French immigrants—hence the old Turton school’s Frog mascot. However, the town name comes from an early settler’s hometown in England.

*Democratic Forum attendance ticked up—and the average age in the room ticked down—when Brown County State’s Attorney and future Republican Attorney General Chris White walked in. Then he spotted me and realized he was at the wrong meeting:

Nothing like showing up to the democratic lunch thinking it is the republican lunch and only figuring out the mix up when you see @coralhei ….if I didn’t have a different commitment I would’ve loved to stay, not only for the democratic company but also for the fried chicken!

— Chris White (@ChrisWhite_SD) January 8, 2018

White was tricked by his fellow Republicans, who moved their monthly lunch from Pizza Ranch to Mavericks to host U.S. House candidate Shantel Krebs.