There’s at least one place in South Dakota where independents outnumber Republicans—the District 25 Senate ballot!
Secretary of State Shantel Krebs certified two more independent Legislative candidates for the general election ballot yesterday. One is Brian J. Wirth of Dell Rapids. Wirth doesn’t Tweet much, but his 2016–2017 retweets indicate an anti-Trump progressive bent. Wirth has updated his Twitter profile to say, “District 25 Independent Candidate. Certified Financial Crimes Specialist.” Let’s hope the last half of that tagline means he’ll be asking his incumbent opponent and Dell Rapid neighbor Senator Kris Langer about the EB-5 and GEAR UP scandals that she has mostly ignored during her tenure in Pierre.
Wirth joins independent Peter Klebanoff on the District 25 Senate ballot. With no Democrats running for that seat, Wirth and Klebanoff will have figure out how to cobble together winning pluralities, including some slice of usual R-voters, and avoid simply splitting the opposition and allowing Langer to coast to reëlection on her base.
Meanwhile, across the county line in District 19, independent science teacher Alison Bowers of Alexandria jumps in to make her House race a five-way tilt.
Wait—science teacher? Critical thinker who uses evidence to come to conclusions?!? Yum, yum!
Alison Bowers joins apparently conservative independent Roger Hofer and Democrat John Koch in awaiting the result of the GOP House primary among incumbents Kyle Schoenfish and Kent Peterson and John Birch devotee and Baptist preacher Michael Boyle.
The deadline for independent nominating petitions was Tuesday. Secretary Krebs has not yet certified Ron Wieczorek’s independent petition for U.S. House. It is possible some indy petitions are still en route by registered mail to Pierre; as it stands at this writing, we have seven independent candidates for Legislature, including Cory Ann Ellis for District 7 House, Nick Reid for District 33 House, and Mary Perpich (the Brookings County Democrats’ chair whose “independence” must be placed in quote marks) for District 7 Senate.
Anyone else wanting to get on the ballot for Legislature or other high office will have to seek nomination by the Libertarians on June 9, by the Constitution Party on July 14, or by any new party that may form by July 1 and nominate by the second Tuesday of August.
I followed the link for Michael Boyle and learned how nuts he is. Wow. Not likely to get far, I hope.
It’s always a little shocking to me when I become aware of someone who actually believes all the racist, misogynist, anti-Semite baloney. When they sound or appear normal and of average intelligence, I have an urge to flip up the top of their skull, like a cartoon, to see what went wrong with their brain.
Update: Wieczorek is in! SOS Krebs certified his petition yesterday.
This Mr. Wieczorek fellow is definitely insaner than most, so it is good he is running again for my entertainment. Beware that he wants to go back to using coconuts or something as currency and print his own “In Larouche We Hunker” money and point out boogeymen and scapegoats (not Mr. Lansing’s Colorado-grown goats) among us.
Good one, Grudzie. You are definitely the goat winning champion.
Dozens of nursing homes have been seized for back taxes. Are you and your home safe and secure? Should we send over a pizza?
😊
Meat pizza. The only veggie on it should be shrooms and turnips.
Love turnips. Parsnips, too. 👍🏻