Randy Seiler and Tatewin Means addressed the crowd and sat together at Saturday’s McGovern Day luncheon in Sioux Falls. See—no fisticuffs in my party’s race for the attorney general nomination!
And while Means beat Seiler to the punch over a week ago in making her calls to Democratic delegates to ask them to nominate her for A.G., Seiler made up for lost campaign time at Saturday’s Dem shindig with campaign signs as big and abundant as gubernatorial candidate Billie Sutton’s, a full contingent of campaign volunteers at his prominent display table handing out campaign lit, and an apparent endorsement by fundraiser invitation from party poobahs:
The long bookmark layout of Seiler’s howdy card emphasizes the length of his résumé. It also spotlights his tribal connections—tribal liaison in the U.S. Attorney’s office, two national awards for work in Indian Country, tribal court judge and prosecutor—in an effort to check the boxes Means will emphasize with her experience as Oglala Sioux Tribe attorney general.
Seiler said in his remarks Saturday afternoon that he has been holding off on campaigning due to his ongoing commitment to Hughes County, where he stepped in as interim state’s attorney this winter when Wendy Kloeppner moved to Madison for more money and where he remained as assistant SA after Roxanne Hammond’s appointment in February. Seiler said he didn’t want campaigning to create any conflicts in the office. Today (Monday, April 30) is his last day on the job at the Hughes County Courthouse, meaning at 5 p.m. today, Seiler will feel free to campaign his heart out for the A.G.’s job. He’s doing a fundraiser in Pierre Wednesday evening, then buzzing out to Rapid City for a Thursday morning campaign kick-off. He’ll bounce back to Sioux Falls for an afternoon East River kick-off, then cap the day with a fundraiser at the Sioux Falls home of his old boss, Brendan Johnson, son of former Senator Tim Johnson, who is co-hosting that fundraiser.
Seiler has recruited Deb Fischer-Clemens, a nurse and former three-term Democratic legislator from Mitchell who is now Avera’s senior VP of public policy.
Means got a jump on contacting delegates earlier this month, but Seiler used McGovern Day to make clear he’s serious and has lots of Dem firepower behind him to help him secure the party’s nomination for attorney general.
Seiler would beat Ravnsborg hands down. Ravnsborg has no experience other than bankrupticies.
With very few exceptions, like Butler’s defeat of Harding for State Treasurer in ’94, or the past ability of Democrats to elect candidates to the PUC, the ability of a Democrat to win a constitutional office on their own is quite non existent. Democrats only win constitutional offices in South Dakota, when they also win the governor’s mansion in that same election cycle as well.
The last Democratic AG in South Dakota was Kermit Sande, who was elected in 1972 along with Kneip’s re-election. Else, you go back to ’58 with Parnell Donahue, who won alongside Ralph Herseth, and then back to the 1930s where the Democrats held the AG office under the Berry era. And both Sande and Donahue held that office for only one term with Donahue and Herseth losing re-election in ’60 and Sandi losing in ’74 to Janklow, while Kneip became the first governor to be elected to a third term in ’74.
So in order for Means or Seiler to win, they need Sutton to win and only if you believe that Sutton has a chance does the candidate for AG have a chance given historic data. That said, these AG candidacies are some what academic and more the reality of coat tailing then personal electioneering in my opinion.
So as Democrats, and as one who will be a delegate this summer to our state convention, I think the real issue surrounding the AG nomination is whether we are at peace with how the US Attorney’s office in South Dakota under Obama handle the EB5 investigation. For it seems to me that the number one issue this year in terms of the AG race, is whether that office is going to work to fight political corruption or merely continue to be a place where political scandals go to die.
So as delegate, I look forward to hearing Mr. Seiler’s talk on EB5 in relation to the District Attorney’s office, which he was a part of during the Obama Administration; because I think that needs to be answered in order for his candidacy to have the credibility and extra political kick, which could conceivably either complement, or hopefully not compromise, the obvious coat-tail dependency of any South Dakota candidacy as the Democratic AG nominee as well the overall intended message of the Sutton campaign and their call for an end to political corruption in South Dakota.
Kelly–I think you underestimate Ravnsborg…he seems to be the only one that doesn’t have any scandals on GOP side and is outworking the entire field of GOP candidates. Heck he has the money and law enforcement already with him. I think he would be tough to beat as he will work tirelessly for the job as he has been doing now and if he has the party behind him, yikes. Plus that military stuff he has in his background is gold…Seiler can negate that some though being a Vietnam vet! Plus harder to talk about Pierre corruption when he has no ties to Pierre.
I think Fitz is the easiest to beat, no ideas, can’t raise any money, boring as dirt and comes across so gruff. We can also talk about career politician and flip the narrative on them! As a Democrat, hands down who we want to go against. Plus he has his own scandal, which is not getting a lot of play yet, we’ll see. I suspect as no one thinks he will win, so no use burning him, but maybe he can squeak through for US! We definitely will have the more likeable candidate if he wins.
Then there is Russell his ethics violation alone is gold. I think it sinks him and running for 2 offices at once hurts him in the primary and I think in the general…you can also call him a hypocrite all day long about being a career politician. He is more well rounded than Fitz or Ravnsborg though being a States Attorney and legislator.
John–(great name BTW) I too want to know about EB5 and why there were no federal charges…it does not reassure me when cleaning up Pierre will be a central theme.
Means is intriguing and more of an outsider. I think she will be a strong candidate, already talking to delegates and may get some national money and attention with her background and father’s name and legacy. Lots of upside here.
Mr. Russell is insaner than most and filled with corruption. Mr. Ravnsborg is incompetent. Mr. Fitz seems absent. Mr. Seiler will pick up votes from saner Republican voters because of his competence and capture all but the libbie voters who might just color random dots or be addle brained and not understand the ballots.
Randy Seiler is the best AG candidate to step forward on the Democratic side for decades. He will get positive word of mouth from Democratic and Republican lawyers statewide. He is competent to run the AG’s office from day 1. He is head and shoulders above any of the candidates on the Republican side. If voters focus on quality rather than party, Seiler wins hands down. He can’t take anything, anything for granted. He has to work hard to win the Democratic nomination and just as hard to win the general election. He should consider offering Tatewin Means a job in the office if he wins in November, assuming she’s qualified. She has a famous last name, but I don’t know anything about her legal experience.