Here’s the weirdest little statistic I’ve been able to pull out of Tuesday’s primary results so far. Looking across the county-level results for the two…
Month: June 2018
Following up on my analysis last weekend of women running for Legislature, I am pleased to report that women fared as well as men in…
I’ve mentioned this idea in a few other posts this week, so let’s consolidate in one post all the reasons that South Dakota’s primary was…
Google, Twitter, and my blog stats tell me that the most national notice South Dakota got on primary day came from two cranky Republicans: the…
Update 12:03 CDT: South Dakota Federation of Labor AFL-CIO President DuWayne Wohlleber informs me that the state AFL-CIO does not endorse candidates before convention. He…
There are 111,894 reasons for statewide candidates to spend a lot of time campaigning in Sioux Falls. Four are KSFY, KDLT, KELO, and that Sioux…
I labor under no illusion that the hard-fought Republican primary has left any lasting division that will induce Marty Jackley to do anything other than…
The first placeholder has withdrawn from the Legislative races. Remarkably, that placeholder is incumbent Republican Representative Les Heinemann: …Heinemann, 63, stated his decision not to…
Democratic candidate for governor Billie Sutton spoke to about 40 voters at a Chamber-sponsored forum at the Aberdeen Ramkota today. I offer three key observations:
- The Ramkota was better lit than the last several times I’ve gone there to hear candidates speak.
- Sutton is prepared to brand Republican nominee Kristi Noem as a creature of the status quo at a time South Dakota needs change.
- Sutton wants to invest in lots of good programs and services that he’ll have a hard time paying for campaigning as a “taxed enough already” fiscal conservative.
Sutton opened with a mild eight-minute speech, telling his personal story, citing some key Legislative accomplishments in which he’s had a hand (like raising teacher pay out of last place), and listing things we need to fix, like creating a needs-based scholarship, lowering the tuition burden on college students, and reducing the food tax, which he says is throttling upward mobility for the middle class. He also made good use of his current job (the kind of private sector job his opponent hasn’t had for at least eight years) to talk about the people he works with as an investment advisor who are struggling to save money for their kids and their retirement:
Some national pundits agree with me that Billie Sutton’s story is good enough to give Democrats a better shot than usual at winning South Dakota’s…