Last updated on 2018-10-29
I’ve heard a little huff about Kristi Noem’s “Neighbors” attack on Billie Sutton. But when I listened to the ad, I heard far less than expected. Given a chance to offer some unique and damning perspective on the surging Democratic nominee for Governor, Noem just recruits some nameless rural extras to recite her already tired partisan attack lines:
The Billie you see on TV is not real Billie.
—not real Billie, versus not the real Billie? Did the old guy just flub the line, and it was too tough to get him to take direction?
His folks ranch down the river bottom before the flood—
—We are two miles apart as I know ’em.
This part was meant to establish the opening context, that this couple knows the Suttons. Instead, the old guy interrupts the woman, leaving her thought incomplete and unintelligible, just to mutter his own half-intelligible geography.
He is a Democra[t] and he tries to pretend he’s no[t].
I add the t’s to clarify Kim Burke-dashian’s lazy pronunciation. But at least she doesn’t get interrupted by the guy sitting next to her. (But… but… camera two? Why are you framing the speaker with the extraneous detail of the edge of a hat and rodeo shirt on a guy who never appears in the video?! Now I’m more interested in finding out who he is than hearing what deep local secrets No-T Kim is about to dish on Billie. Details, Kristi! Details!)
Billie may run as a moderate Democrat, but his supporters tell something different.
You can tell already that this 30 seconds is slim on concrete examples. But Joe Purple’s claim makes no sense. Before we even go find the “supporters” Joe Purple has in mind (and this line sounds like the “lot of people” Donald Trump invokes to truthify his hogwash), can we get a line on the words he’s stuffing in those imaginary mouths? Is he saying Sutton’s supporters (what, all of of us?) say he’s not running as a moderate Democrat? Is he saying Sutton’s supporters say Billie Sutton is not a moderate Democrat?
Take your pick: is any Sutton supporter—not even all of us, just one—saying either of those things?
People can’t see it because they’re being told something else.
Or people can’t see it because it’s not true?
He says one thing and does another.
Darn: if the good woman had some evidence to back up her claim, the old man cut her off again, just to grunt another slam on Billie Sutton’s integrity without offering any examples.
Senator Sutton will campaign as a conservative and then turn around and govern as a liberal.
Ah, Joe Purple can see the future… because he’s not looking at anything in the past or present that says Sutton campaigns one way and governs another.
We know that’s what he is.
Do you? How?
You’re voting for a liberal philosophy, and we don'[t] need tha[t] in South Dakota.
Really, Kim? How so? What terrible liberal things did Billie say to you on that hayride before he left for college? What dastardly philosophy did he once espouse over brewskis with your now forever maddeningly unseen cowboy couchmate?
But the words, the words—what good are they? We were promised the unique perspective of Sutton’s neighbors. We should be getting the good stuff: Billie’s horse crapped all over our lawn. Billie stole my horse. Billie slept with my horse. On August 6, 2007, Billie Sutton rode his horse into the Gregory Lanes wearing nothing but a Dennis Kucinich t-shirt and a copy of Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals and vowed to become governor and nationalize all of our horses.
This ad offers none of that, not one whiff of juicy local gossip, not a hint that these people know anything specific about Billie Sutton that would make us take their partisan testimony any more seriously than any of the other I can’t beat Billie so I’ve got to spend my last million screaming Fox News tropes malarkey that Noem has been broadcasting.
Noem tries here to copy what Sutton did with Peggy the Republican, hitting Noem on her home turf (ideological, not geographical). Sutton’s ad connected because Peggy the Republican (a) had a name, (b) gave specific details of Noem’s corporate donors and two bad votes, (c) gave sources for those details, and (d), juxtaposed Peggy’s colorful frames with washed-out images of the person the ad attacked. Noem couldn’t even get that last visual component right: instead of interspersing shady images of her evil nemesis sneering at the neighbors he wronged, Noem’s video team forgets to show Sutton at all and instead shows a tiny black-and-white photo of her next to her disclaimer that makes her look pale and small next to Billie’s bitchy neighbors.
This “Neighbors” ad had potential. But so did the $2.6 million she spent over the last five months. Nine days before Election Day, Noem is wasting money on punches that do not land.
Related Reading: The Sioux Empire claims that Joe Purple is really Wade Juracek, former mayor of Gregory, who was convicted of stealing drugs from his neighbors’ homes to feed his prescription drug addiction. Hmm… is someone angling for a pardon?
“Where’s the beef!?” (Clara Peller)
I agree Ror. I was waiting for something Sutton did. An example seemed a part of the natural flow. Not even one example? Wow. That is a weak, weak ad.
A convicted thief and drug addict as a character witness? Noem has officially jumped the shark.
Exactly, Debbo. This ad misses the chance to get Billie’s purported neighbors to put their names to specific details that they could uniquely add. Instead we just some alleged locals parroting the things they hear on Fox News and Kristi’s ads. This ad adds far less value, if any, than it could have in the hands of skilled political campaigners.
Who are these people? Are they really neighbors? How much would a person have to get paid to willingly appear to say these things??!!
Yeah, I was waiting for specific examples of how Billie just isn’t who he says he is. And other lobs that were being thrown out during this ad.
And specifically “names” of these individuals and how much really they are ……uh hem….neighbors.
Wade Juraceks’ addiction problem developed from a 40 year battle with pain. At least that is the story he tells. Apparently since being convicted he has cleaned himself up and does quite a bit of work with the Gregory Gorilla Live High School sports network. Three/four years ago he ran and finished the New York Marathon.
He manages “Badass Liquor”, a drive-through liquor store. He does have a habit of proudly displaying his intelligence and who he knows. A little bit like the Orange Turd.
its Okay when republicans have terrible drug addictions and steal drugs from their neighbors, for that is to be a learning lesson of struggle. When those nasty liberals do that stuff they are to be forever condemned.
Let me guess, i bet Juracek found God also.
Jenny, I bet he’s “born again!”
I’m sure you know the IOKIYAR Rule?
Yep that’s right Debbo -It is definitely being followed to here.
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/kristi_noem/412475
And Cory, according to govtrack.us, Noem has one of the worst records in The House for missing votes. This year has been terrible for Noem not doing her job. She’s in the 98th percentile for missed votes. Not good. Not good at all. SDs only House Rep and she can’t show up for South Dakotans.😕😠
Rep. Noem served up the greatest question for Billie (of the cycle) during the SooFoo debate this morning. She asked why if Billie has all these perceived Republican values he’s running as a Democrat? I’m sure Cory will cover the 2018 “Sutton Super Slaughter”, as Billie responded.
Is there a link to that debate, Porter? I thought they were all done with debates because of Noem refusing to do more.
Jenny – I don’t know of a link. I think it was a Rotary Club debate. I saw a partial clip on Michelle LaValle’s Facebook page. A friend of hers posted it as a comment.
Jenny, I think they are going to replay today’s debate tonight on cable TV. I found my cable provider’s channel for the debate on a published list and plan to watch it. I think, but can’t be sure, that it is scheduled for 8:00 p.m. Central Time – to be sure, double check your cable schedule if you have access. Here is the link with the list I found my provider on:
https://www.ksfy.com/content/misc/Where-to-watch-CW-Sioux-Falls-274111121.html
Noem is putting out videos of Republican officeholders endorsing her. Daugaard, Thune. I’m waiting for the video of Noem endorsing herself.
Jenny, it turns out I can’t get the channel advertised, but I discovered that the debate is posted online at:
https://www.ksfy.com/content/news/KSFY-CW-airing-gubernatorial-debate-ahead-of-November-election-493724301.html
Attention South Dakotan, Billie is not working with the Communists. He is a very very conservative Democrat that understands that economically South Dakotans could be doing better than they are.
Is believing in a living wage so families can pay their bills communist thinking, OS?
Is believing in Medicare for all a communist thought?
Bernie Sanders believes what the majority of Americans want economically – living wages and Medicare for All.
Billie just wants South Dakotans to be able to do better economically without having to work their asses off trying to juggle two or three jobs, such as a LIVING WAGE. This is what Billie agreed with when it came to Sanders. Who doesn’t want a living wage? South Dakotans wake up!!! You’re dead last in wages. Republicans have been in power for 40 years and don’t give a crap about your pitiful incomes.
So don’t worry OS, Billie Sutton is not working for the Communists.
Those 2 items Jenny, a living wage and Medicare for All, PLUS an end to rampant SDGOP corruption.
That means no more dead families and shelterbelt “suicides.” No missing millions, no tax payer gouging, etc.
Sutton will need citizen support to get these things done, beginning with electing him.
would have been more creditable if they cited personal
Endeavors, he didn t help them out on, this is just mudslinging
Character of the people are in question when you agree to do this without backing up with a certain story that pertains to government issues. Why do they look so hateful and angry?
Very cold feeling against Nme not Sut in my opinion
Mr. OldSarg, I could be wrong but grudznick thinks Mr. Sanders, the fellow who espouses the policies Mr. Sutton said he likes, is a socialist. Am I misunderstanding that, and Mr. Sutton said he likes the policies of a communist?
Lazy Dirtball Kristi Noem has nothing else to run on. She slouched through eight years in Congress and didn’t lift a finger other than to text on her smart phone during committee hearings. Now Lazy Dirtball Kristi is in a box. She expects to be Governor of our state. She does not want to be disappointed. Since she can’t convince anyone she has earned to step up into the Governor’s Mansion, she must spread dirt on a nice guy.
What a predicament!
Lazy Dirtball Kristi must resort to what she does best. Let someone else smear dirt on a nice guy. See, it’s how Lazy Dirtball Kristi thinks she can get ahead.
Vance, what you tell about Wade’s coming clean is encouraging. His felony status doesn’t change the fact that he didn’t provide any more details than anyone else in the ad to make this attack really hurt. Wade and the crew are just repeating things any other Kristi-bot would say.