I’ll get back into problem-solving mode in a bit. But first, some predictions about what South Dakota’s terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad 2018 election forebodes:
- In response to her loss to Billie Sutton in Hughes County. Governor Kristi Noem will refuse to live in the Governor’s mansion, will use taxpayer dollars to turn her Hamlin County house into a second Governor’s residence, and will conduct a bitter purge of public employees in Pierre, replacing them with less competent campaign staffers, donors, and Washington associates.
- Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg will investigate several prominent Democrats and take them to court on trivial matters before he successfully and personally prosecutes any drug dealer. Ravnsborg will include Stace Nelson in his trumped-up investigations to give his purge the gloss of non-partisanship.
- The Legislature will pass and Kristi Noem will sign unconstitutional restrictions on immigrants, Native Americans, women, non-Christians, and LGBTQ South Dakotans.
- South Dakota teacher pay will drop to 51st in the nation by 2022.
- South Dakota vo-tech tuition will remain in the top ten in the nation.
- Republicans will press further restrictions on initiative and referendum, ensuring that no more than one citizen petition will successfully place any measure onto the 2020 ballot.
- Democratic voter registration will drop below 150,000 in 2019.
- Independent registration will surpass Democratic registration in time for the 2020 election.
Sickening, isn’t it?
It was a fair fought contest. The people spoke. As civil citizens it is time to work for the betterment of all citizens in a polite civil manner.
Lesson learned: Calling people nasty names doesn’t win elections.
As a positive this is the best a Democrat has done since 1986 in a SD Governor’s election. It probably doesn’t matter much, but there is that. I also share Corey’s concern that we are headed down a very discriminatory path and I have much more moderate beliefs. I also see us sinking back to 51st in teacher pay and falling further behind in other areas. Is the State minimum wage at risk now? I could see Noem trying to get something rolling in the Legislature to repeal it.
As far as calling people nasty names to win elections? It sure worked this time for Noem.
I will
You will what??? This is just a VERY conservative state you can’t fight demographics if the Rs get too crazy they will be replaced on an individual basis life goes on the state is doing very well compared to years ago the first woman Governor was elected she may surprise you those brats you like so much are makin adult wages hopefully she does put the kibosh on that.
I will… was a typo. That’s all. lol
Calling people nasty names DOES win elections in 2018. Both in South Dakota and in Washington. Which is, to me, the most disappointing thing to come out of this election. Civility in politics is dead.
Constant repetition of lies eventually wears down our objective reasoning. “Jackley is weak on crime and hates harassment victims” … “Sutton is a Bernie/Hillary Liberal”… “Sutton is lying about a state income tax” … “The caravan is filled with rock-throwing terrorists, not refugee families” … or the most puzzling one “Democrats want to take away your health care” (an actual recent quote from Trump)
WHAT?
Regarding Gov-elect Noem, she’ll live in Pierre. She’s smart enough to figure out that Pierre is the seat of government, and you have to show up there to run the government.
I wish she would purge the upper management of state government, but she really doesn’t have all the horses to swap in. That would have been Sutton’s problem, too. So, she will have quite a bit of holdover, at least at first. If she swaps in too many ciphers who can’t do the job, especially if they are out-of-state flunkies with cuckoo ideas, she’ll get hammered by their reflected incompetence.
One of the first things before taking office will be working with Daugaard on tweaks she might want to the budget. It will be Daugaard’s to propose, but if she’s smart she will try to work with his people to get a few ideas in there. She would be wise to push to expand Medicaid. That would give an economic boost to SD, plus cover more people, and go against expectations. That would make her a female Janklow without Janklow’s abrasive personality. People do think pragmatic governance is best, and following an ideological line into a failed state and failing health is stupid.
I’d do a lot of things with restructuring government, but the main thing is to trust the people. That would mean stronger laws for transparency, an office of public intervenor, no more secret settlements, and renegotiating any that have been made (eg., the Agnico corruption), and cutting the bureaucracy around the initiative and referendum, etc.
Kristi, who voted seven, eight, nine, ten times (I’ve lost count) to repeal Obamacare will expand Medicaid? I doubt it. On top of South Dakota electing an incompetent attorney general Tuesday, I see that Fred Deutsch is returning to the statehouse. Wonder how many new abortion and bathroom restrictions will be heading down the pike. Gov. Daugaard at least had the good sense to stop the crazy and push for new funding for education. Kristi has proven in the last eight years that she’ll easily lie about nearly everything — from her sob story about her family paying estate taxes, to the blatant misrepresentations she made constantly about Billie Sutton. How much of what she says once she’s governor are we expected to believe? State policy will soon be riddled with GOP talking points she parroted for eight years. I have little faith in her or her ability.
Dang Dave, you need to chill. You’re going to end up with a heart attack or an aneurism. One person alone can’t drag a whole state down besides, she does have experience. You may not like her and all but your crying and whining over it doesn’t change anything. You got 4 years to put up with and I would think you want to make it alive for the whole 4. Just chill.
Anybody heard any gloating from OldSferbrains today? Can’t imagine him being this restrained unless he gt the ban hammer across the bridge of his ……can’t hardly say his ass as he is all ass.
Anyway, it won’t be a normal day without the venom spewed by the unhinged Lakota cultural ex-spurt.
You gotta appreciate the balls of Old Sarg calling for civility while still supporting Trump. Irony is dead.
Cory,
Keep your head up. Things will get better but not through the actions of those in Pierre but those around us. We want more Democrats in the state (I do) but we need to run those folks on South Dakotan issues, issues that matter to the regular person. This election was the closest I have seen this done in a decade. There are great candidates out there that need to continue their campaign.
We need to get the party leadership of the Democrats to embrace who we are. We sit back as a party and talk about McGovern and Daschle, but they are not coming back. We stopped looking forward a while ago and hope that the nation’s tide will pull us back into prominence. It has not and will not as South Dakota has always isolated itself from that thought.
What can we do as a party to increase numbers. Well first off we have to connect to the voter base. I’m a hunter, I own guns and yet I’m a democrat. How do we connect with that base? Oddly enough we start organizing some Democratic hunts, no one is stopping us from doing a pheasant hunt here in this state that can rival the governors. I’m all for some regulation on firearms but I’m also all for being able to hunt.
Secondly focus on the local races. We have to stop looking at the its all or nothing. If the Republicans want to focus on the issue of bathrooms then let them, point out that local control is the best control and that fiscally is the best way to spend your tax dollars you spend into the state in fighting lawsuits. Also then point out that the republican controlled government has done nothing to help the ag industry in years, but back those comments up with numbers. Hit the ground running. We have to stop being reactionary, we don’t have to stoop to mudslinging, but our state’s ag is in some serious financial issues that parallel the 80’s fairly well. What is the Democratic parties leadership to change the state’s ag economy?
Thirdly as a state we need to make voter registration more accessible. Look to our neighbors to the east. Minnesota has same day voter registration. You can vote by providing documentation. Is there a chance of voter fraud, sure, but is there a chance that Minnehaha County might clean up their election issues in the foreseeable future, about the same chance.
Fourth the party leadership has run its course with failed campaigns and its inability to recruit voters. It is time for Ann to step down and for us to have new life at the top of the party. We need to be able to recruit candidates that can relate to voters who aren’t national party platformers. Why did Billy do so well? He campaigned like a South Dakotan, and not a Washington teamster.
Finally we need to not settle for moving the needle in districts as a sign of improvement. Improvement should be recruitment number, voter gains, and wins in an election. Look at the counties Billy won as the starting bases to build a voter base off of again, re connection should be the parties big push the next two years.
Cory thanks for being the candle in the dark here. Just keep that chin up and you know what your work in Brown county is swaying individuals. Keep at it.
Great Comments, Madman! And as long as we are offering strategic advise, might I suggest Ranked-Choice Voting or other proportional voting systems as a long-term strategy to get out from under the Republican-majority stranglehold on state politics?
As Libertarian Kurt stated in an earlier article, Republicans are typically always against it, even in places where it would help them, like California or Massachusetts. Despite that, I think there are places we can try to bring them around, and warm up to the idea.
Just have to start small and work our way up. Local elections for multiple-seat districts, like school boards are a natural fit, as are multiple-candidate singe-seat elections, like for Mayor. If we can identify a case where a Republican was harmed in an election by a spoiler, or a Dem was elected with a plurality, that could be a starting place. Have to start somewhere.
Old Sarge
The lesson is that calling people nasty names DOES win elections, but only if it’s a republican calling others names. SD once again votes for lies, incompetence, and selfishness.
If Sutton could not win, then no Democrat can ever win a statewide race in SD.
The only chance is a non-crazy right wing independent candidate. But who? Every “independent” or 3rd politician I’ve ever met is either more righwing than the Trumpists, or more crazy, or both.
It’s the GOP forever now.
I feel unwelcome here, after living here for nearly 20 years,. I’m a state employee and I just see Noem as a 2nd Scott Walker. She will just slash and burn all stat services, and unless you are an active GOP old boy, you won’t get an even shake. I’ve seen it already, it’s illegak but they do it, the give favors to their political allies and freeze out or fire and of the opposition party.
Sutton seems to be a good man and the people did vote for the man but it was the democrat party that hurt him. The bottom line is there were several factors working against Sutton 1) Trump is popular, 2) The democrat party is seen as radical, 3) South Dakota is a conservative civil community. Sutton could have won if he had ran as a republican. I think that is what is so telling about what the democrats have done to their own reputation through their antics. The people of South Dakota almost overcame a 30% republican advantage for Sutton but because he is associated with the democrat party he lost. The race was Sutton’s to win except for the party. So long as the democrats are seen as being aligned with movements that do not respect the rights if the individual they will not win here. It wasn’t Sutton. He ran a hell of a race. It was the party.
Sutton did just fine here. His campaign is a roadmap for the party to follow. How much did the state party help with his campaign, not enough as they have a hard line in the sand about what they want in a candidate.
Leadership needs to change, the party need to reconnect with its base.
I’m not one to have a defeatist attitude because of the end result. Build on what we learned and plan for the future. 20 years ago the state had 2 state democratic senators so don’t tell me it can’t be done. What is apparent is it can’t be done under the current party platform.
My advice is to walk away for a while, question why this craziness is so important to you and grow in new directions. Listen to someone like Robert Sapolsky on the neuroscience of behavior he explains our tribal nature and how our brains function you’re free from the binds of religion to look at the world in a scientific way but you’d rather be in a constant fistfight better to expose yourself to brilliant minds and new ideas at least for a while.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7htlm3DQ_so
I joined PennDems when they were soliciting for precinct people in ’10 or ’11. For years there were 10 people at the meetings. Out of a county of 18,000 registered Democrats.
Filling qualified candidates to run was sporadic. Volunteer work. Retired people. Then HRC was up after brilliant Obama’s terms. Ann was dedicated but unsuited. Wasserman Schultz came. “Bernie-or-nothing” progressives joined us, and we, them. Republican insiders angrily bad-mouthed us at our fair booths. Republicans destroyed Sanders, Wasserman Schultz and turned the word “deplorable” into the C-word. Comey influenced the election in the last week. The Russians got a pass from Mitch McConnell. HRC loist to Trump the Scumbag. The world was stunned. The Trump nightmare has been non-stop.
But we got back the house last night playing by the rules. Republicans suppress the vote.
Thirty to fifty people now show up at our meetings. Stars like Sen. Amy Klobushar (D, MN) are sparkling. People with gravitas are stepping up. Al Franken stepped down as the people’s representative for sexually exploitive behavior.
But not the Republicans. Theirs is a blood sport for hire paid off by Billionaires that own most of the world’s wealth. Right now the only way to succeed is to tax the rich as they steal our future. Money and dishonesty allow MAGA to fleece us. Small states are susceptible to such corruption.
So, we are less naive now as a nation and world of law abiding people of good conscience. Good people must prevail.
From where I sit, things are looking up. We won’t have Walker around much longer.
In looking at my former state, I get some comfort from one thing I saw in Noem. It’s not often that Republican leaders break ranks on an issue like the nuclear waste borehole. Noem did. She listened to the grassroots people in Spink County (and elsewhere), when they brought up valid concerns, and she opposed it. That probably was not an easy decision to make from a political perspective, because the elites in the state would have looked at the borehole as “economic development.”
I think both she and Sutton have what I call “rural vision,” the belief that all that land out there really is fine for agriculture and doesn’t have to reach for the so-called, “highest and best use,” which for the elite means the land is only good for waste dumps and superfund sites.
I worked a lot with South Dakota Republicans that have a 10th Amendment perspective and a belief in letting grassroots people lead on issues. I may not agree with them on a lot of issues, but we were always able to come together on issues important to us. I think things aren’t as dire as if Jackley had won.
Donald Pay, congratulations to Wisconsin for getting rid of thug Snott Wanker koch bros. I haven’t checked yet. Did you make any inroads in regaining sanity in Wisconsin lege? Please. please say Wisconsin voters are so over wingnut Fitzwalkerstan.
HC- some posters are wondering what science is. What it is good for. And more importantly, how can they turn science into taxcuts for the koch bros.
SD I feel sorry for you. You had the choice between good & evil… you chose the latter. A very sad day indeed.
MFI,
Wisconsin Dems actually lost one Senate seat. Republicans keep their lock on the Legislature due to political and racial gerrymandering. It will be interesting to see how out of kilter the Legislature is from actual vote totals. The suit before the US Supreme Court showed how Democrats are screwed out of representation. I think the suit got kicked down to the Appeals Court to determine standing. In the meantime, I’m sure there will be a new filing based on the outcome of this election, and they will cure any standing issues. There was already talk that a lame duck session of the WI Legislature will attempt to limit the power of the executive branch that they gave to Walker. It’s funny that the bill they passed on recounts screwed Walker out of a taxpayer paid recount. Everyone is chuckling about that.
Thanks for the info, Mr Pay. Makes me happy to see Schimel lose, as well.
I hope that your predications don’t come to pass. I truly don’t. Horribly disappointed in the the people who voted for candidates not based on their character, but the (D), (R) or (I) behind their name in this state.
“the state is doing very well compared to years”
(Sorry. I forgot who said this.)
No, SD isn’t doing very well. It’s doing very badly and yesterday’s election only makes it worse. In the bottom 5 of nearly everything except corruption, where it’s number 1. I guess the majority of citizens like being kicked around and scammed by the Koch owned SDGOP.
I have a great deal of respect for the fighting spirit and courage of SD Democrats who do not give up.
Donald, you’re right: expanding Medicaid would be smart, as voters in Nebraska, Utah, and Idaho recognized last night. That and the man who signed that expansion into law in the White House explain why Kristi won’t do it.
But hey, Scott Walker’s out! Whoo-hoo, Donald!
Madman, I appreciate the sentiment, but I think there’s a serious argument to be made that keeping one’s head up in Noem/Ravnsborgistan could get an honest Democrat in trouble.
And Madman, tell me where I find that base to reconnect to.
I just really think that national political dialogue drives local elections A LOT. And watching Democrats continually fail to leverage the Lord Jesus Christ against Trumplicans in terms of the border wall, caravan of refugees, as well as economic and tax code injustice, just drives me nuts.
WWJD? Turn away mothers and children willing to die trying to find a better life – with the force of soldiers? Tax the wealthy 10x less than the poor?
The answer is HELL NO! – but we don’t have enough Jesus freaks in the Democratic Party – so, we suffer the consequences, the most, in rural America.
Adam, Democrats in Minnesota didn’t “leverage the Lord Jesus Christ against Trumplicans” and they did really well. Dems talked about bread and butter issues, about meeting needs, about building unity, about working together to make Minnesota better for everyone here. Our moderate Democratic Gov-elect won GOP counties with just that kind of message.
I know. This is MN, not SD. That cheap, dog whistle crap is lousy politics and really bad for the nation.
OldSarge, I have to half-agree with your party analysis. It was not nearly as much “anti-Democrat” sentiment pulling Sen. Sutton down as it was “pro-Republican” sentiment raising Rep. Noem up. SD is one of the very few anomalous states where President Trump has a positive approval rating (over 80% if I recall correctly).
The thought experiment I have after every election (granted, I have been on the short end WAY more often than the prevailing) is: how would the results be different – if at all – if we lived in the absence of political parties?
Debbo, I was even surprised with how well the DFL did in MN. It is so true what you say, Minnesotans vote much more on bread and butter issues than ideology. The populist middle class message really gets across here and is why Minnesotans do better economically and are more educated. Educated people know that investing in education, protecting the land and water, a living wage and affordable healthcare for all is what makes for a thriving economy.
No, this was mainly pro-Jackely voters who resented Noem that gave Billie a chance and explains why there was no rub to other Democratic candidates. You can’t consider the dynamics absent the party atmosphere two very popular Republicans running against one another caused a split and one-time Democratic opportunity in the state they will most likely mend their fences by time of next election. As someone pointed out Sutton’s own words in that ad did him in: liking Bernie, personal income tax, etc. Hopes are dashed it’s back to the way it was for the Dems. Sure glad I’m a Republican now – I’m a winner!!!
I’m disappointed that you’re a republican as so many of them in SD are anti-gay, HC.
Never doubt that the Republican stranglehold in Pierre will topple on your LGBTQ rights in Pierre.
There are a lot of positions to admire in Bernie Sanders, such as voting against authorization to invade Iraq.
Bernie supports Medicare for All as does the majority of Americans in recent polling. Of Course, Americans are sick of going broke over medical bills!
South Dakotans probably because they are not as educated, are led to believe it is simply Unamerican to support a socialized system such as Medicare and make it available to everyone.
Socialized Medicare works – ask your elderly South Dakotans.
I know you don’t like it Jenny, I mostly did it so I could vote in their primary. Adam’s suggestion to infiltrate and further moderate the party is not all bad and get some of those extremists out of there. Porter used a good word hygge to describe South Dakota – they like what they like.
Hygge is a Danish and Norwegian word for a mood of coziness and comfortable conviviality with feelings of wellness and contentment.
What’s the significance if a first time female gov who is less experienced and just as prone to graft as her male predecessors? Nothing will change until wingnuts are tossed to the curb and Dems get elected or some rogue wasicu wingnut drops a nuke on Northern Mississippi because of a childish orange tantrum?
South Dakotans need to prepare themselves for cuts to education and healthcare from Noem. Those are the first two that pubs love to slash at. Forget the pro-life mantra when there are tax cuts to be had. Healthcare for South Dakotans – get outta here, never ever gonna happen now.
South Dakota teachers should really just think seriously about moving to a state that appreciates them better.
Potty bills will be of utmost importance now in Pierre. Ostracizing Transgender students will be one of the first bill passed in the first ten days.
Noem already said in one of her debates that she would have signed the one that Daugaard vetoed.
In a year or so, there will be thousands of South Dakotans wondering and regretting why they voted for an extremist.
Oh come on Mike it does mean something. Our little town once employed a woman as Superintendent of Public Schools before she had the right to vote can you imagine how that must have felt we’ve come a long way even in this state you only see the trees. Heck you only see the bark and the moss never the bigger picture you never look up and around South Dakotans are pretty happy here they don’t like leftist views that doesn’t mean they’re all racists, homophobes, etc. etc. etc.
Oh, I can’t forget the Ammosexual bills also. Expect armed teachers and student in SDs public school systems and college campuses across the state. Ammosexuals like Kristi Noem will sign those kinds of bills as fast as they come across her desk.
As with the Medicaid expansion, tax cuts seem unlikely in South Dakota, since we already have no income tax and have eliminated any SD inheritance tax. Sales tax is the primary source of state government funds.
Cutting sales tax in SD would primarily benefit the poor and the lower middle class (plus we fought to force out of state companies to collect sales tax on internet sales), which suggests that sales tax would not be a target for cuts. These two groups are pretty much out of favor with current elected SD officials in the majority, plus, we still need some tax revenue to be available for matching unregulated federal block grants that elected looters among the majority and their pals can target.
It seems more likely that our current elected majority will again focus on the weakest among us and propose legislation that restricts their individual human rights in as many creative ways as possible. After all, people lacking resources are an easy target, often unable to raise any meaningful defense. They will function as useful victims needed to satiate too many SD voters’ apparent Hunger Games’ type need to witness the suffering of others to feel better about their own unforunate stagnation.
Jenny, whitey drove his Mother’s car to a Thousand Oak’s California bar full of college students, walked inside and took out the security guard and killed the first CHP officer who showed up plus 11 others.
Schools with armed resource officers are every bit as vulnerable. Calif guy used a smoke bomb and a .45 cal handgun. He messed up because whitey’s gun of choice for mass murders has been the AR-15 assault style weapon.
Cory
You find the base in those counties that supported Sutton. That is where the base has been, but the party through inept leadership at the top has focused on national politics. Do you know how many farmers in Brown county still consider themselves Democrat, they might not be coming out in droves but they also feel that the party has left them behind. Travel Highway 12 East and you go through towns that are filled with folks who are democrat but no one thinks about them as the party is too busy chasing the national platform (and not developing a South Dakota one). Go into Lake, Brown, and Brookings county and get real young democrats groups going on at those universities that focus on making South Dakota better.
Have a party back candidates based on local thoughts and not on the national platform of ideas. That idea has been rejected time and time again in South Dakota, that the state party is upset at Trump (sure I am as well) but hatred of the office of President doesn’t sit well with the average South Dakotan.
What were the key targets by the party in the last election for trying to take office? What was the strategy to victory? Why did people refuse money from the State Office who are running as Democrat? (This one is pretty easy as people don’t like being told how to run an election by people who have proven they can win one).
The big thought process here has been people will join us because this person is bad. No they won’t. They will join you if your ideas line up with South Dakotan values. There is a lot of values out there, but being a voice for South Dakotans should be a first. The Democrats need to be a party of blue collar, white collar, ranchers, doctors, the young, the old, immigrant, and so many others, but we also need to be a party that listens to those people. We yell about the lack of an Ag Bill, but have we been trying to push out what we need on an ag bill? As a party we have not.
It is always tough to wake up to a loss, but we have been doing the same thing to get people elected into office for 20+ years and its not working. Sutton and Bjorkman laid a great framework for the party to follow, and people supported that from both parties. There are a great deal more democrats in this state then we think. The moderate democrat (who I am) is where we need to reach into and pull back into the party. I’m a pro gun, fiscal conservative, that is a democrat because I believe in social justice. We exist.
All crossover votes in 2018 SD were nothing more than protest votes against Krazy Kristi.
‘South Dakota values’ are nothing more than anti-liberal vitriol.
Farmers, and the rest of America’s filthy animals, left the Democratic Party long time ago.
I don’t say this often but Adam you are wrong.
Was Bjorkman votes anti Dusty? I know he only managed a measly 7 counties of support. Don’t push the belief that every person in South Dakota is Republican. 16 counties in South Dakota voted strongly for Bjorkman but he didn’t win. 23 counties that should be targeted by the Democratic party for 2020. Instead without change we will continue to focus on issues that turn off South Dakotans in the voting booth. We need a South Dakotan platform for the party. I said in 2018 and was told I was wrong that people would vote Democrat because of national politics, they don’t.
You don’t fix a decades old problem overnight.
Why didn’t other statewide candidates do well, they are nothing but ballot fillers. Talk like that is the propaganda that has been spread so well by Republicans. The Republican had a great game plan in the late 90’s and early 2000’s and it paid off to recruit the next wave of voters. At that time the Democrats had Tim Johnson and Tom Daschle in office. Herseth was up and coming. Since around 2008 the Democratic party moved away from its base support, and has struggled to identify with the average South Dakotan.
South Dakota isn’t the national platform and that is the mistake the party has made in its approach to connect to voters. People who support the national platform are going to support the party but without a real state platform it will continue to flounder.
I don’t feel bad about anyone’s failure to communicate ideas to double standard pushing narcissists, and it’s clear that’s who the majority of South Dakotans and other rural people are. Reasonable people are vastly outnumbered in SD.
It’s not Democrats’ fault that these people have chosen to devolve into filthy primitive feral animals. I can hardly wait for the trade war to bankrupt the American farmer, and to then watch them cry for more federal money. Their stupidity is now something I laugh at (to keep from crying).
Hap, I did wonder (and worry!) about exactly that dynamic: some conservatives would vote for Billie just to spite Kristi, but once they’d scratched that itch, they’d get back to voting Republican down the rest of the ticket.
Similarly, I also worried that Sutton gained lots of votes by dint of a personal story that offered no coattails to anyone.
Debbo and Jenny say, “Minnesotans vote much more on bread and butter issues than ideology.” Hmmm… are we so poor, so short on bread and butter in South Dakota, so bitter about our neighbors’ relative prosperity, that rather than remind ourselves of our hopeless shortage of bread and butter, we fill our stomachs—or at least distract ourselves from our hunger—by clinging to the notion that ideology matters more than a material good that we are less able to achieve?
Hap, I don’t claim that not liking leftist views means that anyone is racist or homophobic. I claim that not liking people of different races and making them feel unwelcome in this state indicates racism. I claim that a history of supporting gay-marriage bans and potty bills indicates phobia of difference.
Madman, what do those old Democratic farmers want from the party? What do they want from me? I’m not following any national party agenda. What do they want?
And are there really that many Democratic farmers left? The farm population in general has dwindled with consolidation (paid for in part by EB-5 and your tax dollars assisting the creation of mega-dairies and other factory ag operations!). The farm population is aging out, as young farm kids overwhelmingly choose to leave the fields and go to town where they can find better work that doesn’t require enormous amounts of capital to enter. Many of the farmers who are left are corporate Republicans. How much Democratic base is left out there?
And in what rural farm districts did Democrats win Legislative seats?
I love farmers. I love eating their products. There just aren’t many farmers left.
Hatred of the office of President didn’t stop Republicans from racking up more seats from 2010 through 2016. I guess we Democrats are simply held to higher standards.
Amend that: we Democrats are held to standards.
Perhaps repeating myself from the farmer question Madman, but tell me: what values have I expressed that are not South Dakota values?
Cory,
South Dakotans want Government to stay out of their lives as much as possible.
That is the main reason why Democrats will never have power in this State.
I’m of the impression that Billie Sutton and Tim Bjorkman both talked a lot about South Dakota values and largely distanced themselves from any kind of national platform. Both men lost, Bjorkman by a bigger margin than I did in either of my local elections. What am I missing here about campaigning on “South Dakota values”?
Your right Cory both men did lose but look at how they did compared to our previous candidates. You are not going to fix 10-15 years of having no plans overnight as a party.
What values is the average South Dakotan looking for. Local control, the environment, religion, and a way to be relateable to the candidate. You have done great work up there in Brown county but what values are being used against you? What did your opponent do that you were unable to counter punch? These are the exit interview questions the party should be talking to you about and not myself. This is a major issue about our party in handling elections. We don’t even do due diligence and figure things out.
In Aberdeen their should be an active Young Democrat group on campus helping, the local democrat party, and yes those rural areas still care but you need to reach them. They don’t care about bathroom issues unless you explain that there hard earned money paid in taxes is going to be wasted defending that when it could had went to help x y and z. I’ve had that discussion about two dozen times and most of the time it ends in well why does the state need to regulate that who cares.
This isn’t a quick fix scenario and I’m perfectly willing to sit down and talk about your campaign strategy as I’m not going to armchair quarterback it here but this is something the party should be doing.
The main values Al Novstrup and his supporters used against me were dishonesty and fear. I can’t counterpunch on that level.
Cory,
You lost because you are a liberal Democrat.
The majority of your district is against abortion and liberal ideas.
False, Jason.
In 2008, every precinct in my current district and every precinct in Brown County except for Westport voted against IM 11, that year’s abortion ban.
In 2006, Brown County voters (sorry, no precinct data from SOS) rejected Referred Law 6, that year’s abortion ban, with a 55% no vote, like the statewide vote.
In 2012, every Brown County precinct overwhelmingly rejected Referred Law 16, Governor Daugaard’s very conservative package of education reforms.
In 2014, Brown County voted 64% in favor of IM 18, raising the minimum wage.
In 2016, Brown County rejected Referred Law 20, the conservative attempt to repeal that minimum wage hike for young workers.
I will accept the contention that I lost because I accept the label of “liberal Democrat.” But that loss did not result because a majority of my district opposes truly liberal political positions.
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/11/trump-administration-secretly-forces-century-old-youth-organization-rescind-lgbtq-supportive-policy/
Drumpf forces 4-H to drop LGBTQ supportive rules through 100 year old government regulation.
The war on women is going after girls now.
Such is the way of the apartheid Trumpists, so insecure in their own identities and abilities that they must marginalize anyone who lives differently from them.