Well, darn it! The Deadwood gambling industry decided not to try placing an initiative on the 2020 ballot to allow ’round-the-clock hooch sales at their casinos. Here’s the Deadwood Gaming Association’s withdrawal letter of June 28:
Not that I need a drink at 4 a.m. (and neither do you! go to bed!), but I enjoy a good public debate about alcohol policy.
Wussies. What’s next? Getting rid of all day booze? Man what is this world coming to. CC4L will not have such short sighted concessions. To keep up-to-date on the South Dakota full Cannabis legalization initiative that saves South Dakota $300,000/year and restores our rights to this amazing plant, text keyword REEFER to (605) 309-7007
Don’t be a wussie.
My hypothesis is they had some polling data that showed they could not convince South Dakotans to expand gambling into Las Vegas-style operations. I never supported Deadwood gaming, but I think people supported it in the late 1980s because they sold it as not a very big change in what had been going on historically, and it was local people that would benefit. People understand that people who drink and gamble all night are addicts. They are not seeking a night of entertainment, but a fix. People don’t want to support that.
If my hypothesis is correct, Tellinghuisen’s effort points out the difference between corporate and grassroots initiative efforts. A real citizens’ effort would never bother to spend money on a poll.
Donald, if I had the money to run a poll, I’d consider it… although petitioning is its own form of polling: I’ve found that 80% of people who stop to hear what the People Power Petition is about will sign it. That tells me that if we can get the necessary signatures, we’d have a pretty easy time getting a majority vote.
But I’m a long way from having money for a luxury like polling.
Maybe they looked at the cost and complication of doing a petition drive under the new and onerous rules the Legislature has imposed and decided that it wasn’t worth the effort. Maybe selling booze for five more hours a night wouldn’t produce enough revenue to go to all the trouble of a statewide campaign. From a business perspective, if I had $500K to spend on a ballot measure, maybe I could argue that the same amount of money would bring me more customers and more profit if I just advertised more in a few target markets, or renovated a couple hotels, or hired more handsome blackjack dealers.
Wussies? Sometimes it takes a bigger person to turn off the taps than to keep the booze flowing.
Petitions: My friend and professional petition gatherer Three Page Bill (age 65) stopped by yesterday as he got rained out while petitioning at Pirate’s Cove Water Park, up the street. He’s working two petitions, both initiated by developers wanting to develop land. Here you can’t just bribe a city council. The people must ok these new projects at the polls.
We discussed SD and Cory’s attempt to legitimize the overly and unnecessary regulations on the people’s right to bypass corrupt elected legislators. Bill gathers nationwide and agrees there’s nowhere as onerous and ruthless to the people’s rights as South Dakota. Almost always on the wrong side of history.
PS … I sign every petition put in front of me and don’t use my time reading or discussing them. That’s what elections are for. We vote by mail, so there’s ample time to research issues on the ballot and make decisions that I reflect my wishes.