District 7, which is mostly Brookings but includes just enough rural area to let Volga’s Doug Post run, has three-way Republican primary for House. Rep. Doug Post and Rep. Tim Reed both want to serve again, but so does Larry Tidemann, who served on Appropriations for fourteen years before deciding not to run in 2018. Tidemann has the endorsement of the man who replaced him in the Senate, V.J. Smith:
Upon meeting my new colleagues in the South Dakota State Senate in January 2019, to a person they said to me, “You sure have some pretty big shoes to fill. Larry Tidemann did a lot for his district, especially when it came to South Dakota State University.”
As the former chair of the Appropriations Committee, Larry knows all the intricacies of the South Dakota budget. He lived it for many years. In these challenging times, we need his knowledge and wisdom.
Please consider joining me in voting for Larry Tidemann for the South Dakota House of Representatives. We need his “big shoes” back in Pierre – now more than ever. Thank you [Sen. V.J. Smith, letter to the editor, Brookings Register, 2020.05.08].
Post has to go outside of his district to get a sitting legislator’s endorsement. His Volga neighbor and District 4 Rep. John Mills writes on behalf of Post’s conservative principles:
For the past two years I have had the opportunity to serve in the Legislature with Doug Post.
Doug has proven to be the strong conservative voice that I thought he would be. He votes pro-life every time and consistently supports other conservative moral causes. In addition, Doug has brought a conservative economic philosophy and fresh ideas to his important work on the Appropriations Committee.
Combining a strong work ethic with smart, conservative economic thinking, Doug is just the kind of legislator we need during these challenging times.
Doug’s willingness to stand on the conservative high ground is highly respected because he does it with a reasoned, calm demeanor, based on evidence and fact. I have watched him do the research, ask thoughtful questions and dig for answers, so that he has confidence in every vote.
Please vote to re-elect Doug Post and let his conservative voice continue to benefit District 7 and all of South Dakota [Rep. John Mills, letter to the editor, Brookings Register, 2020.04.29].
Post also has endorsements from anti-vaxxer Majority Leader Lee Qualm from District 21 and Rep. Kevin Jensen from District 16.
Post or someone backing him seems to perceive Tidemann as his primary primary threat. This card is out in Brookings mailboxes portraying Tidemann as a fetus-hater:
Post needs to scream about his conservative principles, because a practical town like Brookings that expects support for higher education can’t be too happy with Post’s opposition to needs-based scholarships and the labor rights of SDSU’s many faculty and staff. Now the questions is, who is more likely to make the effort to safely mail in their ballots for the District 7 primary, pragmatic Brookings Republicans or the radical fringers who pay more attention to Fox and Rush and End Times radio than to real local needs?
Update 10:43 CDT: The card turns out to be another endorsement from outside District 7. South Dakota Right to Life PAC, based way up here in Mina, sent the card, as shown by the claimer on the front:
How they got a fetus to hold Doug’s hand for this anti-abortion card, I’ll never know.
So how are they going to square fetus worship with the way Kruel Kristi and the SDGOP are so badly failing SD in this pandemic?
Despite young Mr. Post’s really swell haircut and his suave good looks, he has sunk so far into the tar pits of those insaner than most he can no longer even utter his own thoughts. Fellows like Mr. Mills, who is barely on the fringe himself, and those far insaner, pull all of Mr. Post’s strings. In the libbie town of Brookings I don’t think even a guy as good looking as Mr. Post who never talks can beat Mr. Tidemann, he of the real brains.
Interestingly, connected to your observation of in-district vs. out-of-district endorsements, Tidemann’s facebook campaign page also carries endorsements from both a former Brookings mayor and legislator (Scott Munsterman) and (arguably more surprisingly) the CURRENT Brookings mayor (Keith Corbett), who points out that when our elected officials vote against bills like the one initiating the Dakota’s Promise Scholarship (SB 72, which Post personally moved to table in House Appropriations), it hurts Brookings. The question certainly remains whether the voting public is paying enough attention to not just let the momentum of Post’s incumbency carry him to a repeat nomination, but it seems pretty obvious that the “establishment” of Brookings County Republicans (a sitting legislator, former mayor, and current mayor) has turned on Post in favor of returning Tidemann to Pierre.
Oh yeah, the other endorsement on Tidemann’s campaign facebook? Former Governor Dennis Daugaard.
“How they got a fetus to hold Doug’s hand for this anti-abortion card, I’ll never know.”
It’s not a fetus anymore, it’s a baby. It’s real easy to tell the difference: if the growth resides within a host, it’s not a baby, unless the host says it is, otherwise it’s not; if the growth escapes the host alive, it’s always baby; if the growth is not alive when leaving the host, it may or may not have been a baby, depending on the the host’s opinion of it. Easy, right?
In this case, I think it’s a baby because it seems to have escaped the host alive. At least I sure hope it’s alive.
So Tidemann has the Brookings vote while Post has the outside vote. Tidemann should landslide… but Post won last time. What is Post’s constituency in Brookings?
I wonder if Dennis will back his endorsement with some cash. Dennis is still sitting on $534K of campaign cash.
Worth noting, though, is that “Post won last time” is a little out of context to this race. There was no Republican primary last time, as I recall. Tidemann was either term-limited out of his chamber and chose not to jump across OR just chose not to run again. So, while Post did win in November (as one of two Republicans on the ballot for two House seats), he didn’t have to earn GOP backing in a primary to do so.
If you want to count Brookings yard signs, both Tidemann and Reed are way up on Post. It seems that Brookings right wing, letter writer, pharmacy professor is also supporting Post.
This just in….. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jane-roe-paid-anti-abortion_n_5ec41806c5b6c7b429002e2e
Norma McCorvey claimed (on her deathbed literally) anti-abortion nuts paid her to change her story on abortion.
This is not surprising. While some opponents of a woman’s right to control her own body and make her own medical decisions are people of principle, it seems that the loudest ones are the most cynical and hypocritical.