Democratic candidate for governor Jamie Smith says he’ll work on issues of real interest to South Dakotans, not fake issues of interest to outside partisans and national campaign donors:
Smith said he supports access to abortion with limitations. He also favors legalizing recreational marijuana. State voters have signaled support for both in the last two decades.
Speaking after a Black Hills Forum and Press club event in Rapid City, Smith said he would govern without a partisan agenda.
“Our job as leaders is to forget about the party part of it, sit down and try to hammer our real solutions to tough problems,” Smith said. “So often, what we see is importation of problems—especially by partisan interests. And they solve those and say, ‘Hey, look what we did.’”
Smith was talking about the recent push by Gov. Kristi Noem to ban transgender girl athletes from playing girls sports. He says the South Dakota High School Activities Association does a great job of regulating sports [Lee Strubinger, “Democrat Wants to Address More Complex, Less Partisan, Problems in Pierre,” SDPB, 2022.08.26].
Consider the problems South Dakota faces in education. We’re having trouble recruiting teachers as our teacher pay falls toward last in the nation again, causing schools to cut back on programs. But instead of focusing on that core human resources issue, the current Governor chose to crusade against well-informed, workable K-12 social studies standards that experienced South Dakota teachers drafted in 2021 in a normal process that Governor Kristi Noem ignored until the national conservtive pundits she reads told her to turn them into a campaign issue. The result: a conceptually, pedagogically and legally inferior set of standards written by one ideological out-of-state consultant with no first-hand knowledge of South Dakota education, history, or geography other than knowing his paycheck comes from Pierre.
Jamie Smith would pull South Dakota’s head out of the partisan out-of-state horse’s asses who are setting the current itinerant and inattentive Governor. Jamie Smith would pay attention to what South Dakotans want.
If we invested as much money and attention currently spend on publicity stints into our kids’ health, education, and care; our state prisons wouldn’t be bursting at the seams. The prisons are a powder keg, as is our nearly collapsing schools.
Its only a matter of time before SD makes national headline news. NOT for any achievements we want to boast about. Gov. Nomb should count her lucky stars when she loses her governors race to Rep. Smith. She would be off the hook and able to point her craggy finger at someone else for her smelly stack of accumulating dangerous disasters.
She is a festering, hot mess camouflaged in lip rouge.
Governor No is a Drifter. She is paid a nice salary to Drift. She shows up at dinners, fundraisers, rallies of White People, maybe to become VP or Pres, maybe to bring about Trumps January 6 fascism.
A true Governor governs without corruption.
Governor No wants to keep our expanding and huge State Prison as a Free College of Last Resort, rather than improving education and becoming a paragon of Honesty.
The Republican brand is a Titanic, it looks new, it hit an iceberg when directed by Captain Trump, and it is sinking. Let’s not let it take South Dakotan down to the depths any more.
Yes, we are in a NewFoundLand. Vote Jamie Smith! He’s the best choice we have now.