Iowa businessman and lobbyist Dan Lederman has had enough of chairing the South Dakota Republican Party. After six years of leading the SDGOP through total dominance over the South Dakota Democratic Party, Lederman announced yesterday he will not seek another term as party chair.
Lederman’s departure opens another door for Governor Kristi Noem to consolidate her power over her state party. She apparently is backing Senator John Wiik (R-4/Big Stone City), a loyal Trumpist excusifier whom she backed with cash in the Republican primary even though Wiik faced no opposition, Republican or Democratic. Lederman was certainly loyal to Noem, but with all the money he makes from rich Iowa Republican carbon dioxide pipeliners, bail bonds, Saudi Arabia, and someday soon pot, Lederman doesn’t depend on Noem and the South Dakota political machine for his credentials. Wiik is a former radio guy now managing car parts and towing wrecks in the northeastern hinterlands. He doesn’t have nearly the same wealth or alternative power base as Lederman and thus would be that much more beholden to multi-millionaire campaigner Noem.
Wiik may face a challenge from even more radically right-wing former legislator Taffy Howard from Rapid City. Howard ran an inconsequential primary campaign against Congressman Dusty Johnson last June after winning three terms in the State House in easy Republican District 33 in Rapid and the near Black Hills. Howard’s mugwump wing’s inability to win any House leadership positions would suggest Wiik is a shoe-in for party chair, but the radical right-wingers’ insurgency at last June’s party convention indicates the Republican Party activists voting for chair are a more volatile group than the evidently more easily cowed legislators. Noem’s assistance may thus prove vital in helping Wiik assume the party chair, and for such assistance Wiik will be ever grateful and servile.
Wiik’s twitter feed reads like a Trumper’s wet dream: NRA, Hillsdale and white supremacy.
https://twitter.com/senatorwiik
I believe it’s “shoo-in,” not “shoe-in.”
What Newland said.
Chair of SDGOP is as inconsequential a position as “head wrangler on a gopher ranch”.
Any connie with dignity wants nothing to do with a political party that believes government is too big and thus, the chair is unnecessary.
Sinecure – an office or position requiring little or no work, especially one yielding profitable returns.
P. Aitch, if I understand the role of the Chair, I will have to disagree with you here. If the Chair plays a large role in recruitment of candidates, then I see this role is essential in defining the GOP moving forward in SD. If the GOP is statesman, traditional, MAGA, or wackadoodle will be mostly determined by who is enticed to come forward to put their name on the dotted line to run for office. Chair will define the party culture.
However, you choose to define it is fine with me, O. Bottom line is, as it’s been for over a hundred years. The majority of SD voters don’t pay attention to state politics until the last week in October, every second year. Then that majority of voters vote Republican, so they don’t have to think beyond how hard and from which direction the wind is going to blow, today.
P. Aitch, unfortunately, I agree with your evaluation of SD voters; I hold out some hope that there is SOME room to define the party through the candidate selection that will inevitably steamroll into office.
Alternate headline: American Jew driven from all white political party
Or: Avarice replacing gluttony as South Dakota’s family value
Or: Jew booted after the Wiik inherit the Earth
Or: American Jew still awaiting Republican messiah.
Stereotypes have a bad reputation, and for good reasons. Decades of research have shown that stereotypes can facilitate intergroup hostility and give rise to toxic prejudices around sex, race, age and multiple other social distinctions.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/insight-therapy/201809/stereotype-accuracy-displeasing-truth
Many of your aren’t old enough to remember but grud appeared at mount blogmore and at the decorum forum about the same time herr lederman was a dealio in South Dakota’s recent timeline. Coinkydink or something else?
It’s no secret this interested party would like to see Israel rolled back to 1917 borders and its Jewish inhabitants moved to Utah or Nevada.
Recall State Senator Dan Lederman and lawyer Joel Arends teamed up to run Annette Bosworth in the 2014 US Senate primary in South Dakota to deflect attention from former governor Mike Rounds and to siphon resources from more viable candidates. Rounds is stained by the EB-5 Bendagate scandal as are his successor, Gov. Dennis Daugaard and Attorney General Marty Jackley.
The thing that didn’t happen? Conservative christianist Libertarian Party nominee Kurt Evans has never been a spoiler.
Noem picked Wiik for her rubber-stamp curriculum standards committee last spring. He’s used to carrying Noem’s water.
Not to put too fine a point on it but Herr Trump’s meeting with unabashed anti-Semites sounds a darned shrillness dog whistle to Dan Lederman that he’s a target for members of his own party especially in a state where prejudice is a sacrament.