I’ve been receiving a surprising number of emails and calls from people offering complaints and “dirt” about Lawrence County state’s attorney and Fourth Circuit Court Judge-Elect John Fitzgerald of Spearfish. I can’t tell if this surge in animus is sour grapes from Trumpists who wanted to install lying and underqualified carpetbagger David Natvig or just the predictable carping of the long string of enemies Fitzgerald made over 30 years of bringing the law down on bad dudes.
If it’s the latter, well, for the record, I’m not going to spend a lot of blog time relitigating every disgruntled convict’s case (certainly not without serious, documented evidence), and I’m not going to touch family law cases.
If it’s the former, politicos manufacturing some sour-grapes campaign against Judge Fitzgerald just got a slap in the face from the South Dakota Republican Party establishment. In announcing the endorsement of outgoing party chairman Dan Lederman, Governor Kristi Noem, Congressman Dusty Johnson, and a host of other SDGOP elected officials for his bid to become the next state party chairman, Senator John Wiik (R-4/Big Stone City) also announced that Representative Mary Fitzgerald (R-31/Spearfish) is running to be his vice-chair. That’s Judge Fitzgerald’s wife.
Representative Fitzgerald is a reliable right-wing vote in the House, but she rubbed the Natvig rump of the party the wrong way last April when she delivered an emotional speech during the House impeachment hearing condemning Natvig’s bumbling patron, killer Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg, before casting her vote to impeach Ravnsborg. But what are you going to do, Natviggers? You couldn’t even organize well-enough to steal a five-way judge election; now the party leadership is signaling with its pick for vice-chair that the Fitzgerald wing of the party is boss and that your further insurgencies will not be tolerated.
On the front of KBHB’s website this morning are two reports on how states like South Dakota want to end foreign land ownership while labor markets are so tight Earth haters want President Biden to relax immigration. Yes, the ever-widening chasm between establishment Earth haters and the far white wing is what happens when a single political party makes a state too dangerous for people of color, Indigenous Americans, Democrats and unaffiliated voters.
Yes, the red country trump apologist are belly-aching far and wide for MORE immigrants . . . they NEED farm labor. Duh?! Our nation has a HUGE demographic hole of working age people. That absence of workers will last for 10-20 years. Time to open the borders. Okay, have a few standards, but open up immigration.
Consolation prize to the Fitz’s for letting jJackley have yet another shot at AG then Governor. Peace among the ranks. Lifetime Republican jobs. Top of the pile pay rates. All the related perks. What else is new? These party loyalists can’t get jobs anywhere else.
Mrs. Fitzgerald just tweeted a photo of her husband and Five Dollar Bill Walsh in a tight embrace. Geezers of a feather, I guess….
Young Mrs. Fitzgerald is a sturdy gal, indeed.
The 5-way race for the Western SD judge was a big topic on local Facebook pages. Those against Fitzgerald repeatedly brought up the fact that he is old, too old even, to be able to finish out his term. Apparently, there is a mandatory retirement age for judges, and Fitzgerald will reach that age before his term is over. Mary came onto those local pages many times, to stump for her husband, telling stories about his family history and other anecdotes.
Fitzgerald also went door to door, seeking votes. He had a professional looking pamphlet to pass out, and/or leave, if the residents were not home. It was a warm Fall day, and I happened to be home, when he knocked on my door. He was dressed professionally, but not over-dressed. He ID’d himself. I then asked him a question about a case involving a relative, not in his jurisdiction, not even in this state. I wanted advice on how to get prosecutors to go after the criminals who stole a bunch of our family’s stuff. The items have been sitting in an evidence locker over two years. The prosecutors say since it is “just a property crime”, they have not decided to prioritize it. We, of course, are not happy about this. We know who did it, so do the cops, since they retrieved the items from the thief. But we can’t get a court date. I briefly shared this info w/ Fitzgerald. He stood there, on my front walk, and gave real, specific advice on who to talk to, how to reach out to them, and other good details, so we can get justice, and get our stuff back. He did not have to do this. But he did.
No other judge candidate left flyers at my house (I live right in town, in a decent part of town). No other judge candidate posted on these local Facebook pages, except Natvig, who was talked about, by local Trumpy people. We knew very little about the other candidates. Fitzgerald put out the effort. Natvig had LOTS of big signs around, more than Fitzgerald. But Fitzgerald, and/or his wife, put out more personal effort, to get elected. .. And yeah, I voted for him. I also texted pics of the pamphlet to family members, saying this is who gave me the advice and this is what he said.
I, for one, laughed and laughed that the Natviggers efforts did not end in fruition.
Any Democrat who knows Bill fully understands in this tiny red state, we must smile and make nice with powerful Republican politicians and their judges in order to cooperate and survive, and to progress as Democrats.
On the other hand, “the Republican Political Traumatization Mythologies Meter is as follows; there’s some overlap from one phase to another, but differences may be overt, rather than implied. The higher a Republican politician is on the meter, the more politically traumatizing he/she is:
1-2: Garden-variety partisanship; standard-fare fear-mongering;
3-4: Utilization of trigger words and phrases, such as, but not limited to: “culture,” “values” and “parental rights”; these are often incorporated into rhetoric about sex, LGBTQ and “states’ rights”;
5-6: Overt yearning for when America was “great,” i.e. the 1950s or early ’60s, when the ruling class was Caucasian, heterosexual (at least outwardly), male and Christian; undermining the value of education and science, especially from the Ivy League-educated;
7-8: Whites are being replaced by brown and Black foreigners; law enforcement is weaponized against Republicans; Big Tech “censors” Republicans; teachers are making our kids gay; Democrats are coming for our guns; citing of Barack Obama by name;
9-10: Elections are rigged, unless won by Republicans; political violence is legitimate political discourse, warranted when Republicans lose; use of guns, as the preferred holy war weapon, to intimidate; Christian theocracy and nationalism; and the will of God.
No Republican can win 270 electoral votes without moderate (levels 3-6), to heavy (7 and above) traumatizing; and the number of states a Republican running for statewide office can win is likely shrinking with each passing election cycle — hence the GOP’s worsening hostility to democracy.
Trump, DeSantis, Mike Pence, Mike Pompeo, et al., peddle identical politically traumatizing mythologies, because the myths are effective — albeit for a shrinking segment of the electorate.”
SALON https://www.salon.com/2022/12/11/a-prayer-before-dying-on-the-partys-terminal-illness/
heh heh heh. Death spiral. eh?!
I worked with Mary Fitzgerald on the gun range that Noem thought we the people should pay 2.5 million for a playground for the good old boys she stood for what was right not to cave to the governor! This state needs more hard working free thinkers like Fitzgerald