The Noem nepotism machine did its job in Watertown this week. Ag-industrial-lobbyist Kyle Peters, son-in-law of Governor Kristi Noem, cruised to victory in the Watertown Ward B City Council election Tuesday, winning more votes than his two opponents combined:
In Ward B, Kyle Peterson won a three-way race over former councilman Jason Redemske and incumbent Councilman Colin Paulsen. Peters finished with 361 votes. Redemske had 146. Paulsen was third with 105 [Mike Tanner, “Peters, Jurrens, Rossman Win Election Day Races in Watertown,” KWAT, 2023.06.20].
This is Peters’s first elected office. Peters attributes his “unlikely” victory to knocking on nearly every door in Ward B, writing 350+ letters to voters, and waging a positive campaign. He does not mention the pleasure of removing incumbent Paulsen, who tried upsetting the SDGOP apple cart with a 2022 primary challenge to Senate boss Lee Schoenbeck.
It’s a formidable task to determine which town in South Dakota is the worst but Watertown has to near the apex of most horrible.
What is the SDGOP Applecart? I would think that the Noem family wing would enjoy someone challenging Sen. Schoenbeck. The enemy of my enemy . . .?
LK, please tell us how many times you’ve been to Watertown? When was the last time?
Please be as honest as you are capable of.
My parents had a cabin on Lake Cochrane for decades now owned by a brother in law and two nephews. I was in Watertown in 2013 and it stank of feedlots, rotting fish and phytoplankton.
Watertown is more complicated than a lot of people think, especially in its politics. Its elected leaders in the last 50 years cover a very wide swath. Bert Tollefson used to talk about how the powerful State Senator and businessman Cob Chase, D-Watertown, was primarily responsible for putting the westward curve in I-29 to service Watertown, thus pulling it away from Clear Lake, Milbank and other towns. It made a big difference for Watertown and garnered the envy of the losers in that deal.
The city is a blue collar community that lost its Democrat political identity in the decades after Dick Kneip left office, starting with populist Bill Janklow’s win in 1978. The rising tide of Ronald Reagan and the conservative movement, plus the heavy Catholic community in Watertown and nearby Kranzburg (abortion), flipped Watertown and Codington County to going red. The loss of the First Congressional District was also an influence that eventually favored Republicans.
Yet there were other influences that kept the county and the heavily gerrymandered Legislative District 5 seat competitive for Democrats like Dorothy Kellogg and Dale Howlett. Watertown is the hometown of the S.D. Peace & Justice Center which was instrumental in keeping issues from the farm crisis and environmental causes active locally and in the northeast counties. The beginning of the end for Democrats in the county appeared when Democrat registrations started declining in the late 80s and independent registrations started to balloon. My observation was the statewide trend in independent registrations started in Codington County and spread out into the James River Valley. Another trend was the disappearance of the Greatest Generation voters who remembered how they were screwed by GOP politics in the Great Depression and how WWII veterans built a strong ag economy because of FDR’s and Truman’s programs to energize the national economy.
Sorry if I’m skipping over a lot of other influences. Generally, I believe people lost interest in (and respect for) politics, leaving the SDGOP the only well-run machine standing throughout the state. It seems the SDDP is a vacant shell of itself and locally it looks like the remaining registered Democrats have given up.
Lar, do you remember those wedding dances every weekend at the Legion in Gary? Man, you were wild in those days.
Why any non-tribal Democrats still live in South Dakota is a puzzle wrapped in bacon, bound with plastic baling twine baked for fifty minutes.
There are no feedlots in Watertown and never has been you pathetic liar, LK
Watertown is surrounded by feedlots and often smells as such.
https://www.manta.com/mb_54_C00D3_JMZ/beef_cattle_feedlots/watertown_sd
Not just Codington County, eastern South Dakota is a CAFO sacrifice zone inhabited by atrazine-infused people and surrounded by a never-ending corn mine.
Kurtz never said there were feedlots in Watertown, LCJ needs to sharpen up his readingn and comprehension.and stop lying about Kurtz.
I think Watertown has a chance to be more progressive….it’s trying and has seen some development other than the CAFO’s which pollute the area. It is a non college town and can be provincial and conservative. If the movement to clean up Kampeska and the Sioux River ever heats up (and I think it will) it could turn in a hurry.
An interested party published several posts about President Obama’s visit in 2015.
A massive C-17 cargo plane from McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey was the first publicly visible sign of President Obama’s visit to Watertown. Crews spent about 30 minutes unloading after it landed at Watertown Regional Airport just before 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
Air Force One is estimated to arrive at Watertown Regional Airport at 3:50 p.m. and depart about on Friday, his remarks to graduates of Lake Area Technical Institute are expected at 4:25 then the president is expected to depart about 5:45 local time. His arrival and departure from the airport will be closed to the public.
Veterans hung about 350 flags in Watertown in anticipation of Obama’s visit.
One Republican thinks President Obama is off the mark by choosing Lake Area Technical Institute as a backdrop for the state’s failure to train workers.
Should we be frightened for his safety in an historically violent state where Obama has only 30% approval?
LATC has won many national awards including the coveted Aspen award for the best tech college in the nation.
The chair that Barry sat in during his visit is on display at the school and had to be surrounded by ropes because of the many hilarious pranks pulled by the many students over the years.
LK , why are you saying SD is good enough for Indians but not other races?
Sounds racist to me!
Republicans in South Dakota have clearly forgotten that the land they live on was seized from Indigenous cultures by liberal democrat, President Thomas Jefferson through an executive order that even he believed was unconstitutional.
Also in 2015 Watertown High School finally dropped a racist ritual called Ki-Yi.
Yes, white people still misappropriate American Indian themes in Watertown, Sisseton, Estelline and in other South Dakota towns.
But under pressure, the Estelline School District voted to drop a racist American Indian mascot and imagery.
In 2015, a group representing dwarves asked the McLaughlin High School to change the name of its mascot. Now, the school on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation has voted to discontinue the school’s mascot after receiving a request from a national group representing Little People. There was little opposition in the community to removing the “Midgets” from its roster.
Tribal nations are recognized by the federal government as political sovereigns and not a racial group.
That a trade school in Watertown is attended by the racist children of Republican Earth haters should be a surprise to no one.
I didn’t attend my 50th high school reunion in 2021 because Elkton is unrecognizable to Democrats.
In 2014 I came dangerously close to buying the town of Ardmore but Our Lady of the Arroyo had the sense to talk me out of it. Ain’t love grand?
Woonsocket dropped the name Redmen 20 years ago and now coops its sports (except track) with surrounding schools. They are the Blackhawks in the present configuration. It took some discussion to make this change and my Mother a 1932 grad was much amused. She said, “I don’t think we had a nickname in the twenties…we’d been Coyotes for a while and then Jackrabbits but it wasn’t on the uniforms. When Coach Hogan came to start the football program we had no uniforms or equipment but the University gave the school its old uniforms…red with white numbers. People called them Hogan’s Redmen…but it had nothing to do with Indians. That came later and all the rituals and cheers kind of grew like Topsy. But there is no long tradition that we are Redmen like the Sioux.”There’s no connection with Woonsocket, other than Coach Hogan was here and he had a connection at USD.” I think schools who are clinging to Indian names need to dig into their old annuals and other records and figure out where those names came from.
Do know what brand of chaw they still use on the x-country team, Mr. Blundt?
Watertown buys natural gas from Canada and coal power through a co-op: how Marxist.
Las Cruces hosts many of the Republicans who flee those deadly winters and Lee Schoenbeck has a property in Scottsdale.
Mr. Schoenbeck just posted some sweet selfies from Italy on his Faceberg page, bless his heart.
You miserable bastards.
It’s raining in South Dakota and its Saturday Night. Every bar in every farm town is full to the brim and selling out of Hamms and Grain Belt. The folks are smiling.
Mrs. Noem is doing a really good job of turning South Dakota into Idaho. Y’all should be freaking out.
I haven’t been to Idaho for a long time so I googled and learned that “Idaho is a majestic hidden gem known for its low cost of living, low crime rate, strong economy, and exciting outdoor adventure scene.”
What are we supposed to be freaking out about.?
Here is one Republican who f#ked around and found out on this date, June 25th, 1876 at Greasy Grass Montana. So Happy Custer Day!!
Arlo, Concilman Peters will stymie any real effort to clean up Lake Kampeska and the Big Sioux River; through his consulting with A-1 and bribing of CAFOs through GOED, he has been a primary collaborator in polluting that watershed.
Latest survey of Iduho circa 2022….
Read the Eighth Annual Statewide Survey
Key Findings
Overview
Taxes and Budget
Education
Growth, Housing, and Economic Situation
Environment
Crime
Conclusion
About the Survey
The Eighth Annual Idaho Public Policy Survey was conducted November 10-17, 2022, and surveyed 1,000 adults who currently live in Idaho. The sample is representative of the state’s population, both geographically and demographically, with a margin of error of +/- 3.1%. The survey covered a wide variety of topics, including the economy, state budgeting, taxes, education, growth, housing, the environment, and crime. GS Strategy Group fielded the survey by cell phone (21%), landline phone (21%), online (32%), and text message (27%).*
*Does not add to 100% due to rounding.
Key Findings
There is increased pessimism among Idahoans, with the gap between the number of Idahoans who believe the state is heading in the right direction (44%) versus those who believe it is off on the wrong track (41%) falling within the margin of error for the first time in this survey’s history.
This pessimism extends to the economy, as most Idahoans expect the state’s economic condition to either worsen (37%) over the next two years or stay the same (36%). Additionally, 43% of Idahoans worry about paying their bills “always” or “frequently.”
Idahoans’ top legislative priority remains Education, followed by Jobs and the economy. Housing took the third spot for the first time, overtaking Healthcare.
Property tax is a major concern of Idahoans compared to previous years, with it and income tax having switched places as the top priority for tax relief over the past two years. A majority of Idahoans (56%) feel that property taxes are too high.
There is strong support (82%) for eliminating sales tax on groceries, with favorability topping 80% among all political party identifications.
When allowed to identify any issue without additional prompts, Academics (an emphasis on critical thinking skills and core classes like English, Math, History, and Science) was identified as Idahoans’ top education priority, followed by Teacher Support (attracting and retaining quality educators and increasing teacher pay).
Growth remains a major concern for Idahoans, with two-thirds (67%) feeling the state is growing too fast.
Survey Results Tableau Dashboard
Thanks, epo: my point exactly. And don’t forget they’re mostly mormons!
Algebra’s copy and paste job is not sourced to anyone so it is hard to tell the accuracy of its content.
Two activist accomplishments of mine.
– Protesting and helping end The Vietnam War.
– Protesting and convincing the Watertown School Board to end Ki-Yi.
Cory–certainly I’m not saying Kyle Peters will have anything to do with a progressive awakening in Watertown. He will be a regressive barrier to progress.
LK, what’s racist about the Estelline RedHawks?
Fix the problems in New Mexico before you bash a state that you know very little of.
There is a 39% chance Watertown will become the shining beacon on the prairie it wishes to be. Young Mr. Peters might be a driving force behind that, as he seems to be a “progressive” not a “naysayer” like most of the out-of-state name-callers on this blogging place. You just hate it when a mediocre South Dakota town, like Watertown, gets something right, don’t you?