The Governor may not be helping fill kids’ bellies, but she apparently is filling all of us full of baloney about the success of her pirated bad-plumber workforce recruitment campaign. Stu Whitney finds one of the individuals the Governor cited as an example of the success of her “Freedom Works Here” campaign is no such exemplar:
Bob Douglas, touted as a success story of Gov. Kristi Noem’s “Freedom Works Here” workforce recruitment campaign in South Dakota, confirmed a few things during a recent interview with News Watch.
The 66-year-old recreational vehicle salesman does enjoy freedom, it turns out. And he loves South Dakota. He plans to move to the Sioux Falls area once he sells his house in southern California, maybe as early as next spring. Douglas was referenced in a Sept. 21 press release from the governor’s office as having “recently moved to South Dakota.”
As for being heralded by the governor’s staff as an example of Noem’s $6.5 million ad campaign drawing new residents to the Mount Rushmore State, well, that’s not exactly true either.
“I wasn’t really aware of the campaign,” said Douglas, whose experience in the RV industry led to him being hired by Parkston-based Trailmanor as a West Coast representative in 2022. He was then named the company’s national sales and marketing director in April 2023, several months before the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) launched the Freedom Works Here effort [Stu Whitney, “‘Freedom’ Not Enough to Fill South Dakota Jobs: Local Business Leaders Say There Are Hurdles with Campaign,” South Dakota News Watch, 2023.11.27].
Among other details in his excellent and hefty report, Whitney offers a comment from Watertown economic development poobah Chris Clifton saying that when he asked the state for real data on the recruitment program, he got “gobbledygook”:
Several development officials said more work could have been done by GOED and the Department of Labor to filter data on the front end, such as itemizing by preference of community or profession. They also expressed surprise that they were asked to contribute to a campaign that they weren’t consulted on ahead of time and didn’t know much about until it launched.
“Before I made my way through the data, I wanted to know exactly what the Department of Labor did or what filtration they used,” said Clifton. “I got a bunch of gobbledygook that basically said, ‘We can’t tell you what we did, but we did all we could do.’ I’m a little suspicious about that because I’ve been involved in a lot of marketing campaigns that were very specific about impressions. There’s going to be a lot of heavy lifting on the back end to get this into a net result of who actually makes the move and takes a job” [Whitney, 2023.11.27].
Lies and gobbledygook—boy, Kristi Noem really is auditioning to work with Donald Trump!
I want to know why Paul Ten Haken is giving cover to Noem on this obvious marketing sham. Only reason I can think of is he is prepping a run at Governor and is exchanging political favors.
He’s not as nuts as Noem, but runs in some of the same crazy Jesus circles. Think Mike Johnson..
Literally nobody is going to pack up and head to South Dakota to be a plumber or electrician. Like I said before, the local plumbers and electricians probably despise the campaign because they already have enough local competition and don’t want more.
She should dress up as a nuclear physicist in one of the new ads for comic relief.
A state park named for a war criminal is screwing a South Dakota county with the same name. Even deputies are being screwed by Mrs. Noem according to the sheriff.
https://myblackhillscountry.com/content/county-frustration-grows-csp%E2%80%88expenses
Lies and gobbledygook are Noem’s daily special…every day.
It looks to me like the VP tiara and sash will elude Kristi Noem. Forever.
Here’s this morning’s headline on the CNN webpage: “Influential Koch network backs Nikki Haley in GOP presidential primary.”
From the story: Earlier this year, AFP Action – a political arm of Koch’s network – pledged to back a single contender in the GOP presidential primary for the first time in its history. And it made clear that it would bypass former President Donald Trump in its quest to find what Emily Seidel, a top AFP official, called a president “who represents a new chapter.” – https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/28/politics/koch-network-nikki-haley/index.html
And just look at that photo of Haley on the CNN story. Compare it to any photo of the 1990 SD Snow Queen. Haley looks bright, competent, motivated and prepared. Noem looks like a drip with zero substance.
Everybody in South Dakota knows that Kristi Noem is a zero who will never be considered as a serious contender for national office that doesn’t involve a political appointment. Since loyalty is transactional in today’s GOP, the Koch money is placed wisely on a capable horse. From day 1, Haley has been playing a smart game. The laziness and carelessness revealed in the Stu Whitney news story show just how disconnected the buffoon Noem’s regime has been from the daily governance of a small state that pretty much runs on auto-pilot.
I saw this article at 5:24 PM yesterday and could not believe the 800 million views claim.
The commercials so far have shown Noem acting as plumber, electrician, welder and dentist to illustrate the need for more workers in South Dakota. The governor’s office said that the ads have “been viewed over 800 million times,” but GOED officials declined to share with News Watch the specific methodology or data used to arrive at that number.
Is everybody associated with Noem’s regime a professional liar?
They’re probably under-reporting the views. 800 million clicks means that everyone in the USA only viewed the ads twice. Surely that’s low.
Sounds like fraud since I haven’t viewed them at all. Goatzilla likely has them on autoplay/repeat since he is enamored with foolish passion for imaginary goats and imaginary guvs.
Yep…it’s a fraud. The Governor is using public funding to buy exposure of her campaign for employment in a hoped for Republican Administration in 2024. That’s it. The only national outlet where I’ve seen these ads is on Fox News.
There is no bigger fuel for NDS than the jealousy of success.
You fellows know Ms. Noem does this just to get your goats, right?
Lar, you know they’ll introduce a law-bill this year to make Custer State Park its own county, right, since they’ve told that whiney sheriff down in the County of Custer, (George A) to stay the heck out of the park without prominently displaying his rightly-bought sticker. He needs to focus on getting his policing act together down there in the Pringle bar area, where drunkards and slackards with one headlight abound.
Hey, I just saw a pickup in Pringle that had TWO working headlights. We need to be careful about politically correct micro-aggressions towards Pringleians.
Prolly had 28 plates. Prolly it was a blog regular up to the Bit for a bite.
Prolly it was grudznick’s good friend Bob, who knows not to give the local constabulary a reason to pull him over and sniff his jammies. Bob keeps his jalopies top notch. He has to, or that whiney sheriff in the County of Custer will bust his ass again.
Grudznick—lay off the Pringlarians and patrons of the Hitch Rail Bar. They are heavily armed, dangerous, and don’t take any loose disparaging talk lightly. They would love to leave you bruised and battered, at the least.
Is Kristi in the “final stages” of promoting herself?
Mr. Blundt, grudznick will carry your regards to the Pringlarians the next time I stop for a Poacher Burger and fries on my way to visit my good friends in Edgemont.
Mr. G- you are not concerned with million$ in taxpayer funds going to KN to play dress up for the rest of the country to notice her, yet you use exclamation marks in regards to that same money being spent to feed school kids. What is wrong with you, sir?
US economy grew at 5.2% last quarter. Beat expectorations and everything drumpf did by a mile.
I saw grudznutz performing fellatio on a Custer County deputy’s dog at a pulloff on 385 a coupla mornings ago at about 2am. The bars had just closed.
That sucked.Poor dog and I don’t care for dogs or cats.
More proof that Barbie Noem never disappoints…
South Dakota is at nearly full employment but Democrats are to blame for inflation?
https://wallethub.com/edu/best-states-for-jobs/35641
South Dakota ranked as one of the top 10 worst-paying states for plumbers in the U.S. – KNBN-TV Rapid City. Source: Construction Coverage analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Read it here: https://www.newscenter1.tv/news/state/south-dakota-ranked-as-one-of-the-top-10-worst-paying-states-for-plumbers-in/article_145b2ce9-3544-511a-9fdc-163ebe9c7a1b.html