The wingnuts may be coalescing behind Toby Doeden in the Republican gubernatorial runoff.
Bob Mercer notes that former House Speaker and radical right-winger Steve Haugaard officially nominated Lance Russell for Attorney General at last Saturday’s SDGOP convention. Former Governor and epitome of Main Street mainstreamism Dennis Daugaard officially backed Austin Hoffman for A.G. Mercer doesn’t mention who moved John Fitzgerald’s nomination in that race.
One would think that the support of a former Governor would outweigh that of a former Speaker, but the convention delegates picked Russell over Hoffman on their second ballot. Without a Democratic challenger, a few hundred Republican activists thus chose South Dakota’s next top cop.
And that top cop yesterday endorsed Toby Doeden for Governor. Russell explicitly dissed Governor Larry Rhoden, saying that during his ten years with Rhoden in the Legislature, Rhoden “voted too many times to weaken our criminal justice system.” (Doeden, meanwhile, has done nothing with our criminal justice system but talk, while Rhoden passed the big new prison bill last year, but hey, these are South Dakotans, for whom actions matter less than bluster.)
Haugaard endorsed Doeden before the primary, abandoning his old anti-abortion chum and fellow Speaker Jon Hansen. With Hansen so dismissed and Haugaard and imminent A.G. Russell backing the loudmouth from Aberdeen, the wingnuts may well coalesce around Doeden to stick it in the eye of Rhoden and his mainstreamers. And if Doeden prevails in the runoff, those mainstreamers will have to make a hard choice: accept an unproven loudmouth as their next Governor or stick it right back in the eye of the wingnuts by quietly voting for Democrat Dan Ahlers in November and proving to the wingnuts how bad their brand is for the electoral fate of the Republican Party.
Well, when the head of your party and nation is a felonious pos, what can you expect!
Lance Russell was not only publicly censured by the South Dakota Supreme Court for leaking grand jury testimony his mother sold her property to Warren Jeffs, a now-imprisoned pedophile.
What about the garbage scandal, Lar? Some of us fellows in the District Numbered 30 didn’t mind the cult and compound as much as we are bothered by people interfering in golf courses and garbage disposal. grudznick wants your take on that.
Libertarians have until August 11 to nominate an AG candidate. Under South Dakota Codified Law SDCL 12-8-6, political party central committees must file certificates of nomination to fill vacancies created by candidate withdrawals with the Secretary of State by 5:00 p.m. on the second Tuesday in August.
What grudznick’s close personal friend Lar is saying, Mr. Oakes, is many people are hoping you’re twist some arms and step up. If not, and for you fellows who think the General Attorney really needs to be an attorney (they don’t), Mrs. Volesky? Are you out there? Any chance of you talking to Ron?
Turback, Nancy
As grudznick used to point out, Ms. Turback-Berry is very pretty when her mouth isn’t agape, which is almost all the time. She, however, in a Watertownish way, would be much better than Mr. Russell. Or Lan, as his close personal friends call him.
I called it last September. Earth hater Lee Schoenbeck is a former South Dakota legislator who is covering up catholic clergy crimes. His comment about three potential SDGOP candidates for attorney general, Haugaard, Lance Russell and Hansen appeared at a lesser-known weblog.
Lar used to think his close personal friend grudznick sat at the Devil’s elbow, but more knowledgeable fellows know it is Mr. Russell, the Stace Nelson mini-me.
Tad bit off the subject — I was talking with someone this evening and we both wondered how in the world Dusty got bumped off in the primaries.
Now I know you all believe our elections are free and fair, but if you are of the ascribed wackadoodle sect as Lee Schoenbeck calls us, you could suspect that Dusty was set up for the fall all along. Why else would Tony Venhuizen ride it out with Larry Rhoden? Was there simply not enough room in the campaign for both former Gov. Dennis Daugaard’s son-in-law (Venhuizen) and his former chief of staff (Dusty)? Methinks I could be onto something, even if I’m not.
Larry Rhoden and Jon Hansen were competing for the same exact voters so a cynical observer might suspect that Howdy Doody Dusty goaded Hansen into the race to split those votes. The good news is that the SDGOP is dying because the Schoenbeck wing and Doeden wing are divided over whether Trump is the devil or the second coming of the messiah.