Yeeeha! It’s time for a SDWC Roundup for 1/9/06

LOTS of stuff happening. Too much to dwell on any one topic.

And a note to the readers. Yes, I'm also sick of the RSS Feed bar dropping to the bottom whenever someone uses a long URL in the first sentence or tow of their post. I'm going to do a bit of redesign to try to alleviate it.

So let’s give a quick shot as “the legislators pack their gear and head to Pierre.” And that rhymed on purpose.


Bill Napoli starts his campaign against his real opponent.

From the Rapid City Journal’s Sunday Letters to the editor:
Great loss

In 2004 a primary election was held in District 32. The challenger to the incumbent was Ellie Schwiezow, a very intelligent, articulate, beautiful lady, with a strong Republican background.

Ellie was defeated by a very small number of votes, which was a great loss to us all, considering who defeated her, and how he accomplished it.

What bothers me most of all was the way she was defeated. Ellie's opponent, who preaches moderation and tolerance, blasted Ellie with statements so erroneous it's hard to describe. Ellie was labeled a religious nut case, a conservative wacko, a right-wing zealot. Of course none of this was remotely true, but Ellie's opponent, by spending well in excess of $100,000, managed to get enough of you to believe it. Plus he got Democrats to change their party to just vote in this primary.

I don't know if Ellie will challenge for the seat again, I hope so. She would be an excellent senator. At least one thing she won't do is curse and stalk out of meetings.

If Ellie runs again, please don't let money buy your vote. Talk to Ellie, you will find out I'm telling you the truth.

Sen. BILL NAPOLI
Rapid City
Ouch! Bill isn't mincing any words here. "At least one thing she won't do is curse and stalk out of meetings." I think I wrote about that earlier. And here's the sound bite he's referring to.

When I was in Rapid City, Senator Napoli thanked me for the compliment, naming him as the #1 political personality of the year. But he questioned what I mean by uncompromising. I explained it as “determined, unwilling to compromise his beliefs.” One dictionary definition terms it as “indicating or possessing determination” and that sums it up just as well.


Speaking of the guy Napoli is writing about, and my #2 political personality of 2005..

From Today’s Argus Leader.
SDSU names state senator, educator to dean's development council
January 9, 2006, 2:55 am

BROOKINGS - South Dakota state Sen. Stan Adelstein of Rapid City and longtime educator Jan Nicolay of Sioux Falls have been named co-chairs of the College of Education and Counseling Dean's Development Council at South Dakota State University.
Read it all here. That's a lot of mainstreaming on that panel, with both Jan and Stan also serving major roles in the SD Mainstream Coalition.


One more time with feeling:

http://www.argusleaderblog.com/editorial/

I can imagine this discussion occurring in the Argus Editors heads: Bloggers suck! They’re a bunch of angry wannabe journalists sitting around their computers in pajamas.. They’re not the future of the media…. And, well, ok. We’d better try blogging again.

(I bet they hate hearing this stuff!)

The Argus Editorial Blog is up, with the rest of the Argusleaderblog to follow.. It will probably be a while before we see the Argus Leader "yes, you told us so” portion of the blog.


How to campaign, according to the retailers. First, talk about business..

From KGFX News:
Later this spring Wheeler says the SDRA will be holding four “Campaign Academies”. The events are held to provide non-partisan training for those who want to seek public office or who may want to help with campaigns. Wheeler says the academy training was first held in 2004 and the South Dakota Rural Electric Association also sponsors the events. Wheeler says the training is helpful for those running for offices from local school board to county commission and State Legislature. The Campaign Academies are planned for March 6 through March 9 in Sioux Falls, Aberdeen, Pierre and Rapid City.
As someone who works with candidates each and every election, I’ll be curious to see what kind of people they bring in for this thing. I’ve seen good campaign schools, and I’ve seen bad ones. The biggest fault these schools tend to have? They fail to repeat the mantra “The candidate is not the manager… The candidate is not the manager…”


I can’t say I mind this one… But it still won’t get me to watch Loggins and Messina

South Dakota political reporter Bob Mercer is reporting in his weekly column in the Pierre, Mitchell, Aberdeen and Spearfish newspapers (among others) that he hears talk..

And it’s talk in coffee shops about an idea to move the state fair to Brookings. Although the legislators might have something to say about it, along with the Governor, Secretary of Ag, and a whole bunch of other people.

Personally, I kind of like that idea. It moves it to a spot adjacent to an Interstate, and gets it farther away from the fair-killing “Dakotafest,” Which has flourished thanks to it’s interstate location.

For the concerts, you’d literally have a built in college age population that would flock to go see good music acts, and spend money like drunken sailors to do so (or at least like drunken college students). But keep in mind that’s GOOD music acts.

From my collegiate experience at state, we were starved for a major concert. The year before I started, they had Heart. The year I left, we had the Bangles.

(As an aside, I think I’ve mentioned I worked for the University police during my collegiate career. For once in my life, as high man on the totem pole, I got to do something neat – I got to pick my stationed spot at the concert. And I picked the spot between the barricade and the stage. I was closer to the band than the audience. And it was tres' cool.”)

In the big scheme of things, my opinion doesn’t mean squat. But for the record, my votes on the matter? State Fair in Brookings, yes. Rock and roll concert, yes. Loggins and Messina, no.


Going back to a couple of topics which also relate to today's post. I was having lunch last week with some political notables, and one of them brought up the fact that he thought the Adelstein quote from the Rapid City Journal that I wrote about here ("I’m not looking to build primary fights. If I have one, I’ll fight it and win...") was the height of arrogance.

Because if you look at Stan's record last election, "fighting it and winning" were not in the cards in 2004. Because he certainly took it in the shorts by betting against Schoenbeck, Gray, Lintz, and Gant among others. It was more like "spending lots of money and losing."

My favorite part was the $6906 his PAC put towards Don Young who reportedly spent $1600 on travel in the primary. I hear this year, things are going to be different. But we'll have to stay tuned on all of that.

Sorry. I'm probably talking about the Rapid City races and legislators too much. That's where the legislative action is. Although, it looks like Sioux Falls mayoral race is going to be a big hot spot. More to come as the race develops there.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Heart, the bangels, sweet.
PP said…
I missed Heart but the bangles were phenomenal!
Anonymous said…
"The challenger to the incumbent was Ellie Schwiezow, a very intelligent, articulate, beautiful lady, with a strong Republican background."

Beautiful lady?

Are we to assume if Napoli were writing this letter about Eric Bogue, he'd mention that Bogue is "a very intelligent, articulate, handsome man, with a strong Republican background"?
PP said…
Anon, good point. Ellie's appearance has nothing to with her intelligence or qualifications.

And I hope the male legislators don't start referring to each other as "handsome." It might arouse suspicions of a "brokeback caucus."

And, actually, I just wanted to use the term "brokeback caucus"

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