I'm getting dizzy from all that spin. Rapid City municipal races have gone wild.

The Rapid City Journal has a story today on the plethora of candidates that are jumping into the Mayoral race. Despite it all, the mayor has one thing he wants to be clear. He is not accepting any paid consulting from Alderman Mike Schumacher:
Shaw clarified Monday that he would not accept paid consulting from Schumacher.

“If Mike is paid by Mr. Hamilton, I don’t need or want any campaign manager,” he said.

Two weeks ago Shaw said he would accept Schumacher’s help if offered, but said he and his family would run the campaign itself, like they have done in the past.

and...

Schumacher, who is running for re-election to the council, said he doesn’t know if the controversy generated about the situation will harm his own election chances. At least two people are running against Schumacher in Ward 1.
Read it all here. This comes a day or so after one of Mike's former supporters, State Senator Bill Napoli just lambasted him in the letters to the editor column in the same newspaper. Check this out:
Schumacher in supporting Kooiker’s run for mayor was obviously opposed to Shaw’s re-election. Now, because Big Money is thrown at Schumacher, he (Schumacher) says he’s rethought his position and now supports Shaw. I can’t believe Shaw is allowing this debacle to cast a shadow over his campaign.

I believe Schumacher’s actions speak loudly of his lack of integrity. The real question is how many other issues has Schumacher rethought because of money, perks, or some benefit to himself?

As a councilman, is Schumacher now for sale to the highest bidder? So from now on every vote Schumacher makes will be questionable as to his honesty.
Read that here. And speaking of challengers and that Napoli letter - check out this story:
Revelations about Alderman Mike Schumacher being offered money to guide Mayor Jim Shaw’s re-election campaign have sparked controversy that could end up hurting Schumacher’s city council re-election bid. So far, two people - Brian O’Connor and John Witcraft - have filed nominating petitions to challenge Schumacher. Neither candidate cited Schumacher as a major issue, however.

and...

Schumacher is uncertain what impact the controversy will have on his re-election chances but he still intends to run.

“I don’t know. It could have some effect, yeah,” he said.

Schumacher’s deal doesn’t sit well with at least one past supporter. State Sen. Bill Napoli, R-Rapid City, wrote a letter to the editor Sunday that questioned Schumacher’s ethics and urged someone to run against him.

In response, Schumacher said Napoli doesn’t have all the facts.

“That’s what Bill Napoli does. It’s not out of form for Bill to go off without the facts,” Schumacher said. “That’s fine. I won’t blindly support Bill the way I used to. I will openly criticize him when I need to now.”
Read that here. Oh god. First, Mike does himself no good by noting that others refer to himself as "Judas" in the infamous Rapid City Weekly Article. Now he's noting that he follows people blindly and holds criticism of them because of it?

*Note to students of politics - here are two things that people don't really like to see from the people they elect to office.

Six months ago, you'd have never have predicted that the Rapid City Municipal races would have been anywhere close to being this ferocious, much less have an offer (or two) of donations threaten to unseat two elected officials.

But I think it's less about the big money (although that is part) and more about how outrageous the "Joe Six Pack" voter views the act of paid betrayal on the part of Alderman Schumacher. And the verbal stumbles.

Keep watching. It's only going to get wilder from here on out.

Comments

Anonymous said…
How much more proof do you need that Rapid City citizens need to elect some new councilmen?

I've never thought much of Mike's political consulting and this whole, weird story continues to reinforce my opinion.

Maybe Napoli should run for mayor. That would be an interesting race and would help the Journal sell newspapers.
Anonymous said…
emember there ever being this much intensity around the mayor's race before. Interesting how waving a little wad of cash can turn up the heat.
Anonymous said…
The more Schumacher opens his mouth, the more it seems that whatever Hamilton is paying, it's far too much.
Anonymous said…
Shaw is NOT telling the truth. What about the 10's of thousands that he raised at a Hamilton sponsored fundraiser in 2004?

Shaw has only two donors..Adelsteina and Hamilton. And Adelstein has now abandoned Shaw because of how dirty Shaw has become. Does anyone else see the irony?
Anonymous said…
Just asking...how much does Joe Sixpack or the average voter
know -- or more importantly,
care -- about all this intrigue? Not everybody reads blogs, and I am willing to bet that even if they read the newspaper about this stuff, it is insider baseball for a lot of people. I think people what to know who is going to give them the services they want without raising taxes a lot, how much more tax money is going to be sunk into the civic center, etc. Or maybe this is a smaller town than I think (only lived here a couple of years) and people really do know about the insider baseball.
Anonymous said…
And people think SD is boring!

How foolish...if they only knew we never have a dull one here.
Anonymous said…
If all rumors are true, there are 6 people running for Mayor of Rapid City.
1. Shaw
2. Kooiker
3. Redden
4. Hargens
5. Johnson
6. Hanks

maybe we get 10 before its over,haha
Anonymous said…
Of course you hold criticism of the people you support and with whom you are friends. That is why people like Lance Russell, Brock Greenfield, etc. consistently get free passes on this site,in spite of their behavior. But I don't understand, you criticize Schumacher because he refuses to blindly follow Kooiker, even though he doesn't believe Kooiker to be ready, but now when he says he will no longer blindly support Napoli (which obviously means he will no longer hold his tongue out of friendship), you criticize. Your consistency is like water. It's fluid.
Anonymous said…
YAH! That's right. And if someone promises mike enough money, then by god he'll change his mind about Shaw being ready.
Anonymous said…
Good point 11:23. I wish more people would see larry russell as the snake he really is. Thankfully we have not heard much about him lately.
Anonymous said…
Mike Schumacher (aka 8:48) - Any more anonymous posts you want to make about people you don't like?
Anonymous said…
I'm not a big fan of Bill Napoli, Sam Kooiker or Lee Schoenbeck. And thankfully I am NOT Mike.
Anonymous said…
Shaw has abandoned and alienated almost everyone. Even Adelstein is supporting Alan Hanks.
Anonymous said…
Wanna here a BIG ONE ?

In his announcment, Shaw claims taxes are getting lower in Rapid City because of "growth" hahaha

What planet is this guy from ???

Rapid city is the property tax he77 of South Dakota. You have to combine the tax increase from Sioux Falls, Harrisburg, Brandon Valley, Custer and Hill City, to equal the property tax increase of Rapid City between 1998 and 2003.

I'm not sure how much more growth we can afford.

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