South Dakota War College

I have a love/hate relationship with this blog thing. I’m a terrible political junkie. I eat it all up with a spoon. I read this stuff vociferously, and I make sure my less technologically adept friends are “in the know” with the latest gossip that comes across on the weblogs. I also have people blabbing their heads off to me on stuff – some of it I wish I could plain un-hear. (No! I want plausible deniability on this! I’m not listening…. La la la! Imagine me with ears covered). In other words, I want to know. I have to know. So I read the weblogs. But as you read much of the things on them, you have to consider, how much is legitimate discourse, and how much is baiting the hook for a rumor campaign (Okay, I'm going to segue into lecture here). Rumor campaigns have been used to effect in South Dakota in the past. Sometimes the information is legitimate, but mostly it’s pure garbage. The most historical example that has been related to me is a story that during the Kneip/FarrarGu...

I actually had a comment on this thing tonight. After ignoring it for... oh about 3-4 months, Someone actually posted something to it. Which obligates me to the readership of one. What's happened since I last posted? We lost the ballot referral. By a whole whopping 27 votes. When I got into it, I told the other two people heading it up "If we want to win, I need $3000 to run this thing on." A gasp went up as in "$3000 - that's unheard of". Well, no it isn't, but I had that pegged. Those fundraising raised about $700 cash, and about $1200 in in-kind contributions. And we lost by 27 votes. Kinda vindicates my thinking. The other side outspent us at least by about 3-1. And we fought them to 27 votes away from victory. If I could have had another $1000, I think we could have won it by 75-100 votes. Dammit! Why doesn't anyone listen? They must think I pull these figures out of my tail. Similar situation a year back. A friend was running for School B...

I had lunch today at the China Buffet in Pierre with our State Auditor, the Honorable Richard L. Sattgast. (I don't call him that, but then again, I've been friends with him since 1988 when we were legislative interns together.) We were also joined by Senator Brock Greenfield of Clark, South Dakota. Brock has been in the limelight lately as the dinosaur-bill killer (and soon to be slayer of the fry bread-bill). The occasion? We were meeting with our long time friend Lance Russell, the states attorney for Fall River County. One of the toughest prosecutors around, and in my mind, a future republican attorney general. Lance is the legal affairs person for a coalition of grassland interests, and was in town to lobby in favor of legislation on Prairie Dog Buffer Zones. For lack of knowledge, I'm not big on the subject personally. But I can understand and appreciate landowners and renters not wanting the fields they graze their livestock in to look like the surface of the moon. ...

I didn't intend to, but I got myself involved with a local referral measure. The city had proposed changes in the form of government from a city council model to a city manager model. Problem is, the city's finances are in a shambles, and they hired from within for the city manager. Great. That's just what's needed. Give the people involved in causing the problem more power. Sorry. I'm going to contest that one. We got it put on the ballot. I suck at getting signatures, because I'm pretty much homebound with 6 kids, but I can work voodoo magic on the rest of it. We'll have to see how it all works out. One bit of advice I had for the people who drug me into this - the messenger is the message. They need a spokesperson who is well liked, and non-controversial. The message needs to be well framed, and they need to have thier poop in a group. Ballot measures are the purest form of how many people think political campaigns should be. It's all about educa...

Today, I ran into a lady who had been beaten in what was probably the most expensive legislative primary in state history. I've known her and thought highly of her since first meeting her over a decade ago. In speaking with her, my thought was "I hope you're going to try it again." Why? Why would you put yourself up for that abuse again? The long hours, the work, the money, the investment of yourself - why would you do that again? Simply put, its worth it. Teddy Roosevelt lost the mayoral campaign for NYC before becoming president. Ronald Reagan came within a hair of defeating Gerald Ford, but later came back to become a 20th century presidential icon. Newt Gingrich ran and lost more than once before finally winning his congressional seat, and the list goes on. In South Dakota, I know of many current and former legislators who got beaten, only to return again. Former State Representative Mary Edelen from Vermillion got beaten once. Mary was a Republican can...

I've had people ask me before - If I want to run for office, what's good reference material out there to teach me how to campaign or how to run a campaign. That's a tough one. Anything you read is typically not geared towards a state like South Dakota. Dr. Alan Clem's book The making of Congressmen: Seven campaigns of 1974 is worth reading, as are any of his other books about South Dakota. (Sometimes they get a little dry, but this is SD political history and analysis, not Tom Clancy). While I don't always agree with Dr. Clem (I thought his comments here were really off-base and more than just a little snarky), his book about the '74 elections remains one of the premiere references of South Dakota politics. I was working for the state party when I met Diane Malavolti, who worked at Minnehaha County as thier executive secretary. I was later the Pennington Co Exec. Dir., while she was an Exec. Sec. - we never could figure out the difference in po...

I had someone tell me the other day that they were traveling to listen to “X” teach a class on campaign techniques and strategy. Admittedly, it was really arrogant of me to say so, but my response to them was “You’ve got to be sh*tting me. They ran a terrible campaign, and spent money like an idiot. They were lucky their opponent rolled over and died. What are they going to teach – ‘how to spend money like a drunken sailor?’” In saying that, I was probably just verbalizing a frustration. There are tons of good Republican candidates out there, but many of them lack someone to show them the way. Hopefully, this weblog can serve as a reference for campaign “newbies” and those with some experience to use as something to get them pointed in the right direction. Who the hell am I? I’ve been involved with Republican political campaigns since 1988. (I don’t know if I should wear this as a badge of honor, or hide my head in shame for having this affliction.) I’ve worked for th...