South Dakota War College

As Todd Epp somewhat pointed out, it's been a Bixler Week. Thomas let it be known to the BlogOSphere world that he was running, and from this 10q, it looks like he's going to start appearing at GOP events as a candidate, starting with the GOP State Dinner in Sioux Falls. So, agree with him or not, he's going to give it a go. He's got a plan, and is looking at consultants, and has specific opinions on the issues. So without further ado, the South Dakota War College presents - 10 Questions with Thomas Bixler: 1. Announcing your intention to seek the congressional seat is a bold step. Tell us about yourself and your background. About The Candidate Name: Thomas James BixlerAge: 24 (25 by Election Day) Birth Date and Place: October 3, 1981, in Viborg, South Dakota Current Address: 3000 Douglas Ave-Apt. 114, Yankton, SD 57078 E-Mail Address: bixman712000@yahoo.com Residency Status: I am a lifelong South Dakotan; I have been a Yankton County resident for the past sixteen years...

They're here. I have the responses to my 10 Questions. I'm going to be going to Brookings tonight, but sometime this weekend, I'll have a moment and they should be the next post. Just a teaser to whet your appetite: "She supports country-of-orgin labeling. I do. She supports our troops in Iraq. I do, despite my personal opposistion to the conflict. I don't support that she raised any of her campaign funds through EMILY"S List because it is out of state. The only people who will be raising my campaign money are myself, fellow South Dakotans...." Watch for it this weekend.

Tonight an Anonymous commenter thought I was being a smarty pants when I linked to a Blind Orange Julius post objectifying Stephanie Herseth in response to a question they had. My silly response was based on the fact I found the whole question silly. He/she wanted to know if on the basis of a single press release which one I would support. Well, the serious response is "I have no idea. One press release does not a campaign make." So, in the interest of finding out more about our fledgeling Republican candidate, here's a post containing a little more on Mr Bixler from an e-mail I got tonight. Good Evening, Ladies and Gentlemen, This is congressional candidate Tom Bixler. As I begin to launch my bid to challenge Rep. Stephanie Herseth for our lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, I come to you ladies and gentlemen of both parties, to ask for your help with my 1900 signature petition drive. We need a person in Congress who can stand up for South Dakota's belief...

Ceceila Fire Thunder, the Oglala Sioux Tribe President now under suspension had an interesting quote with regards to her suspension this week in the Lakota Journal: "Sometimes I feel like George Bush. I feel like I'm the Republican President, and my council are Republican/Democrats. So as the president of this tribe - I will continue to be attacked and continue to be scrutinized." Sympathy for the president. Courtesy of a member of the South Dakota Democratic Party's Executive Board . (And the title tied in nicely with one of my favorite 'Stones songs.)

100% chance of electrical storm What would normally be front page news in any other town was buried in a teeny tiny little article on page 2 of the Capitol Journal tonight (and not posted on the Internet). Oahe Electric Cooperative is going to make an attempt to take over the City of Pierre's electrical business through an initiated measure. They anticipate they're going to be circulating petitions after the first of the year, and not only do they have to get signatures of 15% of the number who voted in the last election (which is easy), they have to win by 60% or more. Despite the spin that might come out of city hall, this poll (405 respondents) was excellent and wasn't what you might consider a "push poll." The Coop has solid footing from which to launch their election effort this next year. ------ "J-Ro" Prefers Abbott over Volesky Joel Rosenthal over at Straight Talk apparently doesn't do Ron Volesky . After several breaths explaining why he...

Celeste Calvitto of the Rapid City Journal is reporting that the S.T.O.P. initiative is as good as on the ballot: Napoli said Tuesday that his Committee to Stabilize Tax On Property, or STOP, has gathered more than enough signatures to get an amendment placed on the November 2006 general election ballot. “Things are going to land where we thought they would,” he said, referring to the number of signatures on petitions that have been circulating since early spring. The deadline to file petitions for proposed constitutional amendments that would appear on the 2006 ballot is 5 p.m. Monday, Nov. 7, at the South Dakota Secretary of State’s office, but Napoli will present them Nov. 3. The deadline for a proposed change in state law is May 2. The goal of the STOP group was to get thousands more than the minimum 33,000 signatures needed to get on the ballot because of potential challenges and errors. “We just needed to make sure we wouldn’t get tossed,” Napoli said. Petitions are still com...

I was doing some checking on the net in my continuing quest to index politically related weblogs on the site, and I came across one of the J.A.I.L. affiliates in another state indexing a snotty comment I had made some time ago (me? snotty?). I followed it to the J.A.I.L. site , and if I hadn't noted it before, I see they're sitting at about 12,000 signatures. And then something had caught my eye from 9/12 that I know I hadn't noticed before (article from and hat tip to the JAIL news page ): We are currently at around 12,000 signatures on our way toward our goal of 42,500. We have approximately 50 people, both paid and volunteer, collecting signatures. The South Dakota Judicial Accountability Amendment WILL be on the 2006 ballot, so you naysayers out there might as well get over it! Susan Johnson from National Voter Outreach (775-883-7447) is in charge of the paid signature gatherers. (my emphasis - pp) When asked whether the general attitude of the public has been posit...

I wish I had found this earlier when the intelligent design debate was raging a month or two ago. The Monkey Song . As sung by Crystal Barnard (the gal from Wings) and her sister. Introduction by Jerry Fallwell. (I'm no kin to the monkey - no, no, no...... )

Oooooo. Tons of traffic today . I’m not sure, but I think this might actually be my daily record for site traffic. If this keeps up, I’m going to have to scoop the Main Stream Media more often. Amazingly enough, I find if you break a story that someone is running as a GOP against an incumbent Democratic Congressperson, you get traffic to your site from the DCCC, as I did this afternoon. (Try to resist the urge to use my system to support a sign in the back of a pickup, guys). Even bigger news than the “big boys” stopping by my li'l old weblog, this is my 300th post. Honest to god. How on earth have I come up with enough coherent…. Okay, MOSTLY coherent things to say? I’ve had a few lapses, but I’ve managed to pick myself up and press forward. What can you expect in the next 300 posts? Lots of state and legislative level political commentary. More campaign tips. More interviews with the movers and shakers of South Dakota politics. More video blogging. I even have something cool I’m ...

As I think I promised at 12:40 in the morning, now that I'm awake, worked, and had some caffeine, here's the views and platform of Mr. Thomas Bixler who announced to me late last night that he was running for Congress against Congresswoman Herseth. Thomas Bixler for Congress-2006 Thomas Bixler For Congress Campaign Candidacy Message I am Thomas Bixler, of Yankton, and I am pleased to announce that as of today, January 1, 2006, I am a candidate to be your next United States Representative. As a new year approaches, our great state of South Dakota and the United States are faced with new challenges, such as keeping our schools open and profitable, our nation safe, and people living in our state and our country. No matter which incumbent or other candidates I face, my campaign will be an honest one with respect to all involved. Now, let me tell you some things about myself: About The Candidate Name: Thomas James Bixler Age: 24 (25 by Election Day) Birth Date and Place: October 3,...

(Please credit the South Dakota War College) In response to my e-mail regarding my prior post on Mr. Bixler, I got an e-mail in reply about 12:30 tonight. I was getting ready to go to bed, until I opened the e-mail. Republican ladies and gentlemen, I think we have our first confirmed candidate against Stephanie Herseth. And you heard it here first. The e-mail as follows (with slight editing): Good Evening, PP, Yes, you heard correctly. I am running againist Herseth after I find someone to lead my petition drive. My run for Congress is entirely serious. I am attaching my issue paper to this message so you may inform your readers of some of my viewpoints. Of course, the paper is tentative in that I will be adding more of my views as new questions are asked of me. Tom Bixler I'm going to get some sleep before I release his position paper on the site, and there will be more to come on this race over the next day or so. I'd rather do a good job on reporting it than get it out haphaz...

The Brookings County Republican party now has a website up and running. Click here to view the site . It's just getting off the ground, but it's got an attractive design. I especially like the history of elected legislative officials for Brookings county going back to Sheldon Cotton. I anticipate it's going to be tweaked more as we get into election season. Keep an eye on this site, as I think Republicans are finally starting to realize and pay attention to why Congresswoman Herseth claimed this county over all others as her own. It's the South Dakota county with the largest number of swing voters. And she wants them swinging her way. In fact, with it's swing vote status, and it's large Republican population, it may be a battleground county this next election. Keep up the good work Brookings GOP. Otherwise, I'll have to talk to somebody about the links. I see they have the one non-political site I personally did linked up, but nothing for the SDWC yet.

I was checking out the political websites tonight, and came across Politics 1 , which is one of those sites where you can read who the candidates supposedly are for various upcoming races. (Kind of similar to my WIKI). And for on the website's page for South Dakota , scrolling down to the congressional races, I noticed a new name ( from the website ): U.S. CONGRESS: At-Large: Stephanie Herseth (D)* - ( Campaign Site ) Thomas Bixler (R) - Salesman Jeff Partridge (R) - Ex-Rapid City Councilman & Financial Consultant Matt Zabel (R) - Chief of Staff to US Sen. Thune Well, we've all heard Matt Zabel's name already, and he's issued a denial that he's running, so we'll take it at face value that he is not. Jeff has indicated an interest in considering it, and we've noted that on the WIK...

I believe State Legislator Shantel Krebs is in the process of opening up a store - The Red Shoe. She has a website at http://www.theredshoe.com which notes that coming soon she's going to be selling "Designer Shoes for Women of Distinction" in Downtown Sioux Falls. With six kids, I'm more likely to be shopping at Payless where they have "cheap shoes for people with six kids." Although, MP might try to pry the checkbook out of my hands while I'm sleeping for a trip down there. The only thought I'm left with? If she's a shoe store owner, I wonder how many shoes Representative Krebs actually has in her closet at home.

Big day today in South Dakota politics. Today back in 1954, Marion Michael Rounds was born. In addition to his ten years in the State Senate - five of those as Majority Leader - he just happened to get elected to the office of Governor in 2002. (I remember this one off the top of my head because mine is tomorrow.) Happy Birthday to Governor Rounds from the South Dakota War College.

I had a meeting on my calendar this afternoon that was a "must attend" for me. I'm not a pheasant hunter, and I choose not to watch the ritual weekly beatings of the Vikings, although I see they pulled it out today. So I chose to "audit" today's GOP Republican State Central Committee meeting. As a student might audit a class by attending, since I'm not a Republican State Central Committee Member, as a long-time Republican activist I attended just to see the sights and learn. And it was worth it. I got to rub elbows with Secretary of State Chris Nelson, Lt. Governor Dennis Daugaard and his wife, PUC Commissioner Dusty Johnson, State Auditor Rich Sattgast (as if I don't see him often enough), and several others. And I really enjoyed meeting Minnehaha County GOP Chair Sara Burnette . She's pretty sharp, and she seems to be one of the best Minnehaha Co. Chairs I've seen in a while. I also met and chatted with SD College Republican Chair Jennifer...