Rundowns on some of the primary races

I’ve been getting recent reports in on some of the primary races, and most of them have been in relation to several of the candidates where I’ve thrown a pebble or two in their direction. Why do I throw pebbles? Because “Bamm Bamm” is too heavy.

Okay, bad joke. On a few of the primary candidates out there, I’ve questioned the logic of their views. On others, I’ve questioned their actions and campaign tactics, as in “What they hell are they thinking.” And there are still others that just plain stink. But anyway, what’s happening out in primary campaign land, South Dakota?

On the Stan Adelstein/Elli Schwiesow race, Senator Stan just sent out an 8 1/2 x 11 4 page glossy (i.e. expensive) campaign mailer trashing his opponent.

As he tries to downplay a national recognition award from Planned Parenthood, it seems Stan can’t catch a break. Because only a couple of days after he tried to portray himself as pro-life, an e-mail to Republican State Senators from a top member of Senate leadership savaged him as a “cancer on the caucus” and ended with the phrase “GO ELLI.”

With a background of serving as a high profile advocate for the pro-choicers during this last summer’s task force on abortion, and at one time being labeled by a reporter as "the Frank Kloucek of the GOP" (in reference to his legislative success rate), Stan might have problems. Watch for Stan to continue to go negative as he struggles to keep his head above water in this political fight.

On the Brock Greenfield/Jim Holbeck race, one thing that has not gone unnoticed is how in his role as superintendent of the Clark School District, Holbeck had to make cuts to meet the budget – which included a hefty raise for himself.

Why would he do that when he’s running for office? As mentioned here, Holbeck thinks South Dakota Superintendents need to get paid more to keep them from moving to Minnesota.

In an attmept to change Jello molds, Holbeck is now trying to cast himself as conservative, labelling himself as “personally pro-life” and “more for the second amendment than Brock Greenfield.” Despite the fact he called himself a moderate in the press release for his announcements and said that South Dakota needed to move towards the middle.

Apparently flip-flops are the new sanctioned footwear for the Clark School District.

On the Napoli/McCoy race, you’ll notice that a little while back that I did a piece on the wrong brochure being distributed by McCoy, and that Bill was starting to get away from the things bogging him down. I heard a compliment today about Bill that I wanted to mention - I was told by a long time GOP campaign worker that Bill is probably the best politician in South Dakota at connecting with his voters door to door, and that his ability to connect with voters on a personal basis is phenomenal.

I have to admit that I liked the guy the first time I spoke with him. Straight talking, and without a hint of self-love that you sometimes see with politicians. Despite the press he sometimes gets, after you spoke with him, you'd be hard pressed not to label him as "a good guy."

Expect Bill to spend little, but to devote his major campaign effort at going door to door.

I have to get a copy of it, but in the 7th Circuit Court Race, I'm told that Judicial appointee Pete Fuller ran an ad in the Rapid City Journal talking about how he was endorsed by the Judicial Qualifications Commission. Which makes me wonder whether or not this one was submitted to the review group first.

The Judicial Qualifications Commission doesn't "endorse" candidates for office. They vet Judicial appointees and the Governor picks one or three in the case of a vacancy. If the Governor doesn't like the first list he gets, he can request another list.

For a candidate to imply they're "endorsed" by the Judicial Qualifications Commission seems really questionable to me. Watch for this one to possibly haunt him.

Democrat John Simpson who is running in the District 26 Senate Primary to challenge fellow Democrat Julie Bartling has been advertising heavily in the papers across the district. And what advertisements they are... Where did they dig this guy up? Because his campaign photo looks rather corpse like. I'll have to check in this week's batch of ads, but I think I noticed that former Senator Doris Miner is serving as his campaign chair.

Doris was one of the worst Legislators I ever had the misfortune to observe. The thing that sticks out in my mind was one bill she primed where she wanted the State of South Dakota to counteract animal activists by having the state produce a film about the humane treatment of livestock.

Thankfully, they took that dog of a bill behind the shed and disposed of it. Humanely, of course.

The Sutton/Latterell primary race seems pretty quiet at the moment. Too quiet. Anyone care to give me an update?

I'm told that we should look for Gerry Heck, the third man in the Wetz/Klaudt Senate primary to pull more votes from Ted than he would from Ken. Heck hails from the same area of Klaudt, and Ken is on the opposite side of this large District. Watch for this race to possibly be closer than you think.

District 33 House Democratic Primary Candidate Don Loudner had an announcement in the Lakota Journal recently. I've had my own run-ins with him in the past. When I first met him way back in 1992, he was a rather strident "member of the media" and flashed me a business card that said he represented a satellite news network.

About the second time he did that to me (when I was ED of the Pennington County GOP) as he demanded our press releases, I asked him where the satellite dishes were. Apparently, they weren't built yet, because first they had to get some news, and then they had to get some advertisers.....

Jumping back to District 6, Christine Noem is apparently thin-skinned about her race. Because after I recently contended that I thought her signs would cost $100 or so she felt the need to personally respond under the comments that they were “$33.”

I’m not sure why she cares about silly political blogs throwing pebbles, but I’m sticking with the opinion that with setup and art charges, you can’t get a 4-color 4x8 screened on 2 sides for $33.

If I was going to continue throwing pebbles at this race, I’d point out the full-color glossy mail piece she just did, which once again uses the worst logo I've ever seen in a South Dakota political campaign. On top of that, it contains some of the worst content I’ve ever seen for a brochure in a South Dakota political campaign. 3 full panels of rambling in small type which ends with a beg for money - for a candidate I hear is more than flush with cash.

(Hint - Only Stan Adelstein thinks he needs to spend $100,000 in a state legislative primary)

Now THAT’s throwing pebbles.

Comments

Anonymous said…
When the entire story on the Adelstein Planned Parenthood the people of South Dakota will see Stan for what he is. A very large hypocrite.
Stan is rapidly become what I refer to as a "tin hair". There is an award for anyone who can tell us what a tin hair is and don't bother to google it.
Anonymous said…
PP,

Could you post the Noem glossy piece? I'd like to see what "the worst" looks like.
PP said…
Anon 1:44, if I can find it at home in Brookings this weekend, I might.
Anonymous said…
After readiing the Noem brochure, left me having no clear point of view as to why any voter would or should vote for her. "Winds of Change" reads like it was hit by a windstorm. The article is a total hodgepodge of "I" and "My". It lacks substance, has no single tone, even worse, the theme does not come through. One must note her arrogant ego. 29 "I" words and "17" my words!! This poisoned the entire brochure. She is one self-centered woman not worthy of my vote. Hope you post it so everyone can see it and do the count.
Anonymous said…
anon 9:24 PM, Noem is a very nice lady just like Stormo is. Not self-centered like you think. To me the use of so many "I's" and "my's" may be an indication of not having the experience of writing political literature.

Also tells me that maybe she doesn't have the big bucks that PP was alluding to, or she would have had a professional designer do her stuff.
Anonymous said…
I agree with Anon 1:43 and hope both ladies get the primary nod.
Anonymous said…
One thing nobody can seem to recall about Jim Holbeck is how when he was the Parker superintendent he got run out of town after a very nasty spat with the schoolboard - widely publicized in the Argus Leader - in which he threatened school board members and came very near to extortion in his demands from them. That incident was only 4 or 5 years ago. How soon we forget.

Holbeck was lucky he wasn't forced to move to Minnesota after that.
Anonymous said…
I object to a school superintendent being seated in the legislature. Huge conflict of interest.
PP said…
To anon who is bitching that I'm deleting their comments:

Aside from the fact I regularly dump comments that aren't true to the point that they are bordering on slander..

Keep in mind it's my blog. You know, the whole "I control the horizontal/I control the vertical thing.."
Anonymous said…
PP

Do you have any more news on the Fuller-Russell deal? Russell ran an ad calling Fuller's misleading.

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