Does Judy Olson wear pearls when she goes dumpster diving?

This election year keeps getting weirder and weirder.

On primary night, the anticipated night of incumbents election ended up being the night of conservatives (Yeahhh!!). Shortly thereafter, we have the Argus Leader derailing a strong Republican incumbent on the PUC who was being looked at for higher office by talking about an investigation against "someone for something."

The latest? Shortly after the Democrats fill fewer constitutional offices than the Libertarian party, their chairman openly talks about going dumpster diving for Republicans who were defeated in the primary.

Check this out from today's recap in the Rapid City Journal of the Democrats going after Stan Adelstein rather agressively:

Judy Olson Duhamel thought she had a new recruit for the South Dakota Democratic Party Thursday afternoon. But Republican state Sen. Stan Adelstein wasn’t ready to make the switch — at least, not yet.

Olson Duhamel — the state chairwoman of the Democratic Party — said it was all but a done deal that Adelstein would become a Democrat. The question, she said, was whether Adelstein, who lost to Elli Schwiesow in the District 32 Republican primary, would agree to replace Democratic District 32 Senate candidate Tom Katus in the general election.

“Stan has made the choice to change his registration, as far as I know,” Olson Duhamel said. “He has yet to make the choice on whether to run. I’m hoping that he will.”

During a late-afternoon interview, however, Adelstein said he was still a Republican and hadn’t decided whether to change his party registration. In fact, he described himself as reluctant to reconsider another run.

“I would really rather not be a candidate again,” Adelstein said. “I am flattered and touched that they asked.”

In addition, other Republican legislators who lost primary elections last month are considering switching parties, Olson Duhamel said. But Adelstein’s was the most high-profile defeat, and the possibility of his party switch has so far attracted the most attention.

“She’s wrong. I absolutely have not made a decision,” he said, referring to Duhamel.

and...

Thursday, Adelstein said he was seeking an opinion on whether he could appear as a Democratic candidate on the ballot without actually changing his party registration.

“Frankly, I’m waiting for a legal opinion on whether I have to be a Democrat in order to be the Democratic nominee,” he said. “I don’t know what the answer is there.”

In the meantime, the Democratic Party is conducting polling on his potential candidacy, and Adelstein said he expects that party officials will share that information with him when it is available.

The key to his decision, however, would be whether he could be part of a swing in power toward the Democrats in the 35-member Senate, he said. With a more substantial minority, the Democrats could join with moderate Republicans to work on education funding, property-tax concerns and other issues apart from abortion, he said.

“I’ve gone carefully over the (Senate) candidates, and if I could win, it looks to me like the Democrats would go from 10 to a minimum of 15 or 16,” he said. “It takes 18 votes to pass a bill. So if Democrats were relatively solid, it would take only a few moderate Republicans to get something meaningful done.”

The Democrats are actually spending money on polling to see if this is feasible? To me, this really bolsters the thesis that the Democratic Party is dying in South Dakota. When the best chance to beat a Republican is to recruit another, you have to wonder where their heads are at.

In fact, take notice that even Stan recognizes that going Dem isn't much of an option:

“Frankly, I’m waiting for a legal opinion on whether I have to be a Democrat in order to be the Democratic nominee,” he said. “I don’t know what the answer is there.”

It sounds like even he's reluctant to consider doing it. He'd rather run as a Republican on a Democratic ticket than paste the scarlet letter of "D" behind his name. Why? Because Democrats don't win elections at the state legislative level in South Dakota.

If I were a Democrat voter in this state, I think I'd be a little insulted that my party couldn't find quality candidates within it's own ranks. It's not like they didn't have time. What have they been doing the past 18 months where a Republican coming off of a loss is more attractive to the party leaders than a Democrat preparing to run a hard race?

Now with all that said, even if the D's talk Stan into taking the step into switching parties, his colleagues aren't predicting he'd be better off. In fact, one says that he's not going to have much fun:

Republican Sen. Bill Napoli, a frequent Adelstein adversary representing District 35 in Rapid City, predicted that switching parties would eliminate any political power for Adelstein.

and...

“All the money in the world won’t make up for the fact that he’s from the opposing party. He had an open door to the governor. Stan was right there, part of the inner circle,” Napoli said. “That would end, whether he’d win the (District 32) election or not.”

Read it all here in today's Rapid City Journal.