Even though I haven’t blogged about this much, trust me, I have been following the SD Republican primary circus. And maybe that is why I have not said much about it, it is a circus. Weird candidates, weird TV commercials, weird statements.
I have often been accused of saying some off-the-wall shit on this site, but man, Republicans in our state have brought politics to a new low this year, and the opposition isn’t much better. Just look at the Weiland challenge to Herseth-Sandlin, What did that last? Two days?
So I’m gonna skip over all the teabagging, mustache shaving, barrell ropin’ rodeo queen bullshit and cut to the chase.
Who will win the primaries? I predict Noem and Doogard (I spell it like it sounds)
Who would I like to see win? Nelson and Knudson.
Play amongst yourselves, and let’s sing along to Gordon Howie’s campaign song.
I think you are right about Dennis. Just what SD needs is another clone of Rounds. Nice guy in public and a nut cracker behind the scenes.
I still say 70’s porn star Chris Nelson wins. Noem gets 10% tops. The old blue hairs that vote in the R primary don’t care like we do that she is hot.
I don’t think Noem can beat the ‘birther-like’ Nelson, and frankly at this point I think either of them may very well unseat Herseth-Sandlin. It isn’t that Steffie has done anything wrong so to speak, but people are just upset with the status quo.
However I think Noem is a lot of talk and little action. She hasn’t differentiated herself from Herseth-Sandlin and only speaks in generalities… so how do I know what she would do differently?
She also says our taxes are too high, but we know the facts are we are paying less taxes now that at any point in the last 60 years. The whole tax argument is just unrealistic – if you really are serious about balancing the budget, you need to focus on spending cuts and not mess with taxes.
Also, she uses the same line that Larry Diedrich used a few years back and pretends to be involved in a small family farm. However the reality is I believe she is part owner of a large corporate farm which has received over $3 MILLION in subsidies since 1995 – or around $200,000 a year in subsidies alone. So much for independence and not relying upon the government.
Aside from her glamour shot photographs and overly-bleached smile, I have yet to see what she really brings to the table. At least Nelson has a track record to examine so we can at least guess where he stands, and he has been fair and non-partisan in most cases so that is worth something.
Hey, I’m not endorsing her, I just see she is polling really well with Republicans and could pull it off. You have to remember, ONLY registered Republicans can vote for Republicans unlike the Democrats.
Remind me again how your predictions for the mayor race came out? Did you nail those or?
What is with Curd’s commercial? Way too weird…
Kinda reminds me of old Batman episodes
Wayne, these are just predictions. And yes, I did nail them. I said 5 months before the general election that Kermit and Mike would be in the top two and I was right.
I agree, that if you are looking at qualifications Knudson & Nelson are clearly the best choices by far.
I don’t think the Tea Party will make that big a dent, especially when you consider that all 3 House candidates are basically the same on positions. To me that means the Tea types will split and the other 80% of the Republicans who vote will & should look at qualifications and go Nelson, Curd and Noem in that order.
Daugaard is okay, but his campaign is starting to take on a Staggers’esque tone that won’t help him in Sioux Falls. Knudson should pick up most of the endorsements as he seriously has his shit together and his commercials are more memorable.
Actually I think Doogard has the best commercials.
I agree….watching Knudson waddle down a country road or pretend to fix a copier doesn’t impress me. Seeing De’s mug on television turns me off even more.
At least Daugaard seems genunie. When he used his airtime to just tell his story, who he is, and why he is running… it impressed me a lot more than Knudson using his to say how much better he is that Daugaard. I won’t say Knudson has done negative yet, but he is leaning that way and I wouldn’t be shocked for him to drop some zingers in the final week.
I also think Knudson is a little dishonest when he tries to take credit for balancing the budget. A recent Argus story mentioned that he admitted when the actual negotiations were held between four GOP legislative members, Rounds, and Daugaard… Knudson wasn’t even in the room. So now if you vote for something or if you are majority leader you automatically get full credit for it?
He might be more qualified on paper, but I’d take someone with less experience if I thought they had more common sense and more in common with the average SD resident.
Back to being an expert campaign person again.
You need to look at the average Rep primary voter. Think old as dirt, blue hair and rural. Turn out will be around 30%.
This favors a nice guy like Dennis. You just want to pinch his cheeks he is so nice. Also he has been a good Lt Gov (in their minds) and it is his “turn” to be Gov. And don’t forget who has been endorsing him- Rounds and Lind Mickelson.
Dennis gets 59% of the vote and cruises in to the big house in Pierre.
Doogard has this shit wrapped up, no doubt. Which is too bad, becuz I would love to see Quen Be De lev Sowdacla!
in some spots dave says he “fixed” a 40 million budget deficit, and then in the next year says it will be a 100 million deficit. tell us how you will fix that one dave!
Yea Scott… I listened to some of his statements on public radio last night and he admitted that the “fix” this year merely shifts costs to next year’s budget. That isn’t a fix – that is a band-aid on an amputation!
Are people realy fooled by this “Mr. Fix-It” label he invented for himself? I’ve got news for Knudson… moving the hands of a clock won’t fix it if it is broken nor more than shifting a debt to the future will fix a broken budget.
How many years are they going to be able to ‘shift’ stuff to the next year?
Mrs. Knudson shoulda throwed that new Carhartt coat in the warsher a few times before Mr. Fix-it wore it in the ad. With some bleach and a few pounds of gravel.
Quens don’t wear farmr jakets.