I am sexier then Dave Munson! And don’t you forget it.
I really haven’t paid much attention to primaries in recent years, I’m an Indy and can only vote for Dems, but this year was very interesting.
I was sorry to see Barth lose against Varilek, but hey, people like clean cut ‘safe’ candidates who won’t let the ‘gays’ get married. That and I think Barth’s pot belly worried people. Heck, my pot belly worries me, I am wondering when that baby is going to pop?
Mitt kicked butt and took names. No surprise, his go-to man Ironic Johnny will soon be campaigning for the Mormon in a few months.
Looks like Governor endorsements don’t matter, Tim Begalka in District 4 wiped Rausch’s butt with Denny’s endorsement.
The man with the scariest face in the legislature, Gene Abdallah is finally toast. It seems Mr. Otten’s crazy mailings worked, ultra pink cardstock and all.
Looks like Deb Peters bitch slapped gay basher Hubbel to the curb. Maybe now Lora can concentrate on doing more crazy research on Obamacare. I also suggest she reads the US Constitution and Bill of Rights, especially the part about equal rights.
Looks like Jenna Haggar handed not only her dad, but our former mayor their butts, and why not? A gloved glamour shot of a Republican princess beats out an ineffective, tea-toddler mayor everytime!
Looks like Anne Hajek may finally send Shawn ‘The Constitutional ignorer’ Tornow packing. I’m sure not without a beer cooler full of cold cuts, lies and farts.
I was pleased to see Karen L. Soli dismantling district 15 (Democrat). Karen is the former pastor of Augustana Luthern church. A wonderful person and a true liberal. I hope she turns Pierre upside down!
Looks like Mayor Huether’s relative and Stace Nelson are battling it out in district 19. I heard there is a boil warning in that district right now . . .
I have also enjoyed the random reporting on the SOS’s website, if you refresh every few minutes you get all kinds of check marks, false reportings, etc. It’s like they are doing Jello-shots and smoking spice in the war room right now. And hey, why not? It’s our dime buying those flame-broiled slime sliders, not theirs. Let the recounts begin!
My congratulations goes out to Matt and his team. My prayers tonight will include a prayer for Matt Varilek that he defeats Kristi Noem in the fall …. but I am afraid the true victor tonight was not one Democratic crowd over an other, but rather Scott Walker and the Super PACs … and I pray also that we will find solvency to deal with this true threat to our Republic’s democratic principles.
Jenna and Daddy go to Pierre together.
And Concerned Lib, could you add to your prayer that Karl Rove paid for the robo calls in Wisc and he goes to the slammer?
In the run up to this primary we tried to find a get out the vote effort for Barth and it was not to be found. In my 50 years of being politically active, no amount of paid advertising, cute social media, emails, robo-calling or other new fangled gimmicks will beat a campaign running a grassroots ground game. Barth’s YouTube production, his improved campaign style and direct answers to questions took the campaign to the front-lines. The problem once again for the Barth, Matt and the Democrats is their lack of planning and executing a ground game.
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When an underfunded, minority candidate lacks a strong ground game AND voice the candidate will always lose the election. Ground games are boring, hard work. No one wants to do it. It really is not difficult to understand.
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The Democrats were very successful in the early 1970′s with Kneip, Abourezek, McGovern, Dougherty and Denholm because the campaigns worked together with Gerry Andrews and Jim Guffey to build a party. A strong party management style of the GOP will always win in SD when faced with a mish-mash of kinda-sorta candidates to defeat.
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I get a dozen or more OFA emails a week and they all go directly into my junk mail. Why should I help OFA build a national organization when they do not help the down ticket candidates? Why aren’t the Dems trying to build a state party organization for the long haul?
Helga – Karl Rove is a traitor. He outed a CIA agent. Can you imagine out much trouble Democratic operatives would have gotten in to if they had done the same?
Testor15 – I miss the “Good Old Days” as well. Back when Democrats ran candidates even if they could not win, like Guffey versus Pressler in 1976 (Pressler received 81% of the vote in that race.) Or when Democrats always ran a candidate for the US Senate. Can you imagine K,A,McG, and D&D saying “…I don’t think we should challenge Senator Mundt and as for the gubernatorial race lets run a former Republican and call him a Democrat.”
The only saving grace is that two buddies of the late Governor Janklow lost in the state Republican legislative races last night. I believe Varilek will be the last successful vestige from this triumvirate leadership of Janklow, Daschle, and Johnson … who think they know best what is good for SD and the Democratic Party.
I am still PO’d about Dems not running someone against Thune. Heck I could pick 5-10 Dems that would be worthy to challenge that tool.
Very time Thune takes a political position thru January of 2017 its actually the position of the SD Democratic Party as well by default.
Munson got beat. The guy who beats up drunks got beat by a woman. That’s justice.
No doubt he’s taking his defeat rage out on some poor golf tees right now. Or reading his signed Sarah Palin to find out where the campaign went wrong.
I completely agree about being pissed that no one ran against Thune. Today his Skeletor face graced the front page of the Argus with the words Vice President above and I almost threw up a little. The Democrats may have lost, but at least they could have tried to challenge that creep. And who knows…they may have won!
I also feel kind of bad that Barth did not win. I think Matt is probably a nice guy and a good candidate, but I really appreciated Jeff’s approach to the election and to politics. He is who he is, and it was enough for my vote. Now I just hope that he can knock the bobble-head out of Washington. 🙂
Munson, funny;
http://arguspoliblog.tumblr.com/post/24543228936/end-of-the-trail