According to my sources, Ann Tornberg is seeking another 4-year term as SD Democratic Party chair;
Ann Tornberg, the current Chair of the South Dakota Democratic Party (SDDP) has announced she will seek another 4 year term as State Party Chair despite the continuing decline in Democratic voter registration (down over 13% under her leadership and now resting at 29% of all registered voters, the lowest it has been in living memory) and the lack of success the Democratic Party has enjoyed statewide in recent years (no Democrat has won statewide since 2008 while Democratic representation in the state legislature has declined from 20 seats in 2014 to 16 seats today) . I guess Ann thinks when you are losing, more of the same is a good thing. Needless to say, I oppose her election to another 4 year term. There must be someone out there who can pick up the remnants of the Democratic Party and make it relevant again. Dig deep, Democrats! You need something, but the one thing you don’t need is four more years of the same failed effort.
My suggestion would be Pam Nelson or Bruce Danielson. Let’s see what happens.
Challenging her is a tempting idea.
Thanks for the unsolicited vote of confidence. I will strongly support party leadership change. Change is required. I have not sought any party position but will help where I am able.
I have been involved in SD politics since 1966. For many years I’ve had strong disagreements with the direction of the South Dakota Democratic Party since power days of the 1970’s. We now have no real Democratic Party, not because of the GOP but because of the pathetic nature of the “leadership” of the party.
The SD Democratic Party since 1978 has not tried to win an election as a party. Joint effort of all factions died in 1972. Really stupid party fights surrounding taxation, 3rd term, rural vs city and some personality conflicts caused the party to dump Jim Guffy, Jerry Andrews and others who knew how to build coalitions to win elections.
Enough history lessons for now. I contend, bringing in eager people who have never run a campaign successful before, much less a worked in one, is a sure sign of continuing the losing efforts of the past 40 years. What good does it make to bring in out of state consultants to suck money out of the campaign in an effort to fit a national model to South Dakota using inaccurate databases?
Believe or not, a strong Democratic Party in South Dakota will actually make the GOP more responsive to the public.
The Democratic Party of South Dakota was allowed to cede control over to certain candidates who built organizations around their personalities. The party fell apart because statewide candidates didn’t want to be associated with each other after faux news networks chatter to make B worse then A worse than C.
The party “leadership” has succumb to playing with their computers in Sioux Falls. George McGovern used to tell me stories of his travels through the state using the 3 x 5 cards. None of the current party organizers even have a clue how to take his approach and use it today using current technology. Facebook computer games will never win an election in South Dakota for the Democratic Party.
Why does the party search for candidates at the last minute and then not find a way to support the person’s efforts? It was a nice touch to recruit candidates for all the 2018 slots but why does the party then dump them while they are running?
There is no listening by the party “leadership”. There hasn’t been any for years. The 2018 general was as much a disaster as the 2016 general. There are some bright spots if we learn the lessons these candidates are allowed to teach the rest of the party. What the newly elected winners can do is show how clarity of messaging with hard thoughtful work, will win elections.
No one in the current SDDP party hierarchy knows how to bring the factions together. The post 2016 apology tour of the state party management was a disaster. It accomplished nothing. To see what I am referring to, go watch the videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06VcCBYMTr4&list=PLBkcje2tWnPW05AbnfKDEFD0iJhDRbffC
Many parts of South Dakota are NOT exclusively red, these areas are actually purple. Most voters in South Dakota are actually progressive – populist. It’s been that way since statehood. The “party” never gives the average voter a reason to vote FOR it’s candidates. The Democratic Party lost it’s way becoming a Republican-Lite show with Janklow.
The old story goes, South Dakotans will always vote for a real Republican over the Democratic candidate pretending to be Republican. So why vote for the “Democratic” candidate when the voter can count on a version of the “real” thing they know. So why not reconstruct the party on real values our populist history has proven the voters want?
The SDDP is a laboratorial example of the Peter Principle.
Some reappointments and or reelections within the SDDP resemble the definition of insanity.
And when will they learn that Facebook and Republican-lite do not work?
(“I got an idea, let’s run a bunch of pro-life and pro-gun people, make sure we do daily postings on Facebook too, and let’s throw a real Republican into the frey too…. That’ll fool them, I mean beat them……”)
The fact that all of the Democratic candidates statewide, with the exception of Billie, only garnered roughly 35% of the vote should tell us that we need a change in the SDDP…. Unless the strategy in 2020 is to run more candidates with a compelling story…..(“That’s the ticket….”(“In more ways than one…” 🙁 ))
#CallingAllDemocraticPoliticosWithACompellingStory!
(“I had a nightmare the other night, that Ann was re-elected Chairwoman and Hillary was the 2020 nominee”…(“But then what happen?”)…..”I don’t know, because I abruptly awoke in a cold sweat….”)