SouthDaCola Odds & Ends
l3wis What a great attendance Downtown for First Friday. I think it’s time DTSF considers closing off Phillips from 10th to 12th on the weekends like they do with their DT in Austin, TX.
From the patio of Icon on Friday night, and my new favorite park Today
The Downtown Parking Ramp groundbreaking is on Monday;
What: Groundbreaking ceremony for the mixed-use parking ramp project
When: Monday, May 7, 2018 • 4:30 p.m.
Where: 110 South Mall Avenue, Downtown Sioux Falls near Tenth Street and River Road
Former Minnehaha State’s Attorney Dave Nelson did a robo call for Curt Soehl. I wondered if there was some other secret weapon up Soehl’s sleeve. I heard a robocall from Nelson today left on someone’s VM. I believe the message was left on election day. We had heard rumors that Soehl was recruited by Huether and Erpenbach, and this kind of confirms it. Nelson chaired Huether’s run for mayor.
Greg Belfrage used to play softball. On Friday’s show Belfrage was talking about how he used to play softball. I almost called in (I usually have trouble getting past the producer) and said, “You know Greg, I didn’t know you used to play softball, but I always kind of wondered considering the questions you asked Mayor Huether over the past 8 years.”
The city recently fell victim to a phishing scam in the finance department. The city isn’t saying the amount they were scammed out of (go figure) but claim it will reimbursed by an enhanced crime insurance coverage. Whatever that is. But it surprised me considering all the gloating about the new financial software and the over 20 people that work in the finance office. Makes you wonder what kind of policies the city has when checking each other’s work. It’s a good thing we spiked Turbak’s salary by $16K before he retired 🙁
Drinking Liberally gives us an update on the Dems;
The South Dakota Democratic Party (SDDP) held its annual McGovern Day celebration on April 28th. The top ticket Democratic candidates, Gubernatorial candidate Billie Sutton and Congressional candidate Tim Bjorkman gave strong performances and both should do well this fall. It is an uphill battle for both but they give Democrats a real chance of winning both contests.
SDDP Chair, Ann Tornberg, touted her success recruiting Democratic candidates in a record number of South Dakota’s legislative races, 103 of the 105 if I remember correctly. While this is an accomplishment of sorts, it papers over the decline in Democratic voter registration the SDDP continues to experience. As I noted in a previous invitation, for the first time in living memory Democratic voter registration fell below 30% of all South Dakota registered voters in March (29.9%). In April, the Republican registration advantage over Democrats increased by another 1657 voters, reducing the SDDP’s share of the electorate by another 0.2% to 29.7%. When asked about the continued decline in Democratic voter registration, Ann and her staff pointed to a $50,000.00 grant the SDDP had just received from the Democratic National Party to conduct voter registration and Get Out The Vote among our Native American citizens. Native Americans have proven to be a solid Democratic constituency and they make up approximately 15% of South Dakota’s total population. The $50,000.00 will prove helpful I am sure but I doubt it will stop the overall decline in Democratic voter registration. The grant is an expansion of a similar $10,000.00 grant the SDDP received last summer (2017) during which statewide Democratic voter registration declined 3.31%. (This decline was due in part to annual voter purges of inactive voters conducted by County Auditors.) By way of comparison, last summer Democratic voter registration declined by 4.8% and 3.7% respectively in Oglala Lakota and Todd counties, two counties with large Native Americans populations. During this same 2017 period, statewide Republican and Independent registration declined by 1.93% and 0.95%. Ann can spin all she wants but in the end the numbers and the voters tell the story.
In Sioux Falls: The hotly contested nonpartisan Mayoral election on May 1st wasn’t so hot as the Republican candidate, Paul Ten Haken, defeated the Democratic candidate, Jolene Loetscher, by 24%, 62.7% to 37.3%.
In my humble opinion, Democratic candidates are on their own for the most part and the SDDP needs to do some serious soul searching. To quote myself, “It is time to make the Democratic Party, democratic.”
