So there is a lot of talk about transparency as a candidate for city council but little action. While the blog up North wants to rip on Stehly for a tiny donation from a well known Democrat, there has been little mention of Jensen getting endorsements and donations from two well known Democrats, Jack Billion and Scott Heidepreim. I will commend the Count for at least talking about it.
But what is startling is the lack of transparency on his financial report. You spent all this money on ‘advertising’ but didn’t break it down? How much on consulting, meals, TV ads, Social Media, radio, publications, postage, printing, etc.
So why is this? I think he hired the blogger up North to run the whole campaign. So no one knows how much money is being made and where it is being spent.
The way one runs a campaign is comparable to how they will govern. If you can’t even tell us how much you spent on stamps, how can we trust you as an elected leader? We can’t. There is a lot of people running a cottage industry from making money from suckers like Jensen, and the ring leaders are cashing in. I took very little in when running 4 successful campaigns. Why? Because I believed in them and didn’t care about the payola.
And for the record, I have received NO money from the Stehly campaign and the only consulting I had with her was contentious conversations about how she was doing it wrong. That is why I respect Big ‘T’ because I can have disagreements with her and it is water under the bridge. I don’t owe her a damn thing, and she doesn’t owe me.
Jensen is running a ‘big money’ campaign not because he wants to win but because he is lining the pockets of those who are supposed to be helping him. It is pathetic, disgusting and the reason why politics have become so gutter.
While I have my issues with Theresa sometimes, I would NEVER question her intentions, integrity or looking at the bigger picture. Theresa could give ‘two-sh*ts’ about what it takes to win a campaign, she learned from the best of them (Staggers) that it is about human contact and connecting with constituents, you can’t put a price tag on that. That’s why I think she will pull this off. Trust me it will be close, but I know who her supporters are, and they vote. If she loses, oh well, it will only fortify that scheming and scamming is the only strategy that gets BAD candidates elected.
I’m going with the incumbent on this one. Stehly’s experience is valuable at this time. Big money and cronyism can and should happen in the next election. It’s Sioux Falls, normal is favoritism, nepotism, and corruption. We’ll recognize back to normal once councilors are bought and we have a city with many more parking ramps.
These campaign finance forms have become a joke. They are so elementary.
I noticed that Jamison recently sent out a post card telling Republican voters that during his one term in the legislature, that he worked on campaign finance reform.
Hell, they have weaken requirements in recent years and not strengthen them in any serious manner.
Heidepriem is a Democrat? Really? As far as I am concerned, he has just been using the party for the last 17 years. His pro-choice credentials are the only thing Democratic about him. He once author a bill in the state legislature to weaken housing rights laws for minorities. He was a big Janklow lover. KELO used to call upon him to represent the Republican position on First Mondays with Hemmingsen on KELO on a regular basis throughout the 1990s. Then quietly a couple of years later (2003) he switches political parties, while simultaneously his wife appears in a Daschle ad (2004) as a Republican for Tom. You would think a high profile politician, who switches political parties would hold a press conference to explain why, but he never did it. He just switch parties with Kranz’s political column in the Argus being the only knowledge given of this fact to the general public. Trust me, the Heidepriem/Jensen connection doesn’t surprise me at all, but Billion should know better! #PseudoDems #Wine&CheesePolitics #LimousineLiberals
Yeah, Scott’s endorsement doesn’t surprise me, but Jack’s does. I get it that Billion may not like Theresa, but why not just speak out against Theresa instead of endorsing her opponent who is a boot-licking Establishment Republican. As I have often told Theresa when trying to convince her to switch to Indy or Dem, “There isn’t much difference in the parties in SD.” I expected better of Jack.
Well, I am afraid Jack has fallen victim to the Pendar Lane disease if he’s supporting Jensen. Trust me, some of us have taken note of the Jensen signs in McKennan Park, that shouldn’t be there, and we will not forget.
Frankly, often I don’t care for Theresa’s approach and some of her comments, but I believe she means well
and has the best interests of the general public in mind, and that’s why I’ll be voting for her.
Also, the South Dakota Democratic Party is no longer a political party. It’s just a political mechanism being used by some to advance their own political ambitions. The pragmatism of Daschle and Johnson has now mistakenly empowered a whole new generation of leaders in the party who are about association and not philosophy, and I am afraid a veteran like Billion has allowed the association game to get the best of him.
I had no problem voting for Jack in ’06, and I voted for Susan in ’14, but I didn’t vote in the ’10 gubernatorial race, because it was just a race involving four Republicans. I didn’t go there then, and I will never go there.
VSG,
“… he has just been using the party for the last 17 years.”
Genuinely interested. Using the Dem Party for what?
The only thing which comes to mind for me – nomination of the Party for that which amounted to a vanity run for Governor.
Are there other aspects of Dem Party membership which have been available to Heidepriem?
Will acknowledge that Heidepriem’s selection of an at-the-time registered Republican as LG was certainly a stick in the eye to the Dem Party; certainly as offensive to you as Billie’s selection of Lavallee during the most recent gubernatorial campaign.
TGfG,
It’s his political safe haven. It gives him a forum, that his history does not deserve.
VSG,
I can’t remember the last time I heard anything uttered by Scott Heidepiem from this supposed forum, let alone thought, “now there is something to consider”. He has lacked any sort of political relevancy since Nov 3, 2010, IMO.
When was the last time, in your recollection and opinion, that he capitalized on this supposed forum benevolence of which was granted to him by the party?
I recognize that if Heidepriem is granted a forum as an unofficial party spokesman, then that position is likely taken from someone else. But I just haven’t seen instances over the past nearly 10 years in which Scott Heidepriem’s political statement on an issue has blocked the policy stance of another South Dakota Dem.
You get no argument from me that no one Dem has been successful to fill the vaccuum of ‘forum spokesmanship’ in the days since Heidepriem’s gubernatorial campaign. Frankly, the party has had a difficult time since the dats of Daschle / Tim Johnson.
Because you view him as ‘Republican Lite’, you won’t see him as a legit Democrat, but Sutton is as close as anyone has been. Note, I didn’t use the past verb tense – there is still a chance …
Who said “blocked”? Heidepriem has been legitimized within the party due to a power vacuum as well as by leaders in the party who play only a game of association, who do not know their party history, and who have thrown the majority positions of the party out the window.
Sutton’s success was his charisma and compelling story and not the success of his ‘Republican Lite’-ness. If Trump loses this year, then Noem will be Sutton 57/43. If Trump wins, Noem will run to the cabinet, and an other Republican (male) will beat Sutton 60/40, because the misogyny advantage will be loss for Dems in ’22.
Heidepriem since 2010? How about his MC position at McGovern’s funeral in 2012. In 2018, he was the guest speaker at a Democratic Forum dinner, which introduced the 2018 legislative candidates. Plus, some Dems always bring his name up like he is some kind of Democratic god.
If you listen to Scott speak. He spends all of his time talking about the history of the state. That’s because, in my opinion, he can’t talk about the philosophy of the party, because he has not been a part of it and can’t relate to it.
If you remember right, in 2010, he was big on education, but everyone is big on education from a face value stand point. But how did he want to fund education? But with a bunch of casinos at the border with Iowa to counter Grand Falls and offset a loss in video lottery revenues that he and his buddy Janklow claimed would happen with the advent of Grand Falls. A real Democrat would not advocate more gambling and the taxing of the middle class, working poor, and poor so as to further protect our current tax system in this state that currently protects the wealth class in this state.
I even heard one of his disciples in 2018 quote Scott, where this disciple proudly proclaimed that political alliances are changing in this country, where the Democratic Party is becoming a party of the suburbs. Wow! Do we really want that to happen? Do we really want to encourage that, if we are true Democrats worried about workers, regardless of where they live? Especially after COVID and Smithfield?
Sutton’s success was his charisma and compelling story and not the success of his ‘Republican Lite’-ness. If Trump loses this year, then Noem will beat Sutton 57/43. If Trump wins, Noem will run to the cabinet, and an other Republican (male) will beat Sutton 60/40, because the misogyny advantage will be loss for Dems in ’22.
What a worthless vindictive rant. I’m glad I voted exactly the opposite on both seats and both issues as you recommend after reading this after the fact. I was a bit torn, but did my research via actually reading what the people said about themselves and watching some debates and decided that way. The 2 I didn’t vote for sounded like democrats in their rhetoric and I can’t vote for that kind of person. I came looking for results now and stumbled on this ridiculous website. The only thing I agreed on was my hesitancy when I’d read earlier about Jensen and Billion had donated to him. Huge red flag getting money from a scumbag that ignores and disregards the people’s vote!
https://rapidcityjournal.com/news/local/superdelegate-herseth-sandlin-to-stay-with-obama-regardless-of-south-dakota-vote/article_7695eb90-d097-5d80-9e2b-1fa60a2e4983.html