DRINKING LIBERALLY UPDATE (6/14/2024)

In politics: Nationally (kind of): In 2023 the Legislature allocated $383 million for a new prison. In October,  the Department of Corrections designated Lincoln County as the site for the new prison and transferred land it owned to the South Dakota Department of Corrections for that purpose. The location is six miles northwest of Canton, SD and maybe 6 or 7 miles south of the growing Sioux Falls suburban town of Harrisburg. Despite their strong Republican leanings and support for the GOP’s  past “Law and Order” stance, landowners in the area are very upset. They contend our Republican Governor and the Republican dominated Legislature in Pierre will not listen to them and ignore local zoning regulations. Lincoln County Landowners filed suit seeking compliance. A hearing was held in January of 2024 but the Court hasn’t ruled yet. In the meantime the Department of Corrections has stated it is not considering a second site. 

I think this conundrum could be solved if the Department of Corrections decided to name the new prison the “President Donald J. Trump Memorial Prison”. We all know how much Trump adores placing his name on monolithic buildings and, as strong Trump supporters who invariably conform to whatever he desires, the mainly Republican residents in Lincoln County will most likely reconcile their opposition to the new prison and be honored to have a prison named after the “Donald” as a neighbor. 

This is such a simple solution to the current conundrum that I think we should start a petition to present to the Governor and others showing the Public’s support for it. Let’s discuss whether or not Drinking Liberally should lead the petition drive tonight. 

 In Politics: South Dakota. The Democratic Party (SDDP) will hold its Biennial State Convention in Oacoma this weekend. Besides constructing a Political Platform, the other essential items of business are choosing a candidate to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) and selecting the National Committeeman and the National Committeewoman for the Party.  No one has announced their candidacy for the PUC as of this writing .  Deb Knecht (Brown County) and Dennis Olsen (Beadle County) currently hold the National Committeeman and woman positions and both have announced they will seek reelection. Deb Knecht is currently unopposed but I have heard that Tom Cool (Sioux Falls) will challenge Dennis Olsen. These positions require expensive travel to national Democratic meetings but despite that, it would be good to see some new blood. Deb has been in her position for a long time and (IMHO) Dennis shows more concern for Beadle County matters than state and national issues. It would be good to have at least one of these two positions held by someone from outside the James River Valley.

I hope the SDDP ends their “Happy Talk” and addresses the continuing decline in Democratic voter registration in South Dakota both relative to Republican voter registration and in terms of absolute numbers. Democratic voter registration currently stands at 143,903 or 23.8% of the electorate compared to Republican registration of 306,009 or 50.6%. Since our June Primary 10 days ago, the Republican plurality over Democrats increased by 938 voters. Beginning in May and looking back monthly, the Republican plurality over Democratic registration increased as follows:  (May) 1689, 1382,1148, 1503, 1226, (Jan) 502. Or, to look at the decline more broadly, since the current leadership recalled Jennifer Slaight Hansen, the Democratic voter registration deficit against Republicans statewide has increased by 11,034 voters, nearly total the vote for all candidates in many South Dakota Legislative Districts.  I keep waiting for the new SDDP leadership to begin to reverse the long term decline in Democratic Registration.