David Barranco

The very Peculiar David Barranco


Up until this point, the only really thing we knew about Mr. Barranco (who is a candidate in the SE district for the Sioux Falls City Council) is that he fears the boogey man called socialism and he tries to buy votes with go-cart and intertube rides.

But when you start digging around you begin to wonder if his campaign and (family) life in Sioux Falls is all a charade? What are they really doing here? And why does his city council campaign face seem so different than his face from the past?

The first thing several people (lawyers) have questioned is why doesn’t Barranco have a law license in South Dakota? I guess he hasn’t ever applied. He currently holds a license in Texas where his clients are and makes no income in South Dakota. Then why leave Texas for South Dakota? I guess you would have to ask him.

And while David tries to play the Trumper card, he seems to be a wine and cheese lib at heart and apparently a well known author;



In 1993, David was named UT’s most outstanding liberal arts student; in 1997 he won the Willie Morris Award, which recognizes a superlative “call to intellectualism, vigorous defense of civil liberties, and overall pursuit of excellence.”

Mr. Barranco is especially proud of his SPLC Wall of Tolerance commendation — an award affording him the opportunity to shake hands with a true American hero, Rosa Parks.

The MacArthur Foundation granted David a 2004 Post-Graduate Fellowship in Public Policy.



With all these accolades, you kind of scratch your head a bit and ask why none of this stuff is mentioned on his website or in forums? He likes to talk mostly about dog parks and football.

You also have to scratch your head a little about the life experiences of his wife Catherine who currently doesn’t work at all;



Because it had been her ambition since childhood to attend Harvard College, she applied for early-decision admission to the top-ranked school, got in and never filled out another college application. Not surprisingly, her choice worked out well for her. “I knew Harvard had history and traditions as well as a quality education, with students you could learn from,” says O’Gorman. “You can study down by the river in Cambridge, and in 10 minutes you can be in Boston, having Ethiopian food or going to the ballet.” At Harvard, O’Gorman remained an outstanding student, making the Dean’s List each semester and graduating magna cum laude.



So you attend Harvard, worked as an executive with Walmart, then move to South Dakota and become a house wife after a short stint with the SD GOP with a mysterious departure?

There is something very peculiar about the Barrancos to go from Wine and Cheese Texans to Beer and Chislic South Dakotans. If I had a resume like either one of these folks, wouldn’t you tell people about it while running for office? Maybe he is on a secret mission to destroy local government from within? Wait, someone is already doing that 🙂

If Barranco really is an intellectual he will be bored to death serving on the city council.

Sioux Falls City Council Candidate Barranco had another ‘VOTE BUYING’ event last month

Sorry, I just caught this, but it looks like Barranco had another questionable vote buying event. Unlike the event before that at Thunder Road (which was filed as an in-kind donation on his last finance report) this event was NOT at a private facility but one that was owned by taxpayers. I am pretty sure that Great Bear CANNOT provide an in-kind donation to a political candidate and it is likely he paid for this out of campaign funds (at least he should have).

Ironically, I’m not even sure the event took place since Great Bear being open at all is a rarity 🙂

To play the Devil’s advocate, you could argue that candidates hold events all the time at rented facilities where they may provide light foodie and drinkie, but I’m not sure paying for voter’s kids to go tubing is the same.

I have seen many candidates over the years do questionable events that border on unethical, but over the last two election cycles it has exploded into what they can get away with, like the mayor having a FREE two-hour radio ad KELO.

There is a checklist when deciding on a candidate that you should review, and ETHICS should be at the top of that list.

Perspective Sioux Falls City Council Candidates Zitterich and Bassey didn’t make the ballot

A news story probably not covered in SF politics yesterday was that two perspective candidates DID NOT make the ballot due to the lack of signatures.

Mike Zitterich who was hoping to run for AT-Large B did send me an email last night explaining to me his disappointment and hoped to run in the future. He said it was due to time constraints.

Immanuel Bassey has said very little except this to AL reporter Trevor Mitchell;

Bassey did not have enough valid signatures to get into the race, he tells me

I found out about Bassey last week and that he was recruited by some local politicians to run. Considering who they were I anticipated that he would make the ballot. I find it odd that if the rumor was true that he was recruited by these folks they didn’t help him gather signatures. Almost looked like a false flag operation to discourage others from running against Barranco.

Thank goodness Ingle qualified for the ballot and I encourage anyone that is on the fence in the SE district about the candidates to reach out to Mr. Ingle and get to know this incredible individual. As for Barranco, I hear very little about him except that he doesn’t pay his property taxes on time.

There will never be ‘Regular People’ serving in Sioux Falls city government ever again

We saw the writing on the wall when Alex Jensen and his cabal of donors had to spend $127K to beat a self-employed piano teacher by around 90 votes. The regular guy/gal is no longer allowed to compete.

Just look at the usual donors on the financial reports (someone should tell Andera that she can’t add her smaller contributions up twice 🙂

It is the same group of rich Republican businessmen and mysterious dark PACs (so some of these rich people can hide their identities) that are once again funding the campaigns of the NON-regular people (except Islam who seems to have half the state of Michigan gunning for her and they all work at the same hospital 🙂

You have to chuckle when Clowncilor Marshall Selfish actually suggested that the reason the members needed a bigger salary is so more regular people could run. That’s rich considering he never mentioned that you actually need the money up front.

We could change this with a couple of easy steps;

• Get rid of the Home Rule Charter as it exists and give more power back to council and,

• Publicly finance the races so everyone is on the same playing field.

We of course first must throw out the current charter, and there is a stew brewing on that one along with some other goodies I will share very soon.

So it looks like we will have yet another city election where a handful of people vote for the very people who are lining their pockets with donations from the banksters, bondsters and developers that are turning our city into a corporate welfare state.

This is the current lineup for the election;

Mayoral Race; Paul TenHaken, David Zokaites, Taneeza Islam

Central District; Curt Soehl (No challengers)

Southeast District; David Barranco (No Challengers)

At Large (A); Janet Brekke, Bobbi Andera, Dr. Sarah Cole

At Large (B); Rich Merkouris, Pam Cole