Minnehaha County Commissioner Gerald Beninga doesn’t seem to concerned about security of ballots during an election

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As we have suspected, we are only a few months away from an election and the wheels are starting to come off. This is what happens when you have a person who never has been registered to even vote (what is up with these veterans and not voting anyway?) become city clerk and put in charge of our elections.

Luckily County Auditor Bob Litz identified the problem and when he makes the county commission aware of it, they just tell Bob to deal with it. Beninga was worthless on the city council, and he is proving to be the same on the county commission. How does this guy keep getting elected?

A few years ago they gave Bob some secure office space to count ballots, but once all the murdering drug dealers decided to move to BOOMTOWN they took the space away for more state’s attorneys.

Ballots must be counted in a secure area, not in some hallway. Maybe they will find space in the restrooms come April 10.

If Mayor Huether considers himself a councilor, why doesn’t he attend and vote at joint county meetings?

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To tell you the truth, I can’t remember the last time Huether has attended a joint county/city meeting. Someone told me it hasn’t been since 2010, but I can’t verify that. Let’s just say it has been awhile.

I also don’t know why he doesn’t attend anymore. Some have speculated it is because he doesn’t get to chair the meetings. They are usually ran by the chairs of the council and commission.

I find it ironic that he calls himself a ‘councilor’ and cites the charter, breaks ties during regular council meetings and uses his veto pen, but he doesn’t fulfill that duty during the joint meetings. I also find it ironic that he would chastise councilor Pat Starr for abstaining from voting ONCE while Huether has been ‘abstaining’ from the joint meetings for several years.

Sioux Falls Chamber caves to Republican Pouting – Punishes Dems

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* FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE *

Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce won’t allow Minnehaha County Democrats to sponsor annual legislative coffees

January 15, 2018

On Thursday, January tenth the Minnehaha County Democratic Party (MCDP) was notified they won’t be allowed to sponsor the Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce (SFACC) Legislative Coffees as they have for years.

The Minnehaha County Republican Party (MCRP), the Minnehaha-Lincoln Republican Women, and Americans for Prosperity all pulled their sponsorship from the SFACC Legislative Coffees for 2018. Speculation is the conservative organizations didn’t like a recent article (Argus Leader, Sept. 20, 2017) in which SFACC President and CEO, Jason Ball expressed concern over events that are “antagonistic to immigrants and new demographic groups in Sioux Falls,” and “legislation and policies that negatively target specific populations …”

“We believe the Republicans are trying to punish the Chamber for a stance that they don’t agree with. Unfortunately, that resulted in the Chamber trying to smooth things over by removing us, the opposition party, from the event,” said Heather Halverson, Minnehaha County Democratic Party Chairwoman “We see this as an effort to appease the Republicans, while removing our voice. From our perspective, this is undemocratic.”

This year’s events will be held at the Holiday Inn City Centre from 10:00 am to 11:45 am on February 3rd, 10th, and 24th. The SFACC Legislative Coffees include legislators from area districts and allow the public to ask timely questions related to the 2018 legislative session. The Republican legislators that attend the coffees outnumber the Democrats twenty-six to four.

“We have been a longtime sponsor of the Legislative Coffees. As the minority party in the state, it is very important for us to have a table at the event, and allow local residents to stop by and ask us questions about our platform, legislative matters and our upcoming events,” said Halverson. “We aren’t the party that picked up our ball and went home because we didn’t like the way the game was going.”

Heather Halverson, Chair

Minnehaha County Democratic Party
SouthDaCola Notes; While I could care less what either party is up to in our state, I think this is pretty crappy to treat the MCDP this way because the Republicans are a bunch of whiny crybabies that want to continue to push their racist and homophobic views on the rest of us. The sad part is that the Chamber should NOT have to apologize for Jason’s comments, he is right, being a racist is bad for business.