Minnehaha County

Detroit Lewis Endorsements

l3wis October 28, 2010 13Comments

Please. Turn the light switch off.

Oh, I know, like the Gargoyle Leader, I’m sure no one cares about my endorsements, but here they are, suckers . . .

• John Thune. Leave it blank. Make a statement, even though no one is running against him let your voice be heard, by not saying anything.

• Thomas Marking. While I disagree with Marking on the Fair Tax concept and Healthcare reform, I still think he is more knowledgable on the issues then Noem or Steffy. He also vows not to play party politics which excites me. Okay, we both know he will not win, but please don’t waste your vote in the other camps. It’s kinda like drinking decaf.

• Governor’s race. Leave it blank. Neither candidate deserves to be governor. While one of the Republicans is smarter then the other, I feel like this is a race between the established SD GOP and the unestablished GOP. It’s kinda disgusting. I also like that fact that Heidi-Scott admitted his ‘competing casino’ idea didn’t get much traction. Yah think?!

SOS: Ben Nesselhuf. After watching his opponent’s commercial about voter registration falsehoods, I decided that Ben is the real choice. Maybe Jason can be a spokesperson for Jenny Craig instead (you should get Pat Powers to come with you to the meetings).

• AG. Leave it blank. This is like picking between Hitler and Che Guevara 🙂

• PUC: Dusty Johnson. Maybe it’s his Charlie Brown appeal, who knows. I have disagreed with Dusty on a number of issues, but I will give him credit, he has reached out to me and clarified his stances. While I think he could do more on green energy in our state, I also think he would be the only one to discuss this with. He knows his shit. Hands down. Don’t fear the ginger.

• Yes on IM13. Mary Jane is our friend. Big Pharma is not.

• Yes on IM12. Duh.

• Minnehaha County commission; Nesiba and Barth. Both men have displayed genuine concerns for county residents. I really don’t give a shit who you vote for as the 3rd candidate. Just don’t vote for that condescending creep Beninga who constantly cried about me being in his shoes everytime I showed up to a council meeting. If you don’t like those shoes, why do you keep wearing them?

What a jackass. Seriously.

Minnehaha County Commission’s response to a flat economy; Screw Public Safety

l3wis September 16, 2010 11Comments

Aaron ‘Goo’ McGowan laying out the facts.

Wow! I have seen our state legislature and city council make some really f’ing stupid decisions when it comes to taking money from the feds, but when the county is offered $240,000 from the feds to improve public safety and all the county has to supply is a desk and a cubicle it would seem to be a no-brainer to accept the money. Right?

But, McGowan says there are no hidden costs, and he’s willing to do whatever it takes to make sure there’s more prosecution of DUI cases.

“There aren’t any strings attached to this. There’s no local match, I offered to house them in a cubicle in our hallway because we don’t have any office space like other offices in the county,” McGowan said.

But our bone-headed CC thinks there is something nefarious about this. Barth was the only commissioner willing to accept the money. Does anybody else find it suspicious that the biggest opponent, Pekas, is a private practice lawyer? Gee, I wonder why he is opposed to more prosecutors? Him and Hajek shouldn’t even of been able to vote or comment on the issue because of conflict of interest. CC candidate Nesiba sums it up best in a press release;

Aaron McGowan, our State’s Attorney, came to the commission with a federally funded renewable grant.  It would be used to fund a special prosecutor for DUI cases.  The commission simply needed to vote to accept it.  Yet the commission failed to act.  In Minnehaha County we have over 1,500 DUI cases annually.  There are four pending vehicular homicide cases.  If the commissioners cannot act given current conditions and when the federal government is picking up the bill, when will they act?

Overseeing public safety may be the most important responsibility of the county commission.  More than half of the Commission’s $64 million budget is spent on costs related to public safety through funding areas related to the Sheriff, State’s Attorney, County Jail, and Public Defender’s offices.  If I were serving on the commission today I would have been enthusiastic to make the motion (or the second) to accept Mr. McGowan’s request and to vote in support of it.  We all benefit from keeping drunk drivers off of our roads.  I hope that when Commissioner Kelly returns, that Mr. McGowan will bring back his request.  If it doesn’t pass then, I hope the people of Minnehaha County elect commissioners on November 2 that will support the State’s Attorney request.