Ag United for South Dakota hosted a legislative candidate forum for Districts 9, 10, and 25 at the new Hefty Seed Morton Hall north of Sioux Falls on September 21, 2016.
South Dakota State Senate candidates in attendance were John Koch, Deb Peters, Jim Powers and Jeff Barth.
South Dakota State House candidates were Michael Saba, Michael Clark, Wayne Steinhauer, Steve Haugaard, Dan Ahlers and David Haagenson and Tom Pischke.
Last year, then Dell Rapids mayor Scott Fiegen, was appointed to the state legislature in District 25 (which stretches into Sioux Falls).
I’m not sure if Scott has plans to run for office in Sioux Falls, or to continue to serve on the legislature, but doesn’t it seem odd that someone would serve as a mayor of a community for seven years, then just split. And it’s not like he is moving to Florida or California to retire, he is moving a few miles away to Sioux Falls. ‘Hey folks, it’s been fun, but your town isn’t big enough for me, see yah later.’
Recently, Scott’s daughter was appointed to the Sioux Falls planning commission. He was in attendance at the meeting when her appointment was approved by the city council.
We’ll be watching.
South Dakota’s growing diversity, how this growing diversity has benefited and will continue to benefit South Dakota, and the need for the State Legislature to reflect this growing diversity both in its membership and in its legislation. Unlike the Republican Party, which has made clear how it feels about diversity through its fear-mongering and scapegoating at its National Convention, Democrats in South Dakota and around the country think our growing diversity is a source of strength, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Â
WHO: Michael Saba, District 9 House candidate, JR LaPlante, District 14 House candidate, and Clara Hart, District 6 House candidate
WHEN: Thursday, July 21 at 3:00 p.m.
WHERE: The Prairie West Branch of the Siouxland Libraries, 7630 W. 26th St., Sioux Falls, SDÂ
I won’t ramble about Hillary vs. Trump, that will just make my head spin, but some interesting things did happen last night locally in the primary races.
For the first time since she was elected 12 years ago, Minnehaha County Treasurer, Pam Nelson will have a challenger in November. Kris Swanson won the Republican nomination against Pam’s Nephew in-law, Marlin something or another, even though Marlin didn’t live in Minnehaha county.
Pam has proven to be an advocate her 12 years as treasurer for the low-income elderly trying to stay in their homes and not being over burdened with the atrocious property tax increases over the last decade. Pam will also help anyone else who needs it, Pam has a couple of rules though, follow the law and don’t lie to her.
Speaking of people who don’t seem to know what county they live in, Dick Kelly lost by 13 votes to Dean Karsky in the Republican primary for Minnehaha county commission. This means Dick will not be up for re-election this November. I could go on a monster rant about how it is time for Dick to retire, but I will let his fellow county commissioners tell you their feelings on that. Besides Dick suffering through a heart transplant and being hard of hearing, it seems his time has come. It is also rumored he spends a majority of his time in his retirement residence in rural Spink county and not his voter registration residence in Sioux Falls. Maybe it’s time to say good bye to Mr. Kelly, it’s just unfortunate that he may be replaced by Dean Karsky, the do nothing city councilor, who I will predict will do the same nothingness on the county commission. Dean and Jean Bender will be up against Democrats Feinstein and Rust in November. The top two vote getters when the two open commission seats.
And something I refrained from talking about until after the election was the battle royale in District 15 between democrats Nesiba and Kirschman (Nesiba won). The Democratic party in SD can hardly get enough people together to play a game of solitaire let alone two challengers in a the same district for a primary. Instead settling this over a cup of coffee and a donut and saving funds for a November run they decided to hack it out in a primary.
Don’t get me wrong, I like both guys. Patrick has been an advocate for labor, and Reynold has been a strong advocate against government corruption (Round’s airplane kerfuffle) and pay day lending.
But it wasn’t about their common threads that had these two at each other. It was about abortion and gay rights. Ironic really, considering neither of them could choose to have an abortion, or are gay.
Strange indeed.
I wish Nesiba luck in November.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgWz-N8sRTo[/youtube]
Tom Holmes spoke to the Minnehaha – Lincoln Republican Women’s luncheon on March 31, 2016. The assembled group heard Holmes discuss the events of the 2015-2016 South Dakota legislative term.
l3wis