Remember when Thune was running against Daschle in which he defeated him. He consistently said that Daschle was ignoring his state after he became Majority Leader. Ironically Thune has been ignoring us his entire time in the Senate, oh, and Marion to.
Not making any assumptions, but if I had to pick a Lt. Governor, former Legislator/former SF City Councilwoman Christine Erickson would be on my short list as a “get.”
No surprise here, I heard her LOBBYIST job isn’t going so hot, so Christine is looking for an out. Lt. Gov is a full-time position. This would set Christine up for running for mayor, and since the governorship will end in two years, it would be easy to run for mayor. I guess there is worse people . . .
I was actually happy to see Thune get majority leader, I don’t think he will put up with Trump’s crap. I think you are going to see a ton of Republican lawmakers push back on the insanity, and now they control all 4 houses of government and soon the Federal Reserve.
Thune’s case reminds me of a line in “Please,” a poem by American poet Robert Creeley: “Poor. Old. Tired. Horse.” In kindness, what can we do but wish the depleted pol, peddler of shoddy policies, a peaceful senescence and put him out to pasture, where, blithely oblivious to the impending crises, he can continue feeding upon the common fodder.”
Speaking of old horses (or at least people who may or may not fall off of them on occasion) it seems the snow queen’s justification for sending National Guard troops to the Texas border was just a line of horse puckey;
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem described the U.S. border with Mexico as a “war zone” last year when she sent dozens of state National Guard troops there, saying they’d be on the front lines of stopping drug smugglers and human traffickers.
But records from the Guard show that in their two-month deployment, the South Dakota troops didn’t seize any drugs. On a handful of occasions, they suspected people of scouting for lapses in their patrols, but mission logs don’t contain any confirmed encounters with “transnational criminals.” And a presentation from the deployment noted that Mexican cartels were assessed to be a “moderate threat” but were “unlikely” to target U.S. forces.
But didn’t we already know that? It’s unbelievable to me that Noem can be this corrupt and dishonest and actually be leading in polls. Any sane electorate would have sent her and Thune packing years ago. Unfortunately, this is as good as it gets in SoDak.
It may be a running joke in the comments section of this blog, but lately I have been hearing from Democratic and Republican political insiders that the GOP money machine and other operatives are setting Mayor Paul to be the next senator from South Dakota.
I would assume that Dusty Johnson would run for Governor in 4 years and Paul would run for Rounds seat (assuming he decides not to run).
When I first heard this well over a year ago from a Democratic party rabble rouser, I just laughed, but it seems the chatter in both political parties is at a deafening level.
I think it all become much more clear today when I was sitting on Phillips Avenue watching the 4th of July parade and Mayor Paul came by with a big old truck emblazed with his campaign logo like he was running for something. He is. The US Senate.