Sioux Falls municipal election predictions

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FishingPasses7

As you can see there is a lot more fish in the barrel when it comes to the city election. These are my early predictions (I will probably change these predictions closer to the election).

At-Large (A)

I think Kooistra will win this race by at least 70%, his opponent, Gaetze, is unknown, and what we have heard so far about him he kinda sounds like an intolerant, teabagger. This will however be a fun one to watch. I support Kooistra in this race. He is a former Republican who switched his registration to Democrat before he ran for County Commission. Kooistra is a fiscal conservative but appears to be aware of the social problems facing our city and state. He will be a strong city councilor and I look forward to his term.

At-Large (B)

James Entenman has no challengers right now, but even if he does, I predict he will win this race. Jim is well-respected in the community as a business owner (J & L Harley Davidson) and has lot’s O’ money. I predict he will outspend any of his challengers 4-1. Jim knows how to stop competition, he has proved this by the monopoly he currently owns and runs with his brother. Rumor has it that he ran the Easyriders franchise out of town a few years back. Jim has clout. I do not look forward to Jim as a councilor, I think he will use his position to better himself and his friends, he also appears to be a spend happy big government Republican.

SE District

I give this one to Bob Christensen by at least 5 points. His challenger Sue Aguilar is well known as a community activist, but she is unknown outside that world. Bob is a popular barber in town. I like Bob and am kinda on the fence about this race, I think they would both do a good job. During the last few Event Center Task Force meetings, Bob got heavily involved in the discussion of the final proposal. He asked great questions and gave good insight. I think as a city councilor he will do the same. Not sure how he stands on the big issues, but I like the fact that he likes discussion (well, he is a barber) that has been missing on our council for a very long time.

Central District

Michelle Erpenbach doesn’t have a challenger, yet. I predict someone will jump in the race after the first of the year. I have vowed that if another challenger doesn’t appear by the filing deadline, I will run against her. I just think that Michelle shouldn’t have a free ride. If the obvious challenger of Michelle appears after January 1st, they will beat Michelle by at least 10 points. I’ll keep you posted on this one.

Mayor’s race • General Election

6 – Janoct Ajda; Janoct doesn’t have a chance in Hell of winning, but he is fun to watch at debates. I think it would be funny if he came in at 5th.

5 – Bill Peterson; Bill is too unknown to garner enough votes. He has the money to run, but not the popularity. If the first mayoral forum is any indication of how he will present himself in future forums, he will be going downhill fast. He comes off as ‘bossy’.

4 – Pat Costello; Pat’s stance on the Event Center funding source and being born with a silver spoon in his mouth will not help his candidacy. I like Pat, but he flip-flops on too many issues and that hurts him in appearing as a leader.

3 – Vernon Brown; Vernon is popular, but not popular enough to be mayor. His sunshine and butterfly speeches get old and people can see right through the bullshit. But my prediction has more to do with his win in the last city election. He only garnered 64% of the vote against a relatively unknown candidate in a city wide election. I don’t think Vernon will be able to close in on that spread in the mayoral election.

2 – Mike Huether; Mike is popular and has a very positive message. He is also a Democrat and doesn’t always agree with the other rubberstampers in the race. It also helps that Mike (and Staggers) have been campaigning like mad since this summer. The only thing that Mike lacks is political experience, heck I have more, but that is what will also help him garner the #2 spot.

1 – Kermit Staggers; Kermit has it all. He is the underdog, the lone dissenter on the council, he has over 20 years of combined public service experience (AF Intelligence officer, international ambassador, state legislator, city councilor). Kermit is also a fiscal conservative, which is a very popular position to have in this economy. Kermit never waivers and you always know where he stands on issues, this is a strong leadership quality. He is very respectful of citizens and is always there to lend an ear. He is also well liked not just by joe six pack but also by small business owners because of his stances on taxes and deregulation.

RUNOFF

There will obviously be a runoff, a candidate must garner at least 51% of the vote in the general to win the mayor’s race, that won’t happen with this many people running. I predict the race between Mike and Kermit will be very close, but I give it to Kermit by the skin of his teeth, we might even see a recount.

Posted in: SF City Council, Sioux Falls, Sioux Falls Mayor Race

I don’t know who this Scott Erickson character is, but he was all of over the news last night talking about the new events center

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Screen shot 2009-12-15 at 5.02.42 AM

Gotta hand it to the KDLT news team, calling me two different names in the same article (screen shot above, article below);

Scott Ehrisman says, “What we’re asking to do is taxing the majority, a lot of people what’ll never attend the place, never afford to use it.”

Well it least STORMLAND TV NEWS and the Gargoyle Leader got it right;

“The state is telling us that they don’t have enough money to increase education funding in this state and we’re going to ask the voters of Sioux Falls to pay an additional one cent tax to build an entertainment facility,” Scott Ehrisman who opposes the events center plan said.

Scott Ehrisman said the people who will use and benefit from the facility should pay for its construction.

“We really need to change it before it goes to the voters in November or it’s not going to fly,” he said.

I didn’t make KSFY, I guess you can only be quoted in 3 different media sources in one night. But KSFY’s story was the most interesting. One of the last person’s to speak told the council that the public doesn’t trust them with their money anymore, inferring that the council always goes back on their word with what they spend the public’s money on.

That did not sit well with Quen Be De Knudson. She said she took offense to the comment because she sits through “Six Hour meetings.” Watching Larry King or the Olympics of course. Last I checked De, you are getting paid to sit their, so please, just for once, STFU!

And Munson pulled another fast one with letting ONLY proponents speak first and having opponents sit for an hour and listen to the suit and ties tell us how important this facility is to the community (and their wallets). Not one single person from the general public came up in support of the facility unless they were a business owner that will be directly impacted by building the facility. Gee, I wonder why? Staggers tried to change Munson’s little plan and said that opponents and proponents should take turns speaking, but King Dave would not allow it. It just goes to show who the Mayor represents.

WATCH THE ENTIRE TESTIMONY HERE (It runs about from oo:10-3:00 )

Posted in: Event Center

Get your butt to the SF city council meeting tonight! Speak your mind about opposition to the Event Center funding resolution.

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Reminder: City Council votes on event center recommendations tonight.
7pm • 10th & Dakota Ave. (not City Hall at 9th & Dakota)

Their resolution says they are accepting all the recommendations of the task force. That means they are asking for new sales tax to pay for it.
It also says the city must have “an accessible, user-friendly program to refund a temporary one cent sales tax to income qualified residents”. (nothing about effectiveness in reaching those who need it)

All this in today’s Argus Leader

The 657 rebate number refers to 5 months, not 3. I am trying to get the latest 3-month figure from the state. The July-Aug-Sept number is 630 households statewide. That’s all! for the whole state! (At the time of the census SD had 94,000 low-income households.) Note that the subtitle “People on food stamps must apply” is wrong. Anyone with food stamps is not eligible.

Here is a great letter to the editor about the issue.
2. a poll question on this
http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

I have to work tonight, but am going to try to get off early enough to speak. I’m guessing the only dissenting voice will be Staggers.

Posted in: Event Center

Who posed the question?

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flyingpig.jpg

I posed the question;

At a forum last week for candidates running for mayor, they were asked about the volatile meatpacking industry and whether the John Morrell plant would remain.

This was a question I email submitted to the mayoral forum at the University Center, and candidates Staggers and Huether expanded on it. It is an important issue to our city and I am glad our city is starting a discussion about it. Not sure what I think anymore after reading the article. One side of me doesn’t trust the meatpacking industry that has no problem with making changes overnight, but another part of me says they make some good points about not closing the packing plant. I guess time will only tell.

Posted in: John Morrell's, Sioux Falls, Sioux Falls Mayor Race

Huether has another ‘original’ idea?

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D1189

Soooooo, did Mike come up with this idea all on his lonesome?

At a press conference this morning, Huether said he supports building a new events center seating 10,000 but that it can be done for $75 million to $100 million. The mayor’s events center task force has come forth with a proposal for a new facility that could hold as many as 15,000, expanded convention center and new hotel that could cost as much as $200 million, if a plan to relocate Howard Wood Field is included.

The 10,000 seat facility is what MPLS consulting group CSL proposed in a EC task force meeting. I think the words they used was ‘sweet spot’. At another TF meeting I was sitting next to Mike and told him that is what CSL recommended. Later in the meeting Mike asked me where the money would come from to build a new HW? I chuckled and said, “You and me.” Don’t get me wrong, I agree 100% with Mike on this, I just wanted you to know it is not an original idea, it has been floated for a long time, and the TF chose to ignore it. I also got the feeling from Mike during last week’s Mayoral Forum he isn’t on board with the funding source, he has also hinted that to me in person, because of the impact the retail tax will have on working poor. I just wish he would publicly come out and say it. So far the only candidate to publicly denounce the funding source is Staggers. I have a feeling Mike will be following suit shortly.

The KELO story is even better. It seems Peterson, Brown and Costello are have a hissy-fit over another mayoral candidate having a different (the right) idea;

“All of the candidates now, we could all play this game, we could all come out and say well, I’ll build one for, get into a bidding war and say I’ll build one for $50-million dollars, or I’ll build one for $25-million, but that doesn’t serve the citizens well,’ said Bill Peterson.

“We have to find a way to pay for it first, and then we can have the discussions about how big it should be, what the cost should be,” said Vernon Brown.

Candidate Pat Costello is a member of the events center task force. He says Huether’s pared-down version will short-change the city.

“It’s not going to have a $52-million dollar impact to our community. Could it work? Yeah. It worked 50-years ago, it’s called the arena,” said Costello.

Doesn’t matter if Mike has the right idea or not. The funding source will never pass 1) The Legislature, and 2) it won’t pass the voters.

You will see Shemp (Mike) setting himself apart from the other three stooges (Costello, Peterson, Brown) over the next couple of months. I still think it will be a battle royal between Huether and Staggers in the runoff.

This Kranz article proves it;

Most often, Staggers is getting favorable responses from those who are concerned about spending issues. But when you add other factors such as which candidates are the best known or considered to know the issues well, then the race becomes much more even.

Yet, Kranz didn’t print any of those comments? Did he? Yah wanna know why? Because they are rare. The Gargoyle has it in for Kermit, and they just can’t bring it to themselves to say something positive about him without knocking him down in the next sentence. Talk about fair and balanced reporting.

Posted in: Mike Huether, Sioux Falls Mayor Race, Staggers