Tag Archives: politics

Jackley, Johnson may provide glimpse into our political future

Posted on by
2

Reading The Associated Press story today on Wednesday’s ribbon cutting at the Capital One credit card contact center in Sioux Falls, I was struck by this list of attendees:

Gov. Dennis Daugaard, Sens. Tim Johnson and John Thune, Rep. Kristi Noem, Attorney General Marty Jackley, Sioux Falls Mayor Mike Huether and Capital One U.S. Card president Ryan Schneider were on hand for the ceremony.

The one that sticks out like a sore thumb is Attorney General Marty Jackley. Why in the world would the attorney general need or want to be at a ribbon cutting for a credit card office in Sioux Falls?

I can think of only one reason: He wants to be governor (or senator or representative) really, really, really bad.

I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that. Just thought it was an interesting observation. You didn’t see Larry Long at these kinds of things when he was attorney general.

Meanwhile, South Dakota’s U.S. attorney, Brendan Johnson, hosted a civil rights conference earlier this week.

Could these two events be offering us a glimpse into South Dakota’s political future? If so, what an interesting glimpse it is. Johnson, a Democrat and son of one of the state’s most successful politicians (Sen. Tim Johnson), is making his mark on a typically Democratic issue, civil rights. And Jackley, a Republican, is aligning himself just as a Republican would be expected to, on the side of big business and job creation.

I’ve always thought both of these men have designs on higher offices. What a race it would be to see these two charismatic prosecutors square off. I have no idea if it will ever happen, but it’s interesting to think about.

Thune VP buzz buzzing buzzily

Posted on by
1

He’s not at the top of the list. We can’t all hail from Ohio, after all. But South Dakota’s own John Thune is in the mix as the quadrennial Veepstakes speculation enters the frenzied stage.

South Dakota's own John Thune is in the Veepstakes mix. Huzzah!

With Mitt Romney’s GOP nomination all but wrapped up, we have a few months ahead of us of media obsession over this potential game-changer.

I’ve seen Thune on various lists over the past weeks, heard his name escape the lips of TV pundits and even seen his photo in a montage while he got no mention in the accompanying article.

The latest to catch our attention here at the MDR is this piece from a Virginia paper that lists Thune as a fourth-tier(!) contender and labels him “a whitebread sandwich.” Well, I never.

He gets more prominent mention in this WaPo blog post.

My take – worth what you’re paying for it – is that he’s an attractive choice. Very unlikely to gaffe it via a live mic, knowledgeable on the requisite range of issues, comfortable with crowds of all income levels, not a bad bio and “impeccable conservative credentials,” according to another Washington Post assessment.

But my gut tells me he’d rather not. Not this time, anyway. It seems to me the upside is limited in an uphill race he wouldn’t control. The downside seems to have too much potential. Romney could gaffe it in a contagious way that would be difficult to recover from. A landslide defeat, not probable but possible, would hang over his head indefinitely. The rabbit hole has already proven a wild ride. Who knows what misadventures await?

Perhaps more interesting is that none of the pundits seems to think Thune will be Romney’s choice, but they all feel the need to include him in the mix. If that doesn’t say rising star, I don’t know what does. And there aren’t too many places left for a fella to rise to.

 

Nathan Daschle sees a new way

Link

Reply

Nathan Daschle, the son of former congressman and senator Tom Daschle, is no longer a registered Democrat.

Nathan Daschle is now an advocate for an independent movement to nominate someone for president who is not linked to either the Republican or Democratic parties.

The movement that has been dubbed Ruck.us — both a play on the term “ruckus,” and the rugby term for a group of players bound together. The founders, including people with histories with both major parties, think people are fed up with politics as it has long been practiced.

“We’re not saying politics would be better if we just had different people in there,” Daschle said in an interview with The Washington Post. “To the contrary, we’re saying it’s not the fault of the people; it’s the structures that have to change.”

Nathan’s father Tom was a party man who rose to the top level, serving 26 years in Congress. He was the longest-serving Democratic leader in party history and considered a bid for the White House before and after he lost his Senate seat to John Thune in 2004.

Nathan Daschle headed down that path after graduating from Harvard, serving as the executive director of the Democratic Governors Association from 2007-2010.

He now calls himself a “reformed lawyer and political operative” who wants to help carve a new way to alter policy and government.

“Nathan now dreams of a day when people can shed their partisan labels and organize freely around the issues they care about most,” he wrote on the Ruck.us home page.

Tom Daschle served the state and nation as he saw fit. Now, his son is doing the same thing in a different way.

 

Ben Nelson’s decision

Posted on by
Reply

Sen. Ben Nelson is walking away instead of being carried out on his shield.

Nelson, a conservative Democrat from Nebraska, announced Tuesday that he will not seek a third term. Since Nebraska has tilted more to the right and to the GOP in recent years, it’s not a surprising decision, even with Nelson’s drift to the right.

I worked for pair of Nebraska newspapers in 2009-2010 and covered Nelson. I attended a public forum he declined to attend and another tightly controlled event where he did show up.

At the outdoor rally, he was widely denounced by insurgents from the fledgling Tea Party movement. At the event he hosted at a community college, people and questions were carefully screened. It was oppressive and revealing.

Nelson, a former insurance company executive who became governor before moving to the Senate, knew he faced an uphill climb in Nebraska, especially after the infamous Cornhusker Compromise, or, Cornhusker Kickback, as some called it in 2009. Nelson tried to make an old-fashioned deal to benefit his state — and his career — and failed on the national stage.

Since Nebraska is more and more conservative, like South Dakota with few promising young Democrats, it seems Nelson’s retirement will add a GOP seat in the Senate.

Is this a choice Sen. Tim Johnson, who is very similar to Nelson in many ways, will make in 2014?

A fuel and his money …

Posted on by
Reply

Mitchell Councilman Phil Carlson was blunt: Drivers in Mitchell are being cheated.

At the start of Monday night’s City Council meeting, Carlson accused Mitchell convenience store and gas station owners of charging too much for gas. It was selling for $3.27 a gallon locally at some stations, including Casey’s across the street from City Hall.

It was higher at other stations. Several websites offer prices and we will check them as well.

He pointed out that he bought gas for $2.94 a gallon in Sioux Falls this weekend (I paid $2.99 in SF Saturday morning but he got 5 cents off at a discount shopping center).

Carlson also said he saw gas selling for $3.14 a gallon at towns and cities across South Dakota in recent days. He blasted the gas merchants from the council platform and repeated the comments to me after the meeting.

A lot of people have been complaining. We have published stories and letters on the topic.

How do you explain such a wild fluctuation in prices? How can gas cost 30 cents more in Mitchell than it does in Sioux Falls?

Are we getting held up at the pumps? Is there a good explanation?

Has Carlson, a local lawyer who ran unopposed this year and claimed his first term in any office, harmed his just-launched political career? Or has he bravely sounded a note that needed to be heard?