Last updated on 2012.12.10
With Judge Mark Barnett throwing out a lawsuit against Governor Daugaard's SD WINS program, the Governor can go ahead with his efforts to pay an out-of-state company millions of dollars to convince talented workers to move back to South Dakota. Hmm... that sounds rather like the South Dakota Republican Party hiring a guy from Minnesota to come here and say who is a South Dakotan and who isn't. (Tony, really, have you no shame?)
As part of the SD WINS campaign, family and friends pining for their expatriate loved ones' return can now sign them up for spam and robocalls from Dennis Daugaard himself:
A new online feature at www.DakotaRoots.com allows family and friends to request just such messages to out-of-state loved ones, urging them to return to their South Dakota roots.
The recorded messages and emails from Gov. Daugaard focus on job openings, quality of life, recreational opportunities and a friendly tax structure.
"Our reinvigorated Dakota Roots program encourages the return of those who have left South Dakota by letting them know that the grass is truly greener here," the Governor said. "I am excited to personally invite our family members and friends to move back to their home state" ["Governor Daugaard: Follow Your Roots Back to South Dakota," State of South Dakota press release, October 30, 2012].
I guess Dennis has to do something to counteract another poor messaging choice by his party, the Kristi Noem ad that ridicules education and experience. National and local press alike recognize that the Republican campaign ad sends exactly the opposite message that Governor Daugaard is trying to send to the well-trained, well-educated workforce that South Dakota needs:
Here are some of the reasons you should not vote for Varilek, according to the video:
- He earned a degree in environmental studies.
- He earned a master's degree at the University of Glasgow, Scotland.
- He attended Cambridge University.
- He "hosts a raucous national Corn Dog Day party in his swanky D.C. neighborhood, serving more than 1,000 corn dogs, 1,200 beers and a 150-pound ice luge for consuming shots of Jagermeister."
While all this was going on, according to the video, Noem was back in South Dakota farming, raising a family and managing a restaurant. The video proudly touts that Noem has apparently never stepped foot out of her hometown, let alone the state.
What a poor idea: To hold higher education to ridicule, as though taking advantage of the opportunity to study or work abroad makes someone less qualified than, say, someone without a college degree at all [editorial, "Noem, Dennert Ads Miss Their Marks," Aberdeen American News, October 31, 2012].
Maybe Dennis robocalls will play something like this:
Hi, I'm Dennis Daugaard. I know what it's like to go out of state to study, then to come back to South Dakota and have folks tease you for "going big city" and "thinking you're hot stuff with all that book-learnin'." Well, don't worry. Just come back, wear jeans and boots and boots and checked shirts a lot, go shoot some stuff, and keep all your world travels and degrees under your hat, and other South Dakotans will accept you just like a normal person. South Dakota wants your talent; just don't let South Dakotans know about it.
Dennis has some hard advertising ahead to counteract his own party's anti-talent campaign.
http://tv.nytimes.com/2012/10/30/arts/television/big-sky-big-money-on-pbs-frontline.html?_r=0
I watched Frontline last night on PBS. There is some interesting stuff going on in Montana.
Daugaard's new add that we have not taxes and no rules and still need to pay big corporations to come with his tax cuts, does truely show how pathetic our business climate is. A great business climate is where someone can come to make money, not come to evade taxes.
I find it interesting the Governor DD wants to 'bring back' our young people to South Dakota. For what purpose?
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According to the GOP during this past decade of politics young people returning to help us in South Dakota are not worthy of being leaders or in politics. According to them, we can only have college dropouts who receive special treatment to eventually get the half baked degree they now promote.
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South Dakotans according to the 'modern' GOP are not interested in world views or events. This state is an island and we must preserve our 49th in everything important rating.
I don't approve of using an out of state firm for staffing. As far as jobs being unfilled because we don't have any qualified people to fill them------that could easily be fixed if the employers were willing to use apprenticeship programs to train them, instead of expecting to hire already trained people. It used to be that secretaries, mechanical people, etc. were trained in apprenticeship programs, instad of having to go to school to receive their training.
All this does seem to beg the question, why did all these talented people leave in the first place? Does the SD GOP understand this: that talent left (leaves) for a reason? Has SD learned its lesson and stopped those very things that enticed these bright people to leave our boarders or do we hope a 15 second pep-talk will erase all those real, compelling reasons to not be here?
I would be most interested to hear the sale pitch for bringing back a good teacher (or any public employee for that matter) to SD.
The Frontline Big Sky Big Money is great, and I recommend it to anyone interested in politics, especially the dirty parts of it.
As far as this argument, well I've said before the public should be attacking the GOP for this. The media, the newspapers should be calling the GOP and asking, "how do you expect to get out of staters to move back, when you have an ad attacking Matt Varilek as not one of us?"
Robo-calls: AG Jackley enters four counts against Daniel Willard who promptly announces bid for chair of SDGOP.