Unlike some blogs, I only run press releases if they are news.
Former State Fire Chief Joe Lowe is announcing that he's running for Governor. As a Democrat.
Yup, that's news. Here's Candidate Lowe's announcement:
Former State of South Dakota Wildland Fire Division Director/Fire Chief Joe Lowe will run as a Democratic Candidate for Governor. Lowe was also an Incident Commander for one of only 33 Type 2 Teams in the country that respond to incident of national significance. He was in charge of notable incidents such as the Missouri River flood response from Yankton to Dakota Dunes, the 88,000 acre Region 23 Fire Complex in Chadron, and Hurricane Gustav and Ike in the City of New Orleans. Joe is a proven leader.
Before choosing to live in South Dakota in 2001 and accepting Governor Janklow's offer of employment, Joe was the Mayor of the City of Mission Viejo, California. (100,000 population). As Mayor, he inherited one of this country’s most significant municipal bankruptcy, the Orange County Municipal Bankruptcy. Mission Viejo was one of the 22 cities in the investment pool. Joe successfully recovered all of the city’s 18.2 million dollar initial investment. He is no stranger to politics and business.
“I am running because I think our state and country have forgotten who we work for. We work for you, the people of South Dakota. Not special interest groups.
We can do better as a state. We rank 50th in studies done on transparency in government, last in teacher pay and expense per student, South Dakota fell to the bottom and ranked last in wages of all states in America, and college tuition rose over 50% in just 8 years. These are just a few examples of where we can do better. It is time to put in a new team for the citizens of our state.”
Joe and his wife Wendy live in Piedmont and own a business in Rapid City. They have two children. Their son is a Stanford University Ph.D. graduate and teaches at the University of Western Australia. Their daughter, a Berkeley graduate, is in pharmaceutical sales. Joe is also an Honorary Base Commander for the 432 Attack Squadron at Ellsworth Air Force Base.
No word yet on whether the candidate will permit us to call him "J. Lo" on the campaign trail.
Lowe appears to have done solid work improving South Dakota's wildfire response. Let's hope Lowe can pivot to starting a fire among voters and extinguishing the corruption burning through state government.
Lowe joins Independent Mike Myers, Tea Party Republican Lora Hubbel, and Constitution Partier Curtis Strong in challenging Republican Dennis Daugaard for his job in 2014.
looks interesting
That's what I like to hear! Great credentials and specific areas that he has identified where SD is weak. (and he is right!) This is great news.
Campaign and political experience, work in state government, crisis management, and now business—Lowe does have an interestingly diverse and relevant résumé. Have you met him, Dana?
He has a solid resume, however resume doesn't mean anything if you can't raise money and get your message out. Hope he can do it, but starting from a point of no name recognition will be hard.
I met him during a trip west around 2007. Genuine, kind and great sense of humor. Surprised he is running for governor, but I wish him well.
No I haven't, Cory. But I'm excited to follow him as he proceeds, and will make it a point to meet him. Maybe I should drop by his studio and encourage him to display some of his pieces at the Matthews Opera House and Arts Center!!!
Wow. A real live professional leader.
The timid insular electorate will never stand for it as they cower back to their crony go-along-to-get-along single party and single minded faux leaders.
Fixing most of South Dakota's self-inflicted problems is physically and fiscally relatively easy - as to harvest long hanging fruit. The almost insurmountable problem is the will, the moral - it is here where the electorate's mindset is stuck in badlands gumbo.
Perhaps the time is right. All the best to Mr. Lowe.
True, Joe (and that commenter is not Joe Lowe, I assure all here)! A candidate's got to have cash to run copies of that résumé and get it in everyone's hands. A candidate's also got to have a website and contact info to tell us where to send that money. Lowe is starting from scratch... but hey, don't we all?
And on top of that, John, Joe tells me he's part Irish. He sounds like he's genetically inclined to bring the fight. Brace yourself, timid electorate.
My son worked for Joe for a number of years as a Black Hat firefighter and thinks of him extremely highly. I am excited about this news! We non-republicans need to get behind this candidacy 100%. With a little name recognition and good press, I think he has a chance. Especially if the EB-5 thing continues to blow up in the establishment's faces. The longer it stays in the news with ties to currently elected officials, the better for us.
I've never heard of him, but his background is very intriguing. I bet if he were Governor he wouldn't have done a flyover of the cattle devastation like Governor Daugaard did. He would have been on the ground with the National Guard. If he can project the image of a take charge leader with bold ideas - like his former boss Bill Janklow - he might be in the running. I have a couple of bold ideas to share with him.