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Bosworth Blusters: Bad Press Means I’m Great! Keep Sending Money! Whee!

Last updated on 2014.04.09

For today's reality-denial special, we have fake U.S. Senate candidate Annette Bosworth saying that the big takeaway from Jonathan Ellis's February 23 exposé of her serious financial troubles is not that she tricked South Dakotans out of their money with fake raffles. It's not that the Division of Criminal Investigation is investigating her raffle scams. It's not that Bosworth and her husband Chad Haber have dispatched non-profit compadre and GOP lawyer Joel Arends to frame her employees for wrecking the raffles. It's not that Bosworth has faced lawsuits from former employees, a fellow doctor, and her brother-in-law for not paying the money she owes them. It's not that an arch-conservative Republican ad firm from Florida might sue her to get her to pay her bills.

No, no, no. In the desperate Chad-and-Annette world where any press is good press, the most important thing Jonathan Ellis's coverage tells you is that Annette Bosworth "continues to remain a strong candidate."

Good grief.

You can't continue to do something if you haven't done it yet. You can't remain somewhere if you haven't gotten there. You can't "continue to remain a strong candidate" if you never have been a strong candidate.

Show me one poll in which Annette Bosworth has scored anywhere within striking distance of front-runner Marion Michael Rounds. Show me a real dollar figure, money raised by her own efforts rather than Base Connect's costly and predatory direct-mailing scheme. Show me money that isn't already wiped out by Bosworth's campaign debts.

Show me any evidence of a real grassroots network of Bosworth supporters—no, not clinic employees pressured to make campaign calls on company time and beg their family and friends to support their boss, but real, honest-to-goodness volunteers around South Dakota on fire for Bosworth's message and her chances of winning the election. Show me anyone who has walked out of any of the Lincoln Day dinners or other multi-candidate events saying, "Wow, that Bosworth lady is better candidate than those other characters."

Show me her signature total.

Show me her real finances.

Show me Annette Bosworth, sitting down with me for a face-to-face conversation about real issues on Google Hangout, live, online, for anyone to watch.

A strong candidate could do that. Annette Bosworth cannot.

Jonathan Ellis's reporting did not show that Annette Bosworth is a strong candidate. It showed she's able to trick people who don't read the papers into giving her money.

Annette Bosworth is not a candidate. She is not a conservative. She is a con.

Annette Bosworth will not appear on any ballot in November. She may not appear on any ballot in June. It seems more likely she will face a vote of just twelve of her peers in a very different venue.

36 Comments

  1. Troy 2014.03.03

    It might be what I saw in a movie, a documentary, or made up in my head. But, what jumped into my head is a recollection that Bonnie (of Bonnie and Clyde infamy) sent a letter to her mom of a press account about their "exploits" with a picture of her in a dress where she said "Mom, I still have the dress you made/bought for me."

  2. Rorschach 2014.03.03

    Interesting to me is the DakotaPressReleaseCollege posting of two press releases in a row. The first is the AG's office participating in consumer protection week. The following is the Bosworth campaign saying "ignore reality - we're doing great!"

    My question is: Will the AG's Office protect any consumers from Dr. Bosworth's scams this week? If not, then why should anyone bother to submit a complaint to that office?

  3. Barry G. Wick 2014.03.03

    Ah, 21st century politics in South Dakota...there's a movie in here someplace. Maybe DiCaprio could win an oscar for the role of Heidelberger...

  4. Sam 2014.03.03

    Be nice if DCI would get as excited about finding out what the. Gov. Rounds knows about the alleged wrong doing of benda and the EB 5 program

  5. Bill Dithmer 2014.03.03

    Barry why oh why did you have to say that?

    Dicaprio as the mild mannered french teacher turned dirt digging blogger.

    Woody Haralson as bumbling dimwitted insurance man and former governor Smiling Mike Rounds.

    Dan Aykroyd as South Dakota’s present governor DD.

    David Spade as Joop Bollen.

    Robert Duvall as Dickie Benda

    John Caparulo as Attorney General Marty Jackley

    Tina Fey as Dr. Annette Bosworth

    Seth Rogen as Chad Haber

    Brian Bosworth as Stace Nelson

    Tom Selleck as Larry Rhoden

    Larry Pressler as Larry Pressler

    Kevin Nealon as Rick Weiland

    And Nick Nolte as the ghost of Bill Janklow. WTF

    The Blindman

  6. Rick 2014.03.03

    If only John Candy were still alive, he would be my choice to play Pat Powers.

  7. Bill Dithmer 2014.03.03

    Rick wouldn't Ralphie May work for Pat?

  8. Rick 2014.03.03

    I had to Google the name but, yes, I agree! lol

  9. Deb Geelsdottir 2014.03.03

    I love it! What are we going to title this movie?

    Let's see, there was "Erin Brockovich."
    How about "Cory Heidelberg."

    Same rhythm. Same idea. A working class hero.

  10. Reynold Nesiba 2014.03.03

    I laughed out loud at the post and then again at the comments. Woody Harrelson playing Mike Rounds.....I love that....

  11. Vincent Gormley 2014.03.03

    This is an art project for 9 yr old's.

  12. Bill Dithmer 2014.03.03

    Nope it would have to be "EB-5 THE CATTLE PIMPS"

    The Blindman

  13. grudznick 2014.03.03

    Wouldn't Steve Buscemi with a tighter haircut make a better Mr. H? And why would Mr. PP be in this movie? I think that's a valid question.

  14. Bill Dithmer 2014.03.03

    That would be ok with me Grudz. AS to the question of why PP. Because two big men isnt as good as three.

    The Blindman

  15. Bill Dithmer 2014.03.03

    Our story begins with Cory riding his bike north in lower Spearfish Canyon.

    Cue http://grooveshark.com/s/The+Sound+Of+Silence/2DatA1?src=5

    He gets past the road to the fish hatchery and is headed towards the golf course. Suddenly a black SUV comes up hard and fast and just when the bumper is about to whack his back tire he hits the ditch and goes cross country to the back side of Homestake land to a hail of machine pistol fire.

    The Blindman

  16. grudznick 2014.03.03

    Bob directing indeed. Wearing a different hat each day. And always mellow.

  17. grudznick 2014.03.03

    Bill is writing this.

  18. Deb Geelsdottir 2014.03.03

    Hahahaha! Keep going Blindman! Keep going!

  19. Bill Dithmer 2014.03.03

    Bob can have it, I'm just an idea man and could never stand the stress that went along with Golden Eunuch awards like they had last night.

    The Blindman

  20. Deb Geelsdottir 2014.03.03

    Oh! I like that you are planning on winning awards. Well don't stop now. There is the biggest of the biggies - Palm d'Or in Europe. You could go to France. Then Sundance in Utah. And Toronto. Fame! Fortune! Wealth! Hanging out with celebrities! What else matters in life?!

  21. Downer 2014.03.03

    Then chad sues you because you stole it from them.

  22. Barry G. Wick 2014.03.03

    No, Dithmer, you have it wrong. Larry Pressler lays on the ground the whole movie and plays a train junction in Rapid City.

  23. Deb Geelsdottir 2014.03.03

    That was good Blindman. Jimmy Buffet is a wonderful songwriter. Maybe we should ask him to write the screenplay for this movie.

    I'm not sure, however, that you have "arrived too late."

  24. caheidelberger Post author | 2014.03.04

    Troy, excellent Bonnie and Clyde reference.

    Everyone, fine screenwriting. We could put up a wiki where you could write this whole thing. Tourism-wise, it could be South Dakota's comedic Dances with Wolves.

  25. mike from iowa 2014.03.04

    If memory serves,Bonnie was already married when she took off with Clyde,that would make her a scam artist/politician I'm thinking. This story needs a sub-plot. Like the nukular sub Wing Ding Bat,affectionately known as the Dakota south of the north one,takes a wrong turn seeking a trade route to the Phillipines and surfaces in downtown Hudson,SD,right where the old Buckaroo Bar used to stand. That's because I spent many glorious under age for iowa weekends quaffing 3.2 flu swill there(1972 or 3). Like to say hi to the Homandberg bros if they are still there.

  26. 108 2014.03.04

    I just don't see how this train wreck could get any worse... Could there possibly be any more untapped fuel left to flame this inferno or has the last of it been exposed to the flames? A part of me wants to see the comedy continue, reading this stuff is better than any Sunday comics. I just don't see how it could be possible for two people to have more stuff to expose than what we have already seen. I wonder if all that is left is to see the repercussions of the investigations that are sure to follow. I have an economy sized box of extra butter popcorn standing by.

  27. Bill Dithmer 2014.03.04

    You're traveling to another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound, but also of mind; a journey into a redneck hillbillies land whose bounderies are that of a people's biblical imagination. At the sign post up ahead, your next stop, South Dakota.

    Richard Benda tosses back the last of the expensive single malt scotch in one big gulp. If it had been earlier in the day it would have burned going down but now it was only an afterthought. He said a pleasant "goodnight" to the others at the table, took the arm of his escort , and started toward the elevator that would take him to the 29th floor and his room.

    They were about to leave the casino when the led screen on one of the expensive slots caught his eye. It just said in simple capital letters "RICHARD BENDA." He took this as a sign and herded the pretty young woman holding him up to the front of the machine. Without hesitation he put his card in the one armed bandit for credits and gave the handle a pull.

    Suddenly the led screen changed from cherries, oranges and lemons, to the three dimensional view of small town bar. When Richard turned to ask his lady friend what had happened, she wasn't there. Confused and visibly shaken, he asks the woman tending bar "where the hell am I?" To which she replied, "Mister are you ok? You dont look well, can I call an ambulance for ya? If it will help you, your in the Pheasant Bar in Winner South Dakota."

    I'm done now

    The Blindman

  28. Jeff Endrizzi 2014.03.04

    The entertainment value of this site is wonderful. Newsworthy? Not so much.

  29. mike from iowa 2014.03.04

    Bonnie and Clyde spent one fateful night about 10 miles S E of my place back when. They were thugs and made honorary wingnuts,not honorary iowans.

  30. larry kurtz 2014.03.04

    Jeff Endrizzi is an earth hater of biblical proportions.

  31. Deb Geelsdottir 2014.03.04

    There needs to be both dimwitted simpletons who wholeheartedly believe our main characters, and incredulous average humans who are stunned by the depraved depths of their deceptions.

    The cretins are the ones who love Bos's daily bible blurb and support her in polls. They are eager, yet unaware participants in her scams and refuse to accept factual evidence of same, even as it is placed before their eyes. This is were Powers' role comes in.

    The incredulous group - is us! And their employees, both present and past, plus the people who have been cheated in the raffle scams.

    I have more ideas, but I've got a meeting. Keep up the good work! Especially you, Blindman.

  32. Douglas Wiken 2014.03.05

    Too bad Abbott and Costello are dead and Sid Caesar too.

  33. Bill Dithmer 2014.03.05

    Doug, Sid Caesar used to talk about the intimacy of a joke. What he meant by that was the connection that a comedian had with their audience. If each person in that audience were made to think that he was talking to them, then he was a success. It worked for him.

    The Blindman

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