Nebula Group labors on Labor Day producing press releases for two of its South Dakota Legislative candidates. District 12 House candidate Ellee Spawn announces that Senator Tim Johnson has endorsed her. Spawn also cites endorsements from Senator Angie Buhl O'Donnell (D-15/Sioux Falls), Rep. Paula Hawks (D-9/Hartford), and lieutenant governor candidate Susy Blake.
Meanwhile, District 33 Senate candidate Robin Page opens fire on Klan-shielding Republican Senator Phil Jensen. Campaign consultant and Nebula boss Bajun Mavalwalla portrays Jensen as the kid no one wants to play with.
“Look, there is no denying that Jensen is simply beyond the pale and the Republicans want to get rid of him. He’s an embarrassment to the South Dakota GOP who don’t want to be associated with him.”
Prominent Republicans from across the state are distancing themselves from him. “I found his comments to be completely out of line with South Dakota values,” Republican Governor Dennis Daugaard said “I don’t agree with him and I haven’t talked to anyone who does.”
“No one wants to be associated with him. Who wants their State Senator to be a pariah?” said Mavalwalla [Robin Page for District 33 Senate Campaign, press release, 2014.09.02].
The press releases tout both Spawn's and Page's support for raising the minimum wage. Spawn also mentions South Dakota's rock-bottom teacher pay as an issue worth considering on Labor Day.
Nebula Group has announced its work for four South Dakota candidates so far: Spawn, Page, Valerie Loudenback for District 14 House, and Angelia Schultz for Secretary of State. All Democrats, and all women. (It's probably sexist of me to notice, since I've never mentioned a campaign outfit whose candidates are all men.) Could Nebula be trying to capitalize on the gender gap that all of the national GOP's rebranding can't close?
A detailed report commissioned by two major Republican groups — including one backed by Karl Rove — paints a dismal picture for Republicans, concluding female voters view the party as “intolerant,” “lacking in compassion” and “stuck in the past.”
Women are “barely receptive” to Republicans’ policies, and the party does “especially poorly” with women in the Northeast and Midwest, according to an internal Crossroads GPS and American Action Network report obtained by POLITICO....
When female voters are asked who “wants to make health care more affordable,” Democrats have a 39 percent advantage, and a 40 percent advantage on who “looks out for the interests of women.” Democrats have a 39 percent advantage when it comes to who “is tolerant of other people’s lifestyles.”
Female voters who care about the top four issues — the economy, health care, education and jobs — vote overwhelmingly for Democrats. Most striking, Democrats hold a 35-point advantage with female voters who care about jobs and a 26 percent advantage when asked which party is willing to compromise [Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer, "GOP Poll of Women: Party 'Stuck in Past'," Politico, 2014.08.29].
The GOP poll and Politico chatter focuses on opportunities for Congressional office seekers and Hillary Clinton to capitalize on Republican Neanderthalism, but perhaps Nebula's client choices in South Dakota signal their view that some feminine mosquitoes can sting the GOP in state-level races.
It has always been my contention that Republican women suffer from Stockholm Syndrome or some related "ism". It is difficult to understand why Republican women stay with the party when it obvious to so many that their rights are continually challenged or diminished by the Republican Party.
As with attempting to recruit minorities, the GOP is playing defense on their treatment of women, let's hope it doesn't work.
Roger, I think you're right about women in most misogynist groups. It is a Stockholm-ish kind of association. Millennia of patriarchy will do that.
I once attended a Bible study led by women. They selected their own resource. It's important to recognize that they lived in an extremely patriarchal, very small town that saw few newcomers. The isolation was high.
The women chose a book by Beverly LaHaye. Few women are more anti-women than her. The book used isolated snippets of text to show that women cannot be trusted, are childish and immature, significantly inferior to men and God, and must be controlled and managed by males for the female's own good. The women in the group nodded in agreement with what they read.
From my point of view it was a horrifying experience. That any humans should feel such self-loathing as a group was heartbreaking. So too was the knowledge that they were raising their daughters and sons with the same understanding.
Definitely Stockholmish.
(People of color know all about this.)