Governor Dennis Daugaard got at least one Minneapolis reporter to come watch him conduct his publicity stunt in the Mall of America Monday. "Daugaard was there to pitch and persuade, not talk to the media," notes reporter Lee Schafer, who then reports on the folks Labor Secretary Pam Roberts made sure were available to talk to the media:

Daugaard stood just a few feet from the kiosk, as TV cameramen from Sioux Falls stations hovered nearby, greeting people who were rounded up by his staff. One by one, the governor made a personal pitch for each visitor to live and work in South Dakota.

...“This is one we really want to get back,” said Pam Roberts, cabinet secretary of the Department of Labor and Regulation, walking up to greet a young woman standing next to me. Before Roberts could introduce her, the woman stuck out her hand and said, “Hi, I’m Nicole Stengle.”

Stengle does sound like a perfect Dakota Roots target. She grew up in Pierre, and has a degree in industrial engineering from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology and a master’s degree from the University of Minnesota Duluth. Her work experience includes positions at the 3M Co., and she has worked for the last 2 ½ years at Target.

Stengle had just a moment to talk before the governor was ready to see her, but I got a sense of her dilemma. She likes her career opportunities in places like the Twin Cities, with large, stable employers like Target. And she very much likes her home state.

Maybe Sioux Falls one day will have a good opportunity, she said, as “Sioux Falls is where most of my good friends have migrated to” [Lee Schafer, "S.D. Sends Governor Recruiting at the MOA," Star Tribune, 2013.05.15].

Stengle isn't dragging down Mines' graduate salary average cashiering at Target; she's a Compliance Business Partner, which sounds important. It's at least important enough that when she looks at our glittering bastion of business and culture, Sioux Falls, a place filled with most of her good friends, the best she can say is "Maybe... one day...."

Schafer likens the Governor's mall time to a visit from Santa Claus (note: the Governor stood the entire time, allowing no lap-sitting... which might have improved turnout). Like me, Schafer also wonders about the efficiency of the stunt:

With a $200,000 campaign and the cost of flying the state’s plane to Minnesota to have the governor chat up mall visitors, Dakota Roots would not appear to be paragon of government efficiency, but I decided not to bring that up with a governor who appeared to be so thoroughly enjoying his hour at a shopping mall [Schafer, 2013.05.15].

Come on, Lee! We like the Minnesota press for asking questions the South Dakota media doesn't. But you get half-credit for at least mentioning this apparently inefficient expenditure of South Dakota resources.

If Daugaard's trip was about getting big-city press, the presence of one Minneapolis reporter amidst the Sioux Falls camera crews suggests even that plan failed. Let's hope his corporate recruiting meetings produced more results.

Economic development consultant Dean Barber comes from Plano, Texas, to tell us that Sioux Falls is a surprisingly happening place for a "fringe" city "at the edge of nowhere." Residents of anyplace more than five miles from the I-29/90/229 ring, take whatever umbrage you feel appropriate.

Edge-of-nowhere resident Scott Ehrisman takes proper umbrage at Barber's celebration of Mayor Mike Huether's hubristic declarations in meeting with Barber and other site selection consultants. Said the mayor:

“We should make the top two or three with every project you have,” he unabashedly told the assembled site selection consultants.

...[H]e passionately states that red tape doesn’t stand much of a chance in his city, with expedited permitting guaranteed. “We get s[...] done,” he said [Dean Barber, "Surprises Galore at the Edge of Nowhere," Barberbiz, 2013.05.12].

Says Ehrisman:

Yes, Mr. Barber, the city and state are very acommodating to ‘business’ but when it comes to their workers, they tax their food and pay them low wages. The unemployment rate in SD is low, because people here have to have multiple jobs to make ends meet. Funny how our mayor will pull no stops when it comes to ‘red tape’ for businesses, but when it comes to it’s residents he will threaten to haul your ass to the pokey for having grass that is 9″ high [Scott Ehrisman, "Mayor Huether: We Get S*** Done!" South Dacola, 2013.05.14].

Barber praises our humble Governor Dennis Daugaard, who hands out plates at the site selection meeting and does not "puff up and take full credit" for his state's balanced budget. Mr. Barber, perhaps you should come back during an election year and reformulate your opinion.

A South Dakota ex-pat friend cheers the Minnesota House's vote for marriage equality and says he's glad to call Minnesota home. I suggest that perhaps my ex-pat friend and Governor Dennis Daugaard's other targets should bring their respectful debate and celebration to the Governor's publicity stunt at the Mall of America on Monday, May 13, from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., to ask him not only what jobs and paychecks are available in South Dakota but whether the Governor and the State of South Dakota will welcome same-sex couples and honor their love and commitment.

I consider expanding that exhortation to professional women in the Twin Cities who might want to ask the Governor whether South Dakota's commitment to minimal regulations extends to their uteri... or maybe just set up their own picket line next to Hot Topic to remind the women Governor Daugaard talks to that South Dakota doesn't think their brains work on weekends.

But then I remember there's a good reason the Governor takes his show to the Mall of America: you have to pay to speak there. The Mall of America, like private corporate property everywhere, is a no-First-Amendment zone. If anyone attempts to present a counter-message to Governor Daugaard's taxpayer-funded marketing pitch Monday, Mall of America security can hustle them out of microphone range and probably all the way to Eagan.

So we'll just have to trust Minnesotans to look past Governor Daugaard's cowboy-booted propaganda to the broader economic and political landscape—and the blogosphere!—and decide what's best for them and their families.

Following up on Governor Dennis Daugaard's impending trip to the Twin Cities to steal away the best and brightest of their afternoon mall denizens, I find the South Dakota press is a few days behind the Minnesotans in discussing the big trip. MinnPost.com covered the trip last Thursday with more details on our taxpayer-funded efforts to get Minnesotans to give up the bright lights of the Twin Cities for our farther-flung prairie clime:

The recruitment efforts are happening through Dakota Roots, a worker recruitment initiative that South Dakota launched in 2006. It is currently in the midst of a marketing campaign through which roughly a dozen downtown Minneapolis coffee shops are giving patrons coffee sleeves that feature the Dakota Roots website. And just last week, South Dakota representatives spent a morning at Espresso Royale on Hennepin Avenue, where they gave free coffee to customers willing to stop and discuss job opportunities within the state [Christa Meland, "South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard heads to Minnesota, ups effort to lure job seekers," MinnPost.com, 2013.05.02].

Hi, we're South Dakotans. What would you like with your coffee?

From 1 to 2 p.m. on May 13, South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard will be stationed at a Dakota Roots booth at the Mall of America, where he’ll visit with shoppers, answer questions about career possibilities in the state, and encourage Minnesotans to consider relocating to South Dakota [Meland, 2013.05.02].

The Governor won't be setting out a card table Monday; the State of South Dakota maintains a "Dakota Roots" booth in the Mall of America, right next to the Butterflies, Jewels, and Accessories booth, between Typo, Justice for Girls, Call It Spring, and Hot Topic near the North Garden entrance on Level 1.

According to a three-year-old Entrepreneur.com post, Mall of America rented vendor carts for $2300 a month. ($2,300 x 12 = $27,600/year.) Plus, we've got to be paying someone to man or woman that booth for 77 hours a week... and we aren't getting good representation if we're paying some Twin Cities kid with saggy pants minimum wage. Even if we're getting personnel for $10 an hour, that's $40K in yearly payroll. Add gas money for the Governor and other South Dakota reps to visit the Cities regularly (and hey, the Twins play at home against the White Sox Monday night... and Denny did study in Chicago!), and you can see where a big chunk of the $200,000 our Legislature appropriated to Dakota Roots in 2012 is going.

And hey, do you remember the 3,000 Minnesotans that the South Dakota press was saying have relocated to South Dakota since the Dakota Roots website launched in 2006? Hey, South Dacola! In another example of the difference between what you'll find in the South Dakota press and the Minnesota press, MinnPost's Meland says we got that wrong:

Slightly more than 3,000 Minnesotans registered as job seekers on the Dakota Roots website since it launched in October 2006—534 of whom have relocated to South Dakota. (That compares to 17,224 registrants from all states, 2,790 of whom have found jobs within South Dakota.) [Meland, 2013.05.02]

However many Minnesotans are falling for our propaganda, Governor Daugaard's trip is still an incredibly inefficient use of state resources. Sitting around in a mall waiting for people to walk up to you is about the worst market-targeting you can do. Meland points to Dakota Roots efforts that cost much less per contact:

South Dakota representatives worked with several alumni associations within the state to connect with out-of-state alums who might be interested in returning to the state of their alma mater. Approximately 103,000 South Dakota college alumni received direct mailers containing information about job opportunities (and wildflower seed packets). After that, traffic to Dakota Roots’ website quadrupled and the website has averaged 23 new registrations each day. Dovre said she wasn't sure how many of the 103,000 people are Minnesotans but estimates that a “large majority” are from within the state [Meland, 2013.05.02].

We talk with interested local folks, we get 103,000 potential targets, we send them mail, we get a quick return on our advertising dollar. Governor Daugaard can't be counting on shaking even 1,000 hands in his hour at the mall. The only way his trip boosts web traffic to Dakota Roots, not to mention producing anything close to the number of relocations that the alumni direct mailing might, is through the auxiliary press and online buzz the trip may generate. (You're welcome, Dennis!)

One last problem: Meland notes that Minnesota is regaining jobs lost in the recession faster than South Dakota:

As of earlier this year, however, Minnesota had regained nearly 90 percent of the 160,100 jobs that were shed during the recession. Over the past year, Minnesota has gained 46,400 jobs, representing a growth rate of 1.7 percent, compared with the U.S. rate of 1.5 percent [Meland, 2013.05.02].

South Dakota shed 11,290 jobs from March 2008 to March 2010. As of March 2013, we'd regained 83% of those lost jobs. And from March 2012 to March 2013, South Dakota saw a job growth rate of 0.4%. I would love for Governor Mark Dayton to drop by the Mall of America Monday and ask Governor Daugaard about those numbers.

Last week, in light of the current spate of legislative resignations, I suggested that South Dakota should consider amending its constitution to fill legislative vacancies by special election instead of gubernatorial appointment.

The industrious Mr. Montgomery finds that my suggestion isn't so far off practice in other states. According to his research, a large majority of states keep the process of filling legislative vacancies closer to the people than South Dakota does:

• 25 states hold special elections for every legislative opening.
• 8 states either require the governor to pick a member of the departing lawmaker's party or require the governor to pick a replacement from a list supplied by that departing lawmaker's party.
• 7 states assign the duty of filling legislative vacancies to county commissions.
• Just 3 states—Nebraska, Vermont, and us—give their governors total authority to pick.

Montgomery also finds that, with five legislative vacancies in two and a third years in office, Governor Daugaard is on pace to enjoy the privilege of seeding the Legislature with more of his favorites than any previous South Dakota governor.

If legislators keep resigning at this pace, we have all the more reason to consider a constitutional amendment to select all legislators, in all circumstances, by public ballot to preserve the system of checks and balances.

The sequester will deny some 200 South Dakota kids the benefits of Head Start. It didn't have to: Senator Stanford Adelstein (R-32/Rapid City) proposed an amendment to the general appropriations bill in March that would have filled the sequester Head Start gap with $1.36 million in state money. The Daugaard Administration, however, had other priorities:

I submitted this specific data in good time and prepared an amendment (HB1185MX) to the general bill appropriation bill, HB1185.

The governor’s office still opposed the amendment, preferring instead to take back $4M that had been removed from his appropriation to the Future Fund for the development of the state. What could have been more important to South Dakota than to have children succeed in school? [Sen. Stanford Adelstein, "Cuts to Head Start Could Have Been Avoided," A Way to Go, 2013.05.02]

Ah, the Future Fund, just another example of our state's commitment to doing corporations' work for them over helping kids learn.

Governor Dennis Daugaard's South Dakota WINS plan was to spend $5 million on an out-of-state headhunter to bring a thousand new people to South Dakota.

It may have worked: a glance at our Department of Labor data shows that from March 2012 to March 2013, our state labor force grew by 1,250 and jobs grew by 1,755.

But Governor Daugaard is still looking for talent outside the state to come make their fortunes here. He's setting up shop in the Mall of America on Monday, May 13, to spend an hour trying to recruit workers to move South Dakota.

Hmmm... just an hour? It must cost a lot to rent a kiosk next to the sunglasses stand. Maybe the Governor is renting a spot next to the massage booth so he can talk to people while they're relaxed and impressionable.

And if he can only afford an hour in the Mall, why pick an hour when most of the people with talent are at their Twin Cities offices using that talent?

The news about Governor Daugaard's trip to the mall contains a couple of other head-scratchers:

State Labor and Regulation Secretary Pam Roberts says officials are targeting the Twin Cities because more Minnesotans have shown an interest in moving to South Dakota than workers from any other state ["SD Gov Heading to MN to Recruit Workers," AP via KELO, 2013.05.06].

Perhaps Secretary Roberts and I are reviewing different data, but the Census Bureau's data on state-to-state migration in 2011 showed South Dakota making more net gains in Iowans, North Dakotans, and Wyomingians than Minnesotans.

More than 3,000 Minnesotans have relocated to South Dakota since October 2006, when the state launched a website to connect out-of-state workers with in-state careers ["SD Gov..." 2013.05.06].

Not mentioned there is the number of South Dakotans who have relocated to Minnesota, which anyone with recent college graduates in the family knows is quite a few. The Census Bureau shows that over the past few years, the estimates of Minnesotans coming to South Dakota and South Dakotans leaving for Minnesota are roughly identical, within each other's margin of error. That suggests that percentage-wise, South Dakotans are more likely to see Minnesota as a preferable location than Minnesotans are to return the favor.

And why might they have that impression? For the same reason that Governor Daugaard is going to the Mall of America to recruit instead of spending April hanging out at student unions across South Dakota: Minnesota invests more in education to produce more skilled graduates and workers. And really, why bother? Pouring more resources into K-12 and university education only creates a larger, more powerful class of teachers, professors, and critical thinkers who might form a locus of opposition to Republican cronyism and foolishness in South Dakota. It's much cheaper to let Minnesota spend all that money on educating young people, then hop in the state Suburban, hang out at the mall, and pick the low-hanging fruits of their system.

Update 07:25 MDT: Mike Henriksen suggests that South Dakota ex-pats in the Twin Cities drop by the Mall Monday to explain to Governor Daugaard why they left South Dakota. I suggest that Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton drop by to debate Daugaard. Perpich-Janklow II!

It's an honor just to be considered... and it's a heck of a surprise when that consideration is extended from the monolithic GOP to a good Democrat. District 16 Democrat Ann Tornberg reports on Facebook that Governor Dennis Daugaard's office may actually be considering her to replace resigning District 16 Rep. Patty Miller:

My sincere appreciation to all my supporters from District 16 who contacted the Governor's Office and recommended that I be nominated to fill the position left vacant by Patty Miller's resignation. You reminded the Governor that I received enough votes in the 2012 General Election to be eligible for a recount, losing by only 124 votes out of a total of 11,000 cast. While the Governor's Office told me they do not keep count, I have been. According to my own tally from those of you who contacted me, close to 200 calls or emails were sent. I had a phone interview last week and have been told the decision will be made by the end of May. Thanks to everyone, and regardless of the appointment process (which will likely be political rather than based on 2012 voter preferences) I'll continue to see you at District 16 community events and again on the 2014 campaign trail! [Ann Tornberg, public Facebook post, 2013.05.02]

A good candidate should be willing and able to serve. By running twice in District 16 (and apparently promising above to run again next year), Tornberg has clearly shown her willingness. Her experience as a teacher, farmer, and labor rep show she's definitely able. A lot of callers and writers agree... and the Governor apparently recognizes that support.

Thank you, Ann, for being willing to serve, and thank you, Governor Daugaard, for being willing to consider her. Now pick Tornberg to represent her neighbors! She'll do a good job... and she'll make life more interesting in Pierre!