Sometimes fish just jump in the blog boat.
Bill Cissell, Black Hills writer and artist, makes public his intention to run for the Republican nomination for U.S. House right here in the Madville Times comment section:
...I'm the third GOP candidate — not yet made public but am getting sigs. Just wanted to... say hi to you. Talk about a cheap run at office, I've got about $4,000 for the whole deal, not taking donations and plan to win. No website — yet and may not after some of the above comments [Bill Cissell, comment, Madville Times, 2012.02.04].
By "above comments," Mr. Cissell is referring to the roughing up we've been giving the first announced Kristi Noem challenger, Stephanie Strong for her apparent inability to put up a quick and effective website (48 hours later, still no revision to her sloppy default billboard webpage... and still no call asking me to help her install WordPress and put up a Bio, Issues, Contact, and Donate pages!).
Cissell confirms via e-mail that he has petitions in his hands. He says he is a disabled Vietnam veteran and Black Hills State University graduate (well, it was College back when he graduated in 1980).
I haven't heard Mr. Cissell's platform yet, although there is photographic evidence that he may be a Jon Huntsman Republican! But I'm eager to see some crackling primary debates among our GOP friends complementing the fine policy discussions Messrs. Varilek and Barth will be having on the Dem side of the fence this spring.
I'm also eager to hear some of the best campaign slogans we could ask for:
- "Your Sis'll vote for Cissell! You should too!"
- "Put some real Cissell in Congress... Bill Cissell!"
- "For a party that's fissile
You need to whistle
For the Sturgis Missile
Bill Cissell!"
Oh, wait, that last one might not sell...
Cory, you gotta meet Willy. He's a champ. We worked together years ago in Deadwood in the early '80's on a magazine we started called "The Black Hills Monthly." (published for about 3 years.) It was one of those magic times in life that launched numerous careers. And nobody, but nobody worked harder on the project than the venerable Mr. Cissell. (I call him "Willy" because there were 4 people named "Bill" on the project, so we all had to figure out what we were going to call each other.)
How does he pronounce his last name, Bill? I so want a headline that reads, "Willy Cissell: Will He Sizzle?"
And four Bills? Let me guess: that's also how much money you guys made on the Black Hills Monthly? :-)
It's pronounced "Siss-ul"
Put it this way, Cory, for the first six months or so, those of us who were investors (I think there were 5 of us) looked at t financials and imagined that we had just driven one more new car off a cliff.
If I recall, my share of the debt when we closed the doors was about $12k which I finally finished paying off about 4 years later. I call it my "masters degree tuition."