Power Couple in the Making: Jenna Haggar and Isaac Latterell?

Last updated on 2013.06.27

My Friday post on Rep. Jenna Haggar's fibbery before House Judiciary last week drew an urging from an interested reader to look more closely at the Roll with It tobacco shop surveillance video posted by that Sioux Falls paper:

But I'm not seeing it. Who is the mystery man?

My correspondent clears a deep throat: "Jenna's boyfriend—"

—Oh! Jenna has a boyfriend! How nice. Some conservatives were starting to wonder—

"—Isaac Latterell."

Isaac Latterell?! Wait a minute: he can't have time for a fruitless sting operation on a Sioux Falls incense dealer, let alone for a girlfriend. Doesn't he have to put together his fourth futile District 3 Legislative campaign?

Oh no, Aberdeen voters don't have Isaac Latterell to kick around any more. Latterell has moved to Tea, where he has filed to run for District 6 House alongside Herman Otten. If I'm reading the map correctly, this means someone is going to get his butt kicked by incumbent Rep. Gene Abdallah... if he gets around to filing his petition for re-election.

I cannot confirm any mushy stuff between Haggar and Latterell. But Facebook confirms that Haggar and Latterell are among those planning to attend a March 3 presentation by wingnut Kitty Werthmann, who will regale them with her usual lies and distortions about history, Nazis, socialism, and the President of the United States.

A clearer sign of a Haggar-Latterell connection is the similarity of their websites:

I've marked key similarities in green on Latterell's oddly named "WeAreTheKing" website (ah, the royal we? that could explain losing three elections). Among the similarities:

• Haggar and Latterell both use WordPress, SimpleFolio theme.
• Both use the same default favicon, that block capital S you see in the browser tab. (Latterell has worked as a technology consultant... but he sticks with the default favicon? Hmmm....)
• Both use the same font.
• Both have the same menu bar, just with Jenna's cleverly right-justified. (Get it? Right-justified? Isaac! You gotta do that!)
• Scroll down and you'll find identical "What district do I live in? Where do I vote?" links in their right sidebars.

And perhaps most importantly, Haggar and Latterell share an almost complete lack of interest in discussing real, practical, South Dakota policy on their campaign websites. Haggar's Issues page at least mentions tackling crime on the mean streets of Sioux Falls. Latterell doesn't have Issues; he has Principles, a scroll of Tea Party karaoke that doesn't mention South Dakota once. Latterell sounds a lot like Jason Bjorklund, another ormer candidate who seemed to think he was auditioning for a radio talk show or John Adams Passion Play, not state legislator. Birds of a feather....

Haggar and Latterell appear to be made for each either. Neither is made for the Legislature. Let's give them both a chance to spend more time together... at home, in Sioux Falls and Tea, not in Pierre.

Update 18:39 MST: Oh yeah, and Haggar and Latterell made a joint appearance on Ryan Dobson's Grounded podcast on August 23, 2011. Dr. James Dobson's son thinks a politician knocking on doors is revolutionary political concept. Haggar says knocking on doors is not self-promotion, then says her election victory in 2010 was "God's blessing on my life and my neighborhood." The interviewers also consider the fact that Jenna still lives at home with Mom and Dad to be "just awesome." Dr. James Dobson might think otherwise. The interviewers also celebrate Haggar's lack of a college degree, suggesting that college smarts somehow prevent an individual from speaking with and understanding one's fellow citizens.

The interviewers refer to Isaac as Jenna's "assistant." Wow: is Rep. Haggar the first legislator to have an official "assistant"?