While the fading and fallacious Dakota War College resorts to the usual name-calling and needling over one candidate's petition oopsie (the former is childish; the latter bears some mention), South Dakota Democratic Party Chair Ben Nesselhuf offers a few metrics on his party's performance over the past year:
- Record attendance at McGovern Day 2012
- Six-figure positive turnaround in fundraising (and remember: Dems have raised more per registered voter than Republicans!
- Nearly 66,000 SDDP email messages opened
- Facebook fans up by over 375% (though Republicans still have us beat in raw numbers, 1870 to 1389, a 1.35:1 ratio, better than the 1.26:1 edge the GOP holds over Dems in voter registration)
- Twitter followers tripled (though again, GOP edge, 1107 to 764, a 1.45:1 ratio)
South Dakota Dems are still playing catch up with the GOP (we have been since the Kneip era... or maybe since our 1938 pounding at the hands of Red-Scare Mundt?). Nesselhuf needs to spend April touring the state to persuade some Dems to file Independent for several more seats in the Legislature. But unlike the SDGOP's laggardly rookie recruit Tony Post (whose name I don't have to make fun of to make my point), Nesselhuf is hustling hard to rouse his party for a hard campaign in November.
Three comments:
1) There is mean needling over one's name and funny. In the case of DWC's referring to this as Nesselfluffing, I think it funny and harmless. (easy probably for me to say since my name is hard to make fun of). :)
2) I think both parties and their ED's did a good job this year in candidate recruitment. In the end, most of the conceded races by both parties is where they have big voter registration deficiencies so a case can be made it is just wise use of resources. When it was because of petition challenges, it comes with the territory. If the candidate can't get that right, I don't think they should be on the ballot but it doesn't reflect on Tony or Ben.
3) I know in a few cases, the GOP counted on some candidates who expressed interest but changed their mind too late to find a replacement. I'm sure the Dems experienced the same thing. Again, I don't think this reflects poorly on Tony or Ben. Part of the reality of candidate recruitment.
Personally, I say "good job boys." We have an election with probably more contested races (and in the case of the GOP more primaries) than I remember in a long time and let's debate the issues. The people win when they have choice.
Troy,
On your point 1, Urban Dictionary has some definitions of fluff that may indicate that the choice of the word was less than good natured. It's not the fan fiction one btw
I too thought it was funny. Clearly Nesselhuf is the best chair the dems have had in a long time. The Party on the other hand is going to take a long time to rebuild.
LK,
I still think it funny and took it as a take off of his SOS name id ad when he made fun of his name. I'd be surprised if Ben wasn't smiling as well. I think if we let the Urban Dictionary define everything, we will lose our sense of humor.
I believe Urban Dictionary prevents people from taking underhanded shots at people and then claiming "I didn't know."
That being said, I've got no dog in this fight and will take you at your word that there's no ill intent.
When Troy takes the middle of the road and praises both sides, I feel like I've accomplished something. DWC's snotty off-point blather requires some counterbalance... which I wish would knock them back into talking real substance.
Huether? A state run directly by big banking? No, thank you!
And Mark Mickelson in 2018? I thought the order was Matt Michels 2018, Dusty Johnson 2026, then maybe Tony Venhuizen in 2034? Or does Chris Daugaard get a spot there?