The latest Madville Times poll asks you, dear readers, who you think are the best candidates for the two District 31 House seats. Your choices, all Republicans, to represent Lawrence County in Pierre:
- Incumbent Representative Fred W. Romkema
- Former legislator (2001&ndash2004) John E. Teupel
- Pill salesman and preacher Gary L. Coe
- Former judge Timothy R. Johns
I choose this race to poll because it may be the only interesting one in Lawrence County. The incumbents in the county commission and state Senate races don't face serious challengers. The House race, however, involves four candidates with an interesting mix of experience and political stripes (to the extent that four white male West River Republicans can be considered to model any sort of diversity).
Read what the candidates said about a variety of issues at Monday's forum here in Spearfish. Watch my video of the House candidates at the forum (embedded below!), then vote in the poll in the right hand sidebar!
Poll closes Sunday morning at breakfast time; we'll discuss the results then. Vote now, and send the links to your friends!
If this voter cared enough to change her registration to independent (forgive me, goddess) and engage in LawCo politics in earnest, my choices would be the least palatable candidates: Coe, a likely sociopath and Teupel, who exhibits psychopathic tendencies comorbid with delusions of ecocidal nihilism.
I have some pallid respect for Tim Johns as a jurist and Fred Romkema as an educator disqualifying them as fit for a South Dakota legislature otherwise committed to destroying a state that I once loved.
There you have it, CAH.
An aside: Larry Rhoden doesn't know what a Malbec is or where it is vinted.
I considered changing registration to take a swing at this Lawrence County ballot, but I'm still hung up on the idea that I can't say on paper that I am something that I'm not.
Johns, Romkema, and Teupel do appear to have sufficient policy chops for the job. I've heard Romkema say some rational, un-Tea-Party things. Johns is certainly a creature of the system, meaning he'd have some idea of how to get things done. Teupel raises just a little bit of a red flag... plus I see he gets Gordon Howie's qualified support.
I bullet voted Mr. Johns. Am I right that he's the only one who explicitly listed education as his highest prioriy?
You are right about that, Bill! Teupel said economic development is job #1, and "Business first!" makes me queasy. Coe didn't list a specific policy issue, just bleated "common sense!", which is Palin code for "Policy is too hard!" Romkema picked balancing the budget and, on that answer, drifted into some fuzz about the price of uranium.