Last updated on 2013.03.21
Rapid City Mayor Sam Kooiker held a rally last weekend to announce he wants to lead the city for another couple years. State Senator Mark Kirkeby wants to take Mayor Kooiker's place.
Comes now candidate number three: 25-year-old Libertarian Jon Cunningham, who tweets that he's gathering signatures to run and wants to "inject real issues into the political discussion." Mr. Cunningham appears to include among his real issues military drone blimp surveillance (though not the hazards of videoing while driving), Danish troops training in Rapid City (for real!), and the need for all of us to carry concealed weapons to stop mass shootings rather than think government can do anything about such crimes (and if you don't like his thoughts, he says you can "shove it"). Cunningham also doesn't care much for fluoride.
Mr. Cunningham has not filed his petitions yet. However, I look forward to his candidacy and his effort to pull Mayor Kooiker, Senator Kirkeby, and the public away from such distractions as jobs and infrastructure and engage them in conversations about guns and fluoride.
Ha! dude is on the highway to Bircher-ville!!
Promising 'talent' for the legislature.
Guess he didn't get in the Air Force...
I couldn't access his videos. He should inject some comic relief into the mayoral race. Then he will run and win a seat in the legislature in 2014 with his mainstream RC GOP views.
Paraphrasing a Nebraska Representative or Senator when referring to a Republican court appointee, "Ignorant people deserve representation on the Court."--- Crazy people need more representatives in the South Dakota legislature and Rapid City certainly needs a few more.
U.S. Senator Roman Hruska, a Nebraska Republican, said this in 1970 to "support" Nixon's nomination of Judge G. Harrold Carswell to the Supreme Court:
"Even if he were mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they, and a little chance? We can't have all Brandeises, Frankfurters and Cardozos."
Carswell, stung by that faint praise, was rejected 51-45 by the Senate.
Nixon then nominated Harry Blackmun, the second of the "Minnesota Twins," along with the new chief justice, Warren Burger; both were from the Land of 10,000 Lakes and were old friends who became estranged on the court. Blackmun ended up writing the Roe v. Wade decision, and ended his career as the most liberal member of the court, just as Earl Warren had altered people's perceptions of him after he was named to the high court by Eisenhower.
Carswell? He ran for the Senate in 1970 as a GOP conservative to get back at the Senate liberals who had rejected him and was defeated in a primary. He was later twice involved in gay incidents involving cops and some other weird things, setting a precedent for other conservative closet cases.
So this kid has a high hurdle to pass.
I covered the eight-candidate RC mayor's race in 2007. We may see more people jump into this yet. Is Alan Hanks not interested in a third term? Or just not yet?
Thanks, Tom, for jogging my memory a bit.
If there is a runoff system in Rapid like Sioux Falls it would be a good race for a Dem to get into with the split vote.
Rapid does have a runoff if no one gets a majority. That's how Alan Hanks defeated Sam Kooiker in 2007. Kooiker finished first in the crowded field, but without enough votes to take office. Hanks won in the runoff.
The only thing Jon Cunningham has going for him is....well, I can't think of anything. He's a drug dealer, abuser, low-life punk that thinks he's big, bad and scary. What a waste of humanity.