The state Department of Labor miked up Governor Dennis Daugaard and took some video of his South Dakota sales pitch at the Mall of America a couple weeks ago. That Sioux Falls paper privileges us with a look:
I'm sure Governor Daugaard's pitch sounded better in full rather than in the state's video bites. But really: an hour in the mall, and you couldn't get a clip of one person having an "Aha! South Dakota!" moment? The Pierre gal's mention of the commute is great, but she offered no better sound bite than that quick "yup" as the Governor handed her the contact card?
I am glad to hear the governor clarify the numbers that the South Dakota press got wrong. Contrary to KELO's report that our Dakota Roots recruiting program has gotten 3,000 Minnesotans to relocate to South Dakota, Governor Daugaard confirms the figures accurately reported by the Minnesota press: out of 3,000+ Minnesotans who have registered with Dakota Roots since 2006, 534 have relocated to South Dakota. We need to break that number down further to gauge the real impact of our state marketing program: how many of those relocators came because of what Dakota Roots told them, and how many had already decided to move to South Dakota and simply used Dakota Roots to inform their planned move?
South Dakota is a state that believes in advertising. After all we are the home of Wall Drug. Look how much advertising did for them. Well actually they gave away free cold water in a dry state when people did not have airconditioning in their cars. South Dakota spends much more on advertising per tourist dollar than the states around us. But with jobs, we pay low wages and do not seem to think that would be a deterent to the effects of advertising. Reminds me of a good old advertisement that said, "WHERE'S THE BEEF".
I can't believe that the video was real.
I think the people of South Dakota are overlooking that this publicity stunt fulfills a GOP narrative in Minnesota of South Dakotans "stealing" Minnesotans and "stealing" Minnesota Jobs.
That Narrative was especially prevalent in Tom Emmer's 2010 bid for Governor, and is sure to resurface as the GOP tries to regain some control of the MN state Legislature.
Clearly political theater coordinated by SD & MN republicans.
Minnesotans generally don't take SD seriously. Daugard's MOA thing was covered by the Strib and a couple other local outlets. The most common reaction was genuine puzzlement. "Why would anyone want to move to SD?"
In the time that 500+ Minnesotans moved to SD, I wonder how many South Dakotans moved to MN?
Here are posters (http://tinyurl.com/opkcl5l) and billboards (http://tinyurl.com/emmer23) the GOP Gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer plastered over Minneapolis in 2010.