And another Dem rides the bus... to Pierre, this morning, with over 25,000 signatures calling for a statewide vote on raising South Dakota's minimum wage!
The South Dakota Democratic Party sends out a press release celebrating its apparently enormously successful petition drive to place a minimum-wage initiative on the November 2014 ballot. According to SDDP exec Zach Crago, the Dems and the AFL-CIO will submit 25,861 signatures to Secretary of State Jason Gant in Pierre today. That's 10,006 more signatures than they needed, a comfortable 63% cushion against circulator error, notary slips, and Gant-foolery.
The Dems deserve congratulations for fast, effective organizing, as well as for living up to their name and giving South Dakotans for opportunities to practice democracy.
But don't let my partisan enthusiasm go too far. The Dems did a good job of organizing resistance to the governor's corporate welfare plans in the last election, but that effort didn't translate into better outcomes for Democratic candidates at the polls or increased Democratic voter registration. Fighting for fair wages is a worthy cause in itself, but with this measure now likely to head for the ballot, Democrats need to follow through and use this bread-and-butter issue to drive voter turnout and Democratic wins in the Legislative races.