Hey, remember that Mike Myers guy? Yeah, the Independent running for Governor. Myers and I had a good policy talk in April, but the partisan primary excitement has kept him from getting much media attention.
Well, the primary's done. If Team Myers is serious about campaigning, they should be having a conversation around the coffee table right now about what the primary results mean for them. Consider:
- 15,308 South Dakota Democrats and Independents showed up Tuesday to vote for Susan Wismer and make her the Democratic gubernatorial nominee.
- 12,282 Democrats and Indies voted for Joe Lowe.
- More Indies might have voted for Joe Lowe, but election officials failed to hand some Indies the Dem ballot.
- On the Republican side, 14,194 Republicans voted for Lora Hubbel for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.
Quick reality check: 60,011 South Dakotans voted for Dennis Daugaard Tuesday. Daugaard got more votes Tuesday than all three of the other people on the ballot put together. Two words for Team Myers: uphill climb.
But climb ye must! And if you're going to climb that hill, you need to look for every toehold you can get.
Lora Hubbel revealed 14,000-some voters who are extremely dissatisfied with the Daugaard administration. I'm betting that, given Hubbel's Tea Party bent, at least 9 out of 10 Hubbel voters will not even consider voting for a Democrat. Easy pickin's, Mike!
Joe Lowe revealed 12,000-some voters who chose a different stylistic if not philosophical direction from what the South Dakota Democratic Party establishment wants. A good chunk of them (including me, currently) will choose party loyalty over the other options available. But for better or for worse, a good chunk may, in their post-primary disappointment, be open to a pitch from someone other than the gal who beat their guy. That makes me as a Democrat nervous. That should make Team Myers excited.
Again, even if Myers could co-opt every primary voter who lost and translate that support to proportionate turnout in the general election, he'd still be stuck in second place. But you've got to start climbing somewhere.
So are you making calls, Team Myers? Or are you guys just doing more push-ups?
Bottom line Cory, if dems stay at home in the general like they did in the primary, nothing will make any difference. Sad state of affairs when people won't go vote, thing that pisses me off the most, the non-voters are always the first ones to bitch when our single party rulers do what they do.
Right, Mike! I want no one to stay home on Election Day. Every candidate, including Myers, needs to look for ways to get folks to vote. Myers more than anyone is the candidate who needs to grab the few who came out for the primary and the abstainers who you say are the first ones to gripe.
The best Get-Out-The-Vote plan is to give voters a person and a plan worth voting for.
We are quickly becoming a singe party in SD, another similarity we have with Communist China. Ok, sorry for the snark that gets me in trouble...but hear me out. When every office is Republican you get concentrated power. Justin Rollins at the Repub HQ was bragging how many new voter registrations we had when I asked, "are they true Republicans that like our platform?"
"It doesn't matter," he said, "as long as there is an "R" behind their name."
Then Rhoden had a problem with my campaign flyer (granted, I wrote some pretty tough accusations, which I can prove) and the part he challenged was, (paraphrased) "if you are a 'good' legislator you get the perks of jobs, positions, stock options, ground floor word-of-mouth investment opportunity....yadayada." He explained to me that that is how it works, that is not unusual...that is normal (even though that is forbidden in our rules to take opportunity for personal favors when we are supposed to be servants to the citizens).
So if favors are expected within the party (just like in China) we will be seeing more and more "State" businesses (just like China) being run by loyal Party cronies rather than those in the private market who KNOW what they are doing. I see our legislators and para-political loyalists looking to the Party as their personal business opportunity rather than trying to make SD better for the citizens of SD.
Moral of my snark....throw out the opportunists who are no more "republican" than a snake...but who are there just to make a buck. If that means supporting Mike Myers...so be it. At least that would stop the gravy train from circling Pierre.
Thank you, Ms. Hubbel for your service to my home state. Together we can flush Pierre and make it safe for democracy again.
Lora will be a friend to all people who are against corruption by the establishment elite. I think it is great to have a former legislature and candidate for Governor go after the good old boys and cronies. She knows how corrupt Pierre is. Sig em Lora! lol.
Lora, I agree completely with your statement. How do you think we get voters to see this and flush the Pierre toilet when no incumbent in the republican legislative primary voting (including the bigot Jensen) lost? Are the majority of republicans really that happy with the way things are here? All three of my kids have left SD because they don't feel they have a chance to be anything but minimum wage contributors to the fast food profit margin if they stayed here. I hold republican policy of the last 40 years in SD responsible for this. If this truly is what republican voters and policy makers want for all of the rest of us it may be time to sell the house and join my kids.