Yay! It's not Mike Huether!
Democratic candidate for governor Rep. Susan Wismer of Britton announced that her running mate will be Susy Blake from Sioux Falls.
Blake served two terms in the South Dakota House of Representatives, from 2009 to 2012. During her tenure, Blake pointedly fought South Dakota's offensive, misogynistic abortion restrictions and successfully redirected South Dakota's food-tax refund dollars to emergency food assistance.
Blake looks and talks like the South Dakota mom next door. She's someone with whom any South Dakotan can envision chatting at the grocery store. She brings geographic diversity to the ticket, pairing the urban Minnehaha vote with the rural Marshall crowd. Now can Blake fulfill one of the standard running-mate roles and get donors into the groove?
Update 11:05 CDT: Here's the video of the Blake announcement from that Sioux Falls paper. Wismer describes her ticket as a combination of an accountant and an advocate. Blake says she had doubts before her name was thrown into contention about the ability of a two-woman ticket to win in South Dakota. "Prove me wrong," says Blake to the voters.
Always the optimistic spin!
I'm totally convinced that Susany is a Republican plant/decoy.
Go [...] yourself, Troy.
Troy, you dope. Susany is a Mike Myers/Tara Volesky plant.
Diver, what spin? I think I'm offering relatively honest first-glance statements on this morning's announcement. Would you care to offer a specific rebuttal?
Maybe they won't win Troy but they're still better than Duagaard.
Troy, please don't underestimate Susan and Susy.
The party has picked a uninspiring insider with no name recognition among the majority of the state, Wismer has been a weak advocate in the legislature and even on GOAC she has done little to captivate the attention of voters and the press even with the EB-5 issue to rouse some attention.
Now she picks another east river no name no accomplishment legislator that instead of strengthening the ticket is another milquetoast candidate.
Your enthusiasm feels contrived and forced especially when in an earlier post you where promoting SHS.
How else would you categorize your post.
During the SD legislative sessions, most bill proposals submitted by Democrats are automatically killed by the Republicans without even passing the committee.
Susy had submitted a bill proposal that was not only not killed by the committee, it went on to be passed by the House and Senate.
Uninspiring? Well, I guess that it like "beauty," all in the eyes of the beholder.
No doubt, JeniW! I've got Pat Powers telling me that Blake didn't pass her bill, but that Republican Senator Corey Brown did. He also says that the Legislature doesn't kill Democratic bills, just bad bills, and that it kills more GOP bills than Dem bills... all of which is crap squared. The GOP kills almost anything with a D on it, regardless of the merits. The Legislature has more Rs, so it has more R bills (which, we could argue, naturally contain a higher daily allowance of bad ideas) to kill. That a Democrat can get any policy idea rolling in the Legislature and turn it into law is remarkable. Bernie Hunhoff does it; Blake did it on 2012 HB 1206. If nothing else, Blake gets credit for demonstrating an ability to break through partisanship and get Republicans like Brown to work with her ideas, which would speak to her ability to serve as a good President of the Senate no matter which party controls it.
Diver, I think you are hearing what you want to hear and not what I wrote. In which specific words do you read enthusiasm of any sort, contrived, forced, or otherwise? I cite two facts about Blake's legislative record. I make three observations on her background that may explain why Wismer picked her. I invite speculation on whether Blake can deliver any fundraising advantage. Again, where's the spin?
To quibble on SHS: I don't think I was so much promoting SHS for running mate as entertaining the notion and testing its logic. I'm neither surprised nor disappointed that that little bit of blog speculation from myself and various readers here did not translate into Wismer action.
As for spin, Diver, I suggest you are the spinner here, ignoring the geographical diversity of the ticket by dismissing Wismer and Blake alike as "east river no name" candidates. Sure, Blake doesn't add any West River punch to the ticket (at least none that I've seen laid on the table—any relatives out West, Susy?), but then neither does Matt Michels.
Wismer could have gambled on a West River running mate to boost her Pennington County turnout by... what? 2,000 votes? Instead, she chose to maximize her support in the largest county in the state. I can imagine a strategic argument that, if the LG pick has any impact on the vote, it has more potential for a Democrat in Sioux Falls alone than in all of West River.
I could be wrong... and suppose I am. Suppose Wismer wanted to go East-West instead of North-South/rural-urban. What Rapid City (Belle? Lemmon? Pine Ridge?) Democrat would she have picked who would have brought similar or greater heft to the ticket?
And the South Dakota version of the Battle of Sexes has begun!!
Dude, it was me promoting SHS for the Lt. Governor position. I make no qualms about that either. Now that is past, I will promote the double SS against the Double DD.
Hope they kick it in the ass and up their name recognition. Never doubt the insiders.
This is twice today I've seen that Madonna video. What are the odds?
Well, I hope the combination can campaign like tornadoes ripping up the GOP mythology, but right now, this appears to be the furthest thing from a successful strategy.
Of course, the type of press coverage of this may make a lot of difference. And, will more women vote for them because it is a female team, or will more men vote against them because it is a female team?
A nurse can be the attack dog on Daugaard's denial of "Obamacare" expansion in South Dakota and consequent loss of $45 million in health and economic impact on SD can both be territory for a medical specialist and an accountant. Do the numbers, do the damage assessment. Raise hell.
Good points Mr. Wiken. The one about the nurse though, really rings the bell. Who else to better describe Governor Daugaard's death panel than someone in the healthcare field with first hand knowledge. Let us hope that they hit the campaign trail hard.