The 2008 Robbinsdale Radical Voting Guide: Part 3

This Voting Guide is about candidates. Part 1 was about the Constitutional Amendments, and Part 2 covered the Initiated Measures.

My advice is probably quite predictable.

Vote Democratic.

This is even true with good-guy conservatives like Craig Tieszen and Ed McLaughlin in District 34. Why? because (1) We have good Democratic candidates this year that will work hard for change and (2) the one-party rule in Pierre has gone on way too long and we need to right the ship. We need dialogue in Pierre and it is not about to happen under Republican rule. We need more new faces too, like our fine candidate Bonny Peterson (who's running against McLaughlin in 34).

Matt McLarty is running for PUC on the Democratic side and his energy and expertise and energy will bring a lot to the PUC board. Vote for Matt!

The Republican party leadership has demonstrated over the last decade again and again that as long as they are in the supermajority, there will be no dialogue in Pierre. Good moderate Dems bring ideas forward and they are shot down on party line vote in committee. If the ideas come back, they are under Republican sponsorship. We Dems don't really care that much about not getting credit, but many many good ideas don't even get considered because of party-line votes in committee. Democrats will not do this.

District 32 Senate

Our fair city, Robbinsdale, makes up the majority of South Dakota House and Senate District 32. In our local area, we have the following candidates:

Senate

D: Reluctant superstar State Sen Tom Katus (D-Rapid City). Tom is so popular even Former Sen. Bill Napoli says about him:

"If I understand people as well as I think I do, I think Katus is going to win that seat hands down," Napoli said. "I like the guy. He’s just a good South Dakotan, with a good record."

R: FORMER State Sen Stan Adelstein (a pariah among the Republican faithful)

I: FORMER (and future?) Republican (now Independent) Elli Schwiesow, in Stan's words "not a nice person." Elli smiles a lot, but I don't think she's a big fan of Stan's, either.

Executive summary:

Enough Republican drama already. Katus is the clear pick for Senate.
He's done great and will continue to do so if we send him back to Pierre. There's also a very solid chance he will be in the majority party for us when he gets there too.

District 32 House

D: Former School Board member and Lt Gov candidate Eric Abrahamson, Youth advocate and human services professional Bethany Wojahn
R: incumbents first-termer Brian Dreyer and half-termer (appointed) Brian Gosch.

If you want to know who the best candidates are to represent you, here are two things to check out:

1. Read their responses to the Rapid City Journal's questionnaire. It's pretty obvious the Dems in District 32 are the ones that will represent more capably and will work for you.
2. Use the Google to research Gosch and Dreyer. You won't find much.
   Now look at searches for Abrahamson and Wojahn. (Remember Wojahn has not been elected to office [yet].) You'll find a lot more there, because there is! Abrahamson and Wojahn have a significant record of public service in our community, and have been working very hard at getting their message out to represent you. That's why you see a lot more in the search results.
   

Dreyer and Gosch have simply not done very much for us--they have a record that shows they are long on talk and short on expertise and ability to get things done for West River. Based on the press reports, and anecdotal evidence from the doors, they aren't even working that hard on the campaign in 2008, clearly relying on the R after their name (and expensive last-minute advertising) to elect them.


Executive Summary:


I highly recommend voting for candidates with normal-size, complete heads. (These just happen to be highly motivated and extremely qualified candidates
Eric Abrahamson and
Bethany Wojahn.