We've moved!
DakotaFreePress.com!

Social Icons

twitterfacebooklinkedinrss feed

Friday, May 16, 2008

Long Primary Campaigns: Good for South Dakota!

Hillary Clinton speaks from the front porch of a Bath, SD, farmhouse and draws 600 people (Bath population: 574), then stops in Rapid City to boost the donut business. Bill Clinton speaks at the Pine Ridge High School gym and draws 800 listeners. Barack Obama comes to Watertown, SD, draws 1400 (Sioux Falls paper) to 2100 (AP-KSFY) listeners, and gets Watertown a byline that makes the international press. Obama comes tonight to the Sioux Falls Arena and takes a swing at drawing a bigger crowd than the Canaries, who play the Birdcage tonight and whose fans will be competing with politicos for parking spots around the Arena.

Clinton quit now? No way! Let's ride this primary season right through to June 3. When's the last time South Dakotans have gotten this many opportunities to meet the presidential candidates and host campaign stops that make the news? Heck, if nothing else, all these visits from big-spending campaigns and reporters will do wonders for our sales tax revenues.

For local political excitement, the KJAM presidential poll rolls along. Current figures:

Obama and McCain have switched places since Saturday, and Clinton has picked up support. If you haven't voted -- heck, even if you already have! -- head over to KJAM and click on your fave!

But before you go, don't forget to pcik your favorite Republicans in the Madville Times polls in the right sidebar here. U.S. Senate candidate Sam Kephart jumped out to an early lead, but Joel Dykstra is catching up (come on, Gonyo supporters, let's see that surge!). Rod Goeman enjoyed a similar early jump in the county poll, but his challengers are starting to catch up.

3 comments:

  1. Corey where did you get your stats on the population of Bath? It seems quite high from what I remember.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well, it was at least 600 yesterday!

    Good question -- I've been by there, and I agree, for regular population, that number might be counting a few sheep. Google "Bath SD population" and you get conflicting numbers. Another site I'm looking at says 628 in the 2000 census. The Census Bureau itself doesn't offer a number. And Wikipedia (bless their hearts) says Bath is an unincorporated community. So maybe the population figures that are out there are just counting folks who have that ZIP code (57427).

    ReplyDelete
  3. The home town is no more than 120 at most. You might be right on the whole zip code being 500+.

    ReplyDelete

Comments are closed, as this portion of the Madville Times is in archive mode. You can join the discussion of current issues at MadvilleTimes.com.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.