Weiland Out -- I Want Your Numbers

Well, I guess that was all for nothing, wasn't it?

Rapid City physician Kevin Weiland has ended his late-starting campaign to challenge U.S. Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin in the Democratic primary.

Weiland said late Tuesday afternoon in a joint news release with Herseth Sandlin that he decided not to run after the congresswoman assured him that she would not vote to repeal the health care reform plan approved recently by Congress [Kevin Woster, "Kevin Weiland pulls out of race, won't challenge Herseth Sandlin," Rapid City Journal, 2010.03.30].

Woster reports Weiland had 3800 signatures ready to submit. I collected 20 signatures for Weiland. One of my neighbors tripled my count. A friend in Mitchell reported collecting 67. That's three guys with 12% of the signatures Weiland needed. Literally thousands more people got worked up, called and e-mailed and Facebooked and went several extra literal miles (my Mitchell friend says one lady drove from Lake Andes just to sign), just to be told "Thanks for nothing."

If you gathered signatures for Weiland, put your name and total in the comment section. Let's hear it. If we can't have the conversation about the direction of the South Democratic Party, if the Blue Dogs win by default, we can at least stake our names to one fast and furious petition drive that ought to tell our incumbent Congresswoman something... and apparently sending a message is all the satisfaction we get. Grrrr!

(Sorry: I was so mad, I couldn't even read past the first two paragraphs of Woster's report, had to come back and edit. Stay tuned: more commentary to come after I sleep on it!)