Curd and Noem Say More Online Than Nelson

I found a surprise when I reviewed the "Issues" pages of South Dakota's GOP candidates for U.S. House. From at least a couple perspectives, Chris Nelson comes across as the emptiest head on the block. Kristi Noem and R. Blake Curd both address more issues and advocate more specific policies. Below is a numerical comparison (with SHS's "Issues" page data thrown in for the enjoyment of the lucky winner on June 8) :

	Curd	Nelson	Noem	Herseth
issues	7	6	10	9
words	1724	240	471	753
words/issue	246	40	47	84
specific policies	5	1	7	12
words/policy	345	240	67	63

Note that Curd's numbers include the "Read More" pages linked to each issue (nice! give the Web reader links to click, make 'em feel like they're doing something).

Note also that my "specific policy" count is open to interpretation (I'm looking for actionable policy, not just guiding principles or slogans). I welcome your own readings and codings of the content, dear readers....

This is a very snapshotty (some might simply say shoddy) glance at campaign content. But so is the seemingly tireless jibber-jabber over campaign TV ads. This snapshot shows what each candidate wants to lay out for the motivated voter who is actively seeking information.

There's also no inherent value in word count alone. Noem manages to lay out more specific policies than Curd with just 27% of Curd's verbiage. Both men in the race are worse on this count... and surprisingly, looking just at the Issues pages, Noem barks out a policy bite at about the same rate as the incumbent Congresswoman she hopes to unseat.

Much to the discredit of all three GOP candidates: still bupkis on Native Americans. Only SHS takes time to address on her main issues page the rights and concerns of South Dakota's biggest minority group. Gubernatorial candidate Dennis Daugaard has picked up the slack on this issue since my January criticism of our candidates' awkward silence on Native American issues; the GOP House candidates had better do the same.