New Blog Poll: Who's Right for SD Democratic Chair?

Not even two weeks after Election Day, and I already miss voting. Let's do it again! The latest Madville Times poll asks who you think is the best choice for chairman of the South Dakota Democratic Party.

We have two announced candidates stumping for the job: re-elected District 8 Representative Mitch Fargen and outgoing District 17 Senator Ben Nesselhuf. Who's better suited for patching the holes and setting the Democratic ship a-sail again, Mitch or Ben? Do we need to draft George McGovern to stop fighting hunger and reprise his 1950s party-building? (Crazier things have happened!) Or is there some other über-organizer/fundraiser/rabble-rouser who can lead the party to success in 2012? (I welcome discussion of the definition of success in this context.)

Click your pick here in the right-hand sidebar. Poll remains open until breakfast Tuesday. Then we'll talk about the results. And who knows? Some of the party leaders who get to vote at the party confab on December 4 might actually listen!

Tell your friends, and vote now!

McGovern and Abourezk for Heidepriem: More Reaction

Here's some more reaction from around the blogosphere on the campaigning of former Senators George McGovern and Jim Abourezk on behalf of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Scott Heidepriem:

• Kevin Woster at Mount Blogmore sees bringing in the big names as good headline strategy. He thinks GOP slime-meister Lucas Lentsch "overstates" the "Look at those liberals!" attack line ("as is his job," Woster notes). Woster wonders, though, if the liberal associations might turn off some voters come general election time (keep trying, Pat!).
• Doug Wiken notes in comments to Woster that even if you're an animal of completely different (orthogonal?) political stripes, you shouldn't pass up the chance to have a conversation with two remarkable and intelligent politicians like Abourezk and McGovern.
• Bob Mercer is "stumped" by the conservative noise over a gubernatorial candidate enjoying the campaign assistance of two well-known South Dakota statesmen. The only downside Mercer sees is that Abourezk and McGovern may be too far removed from the memory of the younger half of the electorate to rouse much excitement. I suggest to Bob that one can find an appreciation of history among our younger voters.
• Travis Dahle at the real Badlands Blue notes that association with a war hero and a civil rights leader might benefit a candidate more than hiring a strident conservative blogger who focuses on ad hominem attacks.

Powers Has Nothing on Heidepriem, Sticks with Absurd Ad Hominem

Munsterman for Governor campaign manager Pat Powers continues to look too far in the future by concentrating his fire on Democrat Scott Heidepriem instead of Munsterman's three immediate Republican primary challengers. And it's not even good fire. In what promises to be standard GOP procedure in 2010, Powers avoids policy and instead attacks Heidepriem for the endorsements he gets from George McGovern and Jim Abourezk.

Heidepriem's hanging out with liberals! shouts Powers. He's Castro! (Yes, Powers really did make the former association.) Powers tells us nothing about what actual policies Heidepriem will advocate that will drag us into liberal Sodom and Gomorrah; he simply provides a bogus verbal template on which his sheep can transpose their favorite irrational fears.

It's not like Heidepriem is hanging out with some fringe radical like me (although he did chat with me once at a debate tournament—uh oh! Lib-a-palooza II!). Heidepriem's receiving the support of two former United States Senators, fellow South Dakotans elected by us. Heidepriem is receiving the support of McGovern, a decorated World War II veteran and U.N. Ambassador on World Hunger, and Abourezk, an Arab-American civil rights leader. So if there's guilt by association, we can expect Heidepriem to support courage under fire, fight hunger, and defend civil rights—oh! the horrors of the liberal agenda!

Powers also fails to explain why, if McGovern and Abourzek are such nefarious liberals, they're choosing pragmatic Heidepriem over his real wild-eyed liberal challenger, my man Ron Volesky. (And indeed, I'd like to know, George and Jim, what's up with that? Where's the love? Run hard, Ron!)

Oh well. The Republicans know they have an executive and legislative history that have left us with a structural deficit and shaky budget unable to withstand an economic downturn. They know the policy choices they have to make in the 2010 will not be pretty and will not make for cheery campaign slogans. So Pat Powers, like Lucas Lentsch and the state GOP, are turning early to distraction and slime. It's Obama-Ayers all over again... but the South Dakota Republicans can't even find an Ayers.

Up next from the Munsterman campaign (when they remember "primary" means first): attacks on Knudson's association with liberals at Harvard, Daugaard's association with liberal Chicago lawyers, and Knuppe's liberal facial hair.

Hubba's House: South Dakota's Blooming Jon Stewart?

Matthew J. Trask, the mastermind of Hubba's House, generally steers clear of politics. But this weekend he scores a citizen media coup with a spontaneous 10-minute interview of South Dakota's elder statesman George McGovern.



Dang right I'm envious, Hubba! Envious... and proud of what we regular folks can do with a pocket camcorder and the Internet (though to call Matt "regular" is to be "loose with the truth"). It beats anything we see on regular local TV. It's Jon Stewart Lite: less political edge, but no lack of interesting political observations as quoteworthy as anything in that Sioux Falls paper (McGovern names Daschle as one of South Dakota's monumental historical figures; McGovern sees Heidepriem riding pro-Dem trend to gubernatorial victory in 2010). Hubba also interrupts less than Jon Stewart. That's good online TV!

Watching these two intelligent South Dakotans talk in a bookstore made me think how nice it would be if our current elected officials would sit down with regular folks for on-the-record conversations like this. Sure, Representative Stephanie Herseth Sandlin could take Michael Sanborn up on his invitation to a Decorum Forum town hall. But I'd be happy to see more moments like Hubba's interview with McGovern: no studio, no crowd, no particular agenda... just good conversation.

And note that title on the video: "Mr. McGovern and Me"—a nice reminder of how close we ought to be able to keep even our greatest political figures.

McGovern and Students Tout Debate

Good morning from Mitchell! I'm on the road judging, this weekend at the 17th Annual George McGovern Forensic Invitational at Mitchell High School.

And the moment I get to Mitchell, I am greeted not just by the Corn Palace, not just by the jackalope outside the Thunderbird Lodge (though those are always welcome sights!), but by the tournament's namesake, Senator George S. McGovern. South Dakota's elder statesman opened the tournament with some recollections of his own experience as a Mitchell Kernel debater.

McGovern recalled his first experience on the debate team: Coach Bob Pierson asked young McGovern to give a ten-minute speech on that year's resolution, that the United States should adopt a unicameral legislature. New even to the term unicameral, McGovern managed barely a minute of commentary on the topic. Coach Pierson complimented the speech and proceeded to turn McGovern into a state champion debater.

That debate experience, said McGovern, was the best part of his high school education. Debate opened doors for McGovern, and he never had a job he didn't like. Debate also introduced him to his wife Eleanor: their first meeting came in a high school debate when she and her sister Ila came down from Woonsocket to beat George and his partner. (Go Woonsocket!) McGovern told the students gathered for this weekend's contest that they will never regret their experience in high school debate.

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The students on the Mitchell Kernel debate team feel the same way about hosting the McGovern Invitational. An article on the tournament from the Mitchell HS Kernel newspaper (a fine looking high school publication!) offers the following:

"Having a home tournament is cool because we get to go home at the end of the day, and also because it gives Mitchell as a community the opportunity to contribute to the forensics circuit," said junior Wendy Sivik [Aaron Eggert, "Debate to Host McGovern Tournament Tomorrow," Mitchell HS Kernel, 2008.11.20].

Well said, Wendy!

Sioux Falls Obama Rally: McGovern Opens

George McGovern opens for Senator Obama at the Sioux Falls rally tonight (see the live feed at KELO), in front of an audience KELO's Lou Raguse estimates at 5,000 (o.k., it's Lou Raguse counting -- your grains of salt are acceptable). McGovern notes that after he endorsed Senator Clinton last October in Iowa, his four kids and ten grandkids all enlisted in the Obama campaign. "Shows how much influence I have at home," joked McGovern. He compliments the Clintons, acknowledges how they "worked their hearts out" on his 1972 campaign, and says they will always remain close friends. But now, says McGovern is time to unite behind Obama and make the charge for change in November.

McGovern repeats his suggestion that in Obama, Illinois may be producing its "second Lincoln." He points to his impression that Obama may help bring back the ability of the two parties to cooperate, as McGovern recalls they could during his own tenure in the Senate, when he could work easily with Kansas Senator Bob Dole on veterans issues and reach across the aisle to start WIC. Obama also "consistently appeals to the better angels of our nature. he is our best hope, in Lincoln's words, for a just and lasting peace among ourselves and for with all nations."

McGovern Urges Obama-Clinton Unity Tour

George McGovern is in the New York Times today urging Senators Clinton and Obama to go on the road together for the rest of the primary season:

After today’s vote in West Virginia, the two candidates should agree to make joint visits to the sites of the five remaining primaries (in Kentucky, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Montana and South Dakota).

During these visits, Senators Clinton and Obama should agree not to criticize each other. They would simply state what each would do if elected president. They would also point out why President Bush’s policies have failed and why they would continue to fail under John McCain [George McGovern, "A Two-for-One Campaign," New York Times, 2008.05.13].

McGovern is trying to turn his fellow Dems' attention away from closing the deal and Hail Mary passes. Perhaps sensing that they've got McCain licked, he suggests Clinton and Obama turn their energies attention toward another big prize, victories at the state and local level:

After each candidate speaks for 15 minutes or so, they would then be taken to a reception where citizens paying $50 a ticket would mingle with the two candidates. The money raised would go to the state Democratic Party to assist local and state candidates in the fall elections [McGovern, 2008.05.13].

McGovern reminds us that he has endorsed Obama and is now working for the Obama campaign, but he doesn't use his op-ed platform to lob slushballs at his erstwhile pick. His focus is conciliation and turning all this primary energy into a Dem landslide straight down the ticket in November.

At this point, getting Clinton and Obama supporters together at the same events might be a darn good idea. It would remind us that we may differ on the person we want to lead the fight, but that we share the goals of that fight. And building the base is one of the most important political goals we can work toward.

McGovern Explains Switch to Obama on SDPB

South Dakota Public Broadcasting gets the newsmaker of the day, Senator George McGovern, on Dakota Midday for his first interview* following his announcement that he is going from hedging his endorsement to a full-tilt switch from Senator Clinton to Senator Obama for President. The conversation with SDPB's Pual Guggenheimer (and Paul -- darn fine interview!):

Says McGovern: Hillary Clinton has waged a "very valiant campaign for the nomination," and only she can make the decision to drop out. But given that there is "very little chance of her catching the nomination," McGovern thinks the time has come for party to unite. Obama has a clear lead, the superdelegates are evenly divided, and there is no way mathematically for Clinton to win. McGovern says it's time to get behind Obama and do what we can to win next fall.

Guggenheimer asks if McGovern has any trepidation about urging her to drop out, thus rendering the SD primary moot?
--No, McGovern didn't think about that. The South Dakota primary is always important, but Obama's lead "is so strong that we can't make the decisive vote here in South Dakota."

McGovern adds that if Obama has clear majority of pledged delegates or at least big lead, it "would tear the party in two" to have it decided by superdelegates.

Guggenheimer asks if McGovern has any concerns about recent controversies dogging Obama?
--McGovern says he hopes people don't draw the conclusion that it's dangerous to go to church because your minister might say something you disagree with. McGovern says the Wright controversy is irrelevant. McGovern says he's a lifelong churchgoer, and "never had a minister I agreed with 100%, but I don't make a big deal about it." He just continues going to the church. Obama doesn't have to make any apologies for the church he attended, says McGovern. (Good answer to my question, Senator!)

Guggenheimer: What about people's concerns about not knowing enough about Obama, versus Clinton's perceived battle scars?
--McGovern says she's "impressive, one of the most intelligent women in the country.... She would have made a strong president," but the voters have given Obama the edge. He's "potentially a great President," and "I have no hesitance about supporting him." Both Obama and Clinton are very capable people.

Guggenheimer: Have you spoken to Clinton yet?
--Not directly, says McGovern, but he talked at length with Hillary's husband Bill this morning. It was not a hurried conversation, and not a cross word was spoken. "We will remain friends," says McGovern. "She has a great future ahead of her in the Senate and anything else she should seek."

Guggenheimer: What did President Clinton say?
--McGovern says that Bill said he's confident in Hillary. "We didn't talk at length about what she should do... just a good conversation between two longtime friends." The former President wanted McGovern to stay with her but he "didn't make any great effort in that direction."

Guggenheimer: Given the longtime relationship with the Clintons (Hillary worked on the McGovern 1972 campaign), how hard was it to make this announcement?
--Very tough to make this announcement, says McGovern. The former senator "didn't sleep much last night." He says he wrote his public statement during the night, and he stands by every word.

Guggenheimer: Attending her appearance tomorrow?
--McGovern says he hasn't decided, but "I certainly wish her well." McGovern says he "may well be there as someone who supported her this far."

Of course, that depends on whether Clinton is going anywhere tomorrow. Dave Kranz weighs in right after the McGovern interview to say he suspects Tim Russert's report that the Clinton campaign has canceled the SD trip (and everything else on tomorrow's schedule) is right.

Wow: maybe South Dakota -- or at least one famous South Dakotan -- will decide this primary after all.

end note: Guggenheimer and Ross talk about May 19 as a date being batted around as the date for Barack Obama's first visit to the state. Better back it up a couple days so you can catch free camping weekend at South Dakota's state parks!

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*Update 13:10 CDT: make that first South Dakota media interview: it sounds like NPR's Day to Day got him before Paul Guggenheimer did. Still, good hustle, SDPB!