Memo to LAIC: Update Physical and Virtual Main Street Storefronts

My wife and I lament the pitiable state of many building façades in downtown Madison. Too many of the storefronts have tacked up tacky plastic and metal signs over

The Lake Area Improvement Corporation mostly ignores downtown. They briefly touted, then cold-dropped a Main Street and More! program that achieved nothing. The LAIC is apparently too busy pouring money into insider deals for housing developments and its federally subsidized industrial park on the edge of town. The LAIC's only demonstrated interest in building downtown came in its involvement in the real-estate shell game that has led to big ICAP move, which is another example of Madison's reliance on government handouts and socialism.

If the LAIC can't be bothered to promote real downtown renovation and capitalist opportunities, maybe we can arouse their interest in a little virtual downtown renovation. Mike Knutson at the Rural Learning Center discovers a really cool economic development project undertaken by the smart people in Ord, Nebraska. Since 2007, the Ord Chamber of Commerce has offered its downtown businesses $5000 no-interest loans to put toward fixing up their storefronts. Now the Ord Chamber is expanding the acceptable use of those loans to support updating online storefronts.

The Ord Chamber explains the new program on their blog (their blog, Dwaine. Their blog.). The program doesn't rely on a big federal handout. It got rolling when a local bank applied for an won a $25,000 grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Topeka.

The LAIC loves signs and façades; our economic developers should be all over a project that makes our downtown look better on the street and online. How about we raise $25,000 for a physical and virtual storefront renovation loan program this way: For every dollar us regular folks contribute, the LAIC will match with a dollar taken out of LAIC exec's Dwaine Chapel's $100K-plus salary. We could redirect $12,500 from unaccountable salary to real Main Street improvements... and Chapel would still be one of the best-paid Brookings commuters in town.

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p.s.: The Dakota Drug building, one of the best-located retail properties on Madison's main street, has been on the market for two months. $99,900 gets you two stories and 6800+ square feet of prime retail opportunity. As of this morning, the LAIC still has not added this choice property to its Available Properties webpage.

TransCanada Inflates Keystone XL Job Predictions

Hat tip to Great Plains Tar Sands Pipelines!

In September, I reacted with skepticism to very optimistic economic impact study TransCanada paid for to make its proposed Keystone XL pipeline look good. Now so has the National Wildlife Federation, which says TransCanada is exaggerating Keystone XL's job-creation potential by an order of magnitude in order to exploit American economic anxiety. They find private consultant Perryman Group inflating job numbers nearly 13 times over State Department estimates:

Comparison of State Department and Perryman Group Jobs Estimates for Keystone XL Pipeline, from National Wildlife Foundation, "TransCanada Exaggerating Jobs Claims for Keystone XL," November 2010 [click image to enlarge].

NWF also emphasizes the facts that TransCanada does not: that as few as one in ten jobs on the pipeline will go to local folks (just as we saw with the original Keystone pipeline), and that most of the jobs are temporary.

Of course, TransCanada isn't lying to us. They're just offering "forward-looking statements," which they can trumpet in their propaganda yet happily disown with the same fine-print disclaimers they use to avoid legal liability for anyone who loses money taking TransCanada at its word and investing accordingly. Even TransCanada will tell you that if you believe TransCanada (and its local quislings) and then don't get the benefits you were promised, you only have yourself to blame.

Haggar Anti-Abortion Ally Lies with Last-Minute Negative Flyer

Congresswoman-Elect Kristi Noem wasn't the only South Dakota Republican lying her way to victory with deceptive mailings. District 15 Representative-Elect Jenna Haggar, a Republican masquerading as an Independent, enjoyed a bump Tuesday from a last-minute lie from her friends in the Unruh-abstinence camp.

As documented by Mr. Powers on Monday, the "District 15 PAC" sent out a flyer "endorsing" incumbent Democratic Representative Martha Vanderlinde. I've been tuning out Mr. Powers's propaganda too often lately. Had I paid attention, I'd have noticed the following statements on this flyer:

1. "We are proud that Martha is among the most liberal-left politicians in Pierre."
2. "Celebrated the passage of Obamacare"
3. "Proudly assisted a 3rd-trimester abortion"
4. "Supports gay marriage and endorsed by gay/lesbian/transgendered lobbists" [sic]

I also would have noticed the statement of organization for the District 15 PAC, filed four days before the election. PAC chair Christina Espenscheid declared the purpose of the PAC to be "Support Distric [sic] 15 candidates."

Christina Espenscheid (left), pictured at International Leadership Conference, Nashville 2004

Espenscheid, Espenscheid... where have I heard that name before?

Two new studies released Tuesday provided evidence that abstinence for youth is “healthy and effective.” The reports for both of these studies were released at the Welfare Research and Evaluation Conference by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), according to Christina Espenscheid, the education program director of the Abstinence Clearinghouse [press release, 2005.06.17].

Ah, Christina Dena Espenscheid, veteran of Leslee Unruh's Abstinence Clearinghouse, an organization well-accustomed to denying reality. Espenscheid, event and volunteer coordinator for the failed abortion ban campaign in 2006. Espenscheid, paid lobbyist in Pierre for the Abstinence Clearinghouse in 2006, the year before Jenna Haggar did the same job for SD Right to Life. Espenscheid, who went on to coordinate for another failed ballot measure in 2008, Initiated Measure 10, on behalf of the shady "South Dakotans for Clean and Open Government." (Dang, Pat: I wish your server hadn't deleted all your great posts on why Espenscheid's IM 10 was bogus.)

I guess it's nice that political operative Espenscheid could finally coordinate a campaign that succeeded. It's too bad that, to help her colleague in abstinence-crusading Jenna Haggar win, Espenscheid stooped to deceit, pretending to be an organization supporting Vanderlinde and mailing out this lie on the eve of the election.

I've been told by a mostly reasonable Christian neighbor that Muslim fundamentalists are authorized by the Qu'ran itself to lie to advance their religious and political beliefs. Espenscheid appears to demonstrate that taqiyya works for South Dakota Christians as well.

Bogus attack flyer distributed by Christina Espenscheid and "District 15 PAC"
on behalf of the Haggar for House campaign.

GOP Invades Mailboxes with Manufactured Scandal

I hear from our party chair that the Republicans violated federal law to bring me my weekend dose of Republican lies. According to a press release from the state Dems issued Sunday at breakfast, Republican operatives placed campaign literature for Kristi Noem, Rich Sattgast, and other candidates directly into mailboxes across Madison. Anyone other than the mailman or the owner sticking anything into a mailbox is violating federal law.

But violating the law and the truth hasn't bothered Republicans much this year. They were probably just in a hurry, right?

Among the pieces of mail Republicans have placed in my box this weekend is the newst big lie and distraction from real policy issues from the state GOP: the accusation that Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin's $1300 expenditures of taxpayer dollars at "exclusive baby boutique" Baby Elements in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, represent some scandalous "silver spoon" "spending spree."

Hmmm... how does the GOP lie to us? Let me count the ways:

1. "Exclusive": I'm reviewing the store's description and not seeing how they "exclude" anyone. The "exclusive" part of this store is that it features handmade pieces available exclusively in Sioux Falls.
   
2. The GOP implies these were irresponsible expenditures. As Dr. Newquist points out, the expenditures were authorized, audited, and approved by a standard Congressional budget ovesight procedure... the kind of fiscal responsibility our South Dakota Republican crony capitalists don't follow as they issue no-bid contracts and bloat the state motor pool to benefit their wealthy friends.
3. Dr. Newquist informs us that these expenses were far from outlandish expenditures; they are pretty much the cost of doing business as a Congressperson:

   And what were the funds spent for? For the mounting and framing of historic documents, photographs, and cultural materials, such as star quilts, for the member offices to inform visitors of the traditions under which Congress operates and to promote the features of South Dakota. Anyone can view these items on display at the offices [David Newquist, "The Annals of Libel: A Campaign Strategy," Northern Valley Beacon, 2010.10.30].

4. In spending taxpayer dollars for standard office decoration, the Congresswoman bought goods and services from a local South Dakota craftsperson.
   
5. The Congresswoman did exactly what her Republican challenger Kristi Noem did on a much larger scale with the stimulus dollars: bringing federal dollars that would have been spent elsewhere here to South Dakota. $1300 in framing for the office is peanuts dust compared to the hundreds of millions of dollars Noem and Governor Mike Rounds have spent from the federal stimulus package to avoid making hard state budget choices.
6. Remember, Herseth Sandlin has a tendency to put money back into the South Dakota economy, while Noem prefers to export our money to John Thune's adman in Texas.
   
7. Republicans tell you Speaker Nancy Pelosi is evil... but they wouldn't even have the information they are twisting into lies if Pelosi had not ordered the online publication of the House Disbursements in 2009.
8. Thanks to Speaker Pelosi's drive for transparency, we can also learn that Minnesota GOP Congresswoman and conservative firebrand Michele Bachmann spent almost $44K in taxpayer money on franked mail. Bachmann spent more than twice as much in total and per household on mass mailings to constituents than did Herseth Sandlin over the period reported.

From this manufactured non-issue to the "failed" stimulus, Republicans from Kristi Noem on down are cheating and lying to us six ways from Sunday to win this election. Fellow Dems, if for no other reason, get up out of your chairs and vote Tuesday to reject this politics of deceit.
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Update 2010.11.02 10:05 CDT: Jeff Long, postal inspector and spokesman for the Postal Inspection Service out of Minneapolis, tells Austin Kaus at the Mitchell Daily Republic that the illegally placed campaign materials included literature for District 8 State Senator Russell Olson. Alas, says, Long, prosecution for this misdemeanor offense is unlikely. As usual, we aren't supposed to pay attention to Russell Olson's violations of the law.

Fossil Fuel Lobbyist Stenholm Propagandizing in Madison Nov. 8

Charlie Stenholm represented Texas's 17th District (home of President Bush's Crawford ranch!) in Congress from 1979 to 2005. Then he became a lobbyist for Olsson, Frank, & Weeda, a DC firm that makes millions working for folks like the American Petroleum Institute and the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers.

Coming up on Mr. Stenholm's lobbying agenda: Madison, South Dakota. The Madison Rotary Club is hosting Mr. Stenholm on Monday, November 8, high noon, to discuss the importance of remaining addicted to fossil fuels and not burdening the oil and gas industry with frivolous obligations like taxes.

Mr. Stenholm appears to be hitting the Rotary circuit nationwide to keep people toeing the Big Oil line. This year he's been in Raleigh, NC; Charleston, SC; and Farmington, NM, this year. He'll be in Muncie, IN, Nov. 2 and Joliet, IL, Nov. 30.

Boy, how do I get a job like that? Oh yeah, by saying things billionaires want people to hear. Oops: guess I'm out of that running.

And now for Mr. Stenholm's version of what the public can hear at his talk on November 8:

Congressman Charlie Stenholm, former member of the U.S. House of Representatives (17th District, Texas), Senior Policy Advisor at Olsson Frank Weeda Terman Bode Matz, P.C.

Event: Stenholm delivers the speech, “Progress, Technology and the American Energy Future,” discussing:

• The oil and natural gas industry’s response to the Deepwater Horizon accident, regulatory and legislative proposals resulting from the spill that would impede the country’s ability to develop resource, and the need to learn from the incident to ensure offshore energy development safety moving forward;
• The importance of expanding domestic oil and natural gas development to help fuel our nation’s economic recovery, create new jobs and strengthen our energy security;
• The potential consequences of at least $80 billion in new taxes on the oil and natural gas industry proposed in the fiscal 2011 budget; and
• Innovative technologies, including hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, that allow America’s oil and natural gas companies to produce energy more efficiently and with minimal environmental impact;
• The need for a comprehensive energy policy that supports the development of all resources.
  

Date: Monday, November 8, 2010
Time: Noon Rotary Meeting*
Place: Nicky’s Restaurant, 1407 NW 2nd Street, Madison, SD 57042-3804

About Congressman Stenholm

Born in Stamford, Texas, Stenholm went on to serve the 32-county, 17th District of Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives for 13 terms, from 1979 to 2005. Stenholm was a member of the House Committee on Agriculture throughout his 26-year House career, serving as the committee’s ranking Democrat for his last eight years until 2004. He earned a reputation for building bipartisan alliances in areas as diverse as energy, resource conservation, agriculture, food safety, Social Security, health care and the budget.

In Congress, Stenholm was co-chair of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of moderate Democrats who often bridge liberal and conservative positions. In this capacity, he worked across party lines to pass important energy legislation that replenished the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve and encouraged domestic energy exploration.

*This event is open to the public. An RSVP is requested but not required so that Nicky’s can better prepare to serve the meal. RSVP or send questions about the event to Ken Meyer, Madison Rotary Club President, at kennethhenrymeyer@gmail.com. The cost of the meal is $6.00.

$6 for lunch—that's not bad! Just be careful that your salad doesn't get too much oil on it.

Noem Misuses Website in Misleading Guns Flyer

I reported here last week that South Dakota's Republican candidate for U.S. House Kristi Noem violated the terms of use of Project Vote Smart's website by citing VoteSmart.org in a partisan advertising flyer. (She also, as it turns out, cited it incorrectly, relying on the more politically advantageous yet not updated secondary source instead of referring to the updated primary source.)

Project Vote Smart has issued the following public statement condemning Noem's misuse of its name and service:

Kristi Noem, a candidate for the South Dakota U.S. House seat, has used Project Vote Smart’s name and programs in a negative attack against Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, who is running for the same office. This kind of negative campaign activity is precisely the sort of tactic that Vote Smart attempts to counter with its factual database. By using Vote Smart’s name to give credibility to these attacks, Noem is cheating the public out of their need for trusted, abundant, accurate information.

Project Vote Smart prohibits the use of its name and programs, including the Political Courage Test in partisan political advertising. All candidates in South Dakota have been notified of this policy in writing. Additionally, this policy is posted prominently on the Project Vote Smart website (www.votesmart.org).

This kind of behavior occurs in less that 00.05 percent of all races nationally. It is our policy to condemn this misuse of Project Vote Smart’s name and reputation and to alert the public to any misuse of our name or programs for negative political activities [Project Vote Smart, public statement, 2010.10.18].

Now notice that Project Vote Smart isn't a partisan outfit telling you for whom to vote. Their whole website (including their new VoteEasy app for evaluating where all the candidates stand relative to some of your own positions) is dedicated to helping voters get the facts about all of the candidates, without spin or weasel words. They are liberals and conservatives working together (novel concept!) to give all of us voters an alternative to "the issueless rhetoric and often misleading attacks that define contemporary American politics."

This assessment of the Noem mailer isn't a negative attack from some big-money otuside group. This assessment simply points out a fact: Kristi Noem's guns flyer violates the policy and spirit of Project Vote Smart.

SDGOP Twists SHS Voting Record in Cowboy Mailer

Front of SDGOP Shadow Cowboy Mailer

"South Dakotans are Strong and Independent..."reads the front of a new mailer from the South Dakota Republican Party. The glossy flyer features a manly cowboy in obligatory hat silhouetted against a prairie sunset. It also demonstrates that the local GOP is not strong enough to win a campaign on the merits of their own candidates and policy solutions and has to depend on distorting the voting record of Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin.

The main thesis of this piece of GOP propaganda is the tried and tired strategy of making the election about the image of Nancy Pelosi. "Stephanie Herseth Sandlin Votes with Pelosi 91.5% of the Time," they warn. The SDGOP pulls that number from the Washington Post Votes Database, which does indeed say that SHS votes with the majority of her party 91.5% of the time.

Inside of SDGOP shadow cowboy mailer

The GOP mails this claim just as FactCheck.org issues a pretty clear explanation of how both Republicans and Democrats exaggerate the significance of the numbers from WaPo's database. FactCheck.org notes the obvious, that voting with the majority is not the same as voting with Pelosi. FactCheck.org then does the analysis I recommended in July and August and finds that a count of actual head-to-head votes on OpenCongress.org puts SHS's Pelosi-match rate at 81%. That's still reasonably high... until you realize that SHS votes the same way as John Boehner 52% of the time. FactCheck.org concludes that those 81% of votes with Pelosi include a lot of votes that are irrelevant to serious policy.

Irrelevant to serious policy... hmm... sounds an awful lot like the GOP and their shadowy cowboy.

Stay tuned: critique of the SDGOP Twilight Cowboy's health care smokescreen coming up!

Noem Violates VoteSmart.org Rules in Tricky NRA Mailing

Team Kristi has more explaining to do. The Republican candidate for South Dakota's lone U.S. House seat is already catching heat for its "unfortunate" misrepresentation of the National Rifle Association's endorsement of Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin.

Now eager reader Jim Hock distinguishes himself as commenter of the day (sorry, Jim, no prize but praise!). Instead of listening to shouting, Mr. Hock takes the initiative to find, read, and list all of the reasons the NRA prefers Herseth Sandlin over Noem. Mr. Hock then checks the claims Rep. Noem supports with her citation of VoteSmart.org and observes the following:

Please note that Project Vote Smart does not permit the use of its name or program in any partisan activity, including advertising, debates, and speeches.

Read that notice to candidates from Project Vote Smart right here.

I guess that's just one more rule Kristi Noem is in too much of a hurry to follow.

(And no, I'm not campaigning here; I'm reporting. I think, therefore, that my mention of and linkage to VoteSmart.org satisfies their rules. But if PVS has its lawyers call me, I'll understand... as long as they contact Team Kristi first.)

Portion of Mis-Representative Kristi Noem's NRA flyer, showing the political misuse of the VoteSmart.org name (not to mention the stunningly illogical apples-to-kumquats comparison Noem manufactures on Second Amendment issues) Click image to enlarge.

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Bonus Local NRA Note: For those who want to dismiss the NRA's endorsement of SHS by saying they just endorse incumbents, check out the State House races: the NRA gives incumbent District 8 Representative Mitch Fargen an A- and endorses him. However, they give Rep. Gerry Lange a C and do not endorse him (or anyone else on our local ballot).

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Update 2010.10.18 15:05 CDT: On further review, we discover that Noem misrepresents Herseth Sandlin's score from the Gun Owners of America. VoteSmart.org currently lists that rating as a D. The Gun Owners of America themselves currently list SHS's rating as B-. So which rating does Noem choose: the rating posted at the original source, or the lower rating at a secondary source that needs updating? Of course, Noem chooses her pitch over reality.

NRA Repeats: Vote for Herseth Sandlin

Noem's Misrepresentations "Unfortunate"

Repeat after me: The National Rifle Association wants you to vote for Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin.

Conservative friends, if that really bothers you, feel free to declare the NRA an irrelevant bunch of Beltway elitists. Repeat that as often as you like. I know I will.

But Kristi isn't saying the NRA is irrelevant. She's stamping the NRA logo on her mailings like two big seals approval. Team Kristi is a whisper shy of a lie and they know it.

So does the NRA. From Roll Call:

“The one thing that is clear to our members in South Dakota is that we did endorse Stephanie Herseth Sandlin,” NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said. “It’s unfortunate that there are efforts to try to insinuate otherwise” [Anna Palmer, "Herseth Sandlin Takes Issue with Noem's NRA Mailing," Roll Call, 2010.10.14].

The NRA spokesman could have stopped with that first sentence. That second sentence suggests that the NRA's endorsement of Herseth Sandlin is more than mere pro forma adherence to its "incumbent-friendly" endorsement policy. If the NRA really had its fingers crossed behind its back for Noem, it could have withheld any endorsement. And it could have withheld that second sentence, a pretty clear slap at Team Kristi's marketing trickery.

The NRA is a single-issue organization that distracts us all with John Wayne fantasies (and Constitutional misreadings, and outright lies) from discussing real solutions to real problems. Their endorsement of Congresswoman Herseth Sandlin doesn't make me like her any more.

But Kristi Noem's counterfactual insinuation that the NRA actually prefers her makes me like Noem even less. Watch out, Kristi: the NRA may feel the same way.

Noem Misrepresents NRA Endorsement of Herseth Sandlin

Did I say Noem lies? No... but I'm tempted....

Hey, if the Noem campaign can put up a fake anonymous blog, so can the Herseth Sandlin people. And at least the Dems (a) save money by using Blogger and (b) tell the truth!

Exhibit A on "Kristi vs. Kristi": Noem's misleading guns flyer that pretends to have the National Rifle Association's endorsement.

I received this flyer in my mailbox last week and wondered what the NRA thinks of Noem's using the NRA logo when the NRA is clearly behind Herseth Sandlin. Noem's only gun rights endorsement comes from a few stray gun nuts who want to carry firearms in kindergartens, courthouses, and bars. If I ran a nationwide organization that endorsed a candidate, and that candidate's opponent then co-opted our brand and logo and portrayed them as a stamp of approval on their propaganda, I'd be irate. But maybe that's just me being oversensitive....

Note also Noem's slick use of language, avoiding any mention of Herseth Sandlin's "A" rating with the NRA. (I got two more flyers in my box today that try to make me think Nancy Pelosi is on the South Dakota ballot.) Noem also stretches the heading about hunting: she ignores Herseth Sandlin's status as a fellow hunter and gunowner by inserting the adjective "lifelong."

By the way, that back image there...

...Did Noem check with her brother-in-law to make sure none of those critters were poached? And there's that NRA logo again. Oh, the word/image games Noem plays....

Heidepriem Trailer: Another Example of Medium over Message

We have a governorship to win. I should not be writing movie reviews.

But the Scott Heidepriem campaign seems to think it's making movies. Whoever the magic marketers are behind the Democrat's gubernatorial campaign, they continue to put medium over message.

The latest misdirection: the campaign releases a trailer for Thursday's half-hour Heidepriem campaign commercial.



The first two lines are great. Heidepriem speaks of needing to leave no regrets. Republican Don Frankenfeld says we face a choice between "eight more years of complacency, or are we going to have decisive action." Ding! Pow! Nice one-two of the eager, earnest leader and the hard attack.

But then the trailer gets fuzzy. In an apparent effort to overdevelop the theme, the kids in marketing dilute a series of pretty good attacks and endorsements from other pols with a scattershot blast of disjointed personal comments from Heidepriem. His statements make little sense without context:

• "It was a wild summer" with high soybean, corn, and cattle prices... but we don't hear which summer, or what that has to do with state ag or tax policy.
  
• Heidepriem chokes up recalling a funeral... but we don't hear whose, or when.
• "By the time we were a few songs into it, the crowd had evacuated..." from where? into what? Was the State Senate singing lieder in the middle of a bomb scare?
• "She was a rock star, and I was a security detail..." Who was she? where? And what does this have to do with anything?
• "...the balance that I thought was so important for South Dakota had vanished..." getting back on message, probably referencing the Legislature.
• "You can see that arrow point up dramatically, then flatten for a generation..." and that arrow would be... what? the average income of South Dakotans that your economic development policies will rescue from stagnation? the amount of funding for education that you will increase? the percentage of healthy baby deliveries on the reservation?
  

Compare that mostly meaningless hodgepodge with the good lines Heidepriem's endorsers get:

• Scott Abdallah (I think that's him) gives a good line about things not getting done because of too much partisan politics.
• Ann Tornberg gets a decent line about education not getting another dollar until we get our priorities straight, although there's a pronoun without an antecedent that obscures the argument.
• Russ Janklow offers a quote from his dad (that would be Governor, Congressman, Republican icon and ex-convict Bill Janklow) that could get huge mileage encapsulating the Rounds/Daugaard Administration's drifting, visionless governing through the economic downturn: "Anybody can be governor on a good day, but sometimes we don't have that many good days."
• Frankenfeld comes back with the cookie jar line, which we know has to do with state government balancing the budget with stunts and stimulus money, not Bob Mercer in the press hospitality room.
• Former Governor Harvey Wollman returns with the "put in a new team" line.
  

I can just imagine the brainstorming session with the filmmakers. They said they needed a theme. Someone said, "We need to show this campaign ad is different." Someone else said, "Let's show that it's personal as well as political." Another gal said, "And let's build excitement by leaving people asking questions!" Some dude with donut crumbs on his shirt says, "Yeah! Do a fast montage, strip the context, get people excited to watch the movie!" And the policy wonk with the 17-inch laptop in the corner considers mentioning the need to include some notes about the Heidepriem-Arndt plan to retool the state economic development loan fund, but decides to keep quiet, knowing how temperamental these artsy types are.

Now maybe the creators of this shiny little trailer will complain, "We're not making a campaign ad! We're making a movie trailer!"

No. Horsepuckey. This ain't cinema school. You are working for a candidate for governor. When you brush your teeth, it's a campaign ad. Every communication that comes out of your office must add value to the campaign by screaming "Vote for Heidepriem!" Every communication you issue should stand on its own as a campaign statement.

This trailer fails in that regard. In its Youtube version, it doesn't even sell the advertisement it advertises by telling us when to tune in. The trailer thus wastes viewers' time, and that's really, really bad marketing.

But far be it from me to complain without offering solutions. Here's how to turn this disjointed video into a butt-kicking campaign ad:

1. Cut all the personal Scott moments.
   
2. Move Heidepriem's line about the loss of balance to come right after Abdallah's.
   
3. Keep that "arrow" quote, but tell us what the heck the arrow is!
4. Insert captions for each endorser so every viewer knows exactly who these impressive people are.
5. After Wollman's line, splice in a nice video of Heidepriem and Ben Arndt shaking hands before a cheering crowd.
6. Then fade to Heidepriem and Arndt looking straight at the camera: "I'm Scott Heidepriem." "I'm Ben Arndt." "It's time for a new team. That's us."
   
7. Over that last ten seconds, you display the campaign URL in very clear letters.

Scott, it's time to get the kids with the cameras back on message. We have 29 days until the election. There isn't time for anyone spending your money to say anything that doesn't end with the words, "Vote for Heidepriem!"

Scott/Steve, Don't Hype the Ad: Hype Frankenfeld and Janklow for Heidepriem!

Democratic candidate for South Dakota governor Scott Heidepriem has a new TV ad up. My one problem with this ad: it spends too much time pitching the next big ad, Heidepriem's half-hour program coming up next week, and not enough time pitching the candidate. I've noticed that problem in a number of the communications from Team Heidepriem: they tell me their ads are historic and unprecedented and are getting great reviews. I really couldn't give less of a hoot how good the ads are: we're trying to win an election, not a Pollie. Heidepriem's marketers seem to have overread or misread Marshall McLuhan and think that the man is the message is the medium.

Either that, or they're just full of themselves.

That said, the new ad has the elements of an even better, truly rock'em-sock'em ad: apparent endorsements from former Republican legislator Don Frankenfeld and Republican attorney Russ Janklow:



Holy cow! Getting Frankenfeld and Janklow fils to endorse the Democratic candidate for governor is pretty strong cheese. Or at least I think they're endorsing Heidepriem. They're in the ad—they must like him... right?

This ad shows us Frankenfeld and Janklow telling us South Dakota has a huge fiscal problem. But only former Democratic Governor Harvey Wollman makes the sale, saying we need to "put in a new team." But none of those guys says the magic word: Heidepriem, Heidepriem, Heidepriem.

If I had money for 30 seconds of TV time, and I had video of Don Frankenfeld and Russ Janklow saying good things about me, I'd fill that thirty seconds with every word I could from those big name endorsers. And I'd leave no doubt as to whom those guys were voting for. I'd make darn sure I included the tape of each of those heavy hitters saying my name and saying they're voting for me.

I hope that's what we'll hear in next week's half-hour extravanganza. Direct endorsements from such prominent Republicans really would be newsworthy.
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p.s.: Take this blog post and even the headline as textual metaphor for the marketing argument. Imagine how much better (for Team Heidepriem) this post would be if it started off with the real news—Frankenfeld and Janklow Endorse Heidepriem! Instead, in an ad-centered world, the marketing analysis gets the lead, and the juicy stuff gets second billing.

Heidepriem Buys Half-Hour Blocks for TV Documentary

Democratic candidate for South Dakota governor Scott Heidepriem is going big on TV time. On Thursday, October 7, is buying 30 minutes on Sioux Falls television stations KELO, KSFY, and KDLT and Rapid City stations KOTA, KNBN, and KEVN to tell South Dakotans why Heidepriem should be governor. The show will run at 6:30 p.m. Central on the Sioux Falls stations, then 6:00 p.m. Mountain on the Rapid City channels.

Now when I first heard about the broadcast, I thought maybe we were in for a good old-fashioned Ross Perot-style presentation, 30 minutes of the candidate talking directly to us and flipcharting his way through what's wrong with the status quo and how he'll fix it.

We might get a little of that, but it sounds like we're in for more of an exercise in creative marketing. Here's the campaign's description:

On October 7, 2010, our Campaign will make modern South Dakota campaign history when we air a powerful half-hour documentary on Scott Heidepriem and this fall's crucial South Dakota gubernatorial campaign. The documentary will air statewide on local networks -- KELO (KDLO and KPLO), KSFY and KDLT television in Eastern South Dakota and KOTA, KNBN and KEVN television in Western South Dakota.

The documentary centers on a very personal conversation Scott Heidepriem had last March with a small group of friends and family in his living room. In this wonderfully candid, funny and sometimes painful stroll documenting his life, Scott introduces himself to this small group of friends like he has never done before. He discusses his South Dakota roots and values, his father's war experiences in World War II, his life growing up in small town South Dakota, his experiences writing his book, on the history of Hand County, his family and the painful death of his brother, and finally, he talks about why he feels so strongly about the need to change the direction of politics and policy in South Dakota.

The group filmed the conversation not knowing at the time exactly what, if anything, would ever become of it. When the video surfaced several months later and they saw what they had, they wanted to share it with all of South Dakota. So do we.

The rhetorical/artistic concept sounds like good storytelling. I like the literary feel of working from one conversation and tying together the strands of a lifetime that lead a man to where he is. Given GOP opponent Dennis Daugaard's heavy reliance on his nice-guy hard-scrabble-farm story, Heidepriem is certainly entitled to weave personal narrative into his campaign effort. And while I prefer the policy debates, the reality of campaigning requires reaching a lot of people with the warm fuzzies.

Alas, unless the leaves fall and let the digital signal through the shelterbelt to my house, I probably won't get to watch. Will anyone else? If you do, let me know if Heidepriem breaks out at least one flipchart.

Campaign Ad Watch: Dusty Johnson Keeps It Simple

Pastor Steve Hickey's right: Public Utilities Commissioner Dusty Johnson's elevator pitch is a heck of an ad:



No cheesy music, no schmaltzy imagery of Commissioner Johnson gazing at majestic buffalo or picking wildflowers with his kids along the Keystone pipeline route. Just the man himself, a little humor, and his cut-to-the-chase argument for why he thinks we should hire him again.

And in the Web bonus of the week, we all will be freeze-framing the opening second trying to identify the woman exiting the elevator and the exact expression the producers directed her to make over Dusty's laying that sticker on her bosom.

My PUC vote remains undecided, but I will definitely keep this ad in my folder for the next time I teach job interviews in speech class. Now I want to see the follow-up ad where Dusty delivers this pitch while taking the stairs.

"Farmers Feed Us": New Big Ag Propaganda

US meaning
Monsanto and Big Ag...

Oh look! More corporate propaganda masquerading as friendly family farmers! A friend directs me toward SD Farmers Feed Us, another in the ongoing series of "tell our story!" marketing campaigns waged by the ag-industrial complex. They have a Twitter account, a Facebook page... and (scroll down to the fine print) lots of money from the Center for Food Integrity, a front group created in 2007 by Monsanto, the Farm Bureau, and other food industry heavyweights to "increase consumer trust and confidence in the contemporary U.S. food system."

And the notion that "Farmers Feed Us" isn't wholly accurate: the majority of that corn you see reaching for the sky in the August humidity goes to gas tanks, not your tummy.

But don't let disingenuous corporate mental manipulation stop you from registering to win a year's worth of free groceries... all rich with corn syrup.

Madison: Our Classy Town

That's the Stadium Sports Grill, bringing class to Main Street Madison since 2007.

Engage:SD -- Rural Learning Center Offers Social Media Help for Non-Profits

The Rural Learning Center is giving me all sorts of things to think about this week. RLC's blog, Reimagine Rural, announces an interesting new project, Engage:SD. The project's purpose is to help small non-profit organizations learn how to use social media—not just billboard Web pages, but blogs, wikis, Facebook, forums, and all the other online tools people can use to interact, share, and build texts and ideas together.

What will Engage:SD actually do?

1. Engage:SD is offering eight online seminars on using online tools for branding, sustaining community conversations, and organizing non-profit action and events. These webinars run from July 27 (that's next week! sign up already!) to December 21.
   
2. They'll give five $2500 grants for technical assistance in developing social media strategy. Non-profits focusing on rural community or economic development get first dibs, but RLC is open to other applicants who can make the case that they can put a social media grant to good use.
3. They'll also host some in-person skill-building workshops where non-profit staff can come learn to use Facebook, Twitter, Wordpress, Flickr, and Delicious (what, no Blogger? ;-) )

I dig this project. It is exactly the sort of collaborative effort rural organizations need to acquire social media skills. Most rural non-profit groups are too small to have staff dedicated to marketing or Web work. Take our local Habitat for Humanity chapter: their Facebook page and website, along with their Shelter Fest online info, aren't products of rigorously designed social media marketing campaign sustained by an information systems specialist. They're all set up by my wife, the board secretary, who marshals her marketing experience, sparkly enthusiasm, and occasional Web advice from her blogger husband into Web presence for the organization. That Web presence happens because the group just happens to have a volunteer interested in that kind of work who can find a few spare moments amidst the general business of the organization to tinker online.

Engage:SD offers small non-profits like Habitat ECSD some training and practical tips that they probably couldn't afford on their own. The Rural Learning Center can snag a social media expert and share her knowledge with a whole bunch of groups at once, making a difference in a bunch of communities simultaneously in a way that scattered individual non-profits could not.

If you're running a little non-profit on the prairie, fighting the good fight for small-town arts or business recruitment or social justice, you'll want to look into Engage:SD. This program could give your group a little Web boost to help you connect with your community and get things done.

Hy-Vee Pizza Sale! Consult Your Doctor!

Hy-Vee includes this super shocker sale!!! in my Sunday paper:

Ten 12-inch pizzas for $16.80?! Holy cow! That's 120 inches of pizza! That's supper for a week! Where's my wallet—hey, what's that blue box at the bottom? Coupon? Fine print?

Oh. Why does my enthusiasm feel dimmed?

Local Marketing 101: Put People in Photos

Reimagine Rural gets me thinking, as usual. Morgan Andenas writes about the importance of including people in your local promotional photos. Putting photos of buildings and landscapes with no people can leave the impression that you're promoting a ghost town, says Andenas (who also cites Becky McCray of the rural/small-town development blog Small Biz Survival).

Naturally, I get to wondering how Madison does on this score. Let's take a look!

Here are the banner images I find this morning on MadisonSD.com, the promotional website owned and operated by local Infotech Solutions, one tentacle of local marketing specialists Bulldog Media Group:


Of the eight images on the main and top-level pages, three include people. Only one photo, on the Education page, shows a person in an identifiable local context. Even in that photo, the comely young woman is far to the left, separated from the DSU Tunheim Building by a big dark tree. That photo leaves me with a sense of detachment, or a sense that the photographer was more interested in graphic composition than storytelling.

The photo of the kids tubing is nice, but it could be anywhere: Lake Herman, the Missouri River, Key West.... The piggyback photo could be from any old inspirational calendar (although I'll admit it's pretty awesome that Bulldog Media got Daniel Craig to pose for a photo.. or is that Ed Harris?).

Now I wonder: do pelicans count as people? If they don't, the majority of MadisonSD.com's photos fail the people-storytelling criterion posited by Andenas and McCray.

I turn to the Lake Area Improvement Corporation, expecting to find a barren wasteland of deserted buildings. But surprise! unlike the LAIC's TIF District house, many photos on MadisonWorks.com have people in them.


Six of the nine banner images on the LAIC website clearly show people, some of them even clearly identifiable as authentic local residents. The exercisers in the Community Center look a bit like ghosts in the machine of the weight room, but they're there. We might even add the Prostrollo's shot as a seventh people picture... although if there are people in that photo, they are tiny dots, dwarfed by the commercial beast (which is metaphorically appropriate for Lake County's monopoly new-car dealer).

Let's not fall prey to Madison's obsession with marketing: even the most spectacular and well-peopled photos won't end the recession and create jobs. But some authentic shots with actual residents, like a number of the pix on the LAIC website, can make your town look like something more vibrant and inviting than a ghost town.

Research, Marketing, and Economic Development in the I-29 Corridor

That Sioux Falls paper reports that the I-29 Regional Development Coalition (of which Madison is a taxpayer-supported member) is starting to get the return on its $118K investment. Regional Technology Strategies of North Carolina presented findings at DSU Wednesday. RTS's two big recommendations pretty much confirm what various local economic developers were already thinking:

1. Boost university research.
2. Market the region.

Boosting university research sounds great, but RTS CEO Trent Williams tells us that to achieve that goal (Brenda Wade Schmidt's words), "the state universities need to hire scientists." Oops: was that really the right thing to say when Republicans and Democrats alike are making political hay with promises to cut state government? Remember, a lot of the growth in state government under the Rounds/Daugaard administration has come from the Board of Regents hiring more researchers—including me—to do exactly what RTS is recommending. Candidates, are you sure you want to reverse that process?

Now don't let Dwaine Chapel get on the committee working on #2: he'll put up banners all along I-29. RTS proposes at least creating a website to advertise our South Dakota's urbane East Coast. But continuing the conversation about community branding, Mike Knutson reminds us that advertising is the price we pay for being unoriginal. Create a vibrant culture, strengthen your education system, and energize your local economies, and those advantages will market themselves.

Think of it this way: if you have $200,000, you could hire a scientist and buy a regional ad campaign, or you could hire two scientists. Which do you think will do more concrete good for the community, or in this case, the Corridor?

Down at the south end of the I-29 Corridor, Rebecca Terk is engaging her readers in a substantial discussion of local economic development in Vermillion. She notes with some chagrin that the community's current economic development campaign, Vermillion NOW!, is marked by the same sort of pay-to-play strategy that dictates the Forward Madison campaign: you buy your way into the decision-making process with donations. If economic development groups really want to succeed, they should involve more community members in ways that don't hinge on money. There are lots of community members, from Vermillion and Madison to Sioux Falls, Brookings, and Watertown, who don't have deep pockets but do have deep ideas, not to mention time and sweat they'd be willing to contribute.

The best community development involves everyone in the community, not just the folks with money.