Politicians Parade, Pitch Pops, Pencils, Platforms!

Madison's Main Street enjoyed its highest politico-population density rating of the year Saturday morning, as all sorts of candidates found their way to town for Dakota State University's "Trojan Days" homecoming parade (Trojans—you know, those bad dudes in the Iliad!).

Below are some photos of some local and visiting pols who marched Main Street. We had great marching bands, too—for video of the mighty Bulldog band plus musicians from Chester, Howard, and other area schools, see musical coverage at RealMadison.org.

Mom Power! Democratic District 8 Senate candidate Scott Parsley smiles and shows off his secret campaign weapon: his mother Mary! Behind them, Lake County Democratic Party chair Joan Stamm is also smiling, thanks to all the donations pouring into the Dems' cash box. (Look out, GOP—we're catching up!)

Democratic District 8 House veteran and candidate Gerry Lange has the Lake Herman blog vote locked down; can the rest of District 8 be far behind?

Here's Dan Bohl, city commissioner, new blogger, and candidate for Lake County Commissioner, making sure no child is left without high blood sugar. (Note also the cool Lego float by the Madison Community Hospital!)

Hotfoot GOP Senate candidate Joel Dykstra either ran out of candy or doesn't want to get caught in front of the new Lake County Democrat headquarters.

DSU Foundation President and Lake County Commission candidate Chris Giles—maybe at parades, we need to call them candy-dates...

Here's Colman-Egan English teacher Val Parsley, working the crowd for her husband Scott and few of our other favorite Dems. (And yes, kids, your homework is still due Monday morning.)

Matt McLarty, Democratic candidate for the Public Utilities Commission—when even the PUC candidate makes time for the parade, you know he's serious!

Mad about Madison— Democratic District 8 House candidate Mitch Fargen is having a great time at the parade (and he's going knocking on doors afterward!).

My favorite zoning officer, Deb Reinicke, isn't running for anything... She just looks really cool on that bike. You sure you want to make a fuss about that building permit, tough guy?

Republican District 8 House candidate Patricia Stricherz and her husband march the parade route. They're both Army—this Main Street march ain't nothin' for vets like them!

GOP District 8 Senate candidate Russell Olson stops by Dems HQ for some opposition research....

Hey! Jerry Johnson (GOP D-8 House candidate)! Toss some candy this way! (I know, I sound like a typical liberal, expecting treats from government... but those Tootsie Rolls are good!)

I know, it's not much better than that famous Roger Patterson film of Bigfoot, but really, off in the distance, that's the missing half of Chris Lien's face! (Inset: the Lien Machine!)

No politician here... but it's nice to see the automatic pilot from Airplane! has found a new career at East River.

Hey, there's Robb Graham's 160-mpg hybrid. (His mileage is improving!) But if you think that's impressive...

Now that's a hybrid! The engineer who came up with this idea should run for office! ;-)

Female Chauvinist Pig Applies Double Standard to Herseth Sandlin

Wednesday's Madison Daily Leader (print only) leads with Carson Walker's AP report on the DakotaFest debate between Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandling and GOP challenger Chris Lien. Buried at the bottom, this woman-in-the-street assessment:

Anessa Klumb [picture courtesy Mitchell Wesleyan Church] of Mitchell, who attended the debate, said she's supporting Lien.

"I think Stephanie needs to focus on her family first," she said of Herseth Sandlin, who is expecting her first child [Carson Walker, "House Candidates Meet in First Debate," AP via MDL, 20008.08.20, p. 1].

Gee, Anessa, Chris Lien has a wife and daughter. Shouldn't he focus on his family first? Your (ahem) logic suggests that any married parent should stay out of politics. That would leave widows, divorcés, and (thanks to the constitutional ban on gay marriage we passed in 2006) homosexuals to serve us in Congress. (Are you and your Wesleyan friends o.k. with that, Anessa?)

Lien has the gall to reprint this chauvinism on his campaign website, implicitly endorsing that double standard. (He and the Rapid City Journal also change the headline to give Lien top billing—dare I ask whatever happened to ladies first?) I'd like to think such sexism would automatically lose him 51% of the vote... but as Anessa shows, some women have bought into their own submission.

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Update 21:37: Look at that: the Lien campaign changed their web page. This morning, the Lien campaign website reprinted the Rapid City Journal story in full, including Anessa Klumb's very distressing comment. Now the same webpage simply summarizes the article, omits any mention of Anessa's sexist defense of Lien's candidacy, and offers a link to the original RCJ article. The last modification of the page (according to the page info) was this afternoon at 13:08:27. The cached Google version of the original Lien page has also disappeared, which as far as I know only happens if someone asks Google to make it happen.

I thought maybe the Lien folks were just worried about copyright, but no, they still have full versions of other RCJ articles, plus goodies from other papers. What's the matter, Lien campaign: your supporters making you a little queasy?

Winfred Political Scientist Weighs in on Herseth-Lien Debate, Russia

PP points me toward my neighbor making the paper!

We're always excited when Lake County folks make the papers: Winfred's top political scientist Neal McIntyre attended yesterday's DakotaFest debate between Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin and GOP challenger Chris Lien and weighed in with this assessment:

The hour-long debate found the candidates alternating between subtle agreements to sharp divisions on topics ranging from energy prices to overseas conflict, leaving one audience member unable to determine a winner.

“They approached it somewhat differently and said somewhat the same things,” said Neal McIntyre of Winfred. “I guess I would call it a draw.” [Austin Kaus, "Energy Problems Among Items of Contention in Debate," Mitchell Daily Republic, 2008.08.21].

McIntyre's "draw" call has already swelled the hearts (with Lien's campaign coffers sure to follow) of PP and his conservative commenters:

If Lien debated Herseth to a standstill the first time, imagine how he'll be after he has 3 elections under his belt? [Pat Powers, "Mitchell Daily Republic: Congressional Debate..... a Draw," SD War College, 2008.08.21]

I have to admit, hearing my Democratic Congresswoman take the same positions as the Republican challenger on Hyperion (she says the refinery is a good idea) and nationalized health care (she's against it—Steph! Go talk to Dennis!) doesn't do much for my bleeding liberal heart.

Readers, feel free to debate the impact of debates (and draws) on the campaign. I want to take a moment to note that Neal McIntyre is no random man in the street. Perhaps the smartest man in Winfred, Neal is a well-read observer of politics and history. As the South Ossetia conflict broke out, he and I had an interesting conversation on foreign policy. Neal held that the United States needed to send military forces to Georgia to draw a line in the sand (or in this case, mountains) against resurgent Russian expansionism.

"Yeah, us and what army?" I asked, pointing to our troop commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Neal didn't sound worried, saying that a stand against the Russians required divisions different from the infantry we're using elsewhere. (I was keeping one eye on Madville Times, Jr., during this conversation, so Neal, feel free to straighten me out here!) Neal also said we couldn't afford not to stand against the Russians. It's the Great Game of the 1800's all over again, he said. In this century, though, the players will be the U.S., Japan, and India against Russia, China, and the Arab countries.

Uff da! Count on those Winfred folks to ask the hard geopolitical questions!

Dykstra, Lien, Herseth Sandlin Go 2.0 with Campaign Blogs

Perusing campaign websites tonight, I find that three of our four big statewide candidates—GOP Senate candidate Joel Dykstra and both contenders for South Dakota's lone House seat, the GOP's Chris Lien and Dem incumbent Stephanie Herseth Sandlin—have campaign blogs. Senator Tim Johnson has presences on MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr, but the Dem incumbent still has no blog (or does he?)

So how do the three campaign blogs compare? The good stuff will come in the fall, when we see how (and if) the candidates can put their blogs to good use in the heat of the campaign. For now, let's give a few friendly summer awards:

First-Mover Advantage: Chris Lien by a nose: his first blog post is March 25 (ah, that thrilling petition filing deadline!). Dykstra followed with his first post on March 31. The Herseth Sandlin crew didn't start blogging until June 9, after we got those darn distracting Presidential primary candidates out of the way.

First-Person Advantage: Joel Dykstra gets my stamp of approval for authenticity. It appears (and I hope I'm not wrong about this) that all but one of the Dykstra campaign blog posts are written by Dykstra himself. And he actually says stuff! He lays out energy policy, responds to Senator Johnson... heck, Dykstra sounds downright bloggy in his post on the health care reform proposals of McCain, Obama, and Clinton. I may not agree with Dykstra, but at least I can read what I disagree with straight from him.

Lien started his blog with first-person posts, but he rarely managed more than a sentence or two about the latest campaign stop. Then "Campaign Mike" took over in May, and since then his voice (and image, for Pete's sake) have been crowding out that of the guy we're actually supposed to vote for. Oops.

Herseth Sandlin gets lowest marks here: not one post from the candidate herself. And no issues, either: the three staffers posting so far have just written about themselves and various campaign activities. Perhaps it is meant to be more of an organizational blog, one to help volunteers get information. That's fine—blogs can be used for different purposes. But if you want to hear what the candidates themselves have to say, Dykstra is the only one really filling that need.

Quantity Over Quality: Alas, Dykstra is writing the least of the blogging campaigners. The most prolific campaign blog is Herseth Sandlin's, averaging 2.1 posts per week so far. Lien is close, posting 1.86 times a week. Dykstra is well behind at 0.85 posts per week. We can give Dykstra some credit: he's not getting paid to generate content like the staffers driving the other blogs. But almost everyone (except this guy!) says one key to successful blogging is regular blogging.

Vox Populi: Everybody wins here: all three campaign blogs allow comments. But Chris Lien gets bonus points here: His blog posts comments automatically, without moderation! I admire a candidate who's willing to take the Web 2.0 plunge and trust his commenters.

Tech Choice: Stephanie Herseth Sandlin gets big love from me here. While Dykstra and Lien pay for Typepad services, Herseth Sandlin's people go for the free Google Blogger account, the same software that powers the Madville Times! Chuckle at free software if you want, but it gets the job done. (I haven't tried Typepad, so I welcome the assessment of Douglas and other Typepad users.)

I hope all three blogs will continue to expand their content and give South Dakotans another venue to air their views and discuss issues with the candidates directly. I also hope we'll see the candidates who win lead the way in continuing their blogs in office as key channels for citizen participation in government.

Insanity? The GOP Would Know...

Cheap shot of the morning:

Perusing Dakota War College, I notice the Chris Lien campaign peeping from PP's SD blog feed: "Independence Day Insanity." What, an acknowledgment that the GOP doesn't stand a chance in November?

No, no—just 4th of July parade video. But seeing "Insanity" in a Republican blog title seemed too fitting to pass up.

Speaking of insanity, I'm finding some links to Dakota Voice included in the Lien campaign "News" webpage (see here, here, here), but no War College? Hmm... another candidate from the Ellis-Sibby wing of the party? My uncle Terry keeps reminding me that independent (read non-radical partisan theocrat) voters are key; the GOP doesn't seem to have gotten that memo.