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SD News Watch: Rising housing costs adding to financial burdens of South Dakota renters

Another investigation from South Dakota News Watch. We're based in the area served by Grow South Dakota, mentioned in the article, though we don't use the agency for rental assistance.

Skyrocketing housing costs adding to financial burdens of renters in South Dakota
By Kylie Carlson

Steadily rising rents across South Dakota are adding further financial hardship to renters who are already facing record gas prices, rising costs for food and utilities and inflationary increases in the overall cost of living.

The rising rents are forcing some potential renters to make tough choices, such as taking on roommates, living longer with relatives or accepting housing with worse conditions or less space than hoped for.

Urban areas of South Dakota are seeing the biggest spikes in rents. The average rent for a 2-bedroom apartment in Pennington County is up 15% from 2020 to 2022, and the monthly cost is up 10% for renters in Meade, Minnehaha and Union counties during that two-year period. Several South Dakota counties are near or above $1,000 a month in average rent for a 2-bedroom apartment.

Rural areas of South Dakota have seen lower increases in average rents, but availability of rental housing is low in many small cities and towns. 

The increased costs of housing comes at a time more people are seeking to move, including people making life changes after the pandemic, recent high school or college graduates, or those who seek new housing in the summer months.

Meanwhile, as has long been the case in South Dakota, there is a growing disconnect between average wages and the increase in rent and the overall cost of living. The spiking rents also come as availability of rental housing is low across the state, further challenging those who need housing.

Across the Midwest, monthly housing rates have gone up about 4.8% since April 2021. In April 2022, the average rent for a two-bedroom unit in South Dakota was about $750 a month, according to World Population Review. Meanwhile, the minimum wage has only increased $1.30 per hour in the last four years, though a workforce shortage has prompted many employers to pay well above minimum wage so far in 2022.

A sharp increase in demand and a short supply of available units are making rental housing a hotter and more costly commodity than in previous years in South Dakota. Part of this demand comes from households “separating” in the post-pandemic world of 2022.

Census data shows that the number of households in the U.S. increased by nearly 1.48 million in 2021 after a decrease of an estimated 130,000 households in 2020. Young adults moving out of family homes and those looking to live without roommates have contributed to this, making the 2020 to 2021 jump the highest in almost ten years.

The housing market in the U.S. has become extremely competitive and costly, turning away many first-time homebuyers and adding pressure to the rental market.

According to Zillow.com, mortgage and interest rates have made homes 53% more expensive that a year ago. The National Association of Realtors saw the average home price rise 17 percent in 2021.

The median list price for new homes in the Sioux Falls metro area was $295,000 in April, according to Realtor.com, an increase of 16 percent from 2021.

While still considered a buyer’s market with more supply than demand, Realtor.com shows the Rapid City median home list price tops Sioux Falls at $329,000, an increase of 20 percent over 2021.

The spike in home purchase prices has pushed an estimated one million prospective buyers into the competitive rental market.

The burst of potential new renters is also reducing availability of quality, affordable housing in both urban and rural areas of South Dakota.

Tillie Morrin, 19, spent most of a recent day driving around Rapid City with her fiancée and a friend trying to find a 2- or 3-bedroom apartment that was available and that they could afford.

Morrin and her roommates were trying to land an apartment for $1,000 or less per month.

“The hardest part is availability,” said Morrin, who works as a stocker at Walmart. “Today so far we’ve been to five or six places.”

The group found one 2-bedroom apartment available for $1,200 a month but kept on looking. “That’s a little high for us right now,” Morrin said.

RENTS INCREASED STATEWIDE FROM 2020 TO 2022

This chart shows average rent increases in selected South Dakota counties from 2020 to 2022 for a 2-bedroom apartment in a multi-family complex.

County                 Avg. rent                    % increase 2020-2022

Pennington          $1077                           15%

Meade                  $1176                            10%

Union                   $1071                           10%

Minnehaha          $932                           10%

Davison                $782                            7%

Brookings             $847                            5%

Yankton                $729                            5%

Brown                   $863                            4%

Beadle                  $545                            4%

Lawrence              $624                            2%

Notes: Data shown for 2-bedroom units in multifamily housing, average rent and increase rates reported by the Washington Post.

More rural renters seeking help

In some areas of South Dakota, more tenants than ever are taking advantage of government assistance programs.

Grow South Dakota, an agency that helps low-income residents in a 17-county region in northeastern South Dakota, has seen an “astronomical” increase in financial assistance provided to needy renters, said Maureen Nelson, senior program director at Grow.

In the seven-month period from Oct. 1, 2021, through April 30, 2022, Grow provided about $975,000 in assistance to 930 people in about 350 households, Nelson said. Most of that funding was for rental and utility assistance, she said.

Prior to the pandemic in 2020, the Sisseton-based agency was providing only about $30,000 a year in total assistance, Nelson said.

The huge increase is due to higher need for help, greater availability of federal assistance and stronger “word of mouth” communication among those who potentially qualify, Nelson said. However, anyone receiving assistance must still meet federal low-income guidelines before receiving any money.

One recent challenge facing renters is that many other costs of living have gone up, including gasoline, groceries and utility costs, Nelson said.

“They’re needing more assistance with rent because everything else is going up across the board,” she said.

Furthermore, many rural areas in South Dakota have an overall shortage of housing, especially for families, Nelson said.

“There might be job openings for people to come to a town, but they’re having a hard time finding rentals that accommodate their family size,” she said.

Landlords facing higher costs, too

Nelson said landlords have also struggled financially during the pandemic, including those who were unable to evict non-paying tenants due to a federal eviction moratorium, which has now expired. Landlords are also enduring much higher costs for goods, services and mortgage payments, Nelson said.

“I think it’s been tough for landlords,” Nelson said. “If you didn’t have income coming in for six months, that makes a huge difference in their cash flow.”

Nelson said some landlords are responding by being more rigorous in screening potential tenants, placing additional challenges on people seeking rental housing.

“They might be more strict to be sure people have adequate income to pay for their rent,” she said.

Some landlords in the U.S. have begun asking for two months worth of rent as a security deposit in lieu of the traditional one month. Application fees are another expense to consider along with some landlords or management firms requiring their tenants purchase renter’s insurance.

Dustin Hoffman owns a construction company in Sioux Falls but also manages 17 rental properties in the city, mostly for low-income tenants. His 2-bedroom apartments are running about $900 a month, an increase of nearly 40 percent from two years ago.

“When you consider taxes, insurance, gas bills – everything is going up,” said Hoffman. “We were forced to raise our rates to get back to where we were before the pandemic.”

Still, even with higher rents, demand for housing remains high, he said.

“I posted one of my properties yesterday and had eight applicants by noon today,” Hoffman said during a May 25 interview, “The longest vacancy I’ve had in the last two years has been less than a week.”

Though many of his tenants qualify for housing assistance, filling an available unit often comes down to whether the person can afford the deposit and demonstrate the ability to make monthly payments despite an increasingly challenging economy.

In an April 2022 report, Yardi Matrix, a market intelligence tool that provides research reports on multifamily housing, reported an estimated need of between two and five million more housing units across the United States.

Inflation is also driving rents higher, with an overall rate of inflation increase of 8.3 percent in 2021, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Housing rental costs jumped 5.14 percent, kicking the average U.S. rent prices up 14 percent.

“The problem a lot of [tenants] have is that they’re paying high dollar for gas and groceries and everything else,” Hoffman said. “So the question becomes whether they’re making more money in their paycheck to accommodate that. A lot of the time they aren’t.”

Meanwhile, wages in South Dakota are falling even further behind increasing rents and a higher cost of living.

In 2021, the National Low Income Housing Coalition reported that the average renter’s wage in South Dakota was $13.15 per hour, or about $27,400 annually. At that wage, monthly rent must be at or below $684 to be considered affordable, or under 30% of a renter’s monthly income. Making that wage in 2022 would limit housing options to studio and one-bedroom options in some parts of the state.

Tenants with a lease have some protection against regular rent hikes. Current rent rates will stay fixed at least until the end of their current leases, unless a lease authorizes a landlord to alter the rent amount.

The South Dakota Attorney General’s Office says it is unlawful for a landlord to force a tenant to move through raising rent payments or withholding of services for the duration of the lease, so long as they make payments on time. However, in month-to-month instances, a landlord can raise rent with only a 30-day notice.

Tenants struggling to afford their rent payments do have options available to assist them if they meet the requirements. An online search for rental assistance will lead to websites for agencies across the state that can provide help to those who qualify.

— South Dakota News Watch reporters Bart Pfankuch and Stu Whitney contributed to this report.

Photo: The median list price for new homes in the Sioux Falls metro area was $295,000 in April, according to Realtor.com, an increase of 16 percent from 2021. That has forced many prospective home buyers into an increasingly competitive rental market. Photo: Stu Whitney, South Dakota News Watch.

This article is used with permission of South Dakota News Watch. Donate here to support its work.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. 

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Just in from Aberdeen News: SD SOS claims court has no jurisdiction in Manhart case & more!

We've been following the curious case of South Dakota District 1 Republican state house candidate Logan Manhart since Dakota Free Press broke the story with its findings back on May 5. 

Our most recent post was Media scrutiny of SD District 1 House Logan Manhart candidate integrity questions continue.

It's not just media scrutiny now.

Just over an hour ago, Elisa Sand reported at the Aberdeen News in June 13 hearing date set in Logan Manhart District 1 residency: lawsuit:

A June hearing date has been set to answer residency questions about a District 1 legislative candidate.

A civil lawsuit filed May 16 in Hughes County is challenging Logan Manhart's residency qualifications as a candidate for South Dakota Legislature. The lawsuit was filed against Manhart, the South Dakota Canvassing Board and Secretary of State Steve Barnett.

Manhart has asked for more time to compile his response. But a response has been filed by Barnett, and a hearing date has been set for 10:30 a.m. June 13 in Pierre before Judge Christina Klinger. . . .

About that response?

A response filed Wednesday by Barnett's attorney, Clifton E. Katz, claims the court lacks jurisdiction and the suit fails to state a claim for relief. The South Dakota Democratic Party also lacks standing, per the response.

A writ of prohibition essentially seeks court action to prohibit something, like disqualifying a candidate for office. Such a request is typically found at the end of the court document, but no such request is included in the lawsuit, according to Barnett's response, so a writ of probation cannot be issued.

The lack of jurisdiction argument is two-fold. First, per the claim, a writ of prohibition is only allowed when there is no other speedy, adequate remedy. And state election statutes provide that remedy, allowing petitions to be challenged within 10 days of being filed.

The response also argues that Manhart, as one of two Republican candidates for District 1, was automatically certified as a candidate and that, according to state law, the South Dakota Supreme Court has exclusive jurisdiction over primary contests for state office.

In this case, none of the District 1 candidates are on the primary ballot. Two Republicans and two Democrats have filed to run, and all are on the general election ballot in November.

Also running in District 1 are Tamara St. John, R-Sisseton, and Jennifer Healy-Keintz, D-Eden, both incumbents. The two top vote getters on Nov. 8 will earn terms in Pierre. 

Well then.

Given that Manhart was so invested in "election integrity" that he traveled to Washington DC on January 6 to help stop the certification of the electoral college vote for Joseph Biden, we're a bit entertained by this new nugget in the story:

[Steve] McCleerey claims Manhart's Wisconsin voter registration in 2020 and 2021 and his participation in four elections during that time is a breach of South Dakota's residency requirements for legislative candidates.

State law requires candidates to live in South Dakota for two years prior to running for a state legislative position.

But Manhart also maintained his South Dakota voter registration at his Bath address during that time and has said his move to Wisconsin was to go to school. 

So Manhart was registered in two places at once--and as the screenshot at the top of this post indicates, got a job in Wisconsin as well. My my.

Screenshot: After working on President Trump’s Re-Election Campaign in 2020 in Wisconsin (Manhart campaign website), Manhart took a position as a field director in July 2021 with the Republican Party of Wisconsin. It's unclear whether he was hired before or after he finished his six-course certificate in leadership development and management at Chippewa Valley Technical College in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

Related posts:

• Dakota Free Press post: Manhart voted in Wisconsin in 2021, thus ineligible to run for South Dakota House in 2022
• Manhart candidate integrity questioned: docs from 32CIV22-92; McCleerey vs Barnett
• In SD District One, GOP candidate & operative doesn't want to talk to press about January 6
• Media scrutiny of SD District 1 House Logan Manhart candidate integrity questions continue

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MN Reformer: Kim Crockett must be shunned

We've posted about the Republican Party of Minnesota's endorsed Secretary of State candidate Kim Crockett in MNGOP endorsed secretary of state candidate's election ignorance pairs well with past racism and GOP SOS candidate we scolded for racism, incompetence gets antisemitism added, as well as earlier copy from the Minnesota Reformer as well.

Today's column at the Reformer by editor J. Patrick Coolican hits it out of the park. Our impression of Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon matches Coolican's: Simon is a humble public servant. He earned our admiration with this statement on the marriage inequality amendment in 2011.

Coolican's column at the Minnesota Reformer:

Kim Crockett must be shunned

The Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party gathered last weekend in Rochester, even though their candidates for statewide office are all incumbents. Everyone presumed it would be a dull affair. 

Secretary of State Steve Simon stepped to the lectern. Simon is bright, competent and responsible. 

You won’t hear Simon deliver the usual self-aggrandizing bombast or partisan sallies. It’s just not his thing. Which makes him kind of dull, though given the tenor of the times, this is not a bad thing. 

So when he began his speech, we could be forgiven for checking our phones.

And then a few minutes into it, Simon spoke briefly about how his great-grandfather, a Lithuanian Jew, wound up in America. 

“He didn’t just emigrate to America. He fled. He fled discrimination and persecution. He was what today we would call a refugee. The year before he left for America, Jews in the Russian empire lost the right to vote.” 

“And then,” Simon began, but he could go no further. He was silent, struggling to continue, for an excruciating 12 seconds, during which — if you had a shred of historical knowledge and decency — you considered what befell Lithuanian Jews and the evil that caused it. 

“Things got much worse.” 

Simon spelled it out: “No one knows for sure what would have happened to him had he stayed in Lithuania, but over 90% of the Jews there were eventually murdered in the Holocaust.” 

Simon’s young daughter, who was on stage with him, drew closer to him, and grabbed his arm in comfort. 

Simon’s great-grandfather settled in Eveleth, and thus began the family’s American dream. 

“In America, he found freedom. He found a place where you could have a say. A voice in his own future. That freedom today is just as important today as it was back then.” 

Simon’s ability to grapple with the gravity of human history and our role in it contrasts starkly with his likely Republican opponent, Kim Crockett. 

At the GOP convention a week prior, Crockett’s campaign played a video that showed George Soros — a wealthy donor to progressive causes who also happens to be a Jewish Holocaust survivor — as a puppet master, controlling Simon. 

The Jews are pulling the strings. It’s an old theme, older even than the Nazis who employed it to stoke hatred and fear. But it’s still with us, harbored by the man who killed 10 people in Buffalo the very weekend Crockett was winning the GOP endorsement. 

The Minnesota Republican Party was forced to apologize, and lamely claimed Crockett didn’t intend for the Soros imagery to be antisemitic. 

Crockett blew up the apology fewer than 24 hours later with a fundraising letter that referred to “contrived and bogus political attacks” and showed an image of her apparently lounging lakeside, with sandaled feet and a Tucker Carlson book. 

The message was clear. Join me: You and I hate the same people. 

This isn’t the first time Crockett has done a public goose step dance.

She previously apologized for comments she made to a New York Times reporter about East African immigrants coming to Minnesota.

“These aren’t people coming from Norway, let’s put it that way. These people are very visible,” she said in 2019, in an article that led her to leave her post at the local conservative outfit Center of the American Experiment.

Then, more recently, she proceeded to disavow earlier apologies. “I would say everything today that I said in 2019,” she said. Her comments were merely taken out of context, she said, as if there could be any context that would explain her comments. 

Setting aside her loathsome views about anyone who doesn’t share her ancestry, Crockett is also a danger to the office of the secretary of state. 

To begin with, she’s ignorant, or lying. In another fundraising letter, she wrongly asserted the secretary of state “counts the votes.” Counties and cities count the votes.

She told supporters that Republicans have to overcome a “margin of fraud,” despite the overwhelming evidence that elections here are free, fair and legitimate, the results confirmed by statutorily mandated audits. 

She’s also in whole hog on the 2020 election lie, which directly led to the insurrection of Jan. 6.  It was a failed coup that sought to ensure some people in this country — people with similar tribal hatreds as Crockett — get to run things in perpetuity.  

Her stated aim is to create barriers to voting, perhaps hoping to discourage participation in self-government by people she hates. 

We rightly bemoan the loss of civility in public life these days, but the way back to civility isn’t just being charitable to our political opponents. 

Paradoxically, we must also shun those who have lost the privilege to engage in public life because of their bigotry and bullying. 

Minnesotans — beginning with the Republican candidates who are running on the ticket with her in the fall — should cast aside Crockett. Scott Jensen, the likely GOP candidate for governor, should explain that Crockett’s bigotry and thirst for authoritarianism have no place in the Republican Party or in public life.

Given Jensen’s desire that Simon be imprisoned for his management of the pandemic-fraught 2020 election, I don’t have much faith. 

This column is republished online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please donate to the Minnesota Reformer.

Related posts:

• MN Reformer: Republican Party of Minnesota endorses election denier to oversee elections
• MNGOP endorsed secretary of state candidate's election ignorance pairs well with past racism
• GOP SOS candidate we scolded for racism, incompetence gets antisemitism added
• Westrom wouldn't talk to local reporter about why he attended sketchy election fraud event 

Photo: Secretary of State Steve Simon paused to gather himself during his speech at the DFL State Convention, as he told the story of his great-grandfather escaping tyranny as a Lithuanian Jew. Screenshot, via Minnesota Reformer.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. 

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email sally.jo.sorensen@gmail.com as recipient.

I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

MN Reformer: Republican Party of Minnesota endorses election denier to oversee elections

We've posted about the Republican Party of Minnesota's endorsed Secretary of State candidate Kim Crockett in MNGOP endorsed secretary of state candidate's election ignorance pairs well with past racism and GOP SOS candidate we scolded for racism, incompetence gets antisemitism added.

Now at the Minnesota Reformer, Deena Winter takes a long look at Crockett's national election denier network in Minnesota GOP endorses election denier to oversee elections:

Voting rights advocates are alarmed by Minnesota Republicans’ endorsed candidate for secretary of state Kim Crockett, who has called the 2020 election “rigged.” 

She played a video at the state Republican convention with the theme “Sending out an SOS” that portrayed the election system in crisis and controlled by a Jewish puppet master, George Soros, with the caption, “Let’s wreck elec­tions forever and ever.”

Crockett recently appeared at a showing of the Dinesh D’Souza documentary called “2,000 Mules,” which is filled with debunked conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. 

In short, Crockett is a proud believer in what has come to be known as “The Big Lie,” the false assertion that former President Donald Trump won the election both here and nationally. 

Of particular concern for voting rights advocates: As secretary of state, Crockett could play an outsized role in the future of Minnesota democracy. Although the secretary of state does not “count the votes” — despite what Crockett erroneously told supporters in an email — the secretary of state oversees statewide elections and operates the statewide voter registration system.

​​Michelle Witte, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Minnesota, said Minnesota city and county associations agree the state’s election systems are fair and accurate, and a 2018 legislative audit of voter registration found minimal errors.

“To me, it’s very irresponsible for anyone to sow doubts without facts,” Witte said. “When people make claims that truly undermine our confidence in our democracy … you better have the facts to back you up.” 

Crockett, who has not returned repeated texts and calls and has given few interviews of late, told Republican delegates that she’s been called by God to run. “My campaign has been filled with the holy spirit since day one,” she said. 

Crockett wants more restrictions on voting by mail and wants to make it harder to vote by shortening the early voting period, pushing in-person voting over mailed ballots and requiring people to show identification to vote. Her campaign sent supporters an email saying Republicans need to overcome a “margin of fraud” in the upcoming election.

With her party’s endorsement, Crockett is likely to face Secretary of State Steve Simon, a second-term Democrat, in November.

During the state Republican convention, Crockett accused Simon of using the pandemic to change how Minnesotans vote, and saying it’s time to “root out” a “partisan election process he’s built.”

Crockett said Minnesota should “return to voting in person” and reject the “insecure, chaotic absentee balloting system and vulnerable wireless equipment connected to the internet.” 

Yes she has voted by absentee ballot in every state general election since the introduction of no-excuse absentee voting.

Crockett is part of the Conservative Partnership Institute’s “election integrity network,” which is led by Cleta Mitchell, who played a key role in trying to help former President Donald Trump flip the Georgia election results. The incident is being investigated by a special grand jury in Fulton County.

Normally low-profile secretary of state races around the country have attracted more attention and money than usual in the wake of Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. Republican Trumpists are seeking to install loyalists in key election positions, particularly in battleground states where President Joe Biden narrowly beat him.

The election watchdog Brennan Center is tracking fundraising in what it considers battleground races this year, and Minnesota is one of them. The center recently released a report noting that fundrais­ing in Minnesota’s secret­ary of state contests through March surpassed $650,000, the highest since at least 2010. Simon has raised about $520,000 of that — more than all the candid­ates put together at this point in each of the last three cycles and far more than the $90,000 raised by Crockett. 

Simon has called the 2020 election “funda­ment­ally fair, accur­ate, honest, and secure.”

The Brennan Center is keeping tabs on candidates who claim the 2020 election results were illegitimate, as well as those who threaten not to certify results or call for baseless “full forensic audits.” 

Crockett checks many of those boxes: She has accused Simon of rigging the system when he agreed to a judicially approved consent decree after a voting rights group sued the state to expand mail balloting for safe voting during the pandemic.

Crockett was legal policy advisor for the Minnesota Voters Alliance, which calls itself an election integrity watchdog that seeks to “increase voter participation,” but has taken legal action against Simon and counties over election administration.

Crockett has handed out campaign literature at events where the speakers claim the 2020 election was stolen, even though Minnesota Republicans picked up a congressional seat, maintained their state Senate majority and picked up state House seats. 

She hailed one of these conspiracy theorists, Rick Weible, as a “voter data hero.” For more than a year, the former St. Bonifacius mayor has been posting “Midwest SwampWatch” YouTube videos laying out election fraud claims based on faulty assumptions.

According to her LinkedIn page, Crockett worked as a consultant for the American Majority Election Integrity Project, a conservative group that trains people on things like “how the Big Rig happened in 2020.”

She’s also pushing an “Eyes on Every Ballot” initiative and is recruiting election judges “with the help of patriot groups,” in the hope that if more Republicans watch elections, more Republicans will win. 

The Brennan Center also noted GOP’s endorsed candidate for governor Scott Jensen said the “election process was bastardized” and said that Simon should go to jail for the way he ran the last election. 

This mistaken belief that the 2020 election was rigged against the GOP runs up against overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The 2020 Minnesota election included thousands of Republican election judges and a random group of precincts in every county were hand tallied to ensure accuracy. Post-election reviews by county administrators found no significant irregularities.

Crockett says her plan to recruit more GOP election judges has been thwarted by Hennepin and Ramsey counties because they are requiring their employees to get COVID-19 vaccinations: “We can’t let Steve Simon and county bureaucrats block citizen election judges, from any political party, from serving in these critical roles designed to keep our elections honest.”

She attributes Republicans’ recent success in Virginia to getting more Republican observers into precincts, saying she has a “Virginia plan for Minnesota,” though there’s a more conventional and likely explanation for Republicans’ success in Virginia: The party that controls the White House in off-year elections often does poorly, and Republicans received more votes, especially in rural areas where Republicans are strongest. 

This article is republished online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. If you enjoy read article from the Minnesota Reformer, please consider donating to the publication here.

Related posts:

• MNGOP endorsed secretary of state candidate's election ignorance pairs well with past racism
• GOP SOS candidate we scolded for racism, incompetence gets antisemitism added
• Westrom wouldn't talk to local reporter about why he attended sketchy election fraud event 

Photo: Kim Crockett, from her campaign website.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. 

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email sally.jo.sorensen@gmail.com as recipient.

I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

Will Carnahan's lackluster showing in Blue Earth home base close curtains on her political career?

The headline in Wednesday's Mankato Free Press, UPDATED: Finstad gets GOP nomination; ex-Hormel CEO wins DFL nod, frames the primary in the Minnesota First Congressional District special election in curious way, relegating the Democratic nominee to a no-name plutocrat.

Such are the times in which we live.

Mark Fischenich reports more details:

Former Hormel CEO Jeff Ettinger will be the Democratic contender to replace the late Congressman Jim Hagedorn in an Aug. 9 special election. On the Republican side, former state Rep. Brad Finstad of New Ulm nudged out current Rep. Jeremy Munson of Lake Crystal in the special primary election.

With 100% of the precincts reporting, former Finstad had 38% of the vote. He was within less than 400 votes of Munson with 37% of the vote. The margin of victory is above the level that would trigger a taxpayer-funded recount.

For latest results go to https://tinyurl.com/yc645j28

Two marijuana legalization candidates were already set to advance to the Aug. 9 ballot because they were the only candidates in their pot-focused parties. Tuesday's voting, along with the absentee ballots cast in advance, determined which Democrat and which Republican would join them.

On the Republican side, it was immediately a two-man contest between Finstad and Munson. Hagedorn’s widow, deposed Minnesota Republican Party Chairwoman Jennifer Carnahan, was a distant third with 8%, followed by Matt Benda, an Albert Lea attorney (7%), and Rochester state Rep. Nels Pierson III, a Butterfield native and Gustavus Adolphus College graduate (5%).

A former state representative from New Ulm who was the top USDA official in Minnesota during the administration of President Donald Trump, Finstad is the preferred candidate of many popular and long-serving Republican legislators in southern Minnesota. Munson, by contrast, carried a large contingent of social media followers into the congressional campaign and was endorsed by national political figures such as Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky.

Finstad held the lead for the first hour after polls closed, but Munson surged ahead by the time half of the precincts had been counted, only to have the race tighten again. With 76% of precincts reporting and nearly 30,000 votes cast, Munson had a 13 vote lead.

Just before 11 p.m., Finstad had edged ahead again by 30 votes. By 11:22 p.m. it was 414.

All of the top vote-getters appeared to be well-liked by their nearest neighbors. Ettinger won 91% of the Democratic vote in Mower County, Munson picked up 61% in Blue Earth County and Finstad finished with 76% support in Brown County. . . . .

Twas not so for Hagedorn widow and disgraced former Republican Party of Minnesota Chair Jennifer Carnahan, though Blue Earth's local paper reported before the election in Special Primary Election to be May 24 that Carnahan was considered a frontrunner and well-known around town:

One of the names on the Republican side of the primary ballot of May 24 is that of a Blue Earth woman, Jennifer Carnahan, the widow of Jim Hagedorn.

“Some people are surprised to learn that I live in Blue Earth,” Carnahan said in an interview last week. “But I moved here quite a while ago, and I have continued to live here in our home after Jim’s death.”

Others are not so surprised, as she admits to not taking the time to cook much, so she is a frequent visitor to Average Jo’s, Farmer’s Daughters and China Restaurant.

“I am lucky there are such great restaurants here in Blue Earth,” she says with a laugh. “Sometimes I feel I live at Average Jo’s and Farmers’ Daughters.” . . .

. . . Carnahan is considered by some as the front runner in the GOP contest which has nine other candidates. She says she feels confident of her chances as she has name recognition across the First District and the state, because of her husband and because of her years of work in the Republican Party.

That copy drew the ire of our best sources in Blue Earth, one of whom suggested the only Carnahan sign was the one in her own lawn, while the place peppered with Munson signs. 

Our source was on to something, though they might have overstated the situation. In the end, returns for Faribault County show that Jeremy Munson received 44.58% (502) of the ballots cast, Finstad netted 29.57% (333) of the vote, while the grieving widow was third with  16.61% (187) of the votes.

In Blue Earth's three precincts:

BLUE EARTH W-1: Munson received 39 votes or 39.80%; Finstad, 26 or 26.53%; Carnahan, 25 or 25.51%

BLUE EARTH W-2: Munson, 49 or 46.67%; Finstad, 33 or 31.43%; Carnahan, 22 or 20.95%

BLUE EARTH W-3: Munson, 26 or 45.61%; Finstad, 20 or 35.09%; Carnahan, 9 or 15.79%

We suppose we can give her the comfort of performing better close to home than her district-wide  8.01% of the vote.

In the end, the most spot-on report on Carnahan was Sam Bordey's article for the Daily Beast, Inside a Widow’s Scorched-Earth Bid for Her Husband’s Old Seat in Congress, which included this money graph:

Scores of Minnesota Republicans, for one, seem to have their own horror stories about Carnahan, according to public statements and sources who spoke to The Daily Beast who know Carnahan or worked with her.

Indeed.

Related posts

• Question from a lawsuit: why didn't Hagedorn's insurance pay for Arizona treatments?
•  1st congressional district reportage: on the congressman's wife in southern Minnesota media 
•  Republican Party of MN reports self-employed James, Hagedorn lives in St. Louis Park 

Photo: Jennifer Carnahan in Blue Earth, Minnesota, in early May. Photo via Special Primary Election to be May 24, Faribault County Register.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. 

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Hard to digest end-of-session digest: unfinished business left on Minnesota legislators' plates

We can't claim to offer any original insights into the collapse of the budget and tax cut agreements at the close of the Minnesota legislative session on Sunday.

Rather than engage in fingerpointing--as much fun as it is--we'll simply put together a digest of news reports.

Starting at the state capitol, Session Daily's Mike Cook reports Legislative session sputters to an end; special session probable:

At a press conference last Monday announcing a framework to finish out the legislative session, Gov. Tim Walz and legislative leaders were asked a number of times for more details rather than just grand total numbers.

The outline split the budget surplus into thirds: $4 billion for tax breaks, $4 billion for new spending, and $4 billion left on the bottom line in case the economy worsens.

Lacking specific on things like taxes, health care and education, Walz told the media it is their role to be skeptical, but he was “pretty confident” things would come together.

Um.

After another week of DFL and Republican members blaming the other side for the lack of success, the state’s top elected official said just before 1 a.m. he’s open to calling a special session — something he previously pledged not to do — in hopes of reaching agreement on myriad supplemental funding bills that also contain key policy across the spectrum.

“We’re 90-95% of the way there, we’re sitting on the proverbial 1-yard line. Just punch it in. Just get it done.”

Walz plans to meet with legislative leaders Monday morning, where presumably a timeline will be discussed. “The sooner the better makes the most sense,” he said.

[MORE: History of special sessions]

“The Minnesota House is ready to come back and get the work done,” House Speaker Melissa Hortman (DFL-Brooklyn Park) said after members left the House Chamber late Sunday, the last day bills could be passed in the regular session. She would like a special session this week. “We hope our Senate GOP colleagues will in the morning agree that we need to come back and finish the work for the people of Minnesota.”

“Minnesotans expect us to show up and get the job done. We have had a tendency in recent years to have a final agreement toward the close of session, come back in a special session and finalize that work,” said House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler (DFL-Golden Valley). “We still have an opportunity to do that.”

“We are not interested in a special session,” Senate Majority Leader Jeremy Miller (R-Winona) said mid-afternoon Sunday. He reiterated that post-session.

Also while it was still daylight, Senate Minority Leader Melisa Lopez Franzen (DFL-Edina) said she does not want a special session called unless there is pre-approved agreement. “We’re not going to come here as we’ve done in the past and just wait and see if there’s another agreement. That is a waste of our time and taxpayer dollars.”

“I think it’s good for everybody to go home and sleep on this for seven months and we’ll come back and do what’s right for Minnesotans,” House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt (R-Crown) said shortly after midnight.

Behind-the-scenes omnibus bill deal-making between the governor, legislative leaders and committee chairs mostly proved futile.

Health and Human Services? Denied. Public Safety? No deal. E-12 Education got an incomplete. Transportation crashed. Environment and Natural Resources? You get the drift. . . .

Read the rest at Session Daily. Senate Media Services noted in With Work Remaining, Special Session Discussions Begin:

Legislative leaders addressed the media Monday, May 23, following the adjournment of the Senate sine die. The budget framework agreement reached by Governor Tim Walz, Senate Majority Leader Jeremy Miller and House Speaker Melissa Hortman was left unfilled, as lawmakers failed to pass supplemental funding for education, public safety, the environment, public safety and state agencies. In addition, the major tax relief measure hailed by the tax chairs earlier in the week did not reach either House or Senate floors for a final vote.

Governor Walz said that negotiations throughout Sunday were productive, and he believed legislators will work to finalize the budget areas in the coming days.

Here's the YouTube of that media scrum:

At the Star Tribune, Jessie Van Berkel and Stephen Montemayor reported in Minnesota Legislature misses key deadline to finish its work early Monday morning:

The GOP-led Senate and DFL-controlled House reached Sunday's midnight deadline without passing numerous sweeping policy packages, including a previously agreed upon $4 billion tax deal and proposals for education and public safety.

Walz planned to meet with House Speaker Melissa Hortman and and Senate Majority Leader Jeremy Miller on Monday morning to hash out the details of a short special session to wrap up agreed-upon bills, which could happen as early as this week.

Only the governor can call a special session, a regular occurrence over the past decade as the Legislature frequently missed deadlines to complete its work. Walz had repeatedly said over the past couple months that he would not call another one.

"At the end of the session we are really close but not done and we need a little extra time," Hortman said.

But that possibility is still being met by resistance from Republican leaders.

"We're always happy to listen, but the reality is the deadline was midnight and that deadline has come and gone" Senate Majority Leader Jeremy Miller, R-Winona, told reporters early Monday.

Speaking to reporters after midnight, Hortman and Miller shared contrasting visions for how close — or far apart — the two sides were on multiple key pieces of legislation. On public safety, a top priority for all three state leaders, Hortman expressed optimism that a deal could be close. Yet Miller, moments later, described being "pretty far apart" on the bill and cited differences over funding for police and community nonprofits.

Hortman described reaching an agreement on health and human services spending to be the most difficult task still before lawmakers. Senate Minority Leader Melisa López Franzen, DFL-Edina, had earlier said that legislators were nearing agreement on health and human services spending.

"We are trying to unclog the logjam here," she said, accusing Miller of not bringing Senate Democrats to the table to get work done. "We're willing to work. We're willing to get that logjam freed up. But no, there is fault on both sides."

Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt, R-Crown, blamed Democrats. He said they "are not letting go of the unnecessary spending that they want to do right now."

Over the weekend, legislative negotiators reached a $4 billion tax deal that would eliminate state taxes on Social Security income, lower the bottom income tax tier from 5.35% to 5.1% and expand tax credits for homeowners and renters. But the fate of the tax agreement is tied to a broader deal that includes an additional $4 billion in proposed spending.

Sen. Jason Isaacson, DFL-Shoreview, pressed Miller around noon Sunday on the logistics of completing the various bills. Isaacson said that if deals were reached Sunday afternoon, he believed that could be too late for Capitol staff to do the work needed to prepare bills for votes before the midnight deadline. . . .

Later the same day, Van Berkel and Briana Bierschbach reported in Billions in spending, tax cuts in limbo as retiring legislators say farewell:

Minnesota legislators spent hours giving fond farewell speeches Monday as billions of dollars in tax and spending proposals remained in limbo — and the campaign trail blame game that will dominate the next five months was underway.

"I'm hearing pretty clearly from Minnesotans, 'Give us the money back from this and invest in the things that make our lives a little easier,'" said DFL Gov. Tim Walz, who has sole power to call legislators back into a special session to finish the tax, education, public safety and other bills that state leaders failed to wrap up during their regular session. "It shouldn't be that hard and we can get win-win-wins across the board."

But he ended a meeting with top legislative leaders Monday with no timeline or clarity on next steps. Walz said he's ready to call legislators back, but Senate Republicans asked for a few days to "decompress" after a marathon of legislative work over the past week.

Lawmakers' official work slammed to a halt at 11:59 p.m. Sunday, the deadline to pass bills this session. Formally, they could do little at the Capitol on Monday apart from retirement speeches. Some wandered around the building waiting to hear whether they should keep working or go home, while interest groups aired their frustrations that lawmakers left so much work undone.

"The collapse is imminent," said Sen. Jim Abeler, R-Anoka, who proposed spending $1 billion to boost pay for long-term care and group home workers, personal care assistants and others in the midst of a health care staffing crisis. "People are going to come to harm, and everybody knows it."

As key dealmakers met privately to determine next steps, Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen gathered his supporters for a rally outside the Capitol. He was joined and endorsed by Kendall Qualls, one of the candidates Jensen recently bested in the fight for the Minnesota Republican Party's backing.

"I'm going to ask you to remember Forrest Gump, one of my heroes. His mother taught him, 'Stupid is as stupid does.' I don't know if our present governor got that message," said Jensen, a former state senator. "We've got a lot more problems coming down the pike because we've got someone who thinks they're a king and you're his subjects. And that's got to stop." . . .

Readers can draw their own conclusions about the efficacy of that sort of imaginary hero worship.

At the Forum News Service, capitol reporter Dana Ferguson reports in Minnesota lawmakers left St. Paul without passing $8 billion in tax and spending bills. So now what?:

The Minnesota legislative session fizzled to a close on Monday, May 23, without resolution on a number of issues, including how to dole out the historic $9 billion budget surplus.

Ahead of the Sunday, May 22, deadline for passing bills at the Capitol, lawmakers finished writing a nearly $4 billion tax bill that would've cut the lowest income tax bracket and eliminated the tax on social security benefits.

They also agreed to spend $4 billion on spending for schools, public safety, long-term care facilities and group homes.

But partisan disagreements over the biggest spending bills kept them from getting done on time. And without those pieces of the end-of-session agreement, Democrats said the tax bill shouldn't move forward.

Now, Gov. Tim Walz and leaders in the Minnesota House of Representatives, along with groups that wanted to see lawmakers pass those bills before the deadline, say lawmakers should come back for overtime.

But Republicans, frustrated about not being able to pass the tax bill before the clock ran out, say there's little point since lawmakers couldn't reach deals in the four-month regular session.

Here's a look at what happened this weekend and where things could go from here. . . .

Read what happened at the Duluth News Tribune or another Forum news chain paper. The paper's editorial board decided Our View: Lawmakers fail Minnesotans once again this session.

At the Minnesota Reformer, Ricardo Lopez reported in Billions left unspent as divided Legislature flounders in final hours:

In the end, the Minnesota Legislature ran out of time early Monday to strike deals on how to spend the state’s historic budget surplus, leaving billions on the state’s bottom line unless DFL Gov. Tim Walz and legislative leaders finish the work in a special session. 

Lawmakers blew past a midnight deadline, failing to pass new spending for public safety, schools, health and human services, tax cuts and a capital infrastructure bill. 

Because they passed a two-year budget last year, they don’t have to pass anything this year, but the state’s burgeoning problems in education and public safety had constituents clamoring for a fresh infusion of money, while both parties also sought to give some of the surplus back in the form of tax cuts and credits. 

Last week, House Speaker Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, Senate Majority Leader Jeremy MIller, R-Winona, and Walz announced they had reached a broad framework for the state budget. 

The framework, which sets spending on the surplus for the next three years, included: $1 billion for education; $1 billion for health and human services; $450 million for public safety; $1.4 billion for a bonding bill; $4 billion for a tax bill and $4 billion left unspent in case of any future disruptions to the state economy. 

“We hope our Senate GOP colleagues will in the morning agree that we need to come back and finish the work for the people of Minnesota,” Hortman told reporters in a post-session press conference, arguing that lawmakers should return in a special session to finish passing bills. “There’s a lot of really important work that we can do for the people of Minnesota.”

Miller, for his part, called the process frustrating, blaming the House DFL for not finishing on time. He seemed less interested in a special session, even though the bills outstanding contain some of the Senate GOP’s top priorities, including full exemption of Social Security income from state taxation and an income tax rate cut. 

Walz told reporters that he expected to meet with legislative leaders on Monday to try to negotiate a special session agenda. 

“We’re happy to continue these discussions, but the reality is… we’re not interested in a special session. For goodness sake, get your work done on time,” Miller said.

The sticking points were numerous. On public safety, Miller said Senate Republicans pushed for more funding for law enforcement and tougher penalties for certain crimes. House DFL lawmakers, Miller said, relented on more funding for police but pushed back against harsher criminal penalties. 

“That just wasn’t acceptable to Republicans,” Miller said. 

Still, the session was not a complete wash. Lawmakers approved new money for higher education, veteran services and agriculture, which includes a drought relief package. Previously, lawmakers found compromise on replenishing the unemployment insurance trust fund and approving pandemic hazard pay to frontline workers. 

Despite recriminations between lawmakers of slow-walking offers and bad-faith negotiating, Hortman struck an optimistic tone for finishing bills in a short special session. She cast the inability to finish on time as a byproduct of a part-time Legislature whose calendar was set decades ago. 

“This has become a fairly typical occurrence,” she said. “We have a very complicated state budget, and a big state with a lot of people in it and the length of the legislative session set that we decided in 1970 has shown us over the last 20 years to not be long enough.”

Minnesota special sessions have occurred fairly regularly in the past few years, including monthly during the worst of the pandemic. 

The failure of lawmakers to approve the budget bills threatens to derail top priorities for the Senate GOP, House DFL and governor as the 2022 fall elections get closer. 

Senate Republicans started the session focused on supporting law enforcement, announcing a series of packages to bolster police departments with recruitment and retention bonuses. They also frequently pointed out rising violent crime in the Twin Cities to justify their tough-on-crime agenda. 

House Democrats, meanwhile, pushed hard for increased education funding to help address funding shortfalls in special education, as well as advocating for more affordable child care and health care for lower-income Minnesotans. 

The governor, who pitched direct payments to Minnesotans as a centerpiece of his economic agenda, compromised on several of his priorities, but still stood to see many of his proposal incorporated into a final budget deal.

Walz appeared ready to call lawmakers back to the Capitol to finish the budget deal struck last year.

“We’ll finish this. We have to. The ball is on the one-yard line,” Walz said. “This is the nature of deliberative bodies. They tend to be this way. It’s not an excuse, but it’s a reason.” 

Monday is the last full day of the 2022 legislative session, but under state law, lawmakers cannot pass any bills in the last 24 hours. Instead, lawmakers will meet to send off a long list of retiring House and Senate members who will not be running under the newly drawn legislative maps. 

Photo: The statue on the dome of the Minnesota state capitol. A pretty place where good and bad policy ideas and spending sometime go to die. Or linger.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. Those wishing to make a small ongoing monthly contribution should click on the  paypal subscription button.

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In MN Senate District 15, Larvita McFarquhar vows to take back country from Gary Dahms

It's been a while since we've posted about presumptive Lynd, Minnesota, restaurateur Larvita McFarquhar, but who can forget the heroine of such posts as Small town MN freedom fighting restaurateur's anti-vaxx pals make us pause about her savvy, or McFarquhar: freedom fighter or attention addict?

Not to mention  Minnesota Court of Appeals affirms ruling against Havens Garden's anti-sovereignty motion. And Controversial Alexandria pastor Darryl Knappen visits Larvita McFarquhar's Havens Garden.

But her name caught our eye today as we looked at Candidate Filings for State Senate Offices at the Minnesota Secretary of State's website:

According to the Minnesota Legislators Past and Present entry for the veteran Republican state senator from Redwood Falls at the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library, Dahms is a retired insurance agent and former county commissioner whose legislative concerns are "budget, taxes, jobs, economic development." 

The Minnesota Senate Republican Caucus page for Gary Dahms doesn't say want he thinks about Sunday's collapse of the tax and budget deal, but press releases there say he was happy in late April that the Senate Passes Significant Agriculture, Broadband, and Housing Package to Help Minnesotans Compete in the Modern Economy. We gotta wonder if he's sad that housing got left out of the conference committee report that became law.  

We're pretty sure he's happy about the $830,000 for the Redwood Falls veterans cemetery.

As for McFarquhar's intentions, we'll let her speak for herself in two Facebook videos she posted before and after filing at the Lyon County Courthouse:

Before:

After:

At Unicorn Riot's D.C. Riots: A Look at the Minnesota Contingent we are reminded:

Larvita McFarquhar, owner of Haven’s Garden restaurant in Lynd, Minnesota, who’s faced fines for keeping her restaurant open, took the trip to D.C. with a crew of her friends—Janice Evans (Victoria White), Molly Wentzel, and Steve Lahr. On their trip, they stopped in Gettysburg to live-stream about how they weren’t allowed into five different bathrooms for refusing to wear masks. . . . 

The four talked about their experiences in D.C. during two live-streams posted on Molly Wentzel’s Facebook on January 8. They all repeated the debunked theory that the violence that happened at the Capitol was orchestrated by “antifa and BLM.” White and Wentzel said they went into the Capitol building while Lahr and McFarquhar didn’t enter the building.

Will the Republican primary in Minnesota Senate District 15 be a test of established leadership versus extreme conservative activism draining the swamps of St. Paul?

Dahms won the 2020 Senate District 16 contest with 73.64% of the vote.  Independence-Alliance candidate Joshua Prine took 14.02% of ballots cast, while Legal Marijuana Now candidate Steve "Stoney" Preslicka captured 12.10%.

We'll see if redistricting has put Dahms at risk or perhaps Southwestern Minnesota Republicans are happy with the job he's doing.

Related posts:

• So SD state rep Mulally, a sheriff & a county commish will host Sheriff Mack in Rapid City 
• Small town MN freedom fighting restaurateur's anti-vaxx pals make us pause about her savvy
• Minnesota Court of Appeals affirms ruling against Havens Garden's anti-sovereignty motion
• Controversial Alexandria pastor Darryl Knappen visits Larvita Mcfarquhar's Havens Garden 
• McFarquhar: freedom fighter or attention addict?

Photo: Gary Dahms in an intimate moment on the Senate floor with Majority Leader Jeremy Miller, R-Winona.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. Those wishing to make a small ongoing monthly contribution should click on the  paypal subscription button.

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email sally.jo.sorensen@gmail.com as recipient.

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Media scrutiny of SD District 1 House Logan Manhart candidate integrity questions continue

We last looked at the curious case of Logan Manhart, whose residency qualifications to run for the South Dakota House are the subject of 32CIV22-92; McCleerey vs Barnett in the Hughes County Court in our post Forum Communications' Mitchell Republic checked out Manhart's social media posts from WI.

The story was first broken by Cory Allen Heidelberger at the Dakota Free Press on May 5:

Manhart Voted in Wisconsin in 2021, Thus Ineligible to Run for South Dakota House in 2022 https://t.co/pQuDdUYhGm

— Dakota Free Press (@dfpblog) May 5, 2022

The story continues to have legs.

In a subcribers' only article in the Aberdeen News (we're a subscriber) veteran journalist Elisa Sand reports in Residency questions posed for South Dakota House candidate and Aberdeen city councilwoman:

Questions about residency have cropped up in the past week or so for a candidate running for the South Dakota House of Representatives and a current member of the Aberdeen City Council.

Logan Manhart, R-Bath, is one of four candidates running for two District 1 House seats. One of his opponents, former state legislator Steven McCleery, a Democrat from Sisseton, has filed a civil complaint questioning Manhart's residency.

McCleerey claims Manhart's Wisconsin voter registration in 2020 and 2021 and his participation in four elections during that time is a breach of South Dakota's residency requirements for legislative candidates.

State law requires legislative candidates to live in South Dakota for two years prior to running for a state legislative position.

Manhart voted in four elections in Eau Claire, Wis., between February 2020 and April 6, 2021, according to voter records in the complaint filed against him.

Manhart declined comment Thursday as he evaluates his legal strategies. He had yet to file a response in the civil case, and no hearing date had been set.

According to his campaign webpage, he was attending college in Wisconsin during the time in question.

"In 2021, Logan graduated with a certificate degree in Leadership Development and Management, with the goal to return home and further the conservative cause in his favorite state," his website reads, though it doesn't offer details about where he attended school. . . . 

Prior to registering to vote in Wisconsin, Manhart voted in two elections in South Dakota as a registered Brown County voter. According to the Brown County Auditor's Office, Manhart registered to vote as a Republican in July 2016 and voted in the general elections in 2016 and 2018. His voter registration did not lapse but, was updated in 2021 when he canceled his Wisconsin voter registration, Auditor Cathy McNickle said.

According to the South Dakota secretary of state's website, a residence is defined as "the place in which a person has fixed his or her habitation and to which the person, whenever absent, intends to return."

The definition goes on to say that if a person leaves temporarily, they haven't changed their residence. A person loses his or her residency when they move with the intent of making that place their permanent residence, per state law.

Secretary of State Steve Barnett said he couldn't speak in detail about the complaint, but he expects the court to make a fairly speedy decision.

The residency question, Barnett said, comes down Manhart's intent to return to South Dakota.

The validity of candidate petitions can be challenged up to five days after they've been filed with the Secretary of State's Office. After that, Barnett said, it's an issue for the courts. . . .

Sand's use of Manhart's campaign website prompted us to recall some posts from his personal Facebook page from the Summer of 2021 that suggest Manhart was living and working in Wisconsin. There's the July 15, 2021 post (screenshot at the top of this post in case of the Facebook embed is made private or deleted):

Worth noting that this doesn't seem to be a short-term, election-year job, but one taken during an off year. It's unclear exactly when in 2021 (as Dakota Free Press reports):

Manhart completed a certificate in leadership development and management at Chippewa Valley Technical College in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. (Note: the leadership development certificate requires six credits; the supervisory management certificate requires nine credits. So when Manhart says he graduated with a “certificate degree,” he may be overstating his credentials.)

Was this a post-graduation job?

After that announcement, Manhart shared a couple of posts related to the job (we have screenshots):

(More about the Dunn County Patriots here).

There's also that life event in the screenshot of moving to Green Bay, Wisconsin on August 31, 2020--not exactly part of South Dakota, as far as we know. We don't see anything about intent to return to South Dakota during the summer of 2021.

The first mention of his candidacy that the public can see was posted on December 12, 2021. 

It's worth revisiting the Dakota Free Press post that broke the story, Manhart Voted in Wisconsin in 2021, Thus Ineligible to Run for South Dakota House in 2022.

Related posts:

• Dakota Free Press post: Manhart voted in Wisconsin in 2021, thus ineligible to run for South Dakota House in 2022
• Manhart candidate integrity questioned: docs from 32CIV22-92; McCleerey vs Barnett
• In SD District One, GOP candidate & operative doesn't want to talk to press about January 6

Screenshot: After working on President Trump’s Re-Election Campaign in 2020 in Wisconsin (Manhart campaign website), Manhart took a position as a field director in July 2021 with the Republican Party of Wisconsin. It's unclear whether he was hired before or after he finished his certificate in leadership development and management at Chippewa Valley Technical College in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. 

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email sally.jo.sorensen@gmail.com as recipient.

I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

Fickle MNHouse GOP votes against omnibus ag, drought relief conference report. Passes anyway

Update: The conference committee report passed both chambers, Walker Orenstein reports in Minnesota Legislature approves bill to address 2021 drought, fund broadband infrastructure at MinnPost.

Back on March 10, Session Daily reported Bill offering relief for drought-hit farmers passes House; that was HF3420, by a 101-33 vote. Such luminaries as the Ag committee minority lead, Starbuck's Paul Anderson, Browns Valley Republican Jeff "Goose Poop" Backer, Alexandria conservative Mary Franson, and cattle farmer Dale Lueck voted for it.

But when the agriculture conference report hit the House floor last night--a"conference committee report to HF3420 combines the omnibus agriculture and broadband supplemental finance and policy bill with one that would provide relief to farmers from the 2021 drought," the vote was 69-64, without a single Republican voting for the legislation.

Too much help for farmers? Too much money for broadband? Too much money left for the DNR tree drought relief?

You'd think they'd at least honor Elbow Lake Republican Ag Chair Torrey Westrom's hard work in stealing away the stand-alone HF3420 after he assumed the gravel after the first conference committee meeting on April 20 for it. They kept those empty talking points about how much they loved farmers but hated trees for weeks.

Let's hope the Senate Republicans behave themselves and pass the report before adjournment.

At Session Daily, Brian Hall reports in Conferees settle differences with agriculture omnibus, drought relief bills:

— UPDATED at 11:35 p.m. with House vote

With time to work dwindling, a conference committee working to reconcile agriculture bills came to an agreement on several appropriations and policy changes Saturday.

The conference committee report to HF3420 combines the omnibus agriculture and broadband supplemental finance and policy bill with one that would provide relief to farmers from the 2021 drought.

It was passed 69-64 by the House a few hours later. It now awaits Senate action.

“We’ve got a very strong, solid bill for the state of Minnesota on all the fronts for farmers, for agriculture, for rural broadband and the connectivity that’s become so important in our lives,” said Sen. Torrey Westrom (R-Elbow Lake), who sponsors the bill with Rep. Mike Sundin (DFL-Esko). “We can be, I think, proud as a conference committee to be a big piece of this policy and financing that will be moving forward.”

“It’s been somewhat of a longer journey than probably necessary, but I think we hit on all the points,” Sundin said. “Had we had more money, it would have been a little better bill.”

The combined total in new appropriations for agriculture, drought relief and broadband would be $50.9 million from the General Fund in the current biennium and $32.5 million in the next biennium.

Funding was a sticking point in deliberations, with the House looking for $60 million in new funding this biennium and the Senate proposal adding just $5 million. With guidance from Gov. Tim Walz and caucus leadership, a $7.5 million in additional agricultural spending was agreed upon.

Under the agreement, the Department of Agriculture would receive an additional $1.5 million in fiscal year 2022 and $6 million in fiscal year 2023. And $7.5 million would be added to the department’s base in the next biennium.

[MORE: View the spreadsheet]

Some of the new policies and programs would:

• establish a cooperative grants program;
• establish farm down payment assistance grants;
• add a member with knowledge of cybersecurity to the Food Safety and Defense Task Force;
• establish a soil health financial assistance pilot program; and
• require several reports to the Legislature, including from the Grain Advisory Group.

[MORE: View the agriculture statutory changes]

The committee finally agreed to an $18.4 million package. The Agriculture Department would receive $13.1 million to support farmers hit by the 2021 drought, with $5 million going to the Department of Natural Resources to replace drought-killed seedlings and $300,000 for resolving well interference.

Grants from the Agriculture Department would be offered to farmers or producers in counties designated as a primary natural disaster area from July 19, 2021 to Jan. 1, 2022, or in a contiguous county. Assistance would be available up to $7,500 per farmer based on expenses incurred and attested to in response to the drought.

Among agriculture appropriations, the Senate proposed $7 million in livestock and specialty crop grants, while the House was at $5.1 million. The agreement would appropriate $8.1 million.

Additionally, $2.5 million would be transferred to the Rural Finance Authority, $1.5 million to the Agriculture Emergency Fund and $1 million to the University of Minnesota for veterinary diagnostic laboratory equipment.

Broadband boost

Improving broadband access throughout the state would get a big boost. An appropriation of $25 million from the General Fund in fiscal year 2023 would be transferred to the Border-to-Border Broadband Fund.

The Department of Employment and Economic Development must also prepare a grant application to the U.S. Treasury Department, requesting that $60.7 million of Minnesota’s capital projects fund be allocated for broadband projects.

The total would fund a lower population density pilot program to provide broadband to unserved and underserved areas, as well as a broadband line extension program.

We'll update this post after the Senate acts.

Related posts:

• Annals of nincompoopery: Will common sense prevail in drought relief conference committee?
•  Whatever happened in yesterday's drought relief conference committee? Anything today?
• Can Minnesota walk and deal with drought relief, CWD, and avian influence at the same time?
• After wasted weeks in Ag committee, Westrom drops deer farmer special non-drought demands from Minnesota Senate drought aid bill 
• Fact check: Did Rep. Paul Anderson say WI farmers got $100 million drought relief?
• MN House passes drought relief bill 101-33
• House to vote on drought relief Thurs afternoon; Senate burdens its bill with deer farmer aid
• Minnesota House Ways & Means Committee passes drought relief bill while senate dawdles
• Second Walz administration drought relief bill meets with GOP crabfest in committee

Photo: Some drought stricken corn. Source: Minnesota Department of Agriculture.

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Session Daily: Minnesota House passes conference committee report on ENRTF

 

Update: The Senate passed the measure on Sunday in a 67-0 vote.

We've been following the journey of proposals to use the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund and are happy to see the conference committee report passed the House last night.

Session Daily's Brian Hall reported early Sunday morning in House OK given to conference committee report on Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund:

Quick work by a conference committee to reconcile the annual appropriations from the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund took another step late Saturday when the House repassed the bill.

The conference committee report on HF3765 was passed 115-19 just before midnight and to the Senate for an expected Sunday vote.

“It restored the merit-based approach for the cream-of-the-crop projects,” said Rep. Rick Hansen (DFL-South St. Paul), who sponsors the bill with Sen. Torrey Westrom (R-Elbow Lake). “Those projects that scored over 70 on the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources, those were retained with the House position, they were fully funded at that House position based on the scoring, based on the merit of the members, whether they were citizens or legislators on the commission.”

The bill had been passed 72-60 by the House April 21, but not without debate on merit. The bill was based on the set of recommendations that received the highest score of the commission, though the commission failed to reach a supermajority for a formal recommendation.

Hansen said the conference committee report would fully fund 36 House projects for a total of $38.81 million and increase funding to 16 other House projects with $4.08 million. There are also 21 Senate-only projects that would be funded at a total of $14 million.

The total appropriation is $70.88 million.

[MORE: View the spreadsheet]

“This bill has, I would argue, improved significantly since it left the chamber,” said Rep. Josh Heintzeman (R-Nisswa). “There’s still a few things I have concerns with, but I want to thank our Senate counterparts for a strong negotiation and my red vote is now green.”

Hansen noted what he felt were three important aspects of the final committee report.

A total of $6.4 million would be dedicated to research on aquatic and terrestrial invasive species. The University of Minnesota would receive $6.23 million to support the university’s Invasive Terrestrial Plants and Pests Center.

“This center is known for its work in helping solve problems around the country, whether it’s in the farm, the field, around the factories, in our neighborhoods, working on problem solving terrestrial invasive species,” Hansen said.

The bill would establish a center for prion research and outreach with $3.88 million going to the university for help in solving chronic wasting disease.

It would also fund increased diversity in conservation careers.

“It reflects a changing Minnesota and makes aggressive outreach to try to involve more Minnesotans in the outdoors both in enjoying the outdoors but also conservation,” Hansen said.

We'll update this pot when (and if) the Senate passes the conference committee report before adjournment.

According the Journal of the House, page 13330-1, those 19 House member voting against the conference committee report are: Bahr; Bliss; Daudt; Demuth; Drazkowski; Garofalo; Gruenhagen; Hertaus; Koznick; Lucero; McDonald; Mekeland; Miller; Mortensen; Munson; Neu Brindley;  O'Driscoll; O'Neill and Rasmusson.

About half those nay-sayers are either running for different offices or retiring, according to a list kept by the Legislative Reference Library. Heckova a legacy. But we doubt those running for the Minnesota Senate will find kindred spirits when/if the conference committee report make it to the Senate floor tody (as it should).

Related posts:

• Minnesota House passes ENRTF appropriations 
• Will ENRTF appropriation extensions bill find new life in Senate Environment committee?
• Session Daily: ENRTF appropriations OK’d despite no LCCMR recommendation
• MN House Enviro & Natural Resources committee approves $71M in ENRTF projects
• Ecklund's HF219 passed out of MN House Environment committee on bipartisan 14-5 vote
• [VIDEO] $1 billion investment: Minnesota House Climate Action Caucus unveils 2022 proposals

Logo: The Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund logo.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. 

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email sally.jo.sorensen@gmail.com as recipient.

I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6