Can last November's redistricting help return South Dakota's District 1 into the blue column? In Jason Harward's article in the Mitchell Republic, Democrats in South Dakota believe they can grow caucus with new legislative map, Bluestem read:
In District 1, despite having 800 fewer registered Democrats than Republicans, Senate candidate Susan Wismer says she’s hoping the 3,000 independents can make up the difference.
“When I talk to voters, I say, even if you're independent, you still have to believe in some partisan balance,” Wismer, a political veteran and former gubernatorial candidate, told Forum News Service about her pitch to independent voters. “And this is one of the only places in rural South Dakota that you can get it anymore.”
A former Democratic state senator, Wismer is running as an Independent after her petition to run as a Democrat was disqualified because a date was incorrect. She faces incumbent Michael Rohl who defeated her in 2020.
For the two shared seats in the House, former state representative Steve McCleerey and Kay F. Nikolas, who served as Roberts County attorney, are running as Democrats. Nikolas replaced incumbent Jennifer Keintz on the ballot, after Keintz withdrew. She was later chosen as the running mate for gubernatorial candidate Jamie Smith.
On the Republican side of the ballot, there's incumbent Tamara St. John. She was to have been joined on the ballot by Logan Manhart, who withdrew from the race when his eligibility was challenged. St. John's cousin, Joe Donnell, was selected by the district Republicans to take Manhart's place.
Prior to his selection, Donnell had challenged Rohl in the Republican primary, losing to the Aberdeen senator by 1901 to 795 votes. Just before the primary election day, Donnell was attacked in a postcard campaign by PAC'n Heat, a political action committee Donnell described in a now deleted Facebook post as run by Sioux Falls liberals and anti-Native. Bluestem noted in SD District 1 Republicans select Joe Donnell to fill ballot slot created by Manhart withdrawal that the PAC was the creation of former Republican State Senator Deb Peters.
The anti-Donnell postcard wasn't the first time Peters' PAC played a role in a District 1 election. At the Argus Leader, Stu Whitney wrote in a 2020 column, Campaign mailer with misinformation 'gives politics a bad name':
. . . “Between negative campaigning and gerrymandering, it’s how they’ve gotten rid of any Democratic legislator they haven’t liked for the last 40 years,” said District 1 state senator Susan Wismer, the Democratic nominee for governor in 2014, when she lost to incumbent Dennis Daugaard. . . .
Wismer, representing a northeast South Dakota district with a Democratic majority, focuses on appropriations and education issues but is being targeting with mailers calling out her support of women’s reproductive rights.
The postcard shows a photo of a newborn baby with the caption: “IN THE RACE FOR STATE SENATE, VOTE LIKE SOMEONE’S LIFE DEPENDS ON IT. BECAUSE IT DOES.”
Funding for the mailer came from PAC’N HEAT, formed by former state legislator Deb Peters, who is now chief financial officer for the South Dakota Association of Healthcare Organizations in Sioux Falls. . . . .
Now the South Dakota Republican Party has chosen a different frame for Donnell in its own postcard campaign, a "Vote for the Joe you know, not for an agenda straight out of Washington D.C." We'll have more about Donnell's career in a coming post.
All of the House candidates live in Sisseton, the Aberdeen American News reported.
Related posts
- Retired Roberts County state's attorney Nikolas to fill Democratic spot on District 1 House race
- SD Dem gubernatorial candidate Smith picks Eden lawmaker Jennifer Keintz as running mate
- Placeholder: Incumbent Democrat Keintz quietly withdrew from SD District 1 House race.
- SD District 1 Republicans select Joe Donnell to fill ballot slot created by Manhart withdrawal
- News digest: Manhart pulls out of SD1 race
- Eligibility questioned, Logan Manhart withdraws from South Dakota District 1 House race
- SD SOS response to 32CIV22-92, asking SD1 House candidate's removal from ballot
- 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
Photo: South Dakota Senate District 1 candidate Susan Wismer speaks at an event in Britton, S.D. on Oct. 8. District 1 is one spot where Democrats hope to pick up House and Senate seats after a favorable redistricting. Photo by Jason Harward / Forum News Service.
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