District 8 Senate Prediction and Endorsement

The latest Madville Times poll finds the local electorate split on the relevance of the criminal records of both District 8 State Senate candidates, Independent/Democrat Clark Schmidtke, Sr., and incumbent Republican Senator Russell Olson. I asked whether the criminal records of each man, revealed just in the past week in the blogosphere, would affect your vote for District 8 Senate. The results:

	Schmidtke	Olson
Yes	51 (57%)	30 (34%)
No	39 (43%)	57 (66%)

These numbers seem reasonable. Russell Olson is better known and better liked. Those who know and like a guy are more inclined to forgiveness toward that guy. Additionally, Olson's crimes—speeding, failure to stop, failure to appear, open container, simple assault—happened mostly when he was in his 20s and fall into that fuzzy category we reserve for crimes of the young and stupid. Schmidtke's guilty plea to three counts of theft occurred in his 40s and involved misuse of checkbooks of elderly folks placed in his care.

In 2006, the last off-year election, Democratic District 8 Senator Dan Sutton beat Republican challenger John Toates 57% to 43%. Sutton had just been hit with allegations of improper conduct with a male page at least as scandalous as the charges against Schmidtke. In the face of those charges, the relatively quiet Toates was able to get 43% of the district to mark his name. And this was with Sutton supporters still able to say, "Innocent until proven guilty."

In 2008, Olson beat a much stronger Democratic contender, Scott Parsley, 55% to 45%. Schmidtke, with less money, less name recognition, and fewer connections than Parsley, was probably headed pre-scandal for a 40% finish. Speculating wildly from the above poll results, I'm going to guess that Schmidtke's court record loses him two votes for every one Olson's court record loses him. Not helping Schmidtke's situation: the Madison Daily Leader gives Schmidtke's court record front-page coverage on the Friday before the election while making no mention of Olson's court record. A large portion of voters who don't access online media thus have no idea that they will vote for a man with a significant criminal record regardless of which District 8 Senate bubble they fill.

Given Schmidtke has no legislative record or other major connections to counter the bad press, I'll project Olson's margin of victory rises from 60–40 to 70–30.

I will still be voting with that 30.

Russell Olson has enjoyed the benefits of numerous favors from the wealthy and powerful in Madison and South Dakota. His friends in the party of Janklow, Rounds, and Prostrollo handed him comfortable government-related jobs while the ink was still fresh on his court record. Rich Republicans in Madison and across the state have handed him tens of thousands of dollars to buy ads and win elections against much less-well-funded opponents. Russell Olson is where he is because of a lot of favors from a lot of powerful people.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't get the impression Clark Schmidtke has ever gotten much in the way of favors from the rich and powerful. I don't get the impression he moves in those circles. The way he told me his side of the story, the powers that be were looking for a way to get him and forced him to surrender when he couldn't afford to fight.

Now we have Russell Olson, who owes his career to the benevolence of the powers that be, acting as a staunch defender of those powers. He knows that running for office brings risks of public criticism of his past, but he can rely on his wealthy and powerful friends to support him.

And we have Clark Schmidtke, who appears not to have grabbed any gold ring of patronage, challenging the powers that rule South Dakota. He knows that running for office brings risks of public criticism of his past, and he has few wealthy or powerful individuals to speak on his behalf or fill his campaign coffers to splash images of his happy family across the newspapers to counter bad publicity. He knew the past that could be used against him in this campaign could also hurt his business. Yet in the face of that risk, Schmidtke still chose to take on a fight that matters to him, a fight for good government, a fight for better policies on education and health care, a fight against handouts to rich oil corporations.

Clark, I have no wealth, no power to offer you. I have only my vote, and a little blog post that may redound against you as much as it will redound against me (especially if there are any more surprises). Oh well. I've faced worse. So have you, Clark.

I can't guarantee I'll bring anyone else along. But Clark, you have my vote.

Vote Now: Do Criminal Records Matter in District 8 Senate Race?

The last Madville Times poll before the general election asks two questions:

1. Will Clark Schmidtke's criminal record affect your vote for District 8 State Senate?
2. Will Russell Olson's criminal record affect your vote for District 8 State Senate?

I'll take votes here in the right-hand sidebar until noon on Monday. Tell your friends, and vote now! And then 24 hours later, we can all head to the polls and finally cast the votes that matter.

Worth noting: you can read another, less well-written version of Mr. Schmidtke's troubles with the Minnesota court system in Friday's Madison Daily Leader. You cannot yet read any version of Senator Olson's encounters with the South Dakota court system in the Madison Daily Leader (at least not the online version), which has made thousands of dollars in advertising from Olson over the last four years.

Sometimes Everyone on Message Is Not the Best...

I am not having a good week. The Mitchell Daily Republic catches us Democrats managing the message just a little too tightly:

The Daily Republic sent questionnaires to each [District 8] candidate. Two candidates, Fargen and Schmidtke, submitted nearly identical responses to most questions. Schmidtke, who has been Moody County Democratic Party chairman, said he had not seen Fargen’s answers and could not explain why they were nearly identical. He noted Democrats had discussed issues at the state level and are supporting gubernatorial candidate Scott Heidepriem with talking points.

Fargen did not respond to several requests for comment [Melanie Brandert, "District 8 Incumbents Hope to Keep Spots in Legislature," Mitchell Daily Republic, 2010.10.27]

There's an obvious punchline here... but I'll leave it for commenters.

Clark Schmidtke's Side of the Story: "I'm Innocent!"

Permit me to update what I just published about the court records of our District 8 Senate candidates. District 8 Senate Candidate Clark C. Schmidtke Sr. and I just had a very serious conversation on the phone about his court records and what really happened in Minnesota. Trying hard to reserve judgment, I present what I've read and what I've heard (and delay once again talking about actual policies affecting District 8).

According to information from the Minnesota judicial system, in Case No. 46-K0-95-000504, The State of Minnesota vs. Clark Calvin Schmidtke, Judge Robert D. Walker presiding, our candidate was charged with 45 charges of theft and mistreatment of vulnerable adults.

Schmidtke says he was innocent. The county social worker, he says, brought bogus charges against him because the county owed his health care facility money and wanted to put him out of business. He did go out of business in 1995. He lived in Arizona at the time and thus had to fly back and forth for court appearances. He went to court 15 times. Eventually, Schmidtke says he ran out of money for the lawyer. He asked his lawyer how much it would cost to continue fighting the charges: $15,000. Schmidtke didn't have that money, so he switched to a public defender. That public defender recommended Schmidtke simply plead, take a few days' jail time and pay restitution. Schmidtke agreed and pled to three charges of theft. The remaining 42 charges we dropped... and Schmidtke spent eight months in jail and was assessed $14,225.96 in restitution.

The court record shows $580 credited toward restitution in 1997. Schmidtke's first payment is listed in 1999. Schmidtke then made 19 payments from 1999 to 2003 adding up to $6530. The Minnesota judicial website indicates that Schmidtke's current balance due is $7,695.96.

Schmidtke says that last figure is an error. In 2004, another complication arose. Schimdtke's probation officer claimed she didn't know Schmidtke had moved to South Dakota, hauled him back to Minnesota, and tossed him in jail. Schmidtke says his son then looked through his dad's phone records and found information that showed the probation officer would have known from those records that Schmidtke was in South Dakota.

If I understand the story, it was at this point that Martin County Attorney Terry W. Viesselman stepped in and said enough's enough. Schmidtke says Viesselman recommended the court reduce the case from felony to misdemeanor and drop the remaining restitution at this time. Schimdtke says the court did just that. He has not made any further restitution payments at this time, as it was his impression that the case was closed and he was absolved of further obligations. (Schmidtke says he'll get a lawyer to check on the status of that balance shown on the judicial website soon.)

Schmidtke said he wasn't eager to see any of this come out. He didn't want to do ill to any other candidates. He also has to make a living, and bad press like this could impact his bottom line at the assisted living facility he runs in Trent. Running for office was just asking for opposition research to dig up this hard-to-explain story.

Nonetheless, he says he is deeply upset with bad government in Pierre. He kept waiting last spring for some Democrat to challenge Senator Russell Olson (R-8/Madison), and when no one stepped forward, he felt someone had to speak up on the issues and challenge the status quo... even if it was a suboptimal candidate such as himself.
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On a personal note: I told Clark that he's damaged goods. He knows that. I also told him that he's still right on policy issues and on the need for change in Pierre. And forget my partisan hat: I have strong bias toward any individual who argues that he has been unjustly persecuted by the powers that be and simply ran out of money to fight the good fight and prove his innocence. Clark has also done time, paid some restitution, apparently to the satisfaction of the prosecuting attorney, and now just wants to move on with his life, serve the people who hire him, and pay the bills.

But candidate Schmidtke also wants to serve the people of South Dakota in Pierre. Some voters—maybe most voters—will dismiss Schmidtke and his story out of hand. And I can't blame you if you do.

The court says a man I know and respect committed crimes. The man says he did not. I still have some thinking to do.

Next District 8 Senator Will Have Noteworthy Court Record

I still have one or two posts in the chute on last week's candidates forum here in District 8. I want very much to talk about the policies discussed by the four legislative candidates who attended the AAUW forum.

But first, I must address the court records publicized by Pat Powers at Dakota War College. Last week an anonymous source pointed Mr. Powers toward online documents from the state of Minnesota. The first document, from the Minnesota Office of Administrative Hearings in 1995, indicates that

Clark Schmidtke, Sr., Independent/Democrat candidate for South Dakota District 8 Senate

Clark Schmidtke, Sr., Independent/Democratic candidate for District 8 State Senate, admitted that he had forged two checks in the names of individuals in his care. The associated report recommended disciplinary action against Mr. Schmidtke's adult foster care license. The second document, from the Ethical Practices Board of Minnesota's Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board in 1997, indicates that Clark Schmidtke failed to file a final campaign finance report for his 1994 campaign for District 22B State Legislature and accepted a campaign contribution exceeding the 1994 contribution limit. Schmidtke owed $347.80 in filing fees and judgment interest. That amount appears to include a $200 civil fine that the Minnesota previously recommended against pursuing, since collecting it would not be cost effective.

Since Mr. Powers's post and my tentative response on Friday, some commenters have generously suggested that...

1. the documents may refer to a different Clark Schmidtke,
2. neither of the documents refers to the final disposition of the cases, and
3. such court records are unwanted distractions from the discussion we should be having about the right policies for District 8 and South Dakota.

To the first, I say that I am sufficiently confident that the Clark Schmidtke in the above legal documents and the Clark Schmidtke running for District 8 Senate are the same man. Candidate Schmidtke is from Minnesota. He ran for Minnesota state legislature. He works in assisted living/senior care. The overlap satisfies me to accept the association between our candidate and the Minnesota documents.

To the second, I agree that the two documents do not tell us the whole story, let alone the final outcome of these cases in Minnesota. I have Facebooked and e-mailed Mr. Schmidtke and await his filling in of that story. I have not heard back, although I have received an invitation to hear from Mr. Schmidtke in person at tonight's Moody County Democrats meeting. I will, alas, be unable to attend, so other bloggers are welcome to scoop me.

But permit me this snark: if I were running for office, and some blogger connected my name with past criminal activity with just eleven days left before the election, I wouldn't wait four days to stomp out the fire. Knowing past issues could bubble up in opposition research, I'd be online immediately with either, "It ain't me!" or "I was framed!" or full disclosure of what I did, why I did it, why I am deeply deeply deeply sorry I did it, and why I am still the better choice for the office I'm seeking.

And to the third: yes, I would rather talk entirely about policies and voting records. On those points alone, Clark Schmidtke can mop up the floor with Senator Russell Olson. Every policy statement I've heard Schmidtke make, with perhaps the exception of his willingness to entertain the possibility of charter schools in South Dakota, is right on. Olson has a record of bad votes, wimpy votes, and Big Biz/Big Oil apologetics that are wrong for South Dakota.

Yet I believe past wrongdoings and interactions with the legal system are relevant to discussions of candidates' qualifications. When I ran for school board two years ago, the first question from a voter here on the blog was about my firing at the hands of the Madison Central School Board in 2001, a public employment matter that led to a board hearing and court appeal. (Add that to my three speeding tickets, and you have the full record of my interactions with the South Dakota court system.) More people than I have pointed to Kristi Noem's lengthy record of traffic violations, failures to appear in court, and arrest warrants, not to mention her subsequent unapologetic self-justifications, as indications of her unfitness for high office.

Forgery and failure to follow campaign finance rules are significant crimes. I cannot ignore the association of candidate Clark Schmidtke with such crimes.

Russell Olson, Republican incumbent candidate for South Dakota District 8 Senate

And thanks to Mr. Powers's raising of the issue, I can no longer ignore Russell Olson's record of interaction with the South Dakota judicial system. Following is a list of some South Dakota court cases involving Russell D. Olson, a.k.a Russell Donovan Olson, Russell Dean Olson, and Russell Olson. The information comes from a record search conducted on October 23, 2010:

1. Docket #39399M0702111: Municipal speeding, 25 mph in a 20 zone, Madison, Lake County, 11/28/2007. Pled guilty by POA 1/10/28, paid $69.
2. #39399M0601101: County speeding, 65 in a 55, Lake County, 7/26/2006. Pled guilty by POA 8/24/2006, paid $76.
3. #32399M0502504: Municipal speeding, 55 in a 35, Pierre, Hughes County, 12/19/2005. Pled guilty by POA 1/6/2006, paid $119.
4. #50399M0201111: Speeding other roadways, 70 in 55, Moody County, 5/20/2002. Pled guilty by POA 6/10/2002, paid $91.
5. #07399M0100396: Open alcoholic beverage container accessible in vehicle, Brule County, 6/22/2001. Pled guilty by POA 7/19/2001, paid $86.
6. #17399M9802737: Failure to make proper stop, Davison County, 12/11/1998. Pled nolo contendre; disposition: stipulate to facts, found guilty 1/19/1999, paid $78.
7. #50399M9800546: Speeding other roadways, 75 in a 55, Moody County, 5/2/1998. Pled guilty by POA 5/20/1998, paid $100.
8. #17399M9502117: Speeding, 68 in a 55, Davison County, 11/13/1995. Pled guilty by POA 11/22/1995, paid $70.
9. #13C95000220A0: Speeding, 33 in a 25; Fleeing from police; Clay County, 5/11/1995. No plea to either charge, both charges dismissed on motion by prosecutor; pled guilty by POA to careless driving, 9/5/1995, paid $75.
10. #13C94000333A0: Simple assault, Clay County, 10/9/1994. Warrant issued 11/8/1994 for Failure to appear; no plea to original charge, charge dismissed on reduction; pled guilty to Disorderly conduct 11/15/1994, paid $200.
11. #49399M9323207: Speeding, 75 in a 65, Minnehaha County, 8/13/1993. Pled guilty 9/17/1993, paid $60.
12. #49399M9323208: Open alcoholic beverage container accessible in vehicle, Minnehaha County, 8/13/1993. No plea; dismissed on prosecutor's motion 9/17/1993.
13. #50399M9300227: Speeding, 65 in a 55, Moody County, 3/8/1993. Pled guilty by POA, paid $50.
14. #50399M9101291: Disorderly conduct, Moody County, 6/15/1991. Pled guilty 7/31/1991, paid $50.
15. #50C91000127A0: Having an altered or invalid license in possession, Moody County, 6/15/1991. Pled guilty 7/31/1991, paid $120. Incarcerated to local jail for 30 days consecutive with 30 days suspended; conditions: pay fine and costs, obey all laws for one year.
16. #13399S9001361: Possession of alcohol by minor, Clay County, 5/6/1990. Pled guilty by POA 7/18/1990, fine of $50 ($40 suspended), costs of $15.
17. #13399S9001369: Possession of alcohol by minor, Clay County, 5/6/1990. Pled guilty by POA 7/18/1990, fine $50, costs $15. [This record appears to duplicate the preceding record.]
18. #50399M8900259: Possession of alcohol by minor, Moody County, filed 2/13/1989. No plea entered 2/22/1989; dismissed by motion of prosecutor 2/21/1990.

Official documents indicate that Clark Schmidtke wrote two illegal checks for $1500 and owed the state of Minnesota about $350 for state campaign finance law violations (maybe $200 more... but I'm unclear on the wording of one of those documents). Official documents indicate Russell Olson has incurred around $1300 in penalties for a string of criminal offenses in South Dakota.

We will elect one of these men our state senator from District 8 next week. Voters, I welcome you to share how you reason out which of these men to vote for... or whether to vote on the District 8 Senate race at all.

p.s.: South Dakota does not allow write-in votes... but one write-in doesn't negate your votes on the other races.

GOP Machine Digs up Court Dirt on District 8 Candidate

Evidently Clark Schmidtke Sr., Indy/Dem candidate for District 8 State Senate, has aroused the worries of the Republican machine. When a challenger can stand and point to everything that is wrong about Russell Olson's voting record—handouts for Big Oil, failing to support education and health care—the Republicans respond not with policy but with character assassination. SDGOP mouthpiece Dakota War College has dredged up court documents from the 1990s in Minnesota saying that Schmidtke forged two checks, had a license for providing adult foster care recommended for revocation, and failed to file a campaign finance report related to his 1994 bid for Minnesota state legislature.

I await Mr. Schmidtke's comment on these documents.

I also look forward to the release of any and all court documents relating to the personal history of the Republican candidate in this race. Stay tuned.

Olson and Bjorklund Quislings for TransCanada

Fargen, Lange, Schmidtke, Stricherz Recognize Oil Tax Breaks Wrong

KJAM asked our District 8 House and Senate candidates what they think of the millions of dollars South Dakota gave away to TransCanada this year as an incentive for building the Keystone pipeline (second question on each interview, minute or two in). The answers are instructive about who's looking out for South Dakota and who's making excuses for Big Oil.

Republican Senator Russell Olson offers no surprises with his passionate advocacy for Big Oil, saying the tax refund was "absolutely" good. He hews closely to the company line (TransCanada's and his boss's at Heartland Consumer Power District), telling us the Keystone I pipeline was an $800-million stimulus for South Dakota.* TransCanada is now the biggest property tax payer in the state, says Olson, pumping more money into school and county budgets than any other industry could. Every barrel of oil from TransCanada, says Olson, is one less barrel from petrodictators like Hugo Chavez. And TransCanada got $30 million less in refunds from Pierre than they originally projected. Olson says TransCanada has brought our state a "phenomenal amount of money," and the "economic benefit certainly outweighs the one-time $10 million rift that everybody is so worked up about."

That's a strong answer. Too bad it misses the point. Olson's Independent Democratic challenger Clark Schmidtke points out that we didn't need to hand out that $10 million in the first place. Both Schmidtke and incumbent Democratic House candidate Rep. Mitch Fargen note that neither North Dakota nor Nebraska offered such cushy tax breaks to TransCanada. If Russ's analysis of local benefits from the pipelines is correct (and I question even that), North Dakota and Nebraska got similar benefits for free. We could have gotten the same benefits and still kept that $10 million for education or health care or other local priorities, just as North Dakota and Nebraska did. Oops.

Schmidtke does answer the broader question about state incentives in general for economic development by saying he can support applying and even expanding these tax refunds to ethanol companies, since ethanol does more direct good for South Dakota farmers and workers. Fargen adds that the refund program TransCanada exploited was developed to support South Dakota's ethanol, soy diesel, and wind energy companies. He and Schmidtke agree that TransCanada's refund was a giveaway that produced few jobs for South Dakotans.

Posed the same question, incumbent Democratic candidate for House Rep. Gerry Lange doesn't hesitate to brand the TransCanada giveaway a bad idea. Lange recognizes the value of this tax incentive for the local energy projects for which it was originally intended, like the soy diesel plant. But that contractors' excise tax that we refunded to TransCanada is the same tax that hits school districts and counties when they build public improvements. Why, asks Lange, hit South Dakota taxpayers with that expense for building schools and roads and bridges, then turn around and give back millions to a foreign company for building a pipeline (which I will note gets no public use)?

Republican House candidate Patricia Stricherz (who, yes, is currently a paying advertiser here on the Madville Times) is just as forceful and unhesitant as Lange in saying the TransCanada tax refunds were "Absolutely not" a good idea. She notes that TransCanada has already had leaks in South Dakota and says companies that want to come here should have to prove themselves worthy.

So where does that leave Independent/9-12 candidate for House Jason Bjorklund? Let's read the transcript of his response to the question:

Admittedly I'm not entirely up on TransCanada. I haven't been in the Legislature obvioulsy, so I'm not privy to all the information they've had, but as far I understand this is a done deal and at this point there's nothing we can do about it. Do I think this is best way to bring buinsesses and jobs to South Dakota? No, not necessarily. We need to look at ways to encourage businesses to come here without spending the... limited resources that we have. Now this TransCanada thing it appears to be a done deal, they've got the money, there's nothing we can do at this point but sit back and look at the numbers how many jobs did it create in the state, was this a good move for us to do, and keep that in mind as we make future decisions [Jason Bjorklund, interview with Lauri Struve, KJAM Radio, 2010.10.13].

Here Bjorklund has a golden opporunity to put his 9-12 Project principles into action. He could rail against wasteful government spending and crony capitalism. He could show that he can translate the slogans he gets from national talk radio into real solutions that put South Dakotans first. Instead, he hems and haws and provides more cover for the Republican regime in Pierre than the declared Republican on the House ballot offers. Not necessarily... it's over and done... there's nothing we can do about it....

Bull-roar. A legislator not beholden to the GOP or Big Oil could do lots about it. He could declare it bad policy and a waste of money, as Schmidtke and Fargen do. He could point to other priorities where the money would be better spent, as Lange does. He could highlight the dangers posed by the pipeline, as Stricherz does. He could look ahead and vow to repeal the refund for the Keystone XL pipeline and recoup the money with a pennies-per-barrel pipeline tax (a good idea that Senator Russ Olson killed this year).

Schmidtke, Fargen, Lange, and even Stricherz are making clear that, on this issue, they recognize that we should put South Dakotans ahead of foreign oil corporations. Olson is proving once again that he's in the pocket of Big Oil. Bjorklund is hinting that he's more interested in covering for the mistakes and corporate giveaways of the Republican machine in Pierre than in challenging the powers that be and sticking up for average South Dakotans.

Olson-Bjorklund: The TransCanada Ticket

*So if Kristi Noem can look at South Dakota's current economic situation and say the federal stimulus failed, can we say Olson's imputed "TransCanada stimulus" also failed?

KJAM Features District 8 Senate Candidate Video Interviews

I told you yesterday about KJAM's new District 8 House candidates YouTube interviews (now complete with Patricia Stricherz's turn at the webcam!). Now KJAM follows up with its District 8 Senate candidate profiles. Here's your daily Russ Olson fix:



Clark Schmidtke is sure to follow... as soon as KJAM finds a camera tall enough to capture him!

Now when will the Madison Daily Leader decide to go multimedia?
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Update: And here's Clark!

District 8 Poll: Schmidtke Edges Olson; Fargen and Bjorklund Top Lange and Stricherz!

Well, that's interesting. The latest Madville Times poll asked you, eager readers, whom you'd like to see as state legislators from District 8. The results:

District 8 State Senate:

Russell Olson	70 (50%)
Clark Schmidtke	71 (50%)

Votes: 141

District 8 State House (voters pick 2!)

Mitch Fargen	79 (58%)
Gerald Lange	47 (34%)
Patricia Stricherz	20 (15%)
Jason Bjorklund	69 (50%)

Votes: 137

As usual, margin of error on a Madville Times poll is roughly equivalent to how far Russ's average drive from the tee. But what might we read in these numbers?

We might deduce that the younger candidates have an advantage in Internet polling. But my man Clark has a good 20 years on Russ, and he still managed to tie the incumbent with a quick get-out-the-vote campaign. Keep knocking on those doors, Clark!

Glenn Beck fans are not of one mind. Jason Bjorklund's most significant political activity has been organizing the Madison branch of South Dakota's 9-12 clubs. Patricia Stricherz has attended those 9-12 meetings. Bjorklund broadcasts Glenn Beck's 9-12 credo on his campaign website; Stricherz has sworn her allegiance to said principles on this blog. Yet Bjorklund gets more than triple the support Stricherz does among the readers of this fair blog. Are the Glenn Becksters in our midst divided? Or could the Madville Times readership actually skew Independent?

The Senate numbers haven't moved much since I conducted the Lake County Dems straw poll at the end of July. On the House side, Fargen stayed on top, while the Bjorklund surprise got even stronger. Evidently Gerry's friends are much more likely to walk up to a Dems table downtown, while Bjorklund's boosters are much more Web inclined.

We know anyone taking on Russ faces an uphill battle against one of the biggest campaign war chests in the Legislature. Mitch looks safe: he's young, he's likable, and as far as I know, the only thing he's done to torque anyone off is co-sponsoring the Blog Control Acts (and I might be the only person in District 8 who noticed). Patty has yet to show any sign of advantage built from being a GOP standard-bearer in 2008. The real battle in the House may be for second place between veteran Gerry and the crafty and motivated Jason. Bjorklund is clearly getting a jump on hustle: he beat all of the District 8 candidates to getting billboards up around Madison, and we saw Bjorklund signs up on Highways 25 and 37 on the way to the State Fair. Bjorklund's hustling; it's time for the rest to catch up!

Stay tuned for more polls, including the only surveys and analysis anywhere on our local races!

Clark Schmidtke Sr. Campaign Video up on SDPB

District 8 Indy/Dem candidate for State Senate Clark Schmidtke Sr. is online at SDPB with his first campaign video:



Alas, Schmidtke is not nearly as fiery here as he was when I met him at the Lake County Dems meeting back in June. I think the state Dems' campaign handlers must have gotten to him and told him passion is a bad thing. Nuts to that! Half the reason Herseth Sandlin schooled Noem yesterday was because she dropped the script and got excited! Keep the faith, and keep the fire, Clark!

But kudos to Clark for balancing the obligatory opening résumé with a list of specifics. It's hard to develop a good policy agenda in a two-minute video, but Schmidtke gives a good list of specifics, including protecting funding for nursing homes, capping state spending and hiring growth, selling state planes, ending no-bid contracts. Sure beats opponent Russell Olson's happy talk and utter lack of specifics.

Now, let's see Clark live on stage with Russ. That will be fun!
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Bonus local pols: District 8 House contenders Mitch Fargen, Gerry Lange, and Patricia Stricherz are also up on SDPB! Watch and comment on YouTube. No word yet from The Bjork... but stay tuned!

First Primary Night Win: Clark Schmidtke Files Indy to Beat Russ Olson!

Clark Schmidtke, Sr., of Trent, Independent candidate for South Dakota District 8 Senate, and Trudi Nelson of Madison. Trudi is 5'2"; Clark is not.

Five minutes until West River polls close, so no results yet... but the Secretary of State's office has already provided District 8 voters a nice early present: Clark Schmidtke, Sr., of Trent has officially made the ballot to run as an Independent for State Senate against incumbent Republican Russell Olson of Madison.

You may recall that Schmidtke failed to make the ballot as a Democrat back in April after a volunteer sent his petitions to Pierre certified instead of registered mail. No such blooper this time: Schmidtke is in to win!

(Note also that I spelled Schmidtke's name wrong back in April. My apologies, Clark! And thank you for bringing yet another orthographic challenge to the general election!)

Tea Party friends, don't let tonight's results dishearten you. I'll expect you to be at the polls in November to exercise your anti-incumbent fervor and replace GOP establishment lapdog Olson with a new voice: Clark Schmidtke!