The polls have closed and the results are coming in. I will be commenting on some of the bigger races as the numbers come in so feel free to stop by throughout the evening.
8:00pm - First off, you got to hand it to John McSame, he ensured that his speech went through the top of the hour to steal some of the thunder of Barack Obama being declared as the presumptive nominee (by NBC/MSNBC at least).
8:10pm - Early results have Hillary up on Barack 56-44%, Joel Dykstra way up on both Sam Kephardt and Charles Gonyo 66-24-10% in the race to get beat by Tim Johnson, The Union County Hyperion zoning referendum is also going down early 76-24% and of interest to those familiar with the blogosphere, Pat Powers of SDWC fame is down big 82-18% in his attempt to get the GOP nod for District 7 State Senate.
8:22PM - With 19% of the vote counted, MSNBC is calling South Dakota for Hillary Clinton
8:30pm - While not the huge landslide that the ARG poll suggested (26%), Hillary is going to get a pretty huge victory here as she is currently at +12% with almost a quarter of the votes counted.
Hillary is getting ready to speak, I am sure she will focus on her win here but will she reveal anything about her future?
8:45pm - 15 minutes in to her speech, Hillary still clinging to her I am the strongest candidate theme as well as the 18 million votes cast for her during the primaries. What’s missing? So far nothing even coming close to acknowledging the fact that Obama has reached 2118 and is now the presumptive nominee.
Pat Powers is still way down 78-22% with almost 25% of the precincts counted in District 7.
8:50pm - Hillary: “Where do we go from here?” Sorry, no news on that tonight.
9:00pm - The Hyperion re-zoning referendum is coming back, it is now up 50-49% with just under 50% reporting.
9:18pm - Barack Obama is now just getting started on his presumptive nominee victory speech in Minnesota. Most networks are calling Montana for Obama, and Hillary is maintaining her 12% gap.
The fat lady is singing on Pat Powers run for the state senate, he is down over 40 points to Orv Smidt with 50% counted and the Hyperion re-zoning is going to go down to the wire, as of now it back down 53-47%.
As far as the GOP sacrificial lamb nomination for the Senate, I think it is safe to say that Joel Dykstra has it pretty much in hand with a huge lead at the halfway point.
9:55pm - Closing things out for the evening, Hillary wins by double digits, Dykstra earns the right to get beat in November though mysteriously 10% of the GOP voters voted for the myopic isolationist Charles Gonyo, Pat Powers can safely go back to blogging, and the Hyperion oil refinery re-zoning referendum is still too close to call thought at this moment it is winning (UPDATE 6/4: It won going away 58-42%).
I haven’t been able to find this on the Argus Leader site but Washington Post political blog The Fix provides us with Argus Leader executive editor Mr. Satire’s (aka Randell Beck) statement regarding Hillary’s comments.
Here’s Beck’s statement:
“The context of the question and answer with Sen. Clinton was whether her continued candidacy jeopardized party unity this close to the Democratic convention. Her reference to Mr. Kennedy’s assassination appeared to focus on the timeline of his primary candidacy and not the assassination itself.”
And this isn’t the first time that Hillary has brought up the RFK assassination. Back in March she said this:
TIME: Can you envision a point at which–if the race stays this close–Democratic Party elders would step in and say, “This is now hurting the party and whoever will be the nominee in the fall”? CLINTON: No, I really can’t. I think people have short memories. Primary contests used to last a lot longer. We all remember the great tragedy of Bobby Kennedy being assassinated in June in L.A. My husband didn’t wrap up the nomination in 1992 until June. Having a primary contest go through June is nothing particularly unusual.
As the Time article points out, Hillary mis-speaks in her apology given today where she said that the Kennedy reference was because of Ted’s recent health issues being on her mind which wasn’t the case back when she first said this in March. Also the whole preface of her argument of her husband’s campaign being in doubt in June is also wrong, he had it wrapped up by March.
Sen. Barack Obama has seen his share of large crowds over the last 15 months, but his campaign said they have not approached the numbers gathered along the waterfront here right now.
The campaign, citing figures from Duane Bray, battalion chief of Portland Fire & Rescue, estimated that 75,000 people are watching him speak.
UPDATE: Here is a video mix of the news reports detailing the event:
In Wednesday’s ruling, Judge Kathleen Caldwell said there’s no clear law that says that a reader would have been able to figure out if the column was actual news or a parody. So, she’ll let a jury decide.
A trial date has not been set.
Something else that makes this case unique is that if there are an appeals, this would be the first time South Dakota’s Supreme Court has heard a case involving the First Amendment and parody. It could end up setting a precedent for future cases and could affect what you read in the paper and see on TV.
Chad Schuldt, of Clean Cut Kid fame, was charged with Grand Theft for stealing $200,000 from Obama campaign political consultant Hildebrand Tewes Consulting Inc.
Chad Schuldt, 37, stole nearly $200,000 from his former employer by overpaying himself, misusing a company credit card and causing federal tax penalties, according to a Sioux Falls Police affidavit for an arrest warrant.
Schuldt pleaded not guilty earlier this month to a two-count information charging him with grand theft. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
The old adage that the wheels of justice turn slowly surely hold true here as this story first broke 9 months ago and was all the buzz in the blogosphere but pretty much no where else until now.
UPDATE: This morning’s Argus has more details on what Schuldt has been accused of that up until now had only been speculated on and the possible reason why charges have now been filed 9 months after the fact.
According to the affidavit, the accountant found that from April 2005 to June 2007:
Schuldt overpaid himself $28,750;
issued $30,560 in cash advances;
# made $9,988 in unauthorized purchases at hotels, restaurants and retailers using the firm’s credit card.
Schuldt is accused of embezzling $69,298, but the total loss to Hildebrand Tewes Consulting is calculated at $198,146, including IRS penalties, professional fees and other costs.
Schuldt admitted to the thefts in e-mails with Hildebrand and said he would cooperate with the investigation. But police said Schuldt did not respond to their interview requests as of Dec. 17 and he had made no attempt to repay.
During my childhood, the Soviet Union was the evil empire, the bastion of communism, and our hated opponent during the 35 plus year cold war that saw bomb shelters being built in peoples back yards, ballistic missiles being deployed in Cuba, and unknown near misses that could have resulted in all out nuclear war. The late 80’s saw the downfall of communism in most of Eastern Europe and now the new century is seeing US citizens representing the former Soviet Union in the Olympic Games.
Rapid City’s own Becky Hammon becomes the latest athlete to represent a country that they are not a citizen of when she suits up for the Russian women’s basketball team for the Beijing Olympics this summer. I know this is nothing new and in fact I remember several instances of this happening in past competitions including the World Baseball Classic a few years ago but Ms Hammon is taking quite a beating in the comments section of the RCJ story documenting her decision.
Hammon doesn’t see a problem
“It will be special, and it will be different, but I have never let myself be defined by the name on the front of my jersey,” she said. “I think people’s reaction is ironic because I look at our country as the best and most giving. I bleed red, white and blue.”
But others do.
Regret wrote on Apr 10, 2008 11:30 AM:
” The only thing she’ll be remembered for, is that she couldn’t cut the mustard and couldn’t accept the fact she wasn’t good enough to play for team USA so she settled for second class. All the so called great things she did before will be overshadowed by this…just lide Barry Bonds, Lyle Alzado, Clemens. They won’t be known for breaking records, but for the one stupid thing they did in their life.
BTW, how will she explain to her children or grandchildren why she played for a different country during the Olympics? Hard to explain why you supported another country instead of your own.
But then again, she always was for herself. “
Is the fact that she is representing the Russians an issue for anyone and if so would you feel differently if it was say Jamaica? (had to add a “Cool Runnings” reference) Or is this much ado about nothing?
I guess State Motor Vehicles Director Debra Hillmer will have to better keep up with acronyms and word plays as her request to have the state stop allowing vanity plates was shot down in committee this morning.
State Motor Vehicles Director Debra Hillmer told legislators Tuesday that it has become very difficult to decipher all the terms that motorists want to put on their plates.
Hillmer says many combinations of letters and numbers may be offensive, and the state is going to be sued at some point by those who are offended by personalized plates or those who argue that free speech allows them to have the plates of their choice.
However, legislators refused to pass the repeal bill, saying personalized plates are wildly popular with many motorists.
MPEACHW might be taken but I am sure there are many more out there that she will have to continue looking for. Maybe reading the plate would help before approving? Just wondering…
The Argus Leader lost another round in the Dan Scott libel case brought against the paper by the Sioux Falls Development Foundation president over a column published last July.
A Minnehaha County judge Friday denied a motion by the Argus Leader to dismiss a libel lawsuit brought against it by Dan Scott, president of the Sioux Falls Development Foundation.
The lawyers for the Argus thought that once the judge read the Randell Beck column, she would dismiss the lawsuit. But just as is the case with the Argus’ website where we can no longer view the column in question, the article wasn’t attached to the complaint so she refused to consider it stating it was outside the civil complaint. (I have posted the Beck column in it’s entirety here)
A quick question for any lawyers out there. Who files a libel lawsuit but doesn’t include the alleged libelous material as part of the lawsuit or am I missing something?
After a week that included a former state legislator being convicted of terrible crimes, a former sheriff being arrested for killing his wife and a murder trial West river, one might think that they are living somewhere other than South Dakota, then a story gets printed that reminds you of where you actually are.
Vice President Dick Cheney is back in Central South Dakota today – and as always, he is hunting birds, not votes.
Cheney arrived aboard Air Force 2, which landed, coming in from the south, at about 10:58 a.m. at the Pierre Regional Airport. He is making his annual pheasant hunting trip to Central South Dakota, where he stays at a private hunting resort in the Gettysburg area.
About a dozen aides and military personnel exited the plane from the rear before Cheney came out of the front passenger door, down the stairs and into a black suburban. He did not wave.
A 12-vehicle caravan that included law enforcement vehicles, an ambulance and suburbans left the airport through a north gate.
Cheney has gone pheasant hunting in Central South Dakota all seven years that he has been vice president. He is expected to stay in the area for a few days.
I had received notice last week from a displaced South Dakotan staying at a hotel in Pierre that something was going on in our fine capitol, now we know what it is.
In related news, I am sure hunters don’t like it when their prey fights back.
A deer gored a man Sunday afternoon while he was hunting with a friend in between Craig and Meeker.
A spokesperson for the Division of Wildlife says the hunter shot the deer and went to get it. When he approached it, the deer jumped up, charged the man and gored him.
The man’s friend drove him to a hospital. He was later airlifted to St. Mary’s Hospital in Grand Junction.
The man’s name and condition have not been released.
Wildlife officials say they haven’t seen something like this happen in at least four years.
They remind hunters to be careful because injured animals can be dangerous.