A South Dakota Moderate

Try as he might, President Bush apparently couldn’t get Governor Rounds to run for the Senate.
Governor Mike Rounds says President Bush tried again but couldn’t persuade him to run for the U.S. Senate this year.
Rounds and first lady Jean Rounds spent two nights at the White House when they were in Washington [...]

“Super Tuesday” part III? Continuing with today’s out of touch theme, Governor Mike Rounds tries in vain to prop up the importance of South Dakota’s minuscule number of delegates that are to be awarded during our last in the nation primary.
Rounds told Stateline.org that if either of the two parties’ presidential contests are still undecided [...]

The nasty rumor that has Mike Rounds running for Senate has re-appeared. Badlands Blue speculates on just that possibility based on a Real Clear Politics story which hints that several Republican “heavyweights” could soon be getting into the Senate races in Iowa and South Dakota.
Do we have any GOP “heavyweights” left in South Dakota [...]

Real Clear Politics at one time believed that Tim Johnson’s Senate seat was in play because of his health problems. Unfortunately for the Republican’s, the only candidate of note they seem to be able to muster to challenge him is Joel Dykstra.
South Dakota, where Sen. Tim Johnson is still recovering from a stroke, should be [...]

Governor Mike Rounds continues to confound those looking at a run at Tim Johnson’s Senate seat. This time he has confused one of those seeking to unseat Johnson, Joel Dykstra, when he was discussing the Governors future plans including his thoughts on running against Johnson next year.
During an interview with the Mitchell Daily Republic, Dykstra’s [...]

I had posted a few days ago about how a request had been made to the Federal Government to investigate South Dakota’s purchase of an airplane indirectly using federal funds earmarked for other uses. This request was made by Minnesota Representative Jim Oberstar to the Amtrak Inspector General whom presented the funds to states not [...]

Governor Rounds had his hand slapped by voters in 2006 for using the state owned airplane for personal use and now the federal government might be looking into the purchase of that airplane.
Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., sent the request Friday to the inspector general of Amtrak, the nation’s passenger railroad system.
South Dakota used money from [...]

Right-wing conservative groups might have to re-think their strategy for eradicating the “secular humanist” influences in our Government. Or at least they are going to have to acknowledge that they have a long way to go after the week they have had.
First locally, South Dakota GOP darling and much rumored 2008 US Senate contender Governor [...]

An article in the National Review Online by Michael O’Brien discusses the 2008 Senate race here in South Dakota and throws in a couple of quotes from one of our local bloggers as well.
Several activists and journalists throughout the state repeat a same decisive factor, as well: Rounds’s wife. “He would have to talk her [...]

KELO has a story this evening about the the South Dakota Peace and Justice Center’s letter writing campaign trying to get Governor Rounds to commute Elijah Page’s death sentence. They are admitting that the chances are slim that Rounds will do that even with his Catholic background.
It would be easy for me to again bring [...]

It took several emails and some name dropping but State Deputy Auditor Rik Drewes has responded to Todd Epps’ request for the salaries of all the Rounds’ in state government.

Rounds, Carrie DHS $10.45 hr
First Lady- Rounds, Jean GOV Not [...]

Anyone reading the Argus lately is surely familiar with the ongoing battle between the Governors office and the Argus over the availability of state employee salaries. Our neighboring states believe that that information should be easily accessible, after all it is our tax dollars paying them, but for some reason the powers that be in [...]