WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE: AMENDMENT H
Amendment H amends Art. VII of the South Dakota constitution and replaces our tried-and-true primary election system with a “top 2 primary” election. We would then basically have two general elections: Election No. 1 in June would be a jungle primary with multiple candidates and big money interests funding their preferred candidates who would have an insurmountable advantage. Election No. 2 at the general election in November would then basically be a runoff between the favorites of the wealthy donor class who made it out of the jungle. It will ensure perpetual corporatist rule in South Dakota and fundamentally alter our political landscape. It is the self-suicide of the GOP as a conservative party, bought & paid for by big money people appalled that grass roots conservatives dared to stand up and speak up in the last 4 years and cleaned their clocks in the last primary election. So instead of working harder to recruit candidates that walk the walk as conservatives, some want to just chuck our whole election system and be like California & Washington. Talk about throwing out the baby with the bathwater! Smart Democrats also oppose this scheme, as they too understand the implications of allowing money to overwhelm ideas in our election system. New candidates with great ideas but no connections or family money could forget about it.
An L.A. Times Op Ed from 2018 said it well, after analyzing the results of jungle primaries in that state: “This system is called a jungle primary for a reason: it is brutal and unpredictable…There are so many candidates from the 2 major parties eating into one another’s support that the election results may end up owing more to chance than any discernable will of the voters.”
. . .
“Because the major parties tend to inundate competitive races with candidates, independents and third parties find it even more difficult to compete than before. The major party stranglehold on the system has tightened.”
– Andrew Gumbel, L.A. Times, 5/18/2018
KEEP SOUTH DAKOTA GREAT: VOTE NO ON H!
NOT A FETUS: LITTLE BOYS AND GIRLS WANT YOU TO VOTE NO ON G
I’ve never allowed the discussion of abortion to use the term “fetus” when I can help it. Words matter. I prefer, “little boys and girls.” It helps you to truly understand what’s happening when you remember that it’s kindergartners 5 years from now that are being deliberately killed during an abortion. Maybe a hard truth but that’s a fact. I’d ask everyone reading this to consider that and search your heart. Amendment G puts abortion up to birth without even allowing for parental controls on their minor daughters – in the State Constitution. Consider the prohibitions on abortion in state law at the time our state constitution was drafted. Are we smarter, more evolved, more modern than our “ignorant” forebears who drafted it? Maybe the question is, do we have an excuse in light of what we now know? Think about how much more we know today about the living being in the womb because of advances in ultrasounds, sonograms, fetal surgery, etc. And yet, knowing and seeing with our own eyes this is not just a clump of cells but a little boy or girl in need of our protection, the next generation of South Dakotans, somebody who would be fiercely loved by their adoptive parents if given the chance to live, we would vote to put such radical language in our sacred constitution?
May it never be! KEEP SOUTH DAKOTA ALIVE: VOTE NO ON G
IM29 – RECREATIONAL MARIJUANA-ALL OF THE COSTS, NONE OF THE “BENEFITS.”
“This initiated measure allows individuals 21 years of age and older to possess, grow, ingest and distribute marijuana or marijuana paraphernalia.”
Section 2 (1) of the proposed measure only allows the transfer of MJ “without consideration.” I’ve discussed with other attorneys and we interpret this to mean the sale will remain illegal. Nothing to tax. So anybody telling you this will raise “$100 million in tax revenue” etc. is not telling the truth. Why risk adding legions of addicts, black market crime and the vagrancy you see in downtown Denver, without raising a penny in tax revenue to deal with it? Remember: Those who need medical marijuana can now very easily get it and use it here. People need to open their eyes to see what has happened in other states that have gone down this path – and turned “blue.” And now many of those same states are backing off on their drug trip and reimposing controls, but the damage has been done. Let’s not make the same mistake with recreational. Don’t Colorado our South Dakota: VOTE NO ON IM29.
Odenbach is throwing 100 mph in this article. Wow.
This is leadership.
Odenbach should be on the 2026 gubernatorial ticket.