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Sioux Falls School Board President Kent Alberty announced Tuesday his intention to seek election to the South Dakota State Senate representing District 12. The life-long Sioux Falls resident has filed petitions to run as a member of the Democratic Party.

Alberty, 58, is a successful small business owner and has devoted more than two decades to community and public service. He said he will provide the independent, common-sense voice the citizens of District 12 deserve.

“I’m committed to the people of District 12 – to my friends and neighbors who believe they aren’t being represented in Pierre,” Alberty said. “I will lean on my experiences in education, economic development and community service to fight for South Dakotans.”

Alberty and his wife, Luanne, have been married for 37 years. Together, they own and operate Employment Edge Staffing and Business Services, a small business they started in 2005. They have raised three children from their home in Sioux Falls.

Alberty was elected to the Sioux Falls School Board in 2007 and has served three years as school board president. He also devoted more than 20 years to service on the Board of Directors for the Children’s Care Hospital and School and dedicated much of his free time to organizations that support area youth. His passion for education and commitment to advocating for children continues to drive his desire for public service.

“There’s nothing more important to South Dakotans than making sure every child has the opportunity to succeed,” Alberty said. “I’ve made that a focus of my life, and that will continue to be my focus in the South Dakota Senate.”

For more information, please contact Ben Nesselhuf at 605-271-5405 or ben@sddp.org

South Dakota attorney Matt McGovern announced today that he is seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination as a candidate for the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission against Kristie Fiegen. “I am running for the Public Utilities Commission because we need commissioners who will stand up for consumers not corporations. It is time for the PUC to serve the people of South Dakota and not the companies they are supposed to regulate,” McGovern said. “I will be an independent voice in Pierre and refuse to accept campaign contributions from the utilities the PUC regulates or lobbyists,” he continued.

McGovern is a long-time advocate for South Dakota’s wind industry and the new jobs that clean energy creates in the state. “I support policies to help consumers save money through energy efficiency while creating long-term, high paying jobs in South Dakota,” said McGovern.

McGovern is the grandson of George and Eleanor McGovern. He got his first experience in South Dakota politics traveling around the state as a young child with his grandfather during the 1980 Senate campaign.

As a law student, he worked in a prosecutor’s office and for the United States Department of Justice. McGovern came to South Dakota after law school to work for the United States District Court in Rapid City. McGovern, a South Dakota attorney, has represented working people, small business owners, and people developing South Dakota’s wind industry. He has also stood up for South Dakota ranchers defending their property rights in court.

McGovern lives in Sioux Falls and will be working hard to earn the nomination and working for every vote in the general election this fall. “I’m excited about this campaign and I’m looking forward to hearing from South Dakotans from all across the state about what they want from their elected officials in Pierre,” McGovern said.

Mike Knudson, son of former Republican Senate Majority Leader, Dave Knudson and former Sioux Falls City Councilor De Knudson, announced that he has filed petitions to run as a Democrat for a District 12 House seat to serve in the South Dakota legislature.

“Government’s first job is building a better future for our citizens,” says Knudson. “Education and economic development are the keys to that better future. Today more than ever, our children need legislators who are genuinely committed to a better education for our kids. I am committed to improved education as my number one priority.”

Mike is a lifelong South Dakota resident who was born and raised in Sioux Falls. He graduated from Washington High School in 1998 and earned his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of South Dakota in 2002. Currently, Mike works for a Sioux Falls based healthcare system. His wife, Kylie, is an Elementary School teacher, and his son Carson is a first grader in the Harrisburg School District.

For more information, please contact Mike Knudson at (605) 310-4509, knudsonforhouse@gmail.com, via Facebook at “Knudson for House”, or Twitter at @KnudsonforHouse or at knudsonforhouse.com.

HB 1234.

The controversial education agenda that has polarized South Dakotans this legislative session, is now on Governor Dennis Daugaard’s desk, ready to be signed. Despite the countless revisions and overwhelming public opposition, HB 1234 passed the state House by just one vote.

Just one vote changed the outcome of education in South Dakota, and Rep. Steve Hickey (R-Sioux Falls) cast it. His deciding vote came after he called HB 1234 his “least favorite” bill of the session and after he promised his constituents he would vote against the bill in its final form. And because of that shift, Hickey has been called “Judas” and “spineless.” And I would warrant a guess that he has lost a few friends in the last few days.

I’m disappointed in the state of education right now. And I have a stake in its outcome. I am a future teacher. I graduated from Augustana College, moved to Nevada (my home state) and then moved back to pursue a degree at the University of Sioux Falls. Upon hearing that I aspire to become a teacher, people often say “So you’ll move far away from South Dakota.” There is something wrong about the ”status quo” if the initial reaction is “why would you want to stay here.”

I am proud that educators are generating the interest this year that they deserve. But there is a larger issue at hand: a chronic underfunding of schools. Without the amount of support that educators deserve, we are asking them to repair an airline engine while still flying the plane.

“The easy vote would have been no,” says Hickey. “It takes a backbone to stand up and say we aren’t just throwing more money at something if doing so historically has proven to not be the answer.”

Indeed. It does take a backbone. Yet, after the number of revisions, the discontent with this bill, the bipartisan opposition, perhaps it would have been all the more brave to say “We need to make sure we have a piece of legislation that provides the best environment for success of every teacher and every child.”

***Jonathon Josten, SDDP Intern

***Legislative Update from House Democratic Leader Rep. Bernie Hunhoff (D-Yankton)

The end of the legislative session coincides with the beginning of baseball season, so lawmakers sometimes overdo the sports metaphors as we make our closing arguments.

Here’s the biggest difference between a baseball game and a day at the legislature. On the baseball field, we all agree that three strikes are an out and you have to run from first to second to third before you score. Basic rules of the game, right?

But in the legislature, anything goes as long as you have the votes. That unfortunate fact is exacerbated by the fact that the same party rules both houses of the legislature as well as the governor’s office and all the constitutional offices.

Several examples of abuses occurred just this past week. One involved SB 48, a routine bill designed to make slight adjustments in the current 2012 budget. Since it is an appropriation for ongoing and ordinary expenses of state government, the bill only needs a simple majority vote. No problem there.

But buried in SB 48 were several new programs, including a controversial new concept that proposes to spend $5 million to help big companies recruit workers from out-of-state. The program may have merit, but it’s a special appropriation and the rules (the constitution, in fact) say it requires a special bill and a two-thirds vote. But just as is done in Washington, the administration buried the program in a big bill. You had to be a legislative sleuth to find it. Democrats tried to amend that section of the bill, but Republicans disagreed. And they get to be the umpires in our democracy.

Then the very next day, a bunch of lobbyists amended several corporate grant programs onto a wind energy bill (SB 170) and won a 10-3 vote. Included in the bill is a replacement for the corporate grant program that has been referred to a vote in November. You might remember that this debate grew out of the controversy over whether TransCanada Pipeline needed tax breaks to come here. If the lobbyists win, you won’t get a chance to vote on the issue even though more than 20,000 South Dakotans signed petitions for the right to do so.

Democrats have supported countless economic development incentives in recent years, but we drew the line on HB 1230 last year because it took money from the general fund (used for schools and health care) and redirected it to the corporate grant program for very large projects. We told the administration that we would support an appropriate funding source, but they had the votes to ram it through last year and they had the votes in House Commerce to repeat the mistake.

Money usually wins in baseball, and it wins in the legislature. But at least the baseball teams agree on some basic rules of fair play. That isn’t always the case in Pierre.

I never really thought I’d end up in politics. I had been a fairly active participant in my own politics; however, I never really shared it. It was something like an imaginary friend. We would talk and play around a bit, and then it would vanish. Granted in high school, with the urging of a friend, we held a protest. About what I’m not quite sure. I wrote a play in high school about people disenchanted with the Vietnam War and attempted to draw a heavy-handed parallel to the Iraq War started by ‘W.’

I grew up with a house of Democrats with an auxiliary family of Republicans in a state that seldom makes up its mind. Our senator is Harry Reid, Democratic Majority Leader, who is a polarizing entity unto himself. One of our most celebrated Governor’s is Kenny Guinn (who is a Republican.) As far as presidents go, we voted for Obama, Bush twice and Clinton twice.

Moving to Sioux Falls for college, I graduated from Augustana with a degree in English and Theater. And now I’m working on a Masters of Education. Within a few months of moving back to South Dakota for graduate school, I was thrust into the world of SD politics, the passing of Governor Janklow, the varying sentiments towards Noem, and the sense that South Dakota is doing alright. Democrats argue we can do better, that state government’s priorities are misplaced, that we can get more bang for our buck without painful budget cuts. Republicans defend their policies, pointing to a balanced budget and modest job growth. People on both sides of the aisle are on the defense while simultaneously striking the other. A sort of bob and weave. A match of full contact checkers (or chess if you prefer.)

But after watching the GOP debates and the pundits prognosticate about who will face Obama, I decided to drop the South Dakota Dems a line. Because even though I have a propensity to vote Democrat, I believe that this country will go nowhere if we don’t entertain all viewpoints. And Republican Presidential candidates refuse to do that. That’s why my weight is entirely behind Democrats in 2012. (If you’d like to know  why, let’s have a beer, or coffee, or tea, or just water.) Continue Reading »

Being the day after Groundhog Day, we hate to be the bearers of bad news. Unfortunately, it looks like Congresswoman Kristi Noem has seen her shadow and nine more months of phantom representation are in the pipeline for South Dakota families. (and yes, the pipeline pun is entirely intentional, for you see kids – Kristi Noem’s latest attempt at being a lawmaker is being brought to you by Exxon Mobil and some very large donations to her campaign last year.)

Called “the worst transportation bill ever,” Kristi Noem and her fellow Republican leaders in the U.S. House are hoping that they can tie highway funding to Big Oil profits, which are in large part a result of their efforts to continue subsidizing an industry that contributes heavily to their campaigns. Let us pause here to note what a great idea Kristi Noem has stumbled upon (with the help of very large checks).

Back to the bill at hand—Kristi Noem wants to destroy the concept of a highway trust fund, the very trust fund that South Dakotans are depending on to fix roads washed out by recent record flooding across our state. Brilliant.

It is also clear, and it must be said, that the only job Kristi Noem is concerned about is her own.  For the construction workers who have built and maintained bike paths, and sidewalks, and roads, and bridges to carry our youngest citizens to school, home, and daily activities, Noem has only one thing to say to you, “You’re fired.”

Well, Big Oil may think that answer is just fine. But here in South Dakota, where we expect our lone member of the U.S. House of Representatives to actually do more than just lip-service, we have just one reminder: despite Mitt Romney’s claim, Exxon Mobil doesn’t vote; we do. And there are 277 days until Election Day.

It doesn’t take long to decide that Jeff Barth is a man of integrity.

Mr. Barth and I recently met at the South Dakota Democratic Party headquarters. There is a quiet ferocity about Mr. Barth. He is well-spoken, witty and has an unequivocal love for South Dakota and the United States. We discussed a plethora of topics ranging from chess tournaments and my family’s children’s theater to the Keystone Pipeline, education, and immigration.

Suffice to say in the nearly two hours we chatted, there was not a dull moment, a widespread positive discourse about the promise of South Dakota and the United States.

“Life is an art and with each stroke I’m adding to the picture.” Continue Reading »

Months of social media interest tugging at Matt Varilek to run for the House seat now occupied by Kristi Noem had not provoked Varilek to jump in quite yet. But even today – a full week into his official “Meet Matt” tour – he wanted to formally introduce himself to a packed house of 150 supporters at the Sioux Falls VFW.

“As you’ve heard I’ve made an announcement, but I wanted to announce it here, face to face,” he began. “I have decided to run for this house seat.”  The crowd erupted.

Continue Reading »