Political Smokeout

Minnehaha GOP cancels alternative forums

The newly elected leadership of the Minnehaha County Republican Party has cancelled the alternative legislative forums the group had announced earlier this month.

Under previous chair Lora Hubbel, the party’s central committee voted unanimously to hold its own forums at the same time as the traditional legislative coffees sponsored by the Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce.

Supporters of the decision said the Chamber-sponsored forums saw audiences and moderation biased against conservatives.

Now those alternative forums, the first of which was scheduled for Saturday, won’t happen.

“The legislative cracker barrels provide a forum for elected officials to update the public regarding legislative progress and receive constituent feedback,” the county party wrote in a news release sent out early Wednesday morning. “The cracker barrels also provide an important opportunity for legislators to outline pro-growth solutions for creating jobs, keeping taxes low, and creating a brighter future for the next generation.”

The release was unsigned. The new chair of the Minnehaha County Republican Party is Dave Roetman.

In addition to not holding its alternative events, the Minnehaha County Republican Party will sponsor the Chamber’s forums, as it has traditionally.

Forum move heightens focus on Minnehaha County GOP election

The next hotly contested election in Sioux Falls could be the one to lead the Minnehaha County Republican Party.

The GOP group for South Dakota’s largest county hit the spotlight this week with its decision to boycott traditional legislative forums sponsored by the Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce and hold its own at the same time.

The county party’s leadership includes many outspoken conservative activists. Several of its top figures, including chairwoman Lora Hubbel and parliamentarian Daniel Willard, have clashed with established Republican officials including Gov. Dennis Daugaard.

Its decision to compete with the Chamber-sponsored forums drew cold shoulders from many local Republican officials and a rebuke from the statewide Republican Party.

Now some GOP lawmakers are talking about getting more involved with the party’s operations — something they haven’t always taken the time to do.

“We’re all busy. We all have lots of conflicts,” said state Sen. Mark Johnston, R-Sioux Falls, who noted that “organizations are run by those who show up.”

Since the legislative forum announcement this week, Johnston said, he has had “more than a dozen people call me and email me and tell me maybe it’s time I show up.”

Johnston lives in Lincoln County, and so wouldn’t be eligible to vote in the Minnehaha County GOP elections. But his sentiments are mirrored by other lawmakers who do live in Minnehaha County.

State Sen. Tim Rave, R-Baltic and the outgoing chairman of the South Dakota Republican Party, said he’s heard a few people express “renewed interest in the process of county party activity.”

Things could come to a head in the early afternoon on Jan. 26, when the county’s central committee meets to elect a new chair.

Hubbel, an outgoing state representative, isn’t going to be a candidate.

She said she welcomes renewed interest from Republican lawmakers, who have voting rights on the county party’s central committee.

But she doubted an establishment-backed candidate could win an election as chair, predicting another conservative activist would succeed her.

The central committee Minnehaha County Republican Party is made up of a man and a woman from each precinct in the county, plus elected Republican legislators and Minnehaha County officials.

The precinct representatives are elected every two years in Republican primaries.

Not all the precinct committeeman and committeewoman spots are full but the incomplete roster has 71 people.

Elected officials bring the total number of voting members up to about 100, though some legislators such as Rave and Sen.-elect David Omdahl are also elected precinct committee-people in their own right.

The Jan. 26 meeting will take place after the dueling legislative coffees, the Chamber-sponsored one at the Holiday Inn City Centre and the party-sponsored event at the Ramada Hotel & Suites.

It’s the first of four legislative coffees for each group, all on the same days at the same times.

But state Rep. Manny Steele said that might also be the last legislative coffee hosted by the county this year.

Steele, a vocal defender of the county party’s decision to break off and hold its own forums, said the party might end up cancelling the last three events.

“I really doubt there’s going to be any extra legislative coffees put on by the Minnehaha County (GOP),” Steele said. “I would assume they’re going to have the first one.”

Renting rooms and holding question-and-answer sessions is expensive and hard work, Steele said. He argued the party’s announcement helped get “the message across” about the party’s concerns that the crowds and moderation at the Chamber-sponsored legislative coffees were too liberal.

Hubbel, however, didn’t see the party backing down.

“I think once people realize more about it… then they’ll come on board,” she said. “They just get a little bit of information and get scared that there’s something different here, even though they’ve been complaining about (the Chamber forums) for years. Once they realize that (the party forums) was not anything bizarre, it’ll be welcome.”

Hubbel not seeking new term as Minnehaha County GOP chair

On Jan. 26, after their first alternative legislative forum, the Minnehaha County Republican Party’s executive board will meet to choose a new chair and vice chair.

That’s sure to be a fascinating race, probably pitting an establishment candidate against an activist candidate.

But whoever the winner is, it won’t be controversial chair Lora Hubbel.

Hubbel isn’t running, saying the job takes up too much time and she needs to focus on her business.

“It’s pretty much a thankless job, a lot of work,” said Hubbel. “I’m kind of busy with my own real estate business.”

Hubbel, an outgoing state representative, was the party’s vice-chair behind chairman David Rose. When Rose resigned in August for health reasons, Hubbel became chairwoman.

Who do you think will be the next Minnehaha Republican Party chair? Will it be a figure aligned with the establishment forces or the conservative activists?

SDGOP not standing with Minnehaha County GOP

Here’s something you don’t see every day: a state party throwing its county affiliate under the bus.

I just got this email from Tony Post, executive director of the South Dakota Republican Party, responding to the decision of the Minnehaha County Republican Party to boycott legislative coffees sponsored by the Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce and set up their own, competing forums:

The South Dakota Republican Party is happy to partner with the Sioux Falls Chamber if the local party is not. A couple of rogue elements in the Minnehaha group certainly does not not speak for the party at large. 

In fact, this latest episode from Lora Hubbel speaks volumes. The chamber provides a forum for accountability and disparate views, which the SDGOP certainly supports. 

We are working with the Sioux Falls legislators and Chamber and will look forward to the regularly scheduled program. 

The vote at the Minnehaha County Republican Party central committee to set up their own legislative forum was reportedly unanimous among the people there, though not all voting members were present.

This keeps getting more interesting.

Minnehaha County GOP pulling out of Chamber legislative forums (updated)

The Minnehaha County Republican Party is setting up its own legislative forums to compete with ones sponsored by the Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce.

(UPDATE: Read an expanded report here.)

Upset with what they see as liberal audiences and moderators at the Chamber-sponsored legislative coffees, the Minnehaha County GOP will hold four question-and-answer sessions with legislators in January and February. All of the sessions will be held at the same time as the Chamber’s longstanding forums.

Rep. Manny Steele, R-Sioux Falls, said the county GOP decided to make the move after the Chamber of Commerce and the League of Women Voters weren’t responsive to concerns from himself and Minnehaha County Republican Party chair Lora Hubbel.

“It’s fairly obvious that (the League of Women Voters is) a very left-leaning, progressive, liberal group,” said Steele. “If there are some Republicans in it, I don’t even know.”

He said the audiences at recent Chamber legislative coffees have been “at least four out of five liberals” and said many conservatives complain about their questions not being asked.

In an email to members of the Minnehaha County GOP, Hubbel said “no conservative in the audience has much of a chance of addressing their legislator.”

“They will be blocked out of the process and only progressives will be allowed to badger, ridicule, eye-roll and interrogate our Republican representatives,” Hubbel wrote.

The League is “so adamant about having control of everything, we might as well have our own,” Steele said.

He said he had no qualms about scheduling the forums at the same time as the Chamber’s.

“Those who feel they want to go to the other one, they’re certainly free to do so,” Steel said.

The central committee of the Minnehaha County Republican Party voted unanimously to hold their own forums.

Bob O’Connell, the public affairs and communications director for the Chamber, said he disagrees with the accusations from Steele and Hubbel.

“The questions aren’t biased against them,” O’Connell said. “For the most part, the questions are just asked and the legislators can choose to answer or not answer.”

He said the Chamber agreed this year to give lawmakers 90 seconds each to talk about whatever they wanted, in case they topics they care about don’t come up. That was in response to Republican Party concerns raised at planning meetings, he said.

“We do this as a public service for people, so people can address their legislators and have been doing this for many, many, many years,” O’Connell said. “I hope that legislators show up for these.”

The Minnehaha County Republican Party and the Siouxland Republican Women had proposed giving the Siouxland Republican Women a role in running the forums, which the other sponsors of the forum rejected.

“I would have preferred to be able to coordinate this thing and share the control of it, and have it all together,” Steele said. “But this has gone on for so long, it’s finally got to the point that someone is willing to step forward and do something about it.”

A message left with the League of Women Voters was not immediately returned.

Darrell Solberg, the chairman of the Minnehaha County Democratic Party, dismissed Republican concerns and suggested Steele and Hubbel didn’t like answering tough questions.

“If legislators are afraid to appear before their constituents and answer questions, then I ask what are they doing as legislators?” Solberg said.

Steele said he’s happy to answer questions from anyone, but feels the Chamber-sponsored forums are unfair.

The Argus Leader will continue to update this story throughout today.

The Chamber’s scheduled legislative coffees are:

• Saturday, Jan. 26, 10 a.m.-noon, Holiday Inn City Centre International Rooms, Districts 6, 11, 12 & 15
• Saturday, Feb. 2, 10-11:30 a.m., Holiday Inn City Centre Starlite Room, Districts 9, 13 & 14
• Saturday, Feb. 9, 10-11:30 a.m., Holiday Inn City Centre Starlite Room, Districts 11, 12 & 15
• Saturday, Feb. 23, 10 a.m.-noon, Holiday Inn City Centre International Rooms, Districts 6, 9, 13 & 14

The Minnehaha County Republican Party’s scheduled legislative forums are:

• Saturday, Jan. 26, 10 a.m.-noon, Ramada Hotel & Suites auditorium
• Saturday, Feb. 2, 10 a.m.-noon, Ramada Hotel & Suites auditorium
• Saturday, Feb. 9, 10 a.m.-noon, Ramada Hotel & Suites auditorium
• Saturday, Feb. 23, 10 a.m.-noon, Ramada Hotel & Suites auditorium

Secession fever

In this morning’s paper, I followed up on yesterday’s post about the petition calling for South Dakota’s secession with a slightly longer story.

In it, I talked to outgoing Rep. Lora Hubbel, who confirmed she had signed it and called it a “frustration release.” She knows, she said, that states can’t secede, and just wanted to vent.

I also plugged the list of signers into Excel and figured out that only about 8 percent of the 2,500 signers (at the time) with locations listed were actually from South Dakota. More of them were from Texas.

UPDATE: As of 2 p.m. this afternoon, the South Dakota secession petition is up to 5,121 signatures. The publicity the issue has received in South Dakota from the media has spurred a full 175 extra South Dakotans to sign on for secession. That’s compared to only 105 extra Texans since I last ran the numbers last night, thus vaulting South Dakotans into the lead for the most people from any one state supporting South Dakota’s secession, 323 over 314 for Texas.

Finally, don’t miss journalist Tom Lawrence’s account of how while researching the secession petition for a story, he accidentally signed it.

Petition started to let South Dakota secede (updated)

Over the past few days, petitions have been popping up on the White House’s official petition page, petitions.whitehouse.gov, calling for the government to let various states secede.

South Dakota wasn’t in the first batch of secession petitions, but there’s one now, with 2,276 virtual signatures.

It’s under the title, “We petition the Obama administration to: Peacefully grant the State of South Dakota withdraw from the United States of America and create its own NEW government.”

The text is basically just a quotation from the Declaration of Independence, the “when… it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another” section.

Read it here.

There are 43 of these secession petitions, some of them duplicates. The most popular of the petitions is the Texas one, which has 76,461 signatures. Any petition with 25,000 signatures will automatically draw a response from the White House.

There’s also a few counter-secession petitions, including one to “deport everyone that signed a petition to withdraw their state from the United States of America” with 3,810 signatures.

Signatories are identified only by their first name, last initial and town of residence. A majority of the signatories of the South Dakota petition seem to be from other states. I flipped through all the mentions of “SD” on the page and found just one entry jumped out, a “Lora H” from Sioux Falls (signature #906).

Blogger Pat Powers previously posted a screenshot of outgoing Rep. Lora Hubbel, the Minnehaha County Republican Party chair, speculating about starting a South Dakota secession petition.

Hubbel couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.

UPDATE: Gov. Dennis Daugaard’s director of policy and communications Tony Venhuizen emails a one-sentence response to my request for comment.

“The governor is opposed to secession,” Venhuizen wrote.

Lora Hubbel now Minnehaha GOP chair

Rep. Lora Hubbel may be on her way out of the Legislature, but she’s not vacating a leadership role in the Republican Party. She just became the chair of the Minnehaha County GOP.

Hubbel was previously co-chair, behind chairman David Rose. But now Rose has resigned his position due to health issues.

In an email to members of the county party board, Hubbel promised to arrange an election for a new co-chair promptly, and do “do my best to make sure … Republicans enjoy success this fall in the upcoming elections.” Holding a fundraiser, Hubbel said, is “now on the front burner.”

Hubbel’s been a controversial figure, with vocal defenders and critics. What kind of party chair will she make? How much influence does the chair of a county party have?

District 11 might-have-beens

Last night, David Omdahl won the Minnehaha County Republican Party’s nod as its District 11 Senate candidate, to replace the withdrawing Sen. Todd Schlekeway.

But two people who chose not to run for Senate could have dramatically changed the race.

First and foremost is Schlekeway, who announced this summer he was withdrawing — and then almost changed his mind.

I’d heard this was happening but was unable to get anyone to confirm it to me on the record, with Schlekeway not wanting to say anything until he made a decision one way or the other.

Last night, with everything behind him, he admitted he had nearly stayed in the race.

“I was very close,” said Schlekeway, who didn’t withdraw until the last minute. “I needed to buy some time, because I had to meet with our 9-member board of directors, who live all over the country.”

Schlekeway was referring to the board of directors of the National Association of Tower Erectors, the group that hired him this year as executive director. It was this job that made him announce his withdrawal from the race because he wouldn’t have the time to spend two months out of the year in Pierre. But he later reconsidered this conclusion.

“I was trying to find a way to make it work, and prayed about it with my wife,” Schlekeway said. “(We) just thought that for this time it was better to sit this one out.”

So he did withdraw at the deadline, opening up the seat for a variety of Republicans to vie to fill it.

One person who said she was considering running for Schlekeway’s seat, but didn’t, was Rep. Lora Hubbel. Hubbel currently represents District 11 but was drawn out of her district in last fall’s redistricting. She instead ran and lost in the District 9 Senate primary. When Schlekeway announced his withdrawal, Hubbel considered buying or renting a home back in her old district. She, too, came very close to jumping in.

“I actually had an offer on a house, and I thought I was going to get it, and it blew up at 4 o’clock today,” Hubbel said Monday night. “I was kind of waiting all day. I was going to get it. (I would) change my registration. But it just kind of blew up.”

With that offer gone, she considered trying another way to change her residency, but decided not to.

“I (thought), you know I’m not going to force this, I’m going to go with the flow and support someone (else) tonight,” Hubbel said.

If Hubbel had changed her residence and run for Schlekeway’s Senate seat, could she have gotten the nod from the Minnehaha County GOP leaders?

The return of Lora Hubbel?

Most people thought that her June 5 primary defeat to Sen. Den Peters meant that Lora Hubbel’s legislative career was done for at least the next two years.

That may have been premature.

Hubbel, who was redistricted out of her old District 11 into Peters’ District 9, told me she’s considering moving back into her old district to pursue the open senate seat vacated by Todd Schlekeway.

She’s not certain this is something she wants to do, admitting that aside from the expense it could be perceived as carpetbagging or “crashing someone else’s party” so soon after losing her primary. On the other hand, Hubbel said, moving back into the old district could be seen as a rebuke to the redistricting process that moved her away from her old constituents.

Of course, Hubbel would need to be chosen as the nominee, and there’s no guarantee of that. She’s obviously got some enemies among the establishment types, having made herself an outspoken critic of Gov. Dennis Daugaard’s administration over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. And I’m told that some people in the activist wing of the South Dakota GOP aren’t sure Hubbel is the best messenger for their cause, either — as much as they share the same position on PPACA and intra-party enemies.

A few other current and former legislators are in the mix for the Schlekeway seat: outgoing Rep. Mark Willadsen, who also lost in the June primary, and ex-Rep. Keri Weems.

Read the story here.