Brookings Banter

In a three way race for two seats on Brookings City Council, Ginger Thomson lost her re-election bid Tuesday night because the other two candidates had supporters that were willing to give up one of their votes to make sure their man won.  Shooting the bullet, as it is sometimes called, is when a voter can select more than one candidate for an office but chooses to vote only for one.  The un-official results show that out of 2,162 voters 755 under voted.  35% of the voters only chose one candidate. Ginger only lost by 86 votes to Mike Bartley and would have topped Mike McClemens with 130 votes.  Just a few less under voted ballots and the race results would gave been very different.  Bartley and McClemens have and will have different opinions regarding city issues.  Their strong supporters shot themselves in the foot by electing two members who will often cancel out each others votes.

Ryan Brunner won with margin of 458 votes over Joyce Hodges in a three way race for a single 1 year seat on the City Council.  Larry Mix received 493 votes in that race.  Mix and Hodges total votes would have beat Ryan by a slim margin.  Joyce and Larry probably spilt the mature voting base. What would have been interesting if only Joyce opposed Ryan.  Would she have picked up enough of Larry's votes to win?  Ryan had a great campaign plan and executed it with a great volunteer group.  This will not be the last election Ryan Brunner wins. 

I think Matt Vukovich will be a great member of the School Board.  I was concerned with his lack of retail politics (yard signs, media adds) compared to opponent Anne Werpy.   Matt had a big ground swell support group and was well enough known in the community to win the race.  Although Anne was active with PTA and School Board, several in those same circles did not agree with her on issues.  I always look for a well rounded school board candidate.  School Board issues break out of the classroom into society all the time.

Even with USD Women's success this year, Stu Whitney is stuck in the past. State's fall from grace this year is a great opportunity for USD to have the sole possession of the spotlight.  You wouldn't know that from Sunday's edition of the Argus Leader.  How can USD Women have the spotlight when Stu's column is below the fold and the lead article focuses on the Summit League's Conference Tourney to be held in Sioux Falls next year.  And only a quarter of Stu's article focuses on USD the other three fourths focuses on the past and SDSU.

Stu should be a reporter not a historian.  Bringing up that over five years ago Mandy Koupal transferred from SDSU to USD is not relevant and has been forgotten.  I know a lot of SDSU fans who would turn red in the face and foam at the mouth when the topic turned to Koupal's departure.  Even after the Jackrabbits won the D-II National Title making the transfer a moot subject, Jackrabbits fans were still mad.  But it didn't take long to move on from the transfer situation to the future that was ahead for the Jacks.  I'm sorry but SDSU has much more to be concerned about.  Nobody said it would be easy to go D-I. The rest of Stu's column is his normal create controversy that doesn't exist so I don't have work on any story of value. 

SDSU's loss Thursday night is an opportunity for USD have the limelight but with Stu Whitney at the helm the good story will be lost.

Summit League's Mascot Smack Down during Conference Champsionship

The Brookings Register reported Friday that the Governor had not yet signed the Liquor License Bill.  Soon after first seeing the report I received a text message from Council Member Brunner that he did sign the bill today.

Local elected officials are often criticized in the main stream media and on blogs when we go to conferences on the tax payers dime.  Although the Brookings Register criticized us for going to the International Conference of Shopping Centers our trips to National League of Cities (NLC) events have been reported in a positive fashion.  There are several reasons we haven't been attacked on this topic and some examples are; an overall satisfaction with the councils recent actions, no more than two members have gone to an event, and we do a good job of reporting back to the council what we learned.  I will be reporting my trip back to the Council during a public session but I decided a few of my remarks are more appropriate for my blog.

2,500 city officials attended the conference and I would have to say all are disappointed in Congress.  NLC events are mostly non-partisan.  A very popular expression is "potholes are not labeled Democrat or Republican".  During conference workshops on federal topics, comments from local officials had nothing to do with politics.  A good example was the reauthorization of the Federal Transportation Bill.  Local officials commented that we need a bill that supports the real needs of cities now.  No more delays or extensions, pass a comprehensive plan. 

Earmarks have become a dirty word that we spend way too much time discussing.  An non-partisan economist commented that earmarks are negligent when it comes to the federal budget.  If earmarks are eliminated the funds will still flow, just given out using a different method.  The bridge to no where was stopped and the funds were just reallocated. All we need is transparency in the process and no last minute drop ins that can't be debated or voted on.  Congress needs to work on the real budget issues like Social Security and other entitlements that make up over 40% of the budget.

In my opinion it seems that there are more Democrats that attend the NLC Conferences than Republicans.  Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was the key note speaker to close the conference.  I wanted to hear the Pelosi speak but was dreading the rah rah clapping from supporters as she spoke of the Democrat's agenda or spoke against the President.  My fears we false.  There were no long periods of clapping or cheering.  Instead I got the feeling that city officials were tired of politics as usual and are just unimpressed with Congress.