SOUTH DAKOTA STRAIGHT TALK

Currently South Dakota Democrats have Tim Johnson and Stephanie Herseth Sandlin as their leaders at top of the ticket for next year’s elections. They are formidable and well tested candidates.

Republicans who hopefully are working overtime to find quality challengers though no one has surfaced publicly. Governor Rounds spent the night at the White House during the National Governor’s Conference in February and the President popped the question about a 2008 Senate run and Mike Rounds said “No”.

It is 11 months until the Primary filing deadline; the GOP should not rely on Gary Hanson, if he is the Republican PUC candidate to be the guy leading the ticket.

Everyone on the Right Side of the aisle seems to be waiting on Senator Johnson’s recovery and formal election announcement. While everyone hopes for a complete and speedy recovery, no election announcement will come anytime soon. The public is told by Senator Johnson’s staff that he had indicated before his health crisis that he planned to run again. Since his hospitalization four months ago, as far as the public knows, Senator Johnson, has only communicated directly with his family and staff and has said nothing further on the matter.

Previously, I opined that the GOP should proceed as Johnson and Herseth would both be running for their current offices and if the situation changed so be it. At least GOP campaigns would be getting organized.

While it may not prove to be the best strategy (after the fact), based on my “gut” (instinct) – I predict that Tim Johnson will announce as late as possible to allow other Democrat candidates to position themselves (delay is in the Dems favor) that he will not be a candidate for the U S Senate.

As a consequence when the dominoes fall, our Congresswoman will announce for the U S Senate. This is after all a well-traveled South Dakota tradition of our U S Representative becoming Senator.

Senator Johnson’s son, Brendan, then will then announce for her Herseth Sandlin’s house seat. Surely there would be sympathy support and of course the important name identification – ask Stephanie Herseth.

Both will be formidable candidates – Republicans must prepare, foremost with proven talent and then with treasury and organization.