By Bill Harlan

Rick Kriebel offered a comment to a topic below that I thought deserved to be elevated. And I quote:

“I found some intersting data: 11,673 votes in the Mayors race; subtract the 3,642 votes for mayor in Ward 3 because they didn’t have a council race. That leaves 8,031 votes for mayor in Wards 1,2,4 and 5. the total votes for alderman in Wards 1,2,4 and 5 are 7,377 — or 654 votes less than mayor.

“I find that really interesting because almost half of those votes are in Ward 5 — 280 to be exact. Now remember, there was only a 45-vote spread between Hurlbut and Michaels. I don’t know if it is funny or sad that 280 folks voted for mayor and did not vote for a city council person. Ward one had 255 voters that voted for the mayor and skipped voting for a council person. Ward one and five account for 82% of the “skipped votes” or 535 of the 654. Wierd stuff”

Indeed. Ward 1 and Ward 5 win the city council apathy prize.

By Bill harlan

From our Lee Enterprises sister paper, the Bismarck Tribune, comes the news that Rapid City native Jason Stverak is resigning as executive director of the North Dakota Republican Party to direct Rudy Guiliani’s campaign in that state. Jason also was political director for the Nebraska GOP.

By Bill Harlan

What does the above fish have to do with Mount Blogmore? Nothing, really. For fish stories, I urge Blogmorites to visit Kevin W’s new outdoors blog, Take it outside. Yes, this is blatant misuse of valuable journalism electrons for crass self promotion of another RCJ feature. I plead nolo contendere. (Make that nolo Oncorhynchus.)

Not interested in the outdoors? Not even if Kevin blogs about the orange-winged nuthatch?

Seth A. McConnell/Journal Staff: Duane Martin Sr. is wrestled to the ground and handcuffed by tribal police Thursday morning. Police shut down The Strong Heart Civil Rights Movement’s attempted alcohol blockade on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

By Bill Harlan

Pine Ridge tribal police were in a tough position yesterday, breaking up an alcohol “blockade.” Our reporter Katie Brown said the police were patient and acted with restraint. The arrests were resisted more by scuffle than brawl.

Still, add yesterday’s events to the long, modern-era list of protests and civil disobedience on the Pine Ridge Reservation, beginning with the takeover of Wounded Knee in 1973 and continuing through the long occupation of tribal headquarters in 1999-2000 .

Even more recently, controversies over who was president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and over alleged irregularities in last fall’s tribal elections have clouded the political scene on Pine Ridge. See Steve Miller’s story on the tribal elections on the Pine Ridge Reservation. See Steve M.’s earlier story about tribal police and the ballot boxes. See any number of stories about the impeachment of former tribal president Cecelia Fire Thunder. (Here’s a sample.)

The Lakota were among the most brutalized and traumatized tribal groups in 19th century America, which is saying something. The 20th century didn’t go that well for them either, as the Lakota endured racism, isolation and near destruction of a culture. Add alcohol and extreme poverty, and it’s easy to be discouraged about the prospects for the 21st century.

Can you imagine a citizens group in any other South Dakota town deciding to set up its own blockade on a highway? The political frustration on Pine Ridge makes the recent “battle” for mayor of Rapid City look like a hug-off between Leo Buscaglia and Phil Donahue.

By Kevin Woster

Duane’s Depressed, our mildly despondent Blogmorite, threatened this week to write in the name of Don Barnett on the mayor’s ballot in Tuesday’s election.

I checked with Duane after the election and found out that he just skipped voting entirely, unhappy as he was with his two choices.

Which makes me ask those of you who might be a bit better adjusted that Duane: Were Hanks and Kooiker sub-par mayoral candidates? Or is Duane just being, well, Duane?

And, beginning with the Barnett area, who was/is the best mayor Rapid City has had?

Hanks campaign flyer

By Kevin Woster

There’s also something you should know about the now-famous “wing-nut” mailing.

The artwork is a creation of one of our most loquacious Blogmorites: Bill Fleming.

The Alan Hanks campaign sent out the flyer earlier this week in an effort to label Sam Kooiker an ultra conservative. During a Journal interview on Wednesday, Hanks confirmed that Fleming provided the artwork - an image of a metal nut with a set of feathery wings - to go with the headline: “There’s something you should know about Sam Kooiker.”

Kooiker supporter Bill Napoli said the flyer went way over the line of good taste in a political campaign.

But how about fine art?

By Bill Harlan

We’re certain Gov. Rounds will call soon, asking for our short list to replace mayor-elect Alan Hanks in the South Dakota House of Representatives. If your nomination wins, you get the same fabulous prize recently awarded to Scuttlemonkey: Pie at Tally’s.*

Gentlemen, open your pie holes.

*In the case of duplicate entries, the Gods of Blogmore will award the prize based on who is likely to have the smallest pie-related appetite.

**Central Rapid City, not including downtown but including West Boulevard, much of Robbinsdale and some neighborhoods just west of the Gap and Skyline Drive.

By Bill Harlan

Pro-choice Republicans do a delicate dance in South Dakota (or sometimes not so delicate) so this Washington Post story seemed relevant: “Giuliani woos conservatives wary of abortion view.” Will the “wooing” work? Sen. John Thune, a staunchly pro-life Republican, had this to say to CNN in 2002: ” You know, Mayor Giuliani is someone who has demonstrated great leadership.”

By Bill Harlan

White Clay, Neb., a big source of alcohol for the dry Pine Ridge Reservation, once again will be the target of a protest. This one is a “blockade,” beginning at 10 a.m. Thursday at the reservation border just outside town. Organizer Duane Martin Sr. told me the blockaders intend to stop cars and prevent alcohol from being transported onto the reservation.

Exactly how this will happen is unclear. Will people voluntarily surrender alcohol? Will the Pine Ridge police assist in the roadblock? Will there be “citizens arrests,” as Martin suggested? Is such a blockade legal?

Russell Means is an organizer. The Strong Heart Civil Rights Movement and Nebraskans for Peace are listed on the flyer.

RCJ reporter Heidi Bell Gease is working on a story that has some interesting twists and turns.

And speaking of twists and turns, see the New York Times regular feature called “FRUGAL TRAVELER | AMERICAN ROAD TRIP.” Today’s episode is “Scraping By With a South Dakota Tribe.”

The Frugal Traveler is Matt Gross, who visits Wounded Knee, where he meets J.T. An excerpt:

Toward evening, J. T. and I drove into the town of Pine Ridge to pick up dinner from Pizza Hut — the first national chain I have visited this summer — then skipped across state lines into Nebraska to buy two cases of Hurricane malt liquor, which we hustled into the back of my Volvo and covered with a blanket.

Lucky he didn’t try that during a blockade.

A white guy parachuting onto the rez for a short visit and a quick story is a cliche — a cliche I’ve been guilty of committing myself — but Gross is an entertaining diarist and he has a sharp eye. Still, buying a couple of sixpacks for a guy with an admitted problem with alcohol …

By Bill Harlan

Alan Hanks — by unofficial returns from our person at the courthouse.

The tally:
Hanks with 5,921 to Kooiker’s 5,158, or 53.4 percent to 46.6 percent. Not a landslide, but a solid win. Frankly, I thought it would be closer.

Some pundits thought this election would be a referendum on unpopular Cabela’s subsidies, which they predicted would sink Hanks. Either the Cabela’s deal wasn’t that unpopular or it wasn’t the overriding issue. Of some other factor was in play.

Blogmorites, start your engines.

And the Mount Blogmore pool:
The 30.43 percent turnout, which makes the winner of the Mount Blogmore voter turnout pool: Scuttlemonkey, who predicted “25.4% overall turnout (I’ll take a pie from Tally’s, Bill).” Pie it is. (Don’t you wish you had picked a Lexus as your prize?) Actually, I can’t believe no one got closer. I’m a little bleary-eyed, so maybe I tallied wrong.

By Bill Harlan

State wildland fire coordinator Joe Lowe, left, and state fire management officer Jim Strain, right, discuss the Rapid City mayoral race with Gov. Mike Rounds. … NOT. (New state Game, Fish and Parks Secretary Jeff Vonk not discussing the mayor’s race in the background. Note his handsome blue “Iowa Nomex” fire shirt.)

OK, the subject of Kooiker v. Hanks never came up at the Buffalo Corral fire camp in Custer State Park. I fully expected to be covering some aspect of the mayor’s race today, not to mention blogging my little fingers to the bone. Instead, I wore a YELLOW Nomex shirt all day and chased smoke.

Now, as I sit in the newsroom at 9:03 , I’m just a spectator — wondering if Hanks will hold his razor-thin lead with 22 of 25 precincts reporting. But by golly I’m resolved to put a picture on Mount Blogmore.

By Bill Harlan

I invite Blogmorites who are voting today to report here what’s happening in their precincts. Did you have to stand in line long to vote? (Hope springs eternal, or maybe I just need to up my meds). Alternately, was it lonely at your precinct? Did you have to nudge the poll worker gently to wake him up so you could get a ballot? Any other poll stories?

By Bill Harlan

I chose this lame, off-point headline to illustrate my lack of understanding in the U.S. Supreme Court decision “Federal Election Commission v. Wisconsin Right to Life,” which, according to this AP story, might allow Roger Hunt to keep secret the name of a big donor to last fall’s unsuccessful campaign to ban most abortions.

According to the “syllabus” of the decision, which is, depressingly, a simplified version of the decision — and I say “depressingly” because I don’t even understand the “syllabus” (See No. 07-625 Harlan confused, chronic, 666 U.S. at 57701-57718, Ys 1947-2007) — Chief Justice Roberts ruled:

“The speech at issue is not the “functional equivalent” of express advocacy.”

Justice Souter offered a 34-page dissent (with Justices Ginsburg and Breyer), which is equally immune to speed reading. Consider this a call to Blogmore’s legal experts, whose number is legion, whose opinions are bullet proof and whose fees are ever contingent. What does it all mean and should we just plead guilty?

By Bill Harlan

Did the RCJ err in running Mike Sanborn’s Cabela’s column this morning?

Much is being made about Cabela’s incentives as an issue in tomorrow’s election. Candidate Sam Kooiker, an alderman, voted against the Cabela’s incentives last week. Candidate Alan Hanks, a state representative, would have voted for the incentives. (They were adopted 7-1.) Sanborn says the issue should be referred.

What was the RCJ’s rationale for running Mike’s column so close to the election? Check out editor Mikel LeFort’s new blog, Typos and tribulations.

City elections are often personality contests or resume battles. That’s understandable for at least a couple of reasons. Most candidates for local office aren’t political professionals. And we, the voters, have a solid record of punishing anyone who feeds anything other than platitudes. Kooiker and Hanks, however, have a distinct difference of opinion on Cabela’s. See reporter Scott Aust’s story.

Weigh in on the RCJ policy on “Typos.” Weigh in on the Cabela’s debate and the mayor’s race here. Or vice versa. Or both.

By Bill Harlan

As a reporter tho thinks journalists ought to have subpoena power, but who also thinks my sources and notes 0ught to be immune from subpoenas (is that so unreasonable?), I’ll admit to a bias on this issue. That said, see the AP story. To compare states, go to this Reporters for Open Government site.

Adam Altman, city attorney for Aberdeen, has this to say on the South Dakota Municipal League Web site:

South Dakota’s open records laws are pitiful. They are scattered throughout the code. They are difficult to interpret once you do find them. There isn’t an easy mechanism for forcing a municipality to turn over public records if it initially refuses. Municipal employees can’t figure out what to disclose, and there isn’t any protection for them if they accidentally disclose the wrong records. The open records laws need to be changed to make it easier for the public to understand their government, and for government to understand their obligations.

Maybe change is on the way, during the next Legislative session. Help the Mount compile a list of records that should be open to the public. Some suggestions to prime the pump:

-Public employees’ wages and salaries.(See the RCJ editorial.)
-Governor’s pheasant hunt participants.
-Transcripts of Democratic and Republican closed legislative causcuses. (Hey, a guy can dream, can’t he?)
-Contents of Don Frankenfeld’s sock drawer. (The people deserve to know.)

By Bill Harlan

There is some controversy over whether governors should order flags at half staff for state residents killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. See the NYT story. Some think it’s an anti-war message. If I recall, and I’ll correct myself if I discover I’m wrong, we DO lower flags here for South Dakota casualties.

Thoughts?

Click to make larger

By Bill Harlan

The South Dakota War College, a blog that’s always interesting, tipped me off to the letter above. RCJ city hall reporter Scott Aust saw a copy, too, but Scott is buried in other mayor’s race stories, so I’m throwing it up here.

PP at the War College points out that Bill Gikling owns land that’s part of the Cabela’s deal. (As reported in the RCJ.) PP also points out that Bill G. is president of the Rapid City Economic Development Foundation. I called Bill G. this afternoon, and he said he sent the letter to RC Chamber of Commerce members on his own initiative. It’s not an official letter from the foundation. (He serves as a volunteer on the nonprofit.) He said he didn’t think it mattered whether he owned land in the deal because the city council approved it 7 to 1.

Bill said he’s gotten quite a few calls about the letter — some positive, some negative.

Sam K., by the way, thinks the land deal should have been further scrutinized.

By Bill Harlan

Voter turnout was 30 percent in Rapid City’s muncipal elections on June 5. The runoff for mayor between Alan Hanks and Sam Kooiker is Tuesday, so this is to announce the Mount Blogmore voter turnout office pool. We’ll use the “Price is Right” method of scoring. The closest entry — to two decimal places — without going over is the winner.*

My prediction is, voter turnout will be pathetic — PATHETIC I tell you! Why so low? Some theories:

A. Most people think everything is just hunky dory and thus have little motivation.
B. Unlikely as it seems, some people don’t know the candidates well enough because they haven’t signed up for a valuable subscription to the RCJ.
C. A municipal election that features the late-night arrest of a transvestite, an explosion of malls and superstores and reverberations from the hottest legislative race in city history just isn’t sexy enough to get voters motivated.
D. Bayesian contextual variables suggest regression indexes that support societal loci of transferrable motivational transients.
E. Well, geeze, Tuesday that “Dukes of Hazzard” marathon is on cable, and that bag of Doritos is just sitting there and ….

Have I missed a theory? Will this AP story help? Please include your own with your turnout entry.

PS: The Mount accepts (almost) all viewpoints. Please feel free to submit your argument why failing to vote is NOT un-American.

PPS: Don’t forget that Norma Thomsen and Ron Weifenbach are in a runoff for a Ward 1 city council seat and Ron Kroeger and Lori Hadley are battling for a Ward 4 seat.

*Name your own prize!**

**Prizes will not be awarded.

By Bill Harlan

No, no. Not THAT kind of outing.

Several RCJ reporters got anonymous snail-mail letters that were allegedly e-mails sent by supporters of Alan Hanks. The e-mails said conservative, pro-life Republicans in Rapid City were lining up behind Sam Kooiker. That particular group has a powerful get-out-the-vote infrastructure that could be especially important in a low-turnout municipal election. The e-mails were requests for volunteers to help turn out the vote. (Will there be a low turnout next Tuesday? Let’s just say, Kevin has been assigned to interview a voter, and I’ve been assigned to interview the other one.)

RCJ report Scott Aust is on the case, checking out the validity of the e-mails and the claims therein.

Postscript:
A couple reporters didn’t realize they’d received the letters because — in this electronic age — they neglect to check their real mailboxes.

By Bill Harlan

I usually don’t reproduce my stories on Mount Blogmore, but this one’s short, and we usually don’t put the Page 1 “odd news” online:

Craig Ferguson, host of “The Late Late Show” on CBS, has been made an honorary citizen of South Dakota.
Ferguson, who has applied for U.S. citizenship, is campaigning to speed the long, slow process by becoming an honorary citizen of towns across the United States “one town at a time.” (Ozark, Ark., agreed to his request.
Moving state by state would be faster.
Tuesday night Ferguson read a letter from South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds granting Ferguson honorary citizenship but warning the late-night host “not to let the title go to his head,” a CBS spokesperson said.
“In South Dakota, we hunt our official state bird, the pheasant, and our official state animal, the coyote,” Rounds wrote.
Rounds might have added, for further ego control, that South Dakota also has a “state dirt.” (Houdek loam.)

The best line of the night goes to an RCJ copy editor who wondered, “Does this mean he gets a resident elk license?”