Dykstra preparing for senate run

The Pierre Capitol Journal ^ | October 10, 2007 | Crystal Lindell

[Clintonfatigued]

A prominent Republican U.S. Senate candidate said he doesn't believe he'll have to face Gov. Mike Rounds in the primary.

Senate Republican primary candidate state Rep. Joel Dykstra, R-Canton, was in town for the Hughes County Republican meeting Tuesday. He said Rounds has given him no indication that he'll be making a run for the Senate in 2008.

"I take (Rounds) at his word and the indications that he's given us thus far," Dykstra said. "Frankly he knows very well what I'm up to and what I'm doing and what I'm up against and I would expect that if something changes he would let me know."

Current South Dakota U.S. senator, Tim Johnson, a Democrat, suffered a brain injury last year and has yet to announce if he plans to run again. However, Dykstra said he's not yet thinking about which Democrat he'd face if he does win the Republican nomination in the June 3 primary.

"It's not really relevant to my decision to run or the need for us to have a candidate on the Republican side of the ballot," Dykstra said. "Johnson's illness came at a time that I'd already decided.

"I was prepared to run against Senator Johnson in the best of circumstances."

Dykstra said he is hoping the election will be about the issues.

[Petronski]

Whew!

For a second there, I thought they meant Lenny.

[Clintonfatigued]

I am trying to remain hopeful about this race, as it sounds like Dykstra would make a great Senator.

[LdSentinal]

[Duke Nukum]

Is he related to the special effects maven John Dykstra?

[Clintonfatigued]

“Is he related to the special effects maven John Dykstra?”

I have no idea.

[fieldmarshaldj]

I’m about as excited about this race as I would be for any second or third tier candidate with no money, no substantial backing, against a “sympathy” candidate who effectively should not even be in the seat he occupies (anybody forget the Indian Reservation voter fraud that got Johnson this current term in 2002 ?).

[rabidralph]

LOL! I thought the same thing.

[Montanabound]

Lenny was a guest on one of the Saturday morning Fox Business shows. He was actually pretty smart and said whatever he thought. For one thing, he doesn’t like Katie Couric. There are a lot worse in the Senate!

[Clemenza]

Lenny is currently bored to death in retirement, but wants more than a minor league coaching assignment to get him working again. I think he would consider a political career beneath him. ;-)

[Norman Bates]

That bad, heh? Will Gov. Rounds run?

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Rounds is VP material. He's not going to run for Senate.

I was hoping he'd run for President. Two-term Governor of a conservative state, great family, strong Republican who can appeal to independents, and he's only 53.

[fieldmarshaldj]

He needs to run, that’s the whole point. We keep running these second and third tier candidates in the Republican Dakotas, and it’s no wonder we hold only 1 seat out of 6 when we should hold all of them.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Problem is, SD isn’t exactly a prime state to run from. McGovern learned that, despite a media assist.

[darkangel82]

He probably wants to serve out his term as governor, but there won’t be anything for him to run for, except that one House seat if he wants it.

[Clintonfatigued]

“Will Gov. Rounds run?”

Rounds probably will run if Tim Johnson retires. However, he doesn’t want to run against Johnson.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Funny thing is, he has a better chance against Johnson than he does Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin. I speculated on a more morbid note that he may be counting on Johnson winning and then the stress of the campaign leading to his dying sometime early into his next term and then voila ! he gets the seat through appointment (and SHS would have trouble unseating him as an incumbent).

[Clintonfatigued]

Becoming a U.S. Senator through an appointment does not endear a Governor to voters. And that could be compounded in this case if Johnson were to die, because voters could (with help from the MSM) conclude that by forcing Johnson to run hard, he had contributed to his death. I think that this is what Rounds wants to avoid.

[fieldmarshaldj]

We don't owe Johnson a damn thing. He was the beneficiary of a stolen election last time, and he is in exceptionally delicate health and has no business running again (and what kind of a doctor would recommend that, and what kind of a spouse and family would urge him in that condition to run another campaign like that ?). If he doesn't have the sense to retire, he needs to be treated no differently as a candidate then we would with anyone occupying a seat that should be ours, and we need to employ every means necessary to retake it (and if anyone hadn't noticed, too, that his record is about 180 proof moonbat, a stark contrast to SHS, who could actually be called a Conservative Dem).

We might be accused of having been tough or rough on him if it results in his demise, but we can fire back asking what kind of a political party would force a man in that kind of shape to run again to preserve their delicate and dubious Senate plurality/majority rather than spend time with his family ?