Free Republic

With the recent indictment of former Congressman and Abscam figure Michael "Ozzie" Myers for election fraud, the high profile FBI sting from 40 years ago was back in the news. And now eyes turn to former South Dakota Senator Larry Pressler, who is scheduled to be inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame this September. In 2014, Pressler was attempting to return to the Senate after an 18-year absence. Jonathan Ellis was a reporter covering the campaign for the Argus News Leader, the state's largest newspaper in Sioux Falls. I sent Ellis the transcript of the FBI undercover tape...

A former Republican senator is endorsing Hillary Clinton for president after the mass shooting in Orlando, citing her support for gun control. Former Sen. Larry Pressler (R-S.D.) called for universal background checks on all gun sales and an assault weapons ban Monday in the wake of the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. "I can't believe I'm endorsing Hillary Clinton for president, but I am," said Pressler, who spoke with The Hill on Monday after endorsing Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, in a statement issued over the weekend.... He said he feels disenfranchised by Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican...

This week on 60 Minutes, Armen Keteyian interviewed Coach Mike Pressler, the lacrosse coach who was forced to resign after three of his players were accused of brutally attacking and raping an exotic dancer at a team party in 2006. It's a story 60 Minutes co-producers Michael Radutzky and Tanya Simon remember well. They followed the case from the time the accusations were made in March of 2006 -- to a year later in 2007 when the players were declared innocent. In that time, 60 Minutes produced three detailed reports on the strange details surrounding the case, and conducted interviews...

Jessica Pressler is no longer going to work at Bloomberg’s investigation unit after the disgraced New York magazine writer penned last week’s story about the Stuyvesant High School senior who allegedly made $72 million trading stocks, only to have it proved a hoax.

Some polling earlier this month suggested that the South Dakota Senate race might be unexpectedly competitive, but a new poll shows Republican candidate Mike Rounds with a significant lead 10 days before the election. Rounds is taking 43 percent of the vote, according to the NBC/Marist poll released Sunday. Democratic candidate Rick Weiland is at 29 percent and former GOP Sen. Larry Pressler, now running as an independent, is polling at 16 percent.

The three-way race for South Dakota’s open Senate seat got more complicated Wednesday, when the Sioux Falls Argus Leader published a page one story alleging that former Governor Mike Rounds, the Republican candidate and current leader in the polls, had approved $600,000 in state assistance to a company that was about hire a member of his cabinet. According to reporter David Montgomery, then Secretary of Tourism and State Development Richard Benda requested the assistance for Northern Beef Packers about two weeks before he and Rounds were to leave office. Benda was about to go to work for a company with...

Larry Pressler's wife, Harriet, drives him to all of his campaign events. He has a single full-time paid staffer running his campaign. A bank loan accounts for half of the money he's spent on his race so far. So yes, it was surprising to Larry Pressler when he woke up Wednesday to find himself within striking distance of winning the race for South Dakota's junior seat in the US Senate. A SurveyUSA poll released that day showed Pressler, an Independent, would get 32% of the vote in a race that pits him against former South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds, a...

Independent Larry Pressler continues to steal support from Republican Mike Rounds in the race for U.S. Senate, while Democrat Rick Weiland falls behind, a new poll shows. Survey South Dakota — conducted by Survey USA on behalf of the American News, KSFY TV of Sioux Falls and KOTA TV of Rapid City — was of 616 likely voters and was conducted between Oct. 1 and Sunday. It shows 35 percent of those responding will vote for Rounds, 32 percent for Pressler and 28 percent for Democrat Rick Weiland. Three percent of voters back independent Gordon Howie and 2 percent are...

South Dakota Democrats are playing a tough hand in the Senate race, but they thought they could count on a wild card — former Sen. Larry Pressler — to help the contest break their way. Pressler seems to have other plans. Democrats already faced long odds to hold retiring Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson’s seat. Obama lost South Dakota by 18 points last cycle, and the state marks the GOP’s best pick-up opportunity in its 6-seat quest to win the majority. The front-runner, popular former GOP Gov. Mike Rounds, faces several foes: Democrat Rick Weiland; state Sen. Gordon Howie, a conservative...

If he runs at all, former Sen. Larry Pressler’s, R-S.D., bid for Senate as an independent won’t look like your traditional campaign.He said his campaign is running on an “idealistic concept” in a Wednesday phone interview with CQ Roll Call. Pressler, 71, referred to a famous line by William F. Buckley about his third-party bid for New York mayor in 1965.“If I win, I might demand a recount,” Pressler told CQ Roll Call.Pressler wasn’t even his own first choice to run, but everyone he’s spoken with about it has declined to step forward. Asked if he would be hiring a...

Former Sen. Larry Pressler (R-SD), a Vietnam veteran who served in Congress for more than two decades, said Tuesday on Current TV that the movement for marriage equality is much like the movement for racial equality, and confidently declared that the Republican Party is now in the process of making the right to marry “the new conservative position.” “The main thing that caused me to change my mind was my work with veterans groups,” he told “Viewpoint” host John Fugelsang, explaining that he’s worked with a gay couple who want to marry and have a family. “It’s something like in...

Oh FINE. She’s not fat, she’s just pregnant. Whatever, we’re just jealous. The Palin family — most importantly, let's face it, Bristol Palin and her baby Daddy Levi Johnson— recently arrived at the airport in St. Paul, where they were greeted by John and Cindy "Crazy Hair" McCain, etc. Levi was casually dressed in a sweater and pants that, while baggy, did little to disguise the splendor of his muscular teenage jailbait frame. Alas, ladies and gents, this one is, obviously, taken. The McCain campaign earlier announced that Levi and Bristol were planning on getting married, and the eagle-eyed biddies...

Video: Judge Paul Pressler Supports Fred Posted on January 9th, 2008 By Austin Walne in On The Road, Video, Announcements http://blip.tv/file/588722Judge Paul Pressler is a conservative and activist in both the political arena and the Southern Baptist Convention.  He was one of the two chief architects of the “Conservative Resurgence” of the SBC in the late ’70s and early ’80s. For More about Judge Paul Pressler: http://www.sbcbaptistpress.org/bpnews.asp?ID=17956

Today former Texas Court of Appeals Judge Paul Pressler endorsed Fred Thompson for President. "Fred Thompson has the experience, convictions and dedication to make him a great candidate and a great President," said Judge Pressler. "He knows Washington but is not part of the Washington system. Fred is the consistent conservative in the presidential race and is the most electable." Judge Paul Pressler is a graduate of Princeton University and the University of Texas Law School. He was a Texas state legislator and went on to serve as a District Judge from 1970 to 1978. Judge Pressler was appointed Justice...

Duke University has reached a financial settlement with Mike Pressler, the former men's lacrosse coach who lost his job in the wake of since-debunked rape allegations involving his team. Though the university would not disclose terms of the deal, a school official confirmed Thursday that Duke reached "an amicable, fair financial settlement" with Pressler a few months ago. "Coach Pressler is an excellent coach and did a great job building the Duke men's lacrosse program," John Burness, Duke's vice president for public affairs, told The Associated Press. "Unfortunately last spring it was essential for the team to have a change...

WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- In 1996, Jim Jordan, campaign manager for Democrat presidential contender Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), was press secretary for Tim Johnson during his challenge to then-incumbent Sen. Larry Pressler (R-SD). The long, negative campaign resulted in the end of the South Dakota Republican's 22 years in Congress. During the campaign, Pressler was dogged by questions about his health, since his father suffered with Alzheimer's disease. But the most damaging attack was delivered by James Abourezk, the man Pressler replaced in the Senate in 1978. Abourezk brought Alexander Cockburn, author of "Washington Babylon" to speak to a Sioux...

India will benefit more from the re-election of US President George W Bush, a strong votary of free trade, than the victory of anti-outsourcing Senator John Kerry in the forthcoming Presidential polls in the United States, US Senator Larry Pressler said. ''The outcome of elections could go either way depending on the mood of the people. But irrespective of the outcome, India will have a friend in the White House, and a stronger friend in George W Bush,'' he said at the NASSCOM CEO Forum last night. ''Bush would be more advantageous to India. He is not taking the old...