Free Republic

With South Dakota’s Republican Primary just a week away, the three top GOP hopefuls are now all running closely competitive races with Democratic Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin. The latest Ramussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in South Dakota shows Herseth-Sandlin edging Chris Nelson, South Dakota’s secretary of state, 47% to 43%. A month ago, she posted a 45% to 41% lead over Nelson. But now Herseth-Sandlin holds a similar narrow 46% to 43% lead over State Representative Kristi Noem. A month ago, the incumbent led Noem by 15 points – 50% to 35%. Also much closer this month is the...

South Dakota --(AmmoLand.com)- The South Dakota Legislature has passed the South Dakota Firearms Freedom Act and that bill is enroute to the Governor’s desk. Governor Michael Rounds has indicated that he’s comfortable with the SDFFA and will sign the bill when it reaches his office. SD will make the fourth state that has enacted a clone of the Montana Firearms Freedom Act. Once the Wyoming and South Dakota governors sign their respective bills into law, they will join Montana, Tennessee and Utah with enacted laws.

Blake Curd is “On the Radar” of the National Republican Congressional Committee. Chris Nelson is not. .... Nelson reported $56,000 raised during the first few months of his campaign, compared to $181,000 reported by Curd. Nelson said then that he was relying on hundreds of smaller campaign donors and long-standing GOP connections to power his primary run. After hearing of the committee release, Nelson said his optimism and focus in the primary had not changed.

Just announced by Brett Bair on Fox News: Sen Byron Dorgan (D-SD) will not seek re-election this year.

For John Thune, 2010 looks like a good year to run for re-election. For Tim Johnson, it looks like a good year not to. Thune, the first-term Senate Republican from South Dakota, showed well in a statewide sampling of voters that offered more troubling results for Johnson. Thune’s job approval rating of 57 percent is particularly strong when compared to the 28 percent and 31 percent approval ratings for Democrats and Republicans in Congress overall, respectively.