Daschle Gets His Own Nader

That's him. He was my neighbor for a brief while about 10 years ago.

IT GETS BETTER. Russell Means of the Sioux Tribe is supporting JOHN THUNE! He says the dems have done nothing for the reservations and their existence is a form of FEDERAL COMMUNISM.

Russell Means & wife.

It's a rebellion against dem rule. RUSSELL MEANS ENDORSES JOHN THUNE.

"Do the Lakotas have a casino?"

I have no idea.

LOL

When I heard about this my first thought was "so, if Daschle loses, who becomes the DEM minority leader?" Hmmm, it seems Hillary's name would not only come up, but I would be searching bank accounts to see how much this Native American was paid to jump ship to the Independent status? Clintons are about power and Daschle is getting pushed out of the back of the bus by his OWN party!

YAY!

With the headline, all I could think of was the speech at the end of the Three Amigos...

"Each of us has our own personal Ralph Nader to deal with. In our case, its the real Ralph Nader, a tall lanky guy who wants to take away our cars."

Gum

Woo hoo!

You know what I hear-the smallest violin in the world playing hearts and flowers for Dashole!

the day after he announced, he unannounced

He unannounced ?!? When? Saying "the day after he announced" is ambiguous, since I see announcements dating from March 25 through 4 hours ago, on a Google News search for 'Tim Giago'.

The latest mention of his announcement I see is thus:

In South Dakota, Senate may again depend on Indian vote

Posted: April 05, 2004 - 1:10pm EST
by: David Melmer / Indian Country Today

RAPID CITY, S.D. - For the second time in as many elections the American Indian population in South Dakota will have an important role to play in the makeup of the U.S. Senate.

Incumbent Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D. has a formidable opponent for his seat. John Thune, former representative is supported by the Bush administration to remove Daschle from office. Thune lost a squeaker of an election in 2002 against Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D. who retained his seat with the help of American Indian voter turnout.

This election year, as in 2002, control of the Senate is in question. The margin now is 51 Republicans to 48 Democrats and Daschle is the minority leader, reduced from majority leader after the 2002 increase in Republican Senators.

In 2004, Senate watchers will have their eyes on Colorado, South Dakota, Florida, Illinois and Alaska as prime interest states. In Colorado, the only American Indian in the Senate, Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, said he would not seek reelection, which opened up the field to strong Democratic candidates. Campbell was originally elected to the Senate as a Democrat, but changed his party affiliation in 1995 to Republican.

Strong Democratic leader Ken Salazar, Colorado Attorney General, has announced he will run for Campbell’s seat while most top Republicans have indicated no interest even though the Republican field is increasing in size.

So far in South Dakota, Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in the state to help Thune in a fundraiser. Republican officials locally and nationally said it would be an all-out campaign to elect Thune and House of Representatives candidate Larry Diedrick. He is running against Democrat Stephanie Herseth.

They are vying to fill the vacancy left by Bill Janklow who resigned after he was found guilty of felony charges in the death of a Minnesota man in a traffic accident.

President Bush traveled to South Dakota four times in 2002 to support Thune, who at the time was handpicked by the administration to run against Sen. Johnson. This year looks to be no different, although the Democrats start at a financial disadvantage. The National Republican Senate Reelection Campaign has an estimated $12.8 million in its bank account, the Democratic equivalent has only $3.5 million.

Also, South Dakota is expected to support Bush by a margin of 20 percentage points. Politicos claim Thune could ride Bush’s popularity in South Dakota into the Senate. The Republicans early in the process said they would campaign hard in South Dakota, and this time around not neglect an important segment of the population, the American Indian.

Thune admitted he did not spend enough time on reservations in the past, but this time will be different, he said.

"This year I will make it to the reservations to hear people’s concerns. We will have a new strategy, I intend to reach out. I thought we were doing a good job last time," Thune said.

Daschle, however, has a long-established connection to the reservations, in South Dakota and nationally. He has fought for change in trust reform, works to increase funding for local and national projects and has a long-standing battle with trust reform and the Department of Interior.

Locally, some South Dakota tribes have criticized Sen. Daschle, especially with what is referred to as the Mitigation Bill. This legislation turned over federal lands to two tribes and the state, against the wishes of other tribes who claimed the land was theirs in the first place by treaty. Many tribal leaders say Daschle will have to explain that move to traditional people on reservations, people who will potentially vote.

"There are tribes on both sides of the issue. I will work with the tribes and address their concerns," Daschle said. He added that if the tribes would take a close look at what the Mitigation Act does, they would understand.

"Ask any person who has a concern about what I have done for Indian country. I don’t want people to distort my record. There is not a person who has fought harder in the Senate than I have."

Daschle has an opponent for the primary election. Newspaper publisher and columnist Tim Giago, Oglala Lakota, has officially announced his candidacy.

Giago said he wants to increase the awareness of American Indian issues in the campaign. In his official announcement he said that many issues that affect the reservations also affect the state.

"We’re talking about health, the economy, outsourcing jobs. So, there are many things that I can talk about that I think are important to both races."

He said it was time to talk openly about issues like the Black Hills Settlement and what he refers to as the state’s Achilles heel - racism.

Giago, as a columnist, first challenged Gov. George Mickelson to enter into a time of reconciliation in South Dakota, in the early 1990s. Mickelson ordered a century of reconciliation. Mickelson was killed in a plane crash in 1992 and since then the concept has not been paid attention to by other state leaders.

Giago said that Daschle and Sen. Johnson were ducking some issues and he said Thune will most likely duck them as well. "I think some of the issues are important enough to the nine tribes in this state that we’ve got to get them on the table."

Thune has said he would do what he could to get the support in Indian country. "Perhaps I didn’t do a good job of communicating in the past. I will do much better. It’s a challenge. For the future of the state it is worth doing, and we can be successful. Indian country will be important and we can make a case for the Republican side," Thune said.

Jesse Claussen, voter organizer in Bennett County, lodged between the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations was successful in 2002 with his organization to have three American Indians elected to county offices. The end result was a very large voter turnout in that district.

Claussen said the democrats have a consistently better record on American Indian issues than republicans, although Thune will have his say and people will listen. And if he can convince the American Indian voter that he will serve the community better, he will get the vote. Then he has to follow up.

Sen. Johnson was tested after he claimed the American Indian vote returned him to the Senate. He did return to the reservations and continues to listen to tribal leaders. That’s what is needed Claussen said.

"Liberal thinking does better for the small guy. A lot of people here got no tax credit. If you get $1,300 back, they would rather have had it go to areas that were cut, like IHS, the BIA instead of a tax cut," Claussen said.

There is also a problem with offending a candidate. Claussen said they had to be careful and not offend Thune, because if he gets in, it then may hurt Indian country.

Claussen also said with two democrats in the senate Indian country benefits. Johnson is on the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and the Appropriations Committee, Daschle supports the Indian Affairs Committee and is also Minority Leader of the Senate.

South Dakota experienced charges of voter fraud on the reservations that were later proven unfounded in the 2002 general election cycle. This year the legislature passed a bill that requires all voters to present a photo ID before issuance of a ballot. Many tribal officials claim it is illegal and another attempt by the state or Republican party to restrict or intimidate American Indian voters.

Both parties plan all-out voter registration campaigns on the reservations and throughout the state.

This article can be found at http://IndianCountry.com/?1081185218

I sincerely hope so! 'Bout time!

Aren't the signatures supposed to be only citizens of the state where he is running for the seat?

It's probably a threat to get some kind of special funding right away for the tribe. In the final analysis, the Indians will line up like cattle for the Daschle candidacy. They cannot imagine life in SD without him. A poll last week showed Daschle with hefty leads among both the poor and the rich, but he was trailing with the middle class.

You're kidding me! Can you link me to an article about it?

John Thune is excellent. I recommend him to Freepers.

John spoke at the North Dakota R Convention this weekend. Impressions: Articulate, conservative (our kind), funny, tall, good looking, sharp.

With the Lakota stuffing ballot boxes for their own, Thune can win. Thune is where my campaign contributions are going.

Well, I kinda just barely heard what I thought was an unannounce on the radio, and it could be that Tim mentioned he was aware of what his candidacy could do to Daschle. But then we are talking primary not general election so I'm confused.

So, R R, R U still in the aRea?

Visit my pioneer spirit page on my tag line. I linked the Means' endorsement there.