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Herseth Sandlin passes on Senate run, leaving Republicans with early edge to win seat. ... Democrats had targeted the onetime congresswoman, who served from 2004 to 2011, as their top recruit in a seat currently held by retiring Sen. Tim Johnson. Even if Johnson had decided to run for another term, Republicans would have considered the solidly-Republican state one of their top pickup opportunities of the 2014 election. ... The state's former GOP governor, Mike Rounds, has already declared he will seek the Republican Party's nomination. While Rounds announced his campaign early and has high name-identification in the state, he...

Republican Kristi Noem has moved slightly further ahead of incumbent Democrat Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin in South Dakota’s election for the U.S. House of Representatives. The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Voters shows Noem, a state legislator, picking up 49% of the vote, while Herseth-Sandlin draws support from 44%. Two percent (2%) prefer some other candidate, and five percent (5%) are still undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.) Earlier this month, Noem moved to a 47% to 44% edge after slipping behind in September. Since winning the GOP Primary in June, Noem has been slightly ahead of...

The Democratic brand in South Dakota is not very strong right now, and that has Stephanie Herseth Sandlin looking at her toughest fight for reelection since 2004 next year despite the fact that she herself is pretty popular. 52% of voters in the state disapprove of Barack Obama's job performance with just 41% approving. That makes him downright popular compared to Congressional Democrats who get a 60% disapproval rating with only 28% of South Dakotans giving them high marks. And when it comes to the Democratic health care bill that passed the House last month, which Herseth Sandlin prudently voted...

A Public Policy Polling survey of South Dakota was released today, and it contains some disturbing news for Congresswoman Herseth-Sandlin.

Representative Stephanie Herseth Sandlin says she will oppose the health care reform bill expected to be considered this weekend in the House. The South Dakota Democrat says the plan falls short of her goals for health care reform and could threaten existing access to health care for many South Dakotans. Herseth Sandlin says she's also concerned it doesn't do enough to bring down the federal deficit and could affect future health care for seniors. The House could begin consideration this weekend of the 10-year, $1.2 trillion legislation that would extend health coverage to tens of millions of uninsured Americans and...

Voters wanting to learn more about the congressional candidates this election can tune in for two live debates on KELOLAND TV. Tonight, we'll hear from house candidates Stephanie Herseth and Bruce Whalen. The debate begins at 7:00 central time.

Republican congressional candidate Bruce Whalen of Pine Ridge is in the home stretch of a campaign fundraising effort. Last month, the head of the National Republican Congressional Committee challenged Whalen to raise $75,000 by Friday. Then some matching money would be given the campaign. Whalen had raised $55,000 as of Monday, with fundraising events in Sioux Falls and Rapid City this week. Whalen's campaign manager says the NRCC will support Whalen no matter what, but that it just wants to see signs that the campaign is working and that South Dakotans are giving. His campaign manager says Whalen will need...

SIOUX FALLS - The South Dakota GOP's only candidate for U.S. House of Representatives is touring the state to make his bid formal. Bruce Whalen of Pine Ridge, an American Indian who is chairman of the Shannon County Republican Party, will challenge incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephanie Herseth on Nov. 7. Whalen grew up in Pine Ridge but moved to Utah as a teenager. He returned to South Dakota in 1999 to raise his family. He for the Oglala Sioux Tribe as coordinator of its judiciary committee. He lost a bid in 2002 for tribal council and was unsuccessful in...

As South Dakota’s US Representative, he will provide fiscal management to help balance the national budget, advocate for smart economic growth and continue to support our military goals of safe neighborhoods with a strong homeland defense plan.

The National Rifle Association has switched its endorsement in the US House race to Democrat Stephanie Herseth. The gun-rights group had endorsed her Republican challenger, Larry Diedrich, in the June special election. Herseth won that election and faces Diedrich again in next month's general election. The National Republican Congressional Committee says the NRA bases its endorsements on votes taken by incumbents. Since Herseth voted to lift a ban on most guns in Washington DC, the NRA gave her its endorsement.

On her way to narrowly winning (by 2,944 votes) the seat vacated by Rep. William Janklow (R.-S.D.) after his conviction for manslaughter in an automobile accident, Democrat Stephanie Herseth moved to the right on several issues, trying to align herself with President Bush and distance herself from John Kerry. In preparing for the June 1 contest with Republican State Sen. Larry Diedrich, the 33-year-old Herseth announced that she supported President Bush on the Iraq War and agreed with both Bush and Diedrich on the need for a federal marriage amendment. She also said she favored retaining some (albeit not all)...

Presidential elections during the last quarter of the 19th century tended to be exceedingly close, so close that a single campaign mistake could easily cost an election. In 1884, for instance, Republican candidate James G. Blaine ran into problems when one of his supporters called the Democrats the party of "rum, Romanism and rebellion." Blaine's failure to immediately disassociate himself from the obviously anti-Catholic slur cost him thousands of Irish Catholic votes, the popular vote in New York, and, as it turned out, the presidency. ... Recently, South Dakota Sen. Tim Johnson had a Lott moment of his own. At...

http://www.sdsos.gov/results/statwide.shtml Here you go ya'll! If anyone has a better site to use, please put it on this thread. This is the best I could find. I love Free Republic! Go Diedrich!

strong>The Dem's strategy? Hate-Bush and keep away from Kerry ...All eyes political turn to South Dakota this weekend for the June 1st special election to replace murderous ex-congressman and ex-governor Bill Janklow. The Democrats have nominated Janklow’s unsuccessful 2002 opponent Stephanie Herseth. The GOP has put up a popular state senator and prominent soy bean farmer Larry Diedrich.The race is newsworthy on several levels. We’ve done a little analysis: The Tim Johnson Affair. At a rally for Herseth, Tim Johnson referred to Republicans as the “Taliban wing.” This horribly inappropriate epithet was common among leftists before 9-11 (Christians are no...

Poll puts Herseth in leadBy Denise Ross, Journal Staff WriterWith less than one week remaining in the campaign for South Dakota's U.S. House seat, Democrat Stephanie Herseth, who ran for the same seat in 2002, has maintained a comfortable lead over Republican Larry Diedrich, a poll shows. But Diedrich has been able to chip away at the 16-point lead Herseth held six weeks ago. Herseth leads Diedrich 52 percent to 41 percent, according to a poll of 503 likely voters conducted May 19 and 20 by Zogby International of Utica, N.Y., for South Dakota media outlets, including the Rapid City...

Democrat Sen. Tim Johnson, who barely "won" in South Dakota's fraud-plagued election of 2002, refuses to apologize for referring to Republicans as a Taliban. Appearing Sunday with Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle at an event in Sioux Falls for U.S. House candidate Stephanie Herseth, Johnson said: "When Stephanie Herseth fills this seat, we are going to have a rising star in the House of Representatives. And how sweet it's going to be on June 2 when the Taliban wing of the Republican Party finds out what's happened in South Dakota." Herseth's GOP opponent, Larry Diedrich, issued a statement Monday saying:...

From CNN's "Capital Gang" Stephanie Herseth, Democrat congressional nominee in SD, is leading the Republican challenger, Larry Diedrich, 49-40 (Argus-Leader survey), as the campaign to select a successor to former Rep. William "Bill" Janklow, R-SD, enters its final ten days. However, Diedrich has improved his poll numbers, after campaign visits by Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-IL, First Lady Laura Bush, and Second Lady Lynne Cheney. An issue dividing the two is abortion: Herseth opposes partial-birth abortion but would allow "exceptions," a position Republicans insist mean that she is really in support of partial-birth abortion, a procedure that the American Medical Assn....

Republican Larry Diedrich is running neck and neck with Stephanie Herseth, his Democratic rival in South Dakota’s upcoming special House election, an independent poll to be released tonight shows. The poll gives Herseth 47 percent, compared to Diedrich’s 44 percent, marking a huge gain for the Republican. Earlier this year, Diedrich trailed Herseth by nearly 30 points. The three-point spread falls within the survey’s four-point margin of error. file photo Stephanie Herseth -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The poll was conducted by television station KELO, an ABC affiliate, in Sioux Falls. Mark Millage, the station’s news director, did not return telephone calls seeking more...

While they have to battle each other first, the Republican candidates for U.S. House know their main opponent isn't a member of the GOP. Six of the seven people vying for the Republican House nomination were in Aberdeen Wednesday for a candidates forum at the Ramada Inn. They took shots at their probable opponent, Democrat Stephanie Herseth, and Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and invoked the names President Bush and John Thune, the Republican trying to oust Daschle. The Republican candidate will be chosen by the state GOP Jan. 24 in Sioux Falls. Whomever that is should have the backing of...

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - Former state Senate Majority Leader Barb Everist says she will seek the Republican party's nomination to run in the special election to finish U.S. Rep. Bill Janklow's term. Everist said she would then hope to be elected to a full two-year term in November. Janklow, R-S.D., announced he would resign on Jan. 20 after being convicted last month of second-degree manslaughter in the death of Minnesota motorcyclist Randy Scott. Janklow, a former governor, is the state's only member of the U.S. House. "I am interested in running because I love legislating," Everist said Monday. "I know...