From the Black Hills to the Big Sioux, the Dakota Town Hall Podcast.
Hosted by Murdoc in the West and Jake in the East, Featuring Pat powers from South Dakota war college and Lee Strubinger from South Dakota public broadcasting.
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Read along with this week’s transcript from Dakota Town Hall
Murdoc: I’m never eating another garlic breadstick again.
Jake: I’m I didn’t watch the video. I haven’t watched it.
Murdoc: Pale. I hate it. I hate it.
Jake: There’s a photo of me. Looks like I went through World War Two. That’s like I have like these just eye bags. I’m just like looking like I just got hit by something and one of the photos he posted. I was like, great, that looks awesome.
Murdoc: Look, I’ve been stuck in the basement, arguing on Facebook with the with the with the freedom caucus.
Jake: It’s hard to remember that you’re on camera at all times. Very hard to remember.
Murdoc: Just nothing but neck fat. I’m the color of skim milk. It’s a real drag. Well, Jake, that’s enough of that really respectful reporting with the governor that now that all the professionals are gone, let’s wildly speculate and, you know, talk a little trash. Welcome back to it.
Jake: For anybody new to the show, this could be a basically 180 from what you just experienced last week. This is a real crack a beer show. I think we’re about to have.
Murdoc: There’s like there’s like four or five hundred new listeners from last week’s episode that are like, you know, I see young men. They’re so polite. Let’s see what let’s see what week two sounds like.
Jake: Respectable reporter, but reporters that the governor wants to talk to. It’s like, yeah, yeah, that’s us. That’s definitely us.
Murdoc: Buckle up, dorks. And welcome to it. Friday afternoon, you punched into South Dakota’s most listened to political podcast live on the cowboy or maybe listening on your favorite podcast player with the earbuds in and Jake’s in the East or Murdoch in the West. This is once again, Dakota Town Hall.
Jake: We are going to do a bit of a 2026 speculation extravaganza. That’s kind of the other as a ritual plan for the show, you know, and those we brought on a couple of great guests to talk about that.
But we have a couple of breaking news things we want to touch in the first break. But to help us with all that, we’re going to have our very good friend and long time returning guest, Pat Powers, the owner and proprietor of the South Dakota War College. Pat, welcome to the show.
Powers: Good afternoon. Good. Great. Great to see everybody again. It’s been a spell. You know, and and it has been where, you know, we’re taping midweek and there’s there’s been a lot going on.
Jake: Oh, we’re going to get to it. You dropped a real bomb of a story right for like minutes before we started.
Murdoc: Banger, unmitigated banger on Dakota War College dot com this week.
Jake: Because I think I think it’s important to say we were recording on a Wednesday this week. Yeah.
Murdoc: That’s a good note. Who knows where tariffs are or if there’s a dollar.
Jake: Right now, the economy’s been really well. That could change tomorrow at eight thirty.
Murdoc: Thank Goodness.
Powers: Yeah, you don’t you don’t want to do financial predictions this week. No. But literally here in the in the last 15 minutes before the show started, there was an announcement from the mini hot hot.
Jake: What are they? Pat, hold up, hold up. Let’s get our other guy in here.
Murdoc: I know he’s like he’s like papa’s mustache in the fifth. He’s ready to just hammer down.And this is the yard’s baby.
Jake: I know. That is auntie right now. He’s ready to go. We also introduce our other guest. Good friend also returning guests from SDPB, Lee Strubinger. Lee, welcome to the show as well.
Strubinger: Hey, friends, thanks for having me.
Jake: Thank you, Lee. All right, Pat, let’s get to it. What’s the breaking news from the mini hot hot county GOP?
Powers: Well, breaking news from late afternoon is that apparently the minnehaha county Republican Party has a code of conduct, which is kind of shocking in and of itself, given some of the some of the personalities that make up the minnehaha county Republican Party.
But apparently they have they have a code of conduct and it was it was time to drag it out for their first spanking today. And the winning contestant is state Senator Tom Pischke, also known as as the infamous Senator Tom Pischke, sticky Tom Pischke, who got booted off the house floor last session.
Murdoc: I forgot about sticky Tom.
Powers: sticky Tom Pischke. Tom Piscke, who a couple was it last session or a couple of sessions ago wanted to have all of his most of his fellow senators arrested for for suspending Julie Fry Mueller, why they investigated her for for harassment of a legislative employee. So so Tom Tom’s got a bit of a rep.
Jake: And no stranger to censures because he was Julie from your seatmate, for that matter.
Murdoc: Yeah, also, they’re, you know, I think as of late, maybe 2024 election to now, he’s Tom chemtrail Pischke.
Powers: That’s that’s correct. That’s correct. You know, he was the person who first brought the chemtrail measure to the South Dakota legislature. But but apparently he got spanked by the Minnehaha county Republican Party over their code of conduct. The new chairman, Corey Peterson, who is down there, the Institute of Dakota conduct and issued a formal censure of their minnehaha committee man, Tom Pischke, because of a Facebook post.
Jake: And there was a thing we know he said so far. I mean, oh, this is breaking.
Powers: Well, but well, I’m I’m looking and apparently he stated the following about a minnehaha county central committee woman. He said, and I quote, she’s not trans Republican, but she has issues. End quote.
Jake: I got to be honest of all the things Tom Pischke has said. This I’m surprised this is what got the censure. I got to be honest. Like, like this guy is some insane things like.
Powers: Yeah, this is this is apparently it’s it’s a very, a very strong code of conduct where they’re trying to rein him in for for what they anticipate him to do in the future, because yes, I would agree.
Murdoc: Aren’t these guys. On the same side, I thought they were all low, you know, cooing together.
Jake: That’s what I want to get to, I think a little bit this because Corey Peterson, who is is is kind of an unknown entity, I would say, in a lot of ways when it comes to the topical political circles, I think is trying to define himself a little bit and trying to get some, I don’t know, maybe actually trying to get some civility in here, because so far he’s not that well known as a political entity.
Powers: You know, speak and speaking as someone who’s been pointed out as being ungovernable, I would agree that this is the this is a pretty, you know, the this is a pretty minor thing. Even even less egregious than than sticky Tom leaving the leaving the honey on representative Chris Codds. It’s desk.
Murdoc: Is it syrup? Wasn’t it syrup?
Powers: Oh, that’s right. It was syrup. Because because she objected to his his resolution to recognize Aunt Jemima.
Murdoc: Yes, I want to point that out, you know, because Thune’s office and round’s office like y’all are listening. And I don’t know. It’s the last time you’ve been to DC and heard what the chatter is like. But you know, here’s that here’s here’s our here’s our here’s our forum. Here’s our public square. Trans Republicans and sticky Tom. Thanks for the help.
Jake: Yeah, this is This is really surprising to me. I’m like very surprised this happened. The visit came on nowhere. I mean, because I because you also just posted Pat, the transcript from the SE or the Minnehaha GOP, where they talk about a lot of things and Tom’s talking in there like he’s part of that group. So I don’t yeah.
Powers: Yeah, correct. They they had they sent out their their minutes from their February 27th Minnehaha County Republican meeting. And normally when you have a meeting and you send out minutes, it’s it’s a summary. You know, here’s what we have in the bank. Here’s the new business.
Here’s the old business. But oddly, they included a complete transcript of every every side conversation. You know, every anecdote, anything that you would normally not put. They obviously recorded it and somebody put it into a transcribing machine and we’ve got 84 pages of everything that was said in this meeting where where they were they were going after the secretary of state.
Murdoc: They were. But yeah, they were wished the yippy parts about the lieutenant governor weren’t made public.
Powers: No, no, they were they were trash talking. Tony, Tony venhuizen, all they
Murdoc: Only we get to do that. God damn it.
Jake: That’s our ground.
Powers: Trash talking Tony. They they trash talked USD. They said they were talking about fundraisers and said, well, you know, should we should we sell tickets to to a game? And they said, well, we might be able to do something along those lines, maybe with the jackrabbits can’t do the coyotes for the hate. So so they’re they’re hating on USD. You know, it’s just it was just kind of crazy.
Murdoc: I didn’t read 84 pages because I’d, you know, rather a lot of Tony or two, but I did notice on the top page, it was like speaker ideas. Pete, Pete Hegseth. I’m like, of course, you idiots. I’m going to be the only one who’s going to bring in Pete Hegseth right now.
Jake: God, so just like shooting for the Raftors. Like, I feel like he’s a bit busy at the moment.
Murdoc: Yeah, I think we’re going to get the Pete Hegseth. Maybe the Rolling Stones. Will you?
Powers: Well, you know, and I if I recall the last Lincoln Day dinner, they got a they got a senator or congressman who had who had written a book and was and was pushing it and, you know, that that’s, you know, that’s actually doing pretty good for a South Dakota Lincoln Day dinner. You know, there are not a lot of people want to come to South Dakota. Sometimes, you know, when Lincoln Day dinners are supposed to be in the middle of winter, nobody wants to come to South Dakota. And so so they usually end up having them in May or June. And and you’re apt to get more people there, even though it has nothing to do with President’s Day.
Murdoc: Before it all turned to bananas, we had Bainer out for a couple rounds. That was fun. That book’s good. It’s hilarious. He reads it and he’s like half drunk with him in the back half chapters. It’s real funny. It’s a great book.
Powers: Well, and, and you know, I mean, and I think he came out campaigning partially for Kristi and Dusty because he’s, you know, close with Kristi and, and, you know, Dusty was Dusty likes Dusty. And, and, you know, it’s easier to get people there for Kristi and Dusty than than the Minnehaha county GOP. Although the Pennington County GOP is bringing in. Oh, what’s his face from
Murdoc: David Duke?
Powers: North from Northwest Iowa. Steve King for the Lincoln Day dinner.
Jake: Lee, from your, you know, reporter perspective, tell us, what is I was like to you? I mean, the Minnehaha County GOP is certainly turning a leap when it comes to transparency and a way no one saw coming. What are you seeing with this?
Strubinger: I think it’s kind of like, I guess, sort of I’m thinking about in terms of like what we’ve sort of seen kind of long term. And you can hear my dog breathing in the background here. There’s Hank. Hank, sort of like we’ve seen kind of the county party machinations sort of
Murdoc: evaporate.
Strubinger: Well, like a certain group, I’m trying to think of like what I’ve seen out in West River in terms of like folks who are more involved in like the county party organizational structure itself. And then how that has sort of made its way into the state capital with the kind of the newer coalition of the kind of Republican majority. And what we kind of saw within this last particular particular session. And I think a lot of it comes back around to like the voter turnout, the carbon pipeline issue, et cetera.
It all kind of made it sort of coalesced into this particular moment where they kind of are running state capital at this particular moment. At least that’s I’ll be honest, I don’t pay too much attention to Minnehaha County.
Jake: That’s fair. That’s fair.
Strubinger: And so this is where I’m leaning less on my politics handle and my job title more in the public policy side.
Jake: I mean, I don’t get it. It’s Sioux Falls. It’s the most important thing that that happens in the state of South Dakota. So what else matters besides what happens at Sioux Falls? I’m confused.
Murdoc: Speaking of, did you guys see the greater Sioux Falls area chamber, which is like Sioux Falls and all the kind of, you know, that hate I’d put it this way, suburban communities connected to Sioux Falls, T. Harrisburg, et cetera. They all got up on the stage and talked about how much the legislators suck today. Paraphrasing, of course.
Jake: They basically did.
Murdoc: I’m not paraphrasing it inaccurately. They just went up there and went, nope, no to that. Not again.
Jake: Well, Patrick Leahy over Leahy, right?. Patrick Leahy over at Sioux Falls. Lye had a great article where he’s like, hey, legislators, you’re not helping. Like, cut this out. Like stop doing this anti-business stuff and
Murdoc: I don’t know what devil’s advocate would be. That’s what everybody told him in ‘24 and they walked right into the place.
Jake: You’re not wrong. So I do want to backtrack a little bit though. I do think we should, you know, Corey Pearson, good job on you. A deserved censure, I think it may seem it’s on nowhere until we saw it coming. But it’s well deserved. Tom Fisher has not earned this censure.
Murdoc: It’s going to start a real problem where now they’re all going to now that like now the Pennington like Tonshee Weaver just found out they can censure somebody. She’s going to weave that like a chainsaw.
Jake: I don’t know. They probably don’t know the difference between censor and censure. That’s true. What you talked about.
Powers: That that would be that would be from the interview with our state Republican Party former Democrat now Republican Party Chairman
Jake: Pats best friend.
Murdoc: OK, I’m going to give us. I’m going to give us four minutes on on crazy podcast corner. We’ll call it.
Jake: Because isn’t that what this is? But just for the far right, right?
Powers: Well, yeah, very, very far right.
Murdoc: Like they’re like they start their video blogs with like talking about how you’re the devil.
Powers: Well, you know, and and it’s interesting that I mean, I somebody I popped up in my feed and I said, oh, I kind of woken up and it was like 1 a.m. And I just said, oh, what’s this? And I clicked on it, of course, then I’m start stuck watching that for longer than I should have. But yeah, right out of the gate, it was let’s talk about Pat Powers and how awful he is, which, you know, I usually just get that from my family members. But but now, you know, it’s here. Here we’re seeing it broadcast by the by the West River crazies.
Murdoc: 401K is dropped by a third and let’s talk about how Pat Powers is ruining South Dakota. Get off the get get off it all. Will ya, come on.
Powers: Well, the the the part I found interesting is that Jim Eschenbaum finds me to be a liberal. And this is the this is the person who supported Obama because of identity politics, because he thought we should have a black president. But although he drew the line at Hillary because he didn’t want to he didn’t want to see a woman and she’d apparently killed too many people for the love.
Murdoc: They’re really missing an opportunity to these people. They’ve he’s a former Democrat. Like they could really go out to the goofy left and like have one big tent. And right now, but might that might be 38 percent every county in South Dakota. Yeah, the goofies on that side and the goofies on the other side. And you can all just be mad at each other on Facebook and vote together, because that’s what you’re trying to do.
Jake: Anti-vax used to be a thing that the left was all about, right? That was like the yoga left was like anti-vaccine. And now it’s just the right. And again, politics is all a big circle. You go too far. One way you’re on the other side real quick.
Powers: It’s it’s not it’s not we’re not worrying about being pure in body as the goofy left would be. It’s medical freedom with a capital freedom. Yeah, yeah, you’re right. We we’ve gone so far so far right. We’re left now.
Murdoc: It’s not like them know what to do. It’s not like the yoga version of it isn’t annoying because it is, but it’s at least tolerable to be around.
Jake: For some of us.
Murdoc: I’m just saying
Powers: for some, you know, other other big news here that we’ve been talking about the last couple of days has been where in the world does state representative Chris Reder live? And that’s that’s kind of a that’s kind of a big question because there was there was a hot tip that he had he had moved out of his residence.
Jake: Pat. We’re going to get right to that. We’re going to break quick. We’re about that time. So we’ll be right back with we’re talking about Chris Reder a little bit and again, to our 2026 predictions.
Murdoc: Thanks for coming on back. You are punched into South Dakota’s most listened to political podcast. It is Dakota Town Hall with Jake in the East. I’m Murdock in the West. We’re joined by our good friends, Lee Strubinger, South Dakota Public Broadcasting and Patty, the ungovernable Patty Powers from the court of war college.com.
Powers: So where does Chris Reder live? Well, I’m going to go back to the first one. Well, that’s a good question because Chris Reder, there was a hot tip that he moved out of his is how his residence in Warner, South Dakota and taking up residence in Minnesota. And the wonderful thing about real estate is there are lots of public records.
Jake: So many. I was shocked how many you actually were able to pull. I didn’t realize there was that many out there.
Murdoc: Nancy Grace over here.
Jake: Yeah. No one accuse you of doxing either. It’s all public. It’s all public. It’s fine.
Powers: It’s all very, it’s all very information. And, and that’s the one great thing about South Dakota and government is that there are paper trails. And so we found paper trails in his corporate filings where it said he was now living in a location in Minnesota.
We also found real estate information that showed his home in Warner had sold. And the hot tip in Minnesota. We found where he’s living over there and Blue Stem.
The blog from up around the district one. The Blue Stem people, they found his actual real estate records from over in Minnesota. And they were able to talk to the county people who said he had what in Minnesota. What we would know here as a owner occupied exemption. They called a homestead exemption for for a tax reduction. And there is a homestead exemption on the property over there, which is insinuating that it is owner occupied.
Murdoc: Didn’t they didn’t Sam Marty do this a couple of years ago? It’s some kind of tax loophole where you put in a company or something.
Powers: Well, you know, there’s I can’t speak. I’m not familiar with the Sam Marty thing, but you know, there’s
Murdoc: Oh because he lives in North Dakota.
Powers: Yeah. Oh, well, that’s what I’ve heard. But, you know, the thing with this is, you know, technically, you could have, you could have an apartment in district one and a house in district three. But, you know, when you’re taking an exemption over there and saying that that’s your primary residence, you know, that that gets to be a question between you and your voters as to where do you actually live?
You know, that that gets that could get to be a hard question to answer when you show up at the cracker barrel and they drive in a car with Minnesota license plates.
Jake: Well, that’s the thing. He did. Now, he did kind of put a statement on Facebook saying like, hey, I did sell the property in where is it again? Warner. Minnesota. But he kept a slice of it to rent from the person he sold it to. Basically to keep his residency. That’s not what he said. But I know what he said. It was like, yeah, I still have a piece of that.
Murdoc: You know, I know we’re having fun with this a little, but like just to be a person for a second in that same post, he also said his grandma passed. So like, sorry, Chris, that’s a drag, man. I don’t know, you know, all all all residency aside. Sorry about your grandma. Now, move back to South Dakota.
Powers: Well, you know, there there are questions of and and nobody, you know, these are these residency things. That’s things that haven’t really been tested very hard in South Dakota, you know, and don’t the people in District One deserve representation of somebody who physically lives there? And the other part of that is, didn’t we didn’t the governor just sign legislation, which which kind of shuts out all those RV voters and says that you’ve got to spend, you know, you’ve got to spend 30 days in your district before you’re able to vote there. So so how does that work with somebody who lives in Minnesota? Is he going to come over and sleep on a sleep on a couch for 30 days? So he can represent them legally and be a resident of South Dakota.
Murdoc: You turned that into a TikTok channel. People would watch it.
Jake: I do think, I don’t know, it’s hard to draw any clear conclusions from this about what’s actually going on with reders residency. I think we’ll I think we’ll learn more. I feel this isn’t really over yet. Yeah.
Powers: No, I think I think there’s people who who it’s it’s a question that’s come up in the past where people have moved. But, you know, and I had spoken with someone today and said, you know, remembering Jenna Hager, who had been representative from Sioux Falls, and she had gone down to Texas and had taken up residency down in Texas. But finished finished her session. But by that same token, she had not bought a house.
She had not established a residency as reader appears to possibly have done in Minnesota. So there there’s differences there. You know, you we understand that people take jobs, people move and and the once you’re seated, there’s not really a mechanism to remove you at the at the house level or the Senate level. But this is this is a little different when you’ve in effect seemed to have established a residency
Murdoc: or maybe you know, maybe districts that have borders like that don’t care as much as people might think and they understand it and, you know, could care if reader wants to be a house rep in Minnesota to just be do a good job. If they think he’s doing a good job. You know what I mean?
Jake: I think there’s a thing. There’s no law. It’s owning a house in two states. And there really is. I mean, you can even if you do live a certain amount of South Dakota, you can still represent South Dakota. That’s that is thing you can do.
Murdoc: All right. That’s a lot of time on where where does Chris live?
Jake: That’s very true. So let’s get to what we were kind of the main crux. The show, I’d say I asked my doctor this week. I was like, how about we do a show hot takes some some hot takes predictions on what’s going to happen in 2026? Who’s running for governor? Who’s running for house and where does everybody else fall in that in that picture?
Powers: I don’t know if I could segue into that. There was one little last piece of news that just came out. In fact, it was embargoed until 10 a.m. this morning, but. Congressman Dusty Johnson just announced that in this last quarter, he has raised a million dollars, million dollars.
Jake: I have a million dollars of names and dashes about things those people have that make them good for running for governor. The first thing that Dusty is money because he has what six point?
Murdoc: What you have six chains in the bank before this, I think, right?
Jake: It’s a ton of money.
Powers: A ton of money. And, you know, one one item that the team Dusty was very quick to point out today is that over 80 percent of this money, over 80 percent of the million dollars came from directly in South Dakota. You know, this is not this is not Washington pack money,
Murdoc: which is to say there’s another three million of Washington pack money still coming down the pipe.
Powers: You know, but but, you know, to take 800, you know, let’s just let’s just take it at 80 percent, 800,000 from from South Dakota in a quarter is pretty darn good. That that puts you up in the range that Senator Thune brings in. And and I would I would call this almost record setting for a for a congressional campaign committee.
Murdoc:Don’t stop Marty. He’s out running.
Jake: OK, I’d like to get let’s get a baseline set. Lee, I’d like you to have some baseline. Who do you think is running for governor in 2026?
Murdoc: Oh, we have to over under this maybe.
Jake: Over under what do you mean?
Murdoc: Over under. I’ll set the over under on people running for the GOP primary at four and a half. Lee, over under.
Jake: That’s a really good number.
Strubinger: I’m a little embarrassed because I don’t I don’t understand how to gamble.
Jake: Oh, OK, so what he’s saying is if it’s if it’s that’s that’s OK. OK, so at four and a half, what he’s saying is that you can take the under, which means that under four and a half people are running. So basically, four or less are running for governor. The over four and a half is five or more running for governor. That’s the over under.
Strubinger: OK, OK, OK, OK. Sorry, sorry.
Murdoc: No, you’re fine.
Srubinger:I don’t I don’t spend a lot of time in Vegas.
Jake:Unlike Murdoc.
Murdoc: Thats where we differ.
Strubinger: I would say I’m going to go with at least as it stands right now under. Personally. But to me, it seems. Like it looks like Governor Roden is at least going to take take a swing at at running again for for office. And obviously, there’s a lot of talk about Marty Jackley being interested in running for the governor’s office again, as well as, you know, Dusty Johnson, too. So those are kind of the three that I would. That I’m it sort of looks right now based on activity from these three individuals who would be running. And I’m sure there’ll be a kind of. More outsider candidate who would who would throw their hat in the ring. But I dont see anyone right now.
Jake: I got two more that I would put out there. It’s the outsider case, the farther further right candidate. It’s Toby Doden. Yeah. And it’s John Hansen. His other name I put in there.
Murdoc: I thought maybe Steve Haugard.
Jake: No, I don’t. I don’t know. He’s not making any noise. So the reason I put people always go, no, John Hansen, I’m up here running for Congress. Some people always say I was running for Congress or AG or AG. I think he’s running for governor. I’ve seen a lot of like traffic like on Facebook and stuff for him. Like, like, I don’t know, like people like Comment. People close to him commenting, commenting and kind of promoting it a little bit.
I’m running for governor. Plus he’s got like a ton of kids. He’s not going to DC. He’s got so many kids, not only that many kids with your wife here in South Dakota.
I just don’t see that happening. Plus a lot of his issues have been very South Dakota focused pipeline stuff. He was big on like defense fund. He’s kind of a South Dakota based guy. So I think he’s a name in the mix as well.
Murdoc: Are you over or under four and a half, Jake?
Jake: I’m under four and a half. I named five, but I don’t think
Murdoc: you still think it’ll be under.
Jake: Well, I think that’s I don’t think Marty’s running. I don’t think Marty’s going to run for governor. I think because of the way rodents push into the race, Marty’s big thing was that he could maybe get a Trump endorsement because of his he’s a big human Pam bondier, good friends. And he’s kind of been catering that side of the party pretty hard. But with Roden there, I just don’t see how Nome doesn’t get an endorsement from Trump for Rodin. I just don’t see how that doesn’t happen.
Murdoc: Like it’s it’s very similar to West River, Mead County.
Jake: Yeah, I mean, he has the image that Trump likes of an American, right? Like that that hard fought West River country boy. You know, that’s that’s him. And I see that kind of boxing. Marty’s laying out. I think Marty’s smart. I think he likes being AG. He’s really good at AG and will stay in the AG spot.
Murdoc: Patty, over under four and a half.
Powers: You know, that is that is a tough one. I would almost venture. I would go out on a limb and venture a guess that we’re going to be. We’re probably going to be five, maybe six. But the question is how many of them get the petition signatures? Because we always have some of these outlying and and and and fringe people who who jump in, especially when there’s there’s an open seat like this. You know, we end up with some of these who jump in and, you know, your your Gordon Howie’s, your Bruce Whalen’s either. You have these people who who kind of jump in and declare they’re the they’re the conservative choice and they’re the real conservative choice.
But then they don’t go anywhere. You know, you got Patrick the Patrick Schubert who jumps in the Thune race and and I don’t know that he did anything except put up a website.
Jake: I mean, I will say my foot. My over under is serious candidates, I would say. I think that kind of line is like where do you draw the line at? They have to get their petition.
Powers: Okay, I keep it. If we’re saying petitions, if we’re saying petitions, I’m, I’m going to guess I would, I would say where we’re at for that number. That might, that might even be a little optimistic.
Jake: Murdock is for the, for the audio medium here. He is showing six fingers.
Murdoc: It’s going to be six. It’s because, okay. Let’s just back the ego train up a couple of carts. There’s 20 people listening to this episode who want to be governor as I’m sitting here talking.
Jake: It’s the J. Quote, the J. Quote. Well, how does it go Pat? It’s like every year and he’s such a star, it’s there are 70 people that think they will be governor someday.
Murdoc: Yes. And like there once, I mean, it’s Jeff Parcher joke. There’s four people running. There’s eight people running. There’s going to be at least one hard right, at least one hard right. There’s going to be one of these kind of finger gun and mayor Mike moderates that’s going to get in the race because you don’t have to swing the whole thing. And like they don’t really got to win.
They just have a good, good showing and you can get your petition signed, raise a little cash and you know, come in third and no one gets hurt. There’s going to be two of them guys. I’m telling you, it’s going to be six.
Jake: Let me tell you why it’s not going to be six. The U.S. House is going to be an open seek because Dusty’s definitely running. There’ll be 12 in that race.
No, I think that’s going to reduce. So like, like your taffy Howard, for example, who I think probably will, will or at least wants to run for higher office. That’s something she would probably go for is, is a U.S. House.
Murdoc: She’s got, she’s the odds on favorite. If you ask me, let’s get into the house predictions. I think she’s, I think she, I think the only person that could be her is Casey Crabtree. And I think I’m neck and out, but, but it’s going to be a tight race between him and taffy.
Jake: I mean, I don’t think I’ll do it, but Mayor Paul could maybe run. He’d be a strong candidate would definitely get a lot of support out of Sioux Falls. Outside of that, I don’t have a lot of names that Congress raised to be completely honest.
Murdoc: Laura Hubble gets back in because she’s probably bored.
Jake: Yes, please. Pat’s just, just.
Powers: Oh yeah. You know, I think, I think I just turned back a Laura Hubble.com.
Murdoc: So these Facebook goobers that are like chemtrail in us that, that are real. They’ll have one or two candidates.
Jake: Tom Pischke
Murdoc: Pischke’s maybe Hanson’s. There, there’s not enough, you know, freedom caucus butts for freedom caucus seats. And so they’re going to start slitting to the throats and that’s going to make multiple house races because, you know, Ted ain’t conservative enough.
Powers: Well, you know, I think you need to take a look at who, who is termed out of office and what is their path to. What is their path to another office? Odin, I believe Odin box termed out. You know, obviously John Hanson has turned out, which is why he’s probably being mentioned more and more. You know, there’s, there’s going to be a few others who were termed out or who’ve recently been termed out.
But you know, it’s also, you know, if they, if they turned out of office before it’s, it’s a lot different universe than it was four years ago. The pipeline is really roiled the grass roots. And speaking of the grass roots, you know, where are they going to draw their, their base of volunteers from? You know, I’ve worked in a couple of gubernatorial campaigns and I can tell you getting those petitions done is takes a little more organization than some of these candidates are going to give it credit for.
Murdoc: It is possible to the pipeline bill and one by a mile. These guys know how to do this now.
Jake: I mean, one of the things I’ve written under Dusty’s name is ground game. Like he, he has the best ground game. Yep. Hands down of anybody in recent memory.
Murdoc: Marty’s got a county by county system built.
Jake: He’s got a dude, dude in every area. The under 30 age people who are the people that are really good at getting out and door knocking and doing that sort of thing. That’s Dusty’s ground. That’s,
Murdoc: yeah, I agree.
Powers: Well, and, and I would, I always remind people that in the past two or three elections, dust these, these statewide candidates like, you know, Thune and rounds and Kristi, they’ve subcontracted out to Dusty’s people to get some, to get some of these tasks done, you know, in, in what, what some people might remember from the Thune days as the victory campaign. Dusty literally had the victory campaign where he had the people and the manpower to go out and do it.
And, and that’s, that actually is, you know, that’s, that’s tough for, for some of these campaigns because they haven’t had to go out and build it. And this might be the, this might be the year where, you know, Dusty might be a little less apt to share, but, but you know, for, for Mike rounds, I could see Mike, Mike and Dusty working together. The question is, you know, who, who’s going to find his favor in the congressional race?
Jake: Yeah, US Senate race too, don’t we?
Murdoc: We haven’t got to Senate yet. Also, I want to bring up that. If it gets Hinky and DC Jake, like real, real, real Hinky rounds comes home, maybe runs for governor. Nope.
Jake: I don’t see it. I think he’s going to run again for a US Senate. I think, I would just think he runs. He’s a lock. I think he’s a lock. I think, I think he’s now catered to Trump enough to try and be like, yeah, this is my guy. He’s my cut the department of that guy. I like him. Plus he’s like, not to mention like, if you want to talk about AI, there’s no better senator in the country on AI than Senator. Mike Rounds. So like, he just has the knowledge and the base to, I think, just knock that out of the park with a knot. Not how to work. I don’t foresee someone like, like, I don’t think Taffy Howard would run for US Senate. Did you smarten that? I don’t think someone would take him on a serious effort. Let’s say really, really, they have a shot. I don’t think anybody does.
Murdoc: It leads me into one of my predictions. I see 2026 being the campaign of teams. The dusty Casey something team, the Larry something, something team.
Jake: Well, I mean, that’s let’s get a little bigger. I mean, the way I haven’t mentioned is a big name who is on rodents team. Tony Venhuizen. You can’t discount Venhuizen’s ability to run a campaign and to work in these circles. Tony is an operator. Hands on is one of the best political operators.
Murdoc: Maybe, maybe the best one right now. You know, yeah.
Jake: I mean, he’s been what is his fourth governor. He’s been a part of like the governor. So, so that’s a big part of it too. I mean, I, I don’t know. I like Roden right now. At least mission he’s in right now, because I think he’s got the ability to a he’s currently governor. Yeah, which is a big part of it. They just see him in the role. Like he just has that role. He has a very, he’s a very charismatic guy.
Like you like see Rodin. He’s that cowboy. You saw him at Standing Rock. He looked like a cowboy when he was hanging out with the tribes up there.
Murdoc: Yeah, not out of place.
Jake: Not out of place and he can cater to both sides so easily. Like you saw him like work with with the kind of the pipeline groups and get that, get that bill signed. He also works really well with the middle ground people.
Powers: So, yeah, I don’t think there’s a person out there or I’d be hard pressed to find a person out there who doesn’t like and respect Larry. You know, he’s just just a good guy. And the the the he’s had issues in the past with some of the hard with the West River hard right where they’ve and you know some of that group.
But you know, they’d be they’d be your Toby Doden people anyway. So, so the question is, you know, can he can he muster enough of the vote to put himself over the top in the, you know, in the in the not so crazy far right and more moderate Republicans.
Murdoc: Lee, I want kick it to you before you gotta get outta here prediction. You have the floor for predictions. Let’s do it that way.
Strubinger: I don’t know if I want to like predict but I was also I was just kind of wondering what your guys’s thoughts were on like what the role maybe, you know, if we have kind of like a three four way really strong, you know, race for governor like what role could debates really kind of play in that and how would that like effect or how would that benefit or not benefit, you know, certain candidates that that we’re kind of talking about, you know, like, Do debates play a big role in like South Dakota political races.
Jake: Um, they have in the past, I would say, but not recently, not recently.
Powers: But have there really been an opportunity for debates?
Murdoc: No, there hasn’t.
Murdoc: Marty and Noem’s debates were pretty, you know, telling, but I don’t know, but it didn’t decide the race that me too ad campaigned did.
Jake: I mean, doesn’t this feel a lot like the rounds race for governor? Isn’t that kind of what I feel like we’re building up to this like act feel and the chance somewhat to sneak in and like, let’s say like Dusty and R hoden just just do it out like they go hard at each other. And like John Hansen sneaks in or something like that. It has that sort of feeling to me.
Murdoc: No, because I don’t feel like there’s the appetite for civility. I’ve begun based on the turnout that wins the election. Right. Like I don’t mean it as snarky as that bright come turns out, but like we don’t win. We’re not all in the depths of watching a debate. We want the social media headline and 90% of them people are predetermined who they think.
Jake: But to answer your question, Lee, though, I do think when it comes to the debates, let’s say it’s Rhoden, Dusty, John Hansen, and I’ll say if he’ll be doing or whatever. Dusty is probably the best to bear those four. He’s probably the best speaker. Yeah. Rhoden, much like him is not the most articulate guy when it comes to quick responses on debates and things like that
Murdoc: can make that work for him, though.
Jake: You could. I mean, John Hansen, probably middle ground, probably decent. And then Doden’s kind of wild card. So.
Murdoc: Okay. Real question. Sidebar question. Prediction. I want a hard yes or no. Starting with Jake. Does Toby Doden run for anything?
Jake: No. I’m going to go with no.
Murdoc: Patty.
Powers: I think he likes the attention, but I don’t think he can take a punch. So no.
Murdoc: Mr. Strubinger.
Strubinger:Yeah, I think he will.
Murdoc: I don’t think so at all. I think he wants to act like it because it’s more fun.
Jake: I think it’s more fun. It’s more fun to be talked about than it has to be voted on.
Powers: You know, you know, look, look how quickly he dropped out of that congressional exploration when, when it was dropped out there that he never voted in a Republican primary. You know, that, that took his, that took his appearance at the Republican luncheon and wiped him out. He was done. Boom.
Jake: I mean, so easy to go and like go places and to be, and to be talked about and to have people say, Hey, come and like talk to us and do these things and host these events and do this stuff. But when people go, Hey, what’s your, what’s your thoughts on this? Why didn’t you do this in the past? Why are you doing this? What’s up with your slumlord stuff You’re doing in Aberdeen. That’s a whole like being critiqued is a whole different thing than being talked about.
Strubinger: Well, I, he gave like a kind of quick press conference at the state capitol in like mid February. And it was kind of like right as the governor’s task force property tax bill was dropped.
Murdoc: This is the plain landing bit.
Jake: Yeah.
Strubinger: And so I decided to ask him about it. What his thoughts were. He basically said it didn’t go far enough and that we need to get rid of property taxes. And so basically, basically asked if that was, if that was reasonable. And he said a one, he had a one word answer, which was yes.
Jake: So, I mean, ask the guy how, how school funding works with proper taxes and he won’t have an answer. That’s
Strubinger: neither would I though.
Murdoc: You’re not out there telling people they ain’t American enough or they ain’t this enough or they ain’t that enough.
Strubinger: It’s true.
Murdoc: You know what I mean? I also, first thing full stop though, dope, Doden, buckaroo, you declare for something you get the nicest. Well, I wouldn’t say nicest, but fairest interview in the state.
Jake: Well, let’s just say whatever you want to say.
Murdoc: I wouldn’t be mean. Dare I say even you would have a good time, Pope Doden. Although you got to announce first.
Strubinger: And what’s the statewide announcement that’s coming, you know, obviously recording Wednesday, but that’s coming tomorrow.
Powers: I, I, my, my prediction is that’s Jason Williams announcing for treasurer because it’s up in Aberdeen, which is his home territory.
Jake: That’s so boring. Okay. So if the people don’t know, there’s gonna be a Brown County dinner. Is that correct? Is that right?
Murdoc: It’s so boring.
Jake: It’s so bad. I like Jason’s a good guy. I know Jason’s a good guy. No, well, very nice guy. But I don’t get excited about the treasure race. So I mean, like it’s up in Aberdeen. So kind of like, ooh, it’s Doden going to do something, but I don’t think he will.
Murdoc: I think he’ll probably right now. I’m wrong.
Jake: You’re right. Pat is super boring.
Murdoc: We’re on the last lap. Welcome back to the final turn. It’s South Dakota’s most listened to political podcast with Jake in the East, Murdoc in the West. It’s Dakota Town Hall, Lee Strubinger from South Dakota Public Broadcasting and Pat Powers from Dakota War College.com is on the show. Wrapping up our 2026 predictions. Here’s, I guess, Ill ask it this way. Who wins US House? Jake.
Jake: Who wins US House? That is a very difficult question. Man, I really don’t want to answer that. That’s probably the one race I could least predict.
Powers: You know, that’s a, that is a tough call and I would agree with Jake because I don’t know that we know everybody who’s in it.
Jake: It’s the second place race, right? It’s like, it’s a second place. Like governor, I feel like it feels like the place people want. If you’re not in for governor, you’re running for house. That’s what I feel like.
Powers: But I don’t know that it’s the second place race. It’s a different, it’s a different cat and you have a lot of people who’ve jumped into that race without having previously served in public office. That’s where John Thune had been executive director for the South Dakota Republican Party. He’d worked for, he’d worked for the railroad commission. He’d worked for the municipal league.
And so no, no public office, but that’s where he jumped into. So there, there are those people out there who we, we might not even be talking about. I mean, I, we automatically and should go to someone like Casey Crabtree, who’s been a leader in the Senate, but we don’t know who else is going to jump in. So that’s a tough one.
Strubinger: Well, and it’s also tough because it all depends on, depends on like where other pieces fall in this kind of puzzle for elections. So I’m also a little, a little hesitant, but if I were to predict, I’m going to, and I don’t know, maybe I’ll even contradict myself here in terms of a gubernatorial prediction. But I might say Dusty Johnson, wis the US house race?
Jake: I actually really liked, I mean, like honestly, if you’re thinking odds wise, he currently has it. If he decides to not refer, governor for whatever reason, it’s definitely his, right?
Murdoc: I mean, it’d be another tougher race against Taffy, but he should beat her because, you know, who, who trips that third time. I’ll say this, it’s going to be Casey Crabtree. It’s going to be, it’s going to be a knife fight because it’s goober central, but he’s going to go get it.
Jake: I mean, the reality is there is a chance there that someone on the far right could sneak into Congress in this race, right? And you have rounds at, at Senate, you have a, I think it’s going to be a hell of a fight at governor. It’s going to be, it’s going to be a really fun race at governor. And then Congress is going to also be there. It feels like that’s just me, maybe, maybe how I, how I, you hierarchy, but like.
Powers: You know, and I’m going to, Brad, I’m going to disagree with you a little. I don’t know that we’re going to necessarily get a goober in there. I mean, I, when I think of my congressmen, I always go back to we want to vote for people who are inspirational and aspirational.
Murdoc: You know who’s office is right next to Dusty Johnson’s. Bobert
Jake: Is it Bobert? I thought it was.
Powers: I do know that. I do know that. And I, I caught my daughter, uh, mercilessly where he asked her to take my picture in front of Laura. Bobert’s, uh, plaque.
Murdoc: I’m just saying, like I agree on paper, but you know, they ain’t the world right now. Homie.
Jake: That’s a very good point. I mean, it’s just that, I think Pat, that logic stands four years ago. I don’t know if it still works right now.
Murdoc: There’s no party. There’s no structure. You know what I mean? There’s going to be 19 people running for it. Logic’s going to start to be in vogue is my bet. Maybe that’s a wishful thinking.
Jake: Let’s think about John Thune, who was the executive director of the republican party. He ran for the state house or for, for US house. Reggie Roden can’t run for US house. No, no shot. Like that’s what I’m saying.
Murdoc: Like that’s way, but he might get in the race cause if after there’s six people in and he puts his name in the deal and he’s on team Roden, then you don’t, you know, who knows Jake?
Powers: It’s going to be, but don’t, but don’t you think that this is going to be different than the last election because we have, oh, I just, you shake your head and I disagree. I, you know, we’re going to have rounds. We’re going to have the congressional race.
We’re going to have the gubernatorial race and dusty. And the one thing they all want to do is get out the vote. I think we are going to have a higher vote turnout and with at least two of the big three that are, that are going to be multiple candidates. Everybody’s going to be trying to get their people out to vote.
And that’s going to translate into a respectable turnout for the election, not this 17% you know, two decade low that we experienced this last time that put a number of the goobers in the legislature.
Murdoc: I like how that’s just the word we’re going to use now. I really got to start thinking about what I’m saying.
Jake: Call wackadoodles now. I’m going to say.
Murdoc: All right. Who wins governor? We got to keep moving.
Jake: Okay. This, uh, Rhodin.
Murdoc: Yeah, that’s my pick too.
Jake: That’s my pick. Roden, um, my reason for that is I just think I actually, I was going to be by Josh Hyer over at South Dakota Searchlight kind of talk about this exact topic. And he asked me, who would, would you rather be right now? Like, which would that, I said, I said, Roden, I think he has the most runway right now to define himself as a gubernatorial candidate. Whereas like dusty is busy with, with Congress. He’s busy doing Congress stuff. He can’t do South Dakota stuff as much. And he has the money. He has the war game or the, uh, the ground game. I, I think it’s going to be Roden.
Powers: You know, and I’m, I’m going to lead towards team Dusty just because of that, that organization.
Jake: His daughter is a staffer he has to say that.
Murdoc: Well, and it’s the layup bet too, right? Like it’s the odds on favorite. I know Lee, you’re not a gambler, but it’s the, it’s the most probable odds.
Powers: You know, you, you’ve got Dusty’s reporting, you know, here, here with, uh, you know, maybe not quite a year, but three quarters of a year to start. He’s got 6.8 million in the bank. He has an existing ground team that has a number of people who are trained and ready to go. I mean, he, he’s got, uh, uh, you know, he’s got Haley Halverson, who’s actively working and out doing parades. And everything for it. I agree. He’s got all the pieces in place.
He doesn’t have to build them. So that, that, that makes it, I think that makes him the odds favorite, but you know, I, it’s, it’s a crazy world we live in. So who knows what’s going to come out. But I mean, I, I would say early on the person to favor is Dusty, but who knows that could, that could change six months. \
Murdoc: Lee.
Strubinger: I think that is a massive advantage for Dusty Johnson. It was something that I noticed on election night, just all the young staffers that he had there. And I had somebody ask me recently, I don’t remember who, but they were like, why is Dusty going around to like all the, like talking all these high schools and stuff. And I was just like, that’s just like who he is. He’s like trying to get young people involved.
Jake: That’s where he cut his teeth. I mean, he was my camp counselor. He’s a teenager, Republican, uh, coordinator. That’s what his, that was one of his jobs.
Murdoc: And you’re still picking Larry.
Jake: I know that’s why it hurts a ton and say that, but it’s like,
Strubinger: so it all kind of depends if, if I’m just thinking about Dusty or, or, or Roden at this point, it’s kind of like, it might come down to what people want at that particular point in the primary, because I feel like Roden can play two different games at once. He’s like an institutionalist, but he’s also like a very fresh face to a lot of people. Whereas like Dusty’s been in the particular role that he’s been in for, for like quite a while. So are people wanting to stick with the newness of Rodin or they wanting to go with, I don’t know. It’s like, it’s like, it all really depends. Yeah.
Jake: If Roden, somehow, if Roden can box out someone like John Hansen and box out that far, right? I think it’s his race to win. I legit think it is because I think Dusty has an, I mean, Dusty is really, I don’t want to call it disingenuous, but has really somehow shifted quickly to the Republican far, right? What’s the, what’s Trump stuff he’s doing?
The Panama, Panama Canal stuff. I, but I think Roden’s done more of a job with this pipeline thing in South Dakota to get those voters to actually come out for him instead of Dusty.
Murdoc: Okay. I’m going to end our radio show and then you podcast listeners get the bonus episodes. So you people listen on the cowboy. If you want to finish the rest of the show, you go to, go to, go to, just search Dakota Town Hall and your favorite podcast player. Thanks for listening. See you next week. Okay, we’re back. Who’s the Democratic candidate?
Jake: Ooh, that’s a million dollar question
Murdoc: for, I guess, Governor. It’s not a deep bench. Let’s just pick one.
Powers: I mean, the person, the person I probably, I look at and go, Oh boy, that, that Republicans might face a strong challenge from is if Stephanie Hurst, somehow jumped in. She, she would be, she would be the person who we would really be challenged for because, you know, she’s, you know, it’s, she’s known.
She’s got the name ID. She, you know, it’s, it’s a legacy thing with her family, you know, grandfather, who’s governor, father who ran for governor. You know, I think she’s pretty well respected. And if you, you know, her position at Augustana is, you know, it’s, it’s, she’s fairly popular and, and active in the Sioux Falls community. You know, she, she would be the person who Republicans should be nervous as she gets into the race. You know, other than that, I’m not sure who’s got the stature and are they going to rerun Jamie Smith. You know, then they were kind of getting into more of these other candidates. I just, their, their, their problem is their bench is just not very deep for anything. And they, they don’t have a lot of giant killers.
Jake: I agree. I had a chance to stop by and see some of her set Sandlin at one of the Augustana hockey games. I don’t think she wants to leave that place. I think she really, really enjoys being the president of Augustana.
Murdoc: Especially right now.
Jake: Why would you ever want to? No, no. So I, I, I think it’s like, I’m so that being said. I don’t think she’s going to do it. So then yeah, I think that’s what’s other bench. I mean, is it like Aaron Healy is not going to jump in and run for governor, right? Cause she probably has that kind of path in front of her, but also like, why would you just give up your, your spot in, in the house? Right?
Cause like, you just lose it then. Jamie Smith, maybe I’ve heard him have run for, for many of Sioux Falls, probably more attainable. Maybe Billy Sutton, he’s not doing anything right now. I’m sure he’s doing something, but not running currently in office.
Murdoc: Billy’s a name to get thrown around. Mayor Mike, you either keeps getting sent to me. I probably dream candidate people just off the rocker a little bit. Like, you know, he could be, he could be a blue dog.
Jake: I just feel like a lot of that’s Eclipse though, when it comes to his popularity, I mean, people like in Sioux Falls kind of like him still, but that’s the most part. I don’t think he does it.
Powers:Yeah. And that, I mean, that is literally their problem is they just don’t have a very deep bench. Now, this week we saw, and I’m going to butcher his last name is it Julian Bowden, who turned in paperwork to start a US Senate committee. You know, he was appearing on stage with Nikki Gronlin or Nikki or Nikki Gronley, who was with the USDA here under as a Biden appointee. You know, I would, I wouldn’t be shocked if she jumped into that congressional race. You know, that that leaves them somebody to round out for running for governor and, you know, unless they have a marquee candidate, that’s a tough one to judge. You know, because somebody like somebody like Brendan Johnson probably doesn’t want the pay cut.
Jake: No, you know, why would you name two people that, you know, me and Murdoch have been around, you know, politics for a hot.
Murdoc: Listen to this “me and Murdoc” Shut up, baby.
Jake: Well, I’m just saying, I never heard these people. I don’t know. You have Murdoch, but I’ve not heard of these people. Like that’s the issue. Like there’s, that’s not a statewide recognition. I mean, in the middle of it,
Murdoc: I’m out West. There’s more, you know, There’s more stuff Buffalo and Rapid City than elected Democrats in Rapid City. So I don’t, you know, we can’t, I can’t see.
Jake: Lee, what do you think? You got any ideas on who’s going to be the Democrat for anything? Give him anything?
Strubinger: Well, I will say that Aaron Healy will be term limited from the House. after this session. Yeah. And I only know that because I’ve been covering the legislature for this would be my ninth session and she came in after the 2018 election.
Murdoc: Okay. Do you ever look at pictures of how young you looked nine years ago?
Strubinger : I had less gray hair and more of it. I don’t have any, any predictions really.
Powers: Yeah, thats another problem that Democrats have.
Murdoc: Well, we should be fair though. We’re all, you know, I mean, Lee, you’re in the media and we’re all sitting here kind of Republican or Republican ask depending on who you ask. And like, we should give the Democrat, we should give Dan and team of chance to answer that question, you know,
Jake: but it’s not a great thing when a guy that has filed for US Senate race. And I’m like, who like, not a good start. I don’t imagine you have, you know, millions of dollars in the bank. So I don’t, I hate to be like dismissive of Democrat party. I don’t hate it. I just, I am dismissive of them because for a reason they haven’t really shown anything the last few years.
Powers: You know, you could, you could potentially see Dan Ollars jumping in as their candidate for governor. He’s, he’s probably got some of the more experience of Democrats running on the statewide level. Yeah, make one of the most sense.
Murdoc: Yeah. God, I bet you can’t talk him into it. You want me to go back to the prison of war camp are you insane. Okay, I want to end on a thing if I can got the interview governor last week, which was pretty, pretty cool thing for the show, which has started on the back of a bar napkin.
And I don’t, I thought both Lieutenant governor and the governor did a great job. I’ll admit we’re learning how to do this in some of these interviews, right, Jake? I guess this was my takeaway. And I don’t know if I don’t think this was planned. This is just coincidentally how the day worked out on the same day, Jake, that our former governor is in front of a bunch of prisoners in the watch and all that, making the statements, etc. The current governor is in our studios. And I set him up a little for it, but like almost stopping the interviewer second to talk about how the prisoners in the prison in Sioux Falls are human beings and people, and we should treat him as such. And I thought, man, if that don’t tell you where our administration differences are right now, nothing does.
Jake: I agree. I really enjoyed the interview. And I really, in general, I really appreciate his willingness to come and talk to media in general. I mean, I think anybody in news will tell you this guy is more open to talking to the media than the prior administration was. And that’s what I truly appreciate.
Murdoc: I have one more thing for you to get out of here too as well.
Murdoc: How big Ian Furie’s belt buckle was? Surprised me. I didn’t look bad, by the way.
Jake: I thought I was surprised to see you. He owns cowboy boots.
Murdoc: I was more cowboy looking than I thought it’d be. Good for Larry.
Jake : One last thing for everybody. Go home and pet your dogs, because I want to give a quick shout out to the good bulldog Francis.
Murdoc: Francis. Yeah.
Jake: And I just want to give a quick shout out to Francis.
Murdoc: Thanks, buddy, appreciate that.
Jake: The beautiful dog that was, unfortunately, his life has come to an end.
Murdoc: Lee, she beat the over. She was 14, My dog.
Jake: You beat the over. Good run.
Murdoc: And she beat the over by your dog. By a number of years. Yes, pet your dogs. Pet your dogs. Call your kids from DakotaWareCollege.com. He’s the ungovernable Pat Powers from South Dakota Public Broadcasting. He’s the Politics and Public Policy Reporter, Mr. Lee Strubinger, and my dear friend Jake Shownbeck. From the East, I’m Murdock from the West, and this has been Dakota Town Hall.
