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 D15 Senator Jamie Smith.
🎧New episodes drop weekly! 📲Follow us: @DakotaTownHall
Read along with this week’s transcript from Dakota Town Hall
Murdoc: And we’re finally back to a normal full strength show. It’s time. Friday afternoon, you’re punched in here on the cowboy here in Rapid City or maybe later in your favorite podcast player. It is time once again for South Dakota’s most listened to political podcast. Like we like it, Jake in the East, I’m Murdoch in the West, and this is Dakota Town Hall. Jake, how’d you like doing a shot? I missed you guys. You listen to the show. I wanted to before we recorded. I just haven’t had a shot. I’ve been catching up a little bit.
Jake: I’m sure Jakob is smiling over there for a reason. You’ve been listening to the show. OK, I need to go back.
Murdoc: I do. I got some texts from Rhol that are a little out of context that I know they’ll make sense when I finally listen to it.
Jake: No, I learned that I am never going to be in radio. The whole hosting thing is not easy alone. I found that out. It’s the whole like pitching it to be.
I could do it. But it’s going to be back. It’s very good to be back back in the saddle again. You called me on what yesterday. You’re like, oh, my gosh, I haven’t talked to you like two weeks.
Murdoc: I know I felt I saw. I felt so silly after we hung up because I was like, I miss you, man.
Jake: I can’t. I can’t reach out with you again.
Murdoc: You know, I know slayed back, slayed the wise on the Missouri River. A shout out to the town of Akaska. My old man’s been fishing for 50 years on that river, brought in a 30.5 inch while I shout out to Jamie Jurgensen, who who’d slayed him last week. Also fish with our Canadian friends. You want to hear something funny? Canadians, when they’re in America, stop getting apologized to right around Iowa. If they’re heading West.
Jake: That’s pretty funny. All right. Well, let’s get to one more thing too on that note. When I was in Ireland, we had a caddy and I just want to like people get an idea of what happens with some of these, and I know it’s these Trump policies. We had a caddy.
He was going, his plan was going to Notre Dame in the fall, but he got an email the night before he caddyed for us that they had to cancel his interview for his visa because of all the things they were doing on a national level with foreign students. So it was pretty wild being over there and being like, yep, these policies have large reaching ramps.
Murdoc: Not just Venezuelans people.
Jake: But just something to think about.
Murdoc: So I was really, I’m bummed, although probably thankful that I was out during the Trump Elon breakup.
Jake: That might have been like over the weekend. So I didn’t even come on the show.
Murdoc: A little thrilled. We missed the majority of that. If we’re all being honest, I don’t need to swing at every pitch is what I’m saying.
Jake: There’s a first time for you. Tension balls.
Murdoc: I’m not maturing. All right, buddy. Let’s do the show. Yes.
Jake: So I think we may tease this, but we have on the person who just announced for mayor of Sioux Falls, the former candidate for governor and the current legislator for district. I got it wrong. I’m right district. What is it? 15. 15. It is Jamie Smith. Jamie, welcome to the show.
Smith: Senator Smith. Hey, good to be here. Thanks guys. Thanks for having me.
Jake: Your second time. I said, I said, I said, didn’t I? Yeah, I used to be one of those. I saw I meant Senator. My apologies. No problem.
Murdoc: Yeah. Coming from the calming waters of the South Dakota Senate.
Smith: People all wanted to know how went this year. We’ll get into that later. I’m sure. But I’m like, Hey, I made it through the South Dakota House for six years. The Senate wasn’t too bad.
Jake: It was wild that usually the, you know, the Senate’s the calmer waters, right? But this year it seemed to be that was the hot churning waters instead of the easy it used to be. Yeah.
Smith: It’s a little bit, uh, nerving when you got to send things over to the house to get them killed, right?
Murdoc: I was like, you know, don’t you Democrats, you were the coalition glue in a, in a while we’re all going to get off of that in the next place. Um, Jake, you started this, uh, Jamie, uh, Senator Smith. He recently announced for the mayoral run of Sioux Falls, which apparently starts years in advance now.
Jake: Uh, who knows? We don’t really know what it actually ends yet.
Murdoc: We don’t have a good point. Um, so, you know, you’re the, you’re the, it’s you and David Z, man.
Smith: David, David, uh, yeah, David and the dancer and Jamie Smith. Yep. So that’s what you got.
Murdoc: Well, let’s start with the, you know, classic standards. What, why are you running for mayor of Sioux Falls?
Smith: You know, I love public service and I love Sioux Falls. And so after the, the governor’s race, I was just like, we got to do something with, with all the folks that we’ve built relationships with, with all of the different, you know, things that I learned along the way that it’s just sitting there and you can’t do anything with it necessarily. So I was fortunate enough to get back into the Senate and that helped a little bit when the opportunity, and we, we saw it out there, um, you know, kind of right away that 10 Haken is, is going to be termed out here. And so it looked like an opportunity to, to work in public service full time.
Murdoc: So Jake, if you don’t mind me, I start with a question. Um, mayor 10, Aiken recently put out a statement saying, you know, time for the time for time for some capitalism.
I’m paraphrasing. Uh, any, any thoughts on, you know, everyone, everyone, everyone and their mom is maybe running for governor or maybe running for US house. And here you are out in front and clear. I’m running for a thought. Any thoughts on someone telling the world they’re not going to run
Smith: with, with, uh, his announcement that, that he’s not going to run for any of the other offices
Murdoc: that he’s heading up to the private sector.
Smith: Totally get it. I, you know, after a certain time, a person needs a break because it, uh, it’s exhausting. Um, it’s a good exhaustion, but it, it is exhausting. Uh, and everybody, everybody knows how you should have done something different. You know, so, um, just a break from that, I’m sure we’ll be good for him. He’s worked hard and, uh, you know, um, uh, he deserves a break. I wouldn’t count him out as being done though. I agree.
Murdoc: That’s right. He’s a, he’s a real. He’s young.
Jake: So, um, yeah, go ahead. A lot of people know you. You ran for statewide office. You’ve been in legislature for a good amount of years now. Why don’t you share, you know, how you got to where you are, you know, what’s your background, where
Smith: you’re born, all the, all the, uh, all the bio stuff. No, I’m a life. We’ll get the gigglebees, man. I, uh, I’m a lifelong resident of Sioux Falls. Uh, my, my, my mom’s people are, uh, you know, we’re farmers and home-sitters kind of in the, the humble Lenox area, uh, on my mom’s side. And they’d been here for a long, long time, but my dad’s folks actually moved to Sioux Falls, why a lot of folks coming for business opportunities. My, my grandfather was one of the, uh, guys from general mills that they were disgruntled over there and left and decided we could do that over here in South Dakota with the ballooning and they started Raven Industries. So, uh, he was, uh, one of the, one of the guys that brought Raven to, you know, Sioux Falls and, uh, South Dakota, it’s been a great company here. And, uh, so that’s, that’s how my family’s ended up here. Um, I, uh, I, you know, went to a Lowell elementary, uh, at Stel Park middle school and the old Washington high school, right in the middle of town. Uh, and then you mentioned gigglebees. Well, I, uh, got the good fortune of that was probably my favorite, uh, high school job I had much better than detastling.
Murdoc: Uh, Lennox is the tasseling area.
Smith: I’ve, I did the tasseling running that microphone. It’s a lot easier probably. Yeah. You know, so I was Wilbur the coyote. Uh, that was an awesome, I was a choir kid, a theater kid. I was a football player wrestler. I did it all in school. And so then when there was this opportunity to, you know, entertain, sing and, and entertain people, get paid a little bit of money and have fun. That was a great job.
Well, I ended up going to Augie graduate from Augie came out and, uh, they hired me full time to be a manager and then a franchise advisor. And you live out West there. You remember when gigglebees came to Rapid City?
Murdoc: Absolutely. I helped start, helped start that store. I was one of the first guys in the door, man, with my kids. Yep.
Smith: Franchise advisor for that, uh, startup. So I trained all their first staff, hired their first staff out there. Interapp it. And, uh, that was a lot of fun, but they only did the one franchise. And at that point I said, I, you know, I love parts of this job, but, um, there’s parts of it, if they’re not going to keep growing, I, I didn’t, you know, that wasn’t what I wanted to do forever.
Murdoc: So tired of cleaning the puke off the coyote.
Smith: You know, you’re too young for that reference, but trust me, that landed in South Dakota.
Jake: Oh, I know exactly. I won’t even too young for that. I went, I went to Gigglebees.
Murdoc: Oh, Gigglebees. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I was young though, playing the, playing the, uh, let your tech. Don’t get any other reference on this show.
Smith: No, I knew exactly where there was. Could you ride the bumper cars or were you too short for that?
Jake: That point. Yeah. There we are. That’s too bad. Um, I did one time the, the ski ball machine broke and I got to keep all the tickets out of spit out, which was pretty great. So yeah.
Smith: So we had to change a policy while we were working there because, uh, we had to shred all those tickets because we were getting some pretty really disgusting tickets coming back in cause kids had figured out that we just threw them all the way in big garbage bags at the end of the night. Genius. So everything. So yeah.
Jake: I love coming here. I worked at Thunder road and war town, which has a larger aid for five years, a high school and one year in college. So I know, yeah, that feeling that’s shredding the tickets and you’d go as great in your arcades. They’re always, always well behaved.
Murdoc: We had a crew from El sister up there once and we got, you know, kind of asked to leave because one of my buddies punched the, punched the nose of the coyote. Sorry, but official, official apology.
Smith: I did that. Well, lots of people did that. I mean, there were times that one time my head fell off, the Wilbur’s head fell off and landed on the tray. Uh, but the mouth, the mouth and I still work. I mean, kids, I mean, there’s there, I’m gonna, there was a lot of therapy that was involved with that for those kids there that day.
Murdoc: But all right, back to the issues at hand. I did, I did pro, you know, promo work for them. We took him all over, but I, I love teaching it in my family was teachers.
I was never going to go teach. And then I just, you know, sometimes when you’re, you’re good at something, you, you just can’t stay away from it. And so my whole family is educators and I, I, uh, I went back to Augie again, got another degree, uh, in ed. And then I, uh, decided to, uh, to teach middle school and, uh, coach football, coach wrestling, and I loved it.
It was great. But then my wife wanted to stay home with kids and eventually that had to change. So that’s when I got into sales and, uh, did medical sales for a couple of years and loved certain parts about it, but other parts of when, when, when doctors or surgeons look at the wrestling coach and ask you what to do next, you know, it’s a really bad day, guys. I mean, you know, that, that’s like that type of stress. I just did not like, you know, so instead I want to be the mayor, you know, much easier. It’s a different kind of stress though.
Murdoc: Let’s go with some issues. What are your, if you, if you, if you, I don’t know if you’ve got a platform or something that simplistic.
Smith: You know, we’re, we, we’ve definitely got, um, we’ve, we’ve got, uh, some different, different things that we care deeply about. Of course there’s the basics of just keeping people safe and making sure we have good roads and all of that. But, but when it comes to the, the actual platform that we’re going to unveil and roll out, we’re meeting right now with people, uh, stakeholders across the city, because we want to make sure that we are totally in tune with what it is that the people want, not just what Jamie wants.
Okay. And so we’re doing a real, uh, a democratic type, uh, leader that, that wants to hear from all the stakeholders. So this next couple of months, that’s my, my, my job is to go meet with folks around, uh, but of course we want good, higher paying jobs.
Everybody’s going to talk about that. I really have an affinity for the tech area, um, and, and want to make sure that we’re keeping these great students that we have in our state and giving them the opportunity. Um, when you got a school like, uh, you know, Dakota state and Madison, uh, there’s no reason for us not to be, um, at the head of that. Also, how many people from mines out there?
Murdoc: It’s just because it was what I was thinking about in my head. Didn’t want to interrupt.
Smith: My cousins, the best engineers in the world grew up in Harrisburg. She got a degree in, uh, chemical engineering and by her junior year, she was offered a job that triple what I made as a teacher, just the first year out. And she has never come back, of course, because she moved to, uh, Kentucky. And that’s where, uh, she worked for Dupont and that’s where that is. Right. So, I mean, what, what do we do? Have those kind of jobs.
Jake: That’s that’s my question for you. Really. I mean, you talk about your grandpa, you know, as part of bringing Raven here, um, South Dakota, what’s your plan to bring those kinds of jobs?
South Dakota, cause while some do exist here, the reality is you need a lot of economic development and bringing companies in or startups to get those jobs here. So, so what’s some of your plans to do that?
Smith: Well, as in just solid concrete, concrete plans, we, you know, you can’t have, have those yet. We’re sure it’s about relationships though. It’s all about relationships. I think it’s going to be vital, uh, for the next mayor to have a really good relationship with peer. Um, there’s been some, some stuff going on. Uh, we’ve got some problems with, uh, some property tax things going on and those types of things, uh, for growing cities, those, they’re going to be a big problem, right?
But we have to work with our, our stakeholders and peer and then have a good relationship there, uh, to be able to leverage everything to make sure. But you know, Sioux Falls is a fabulous place to live. And, and given the opportunity to, um, move to Sioux Falls, my, my grandma, she never wanted to come out here.
I mean, and this was in the fifties, but once she got here, she was like, she loved it. Okay. You just got to get him here, right? Cause there’s this, I think this thing in people’s mind of what it’s like. And then you get here and you’re like, wow. But, but what makes us is not, I mean, you can have all the brick and mortar you want and all of that and you’ve got to have all that stuff. That’s our people. You know, and so we got to just make sure that the people have an opportunity to do what they do best and stay out of their way and then support them.
However they need to be supported. Let that creativity just go, you know, and so that, that is, I, I really look at myself when I, when I take leadership positions as, as a, as my coaching background, right? And, and when you’re a coach, I’ll, I’ll pick on football cause it’s a little easier when it’s football coach. You make sure you got the right talent in the right places to do the job. You prep for it.
You make sure they have everything they need, but then you got to step back and let them do it. And, and you don’t need to get the credit for it. You don’t need to, you know, say how great you are.
You don’t need to do any of those things. Let those folks, you know, go and just be successful. And that gives, nothing gives me greater joy than watching people that I support do well.
Jake: Well, it’s true. And, you know, in Sioux Falls too, as fortunate as well, let’s talk about the area we have here. I mean, I’m going back to our development a little bit, but we have a ton of resources here in Sioux Falls that focus on bringing jobs here and making this a better city and a stronger city in the longterm. You know, things like South Dakota Development Corporation, like Go-Ed works hard in Sioux Falls. All these groups start Sioux Falls. All these groups are work hard here. So yeah, I think every center, you know, yeah, yeah, discovery center is so many. Yep.
Smith: No, there’s, there’s, there’s huge opportunities and it’s just finding the right people and putting them together in the right place.
Murdoc: Let me, let me, let me go like stated the Sioux Falls now in a sense that’s kind of general. If you look at Sioux Falls, green light, things are going good. Yellow light, what should we be watching? Red light, this should, this should change. What’s Sioux Falls is green, yellow, red.
Jake: And you can’t say street racing. We’ve talked about that way too much in this show.
Smith: You know, unless you want to come out for it. Cause no one’s done that yet. No one’s crowned favorites.
Smith: Yeah, that, that’d be a great thing for your platform. No, we’re not going there.
Murdoc: Jamie Smith says, run for slips.
Smith: By the way, you can take sound bites out of, out of context and change them into commercials, right?
Jake: Okay, Jamie, I ran for office. I had this show for two years before and then took a single clip from it. So no one’s listening. Don’t worry about it. So whatever you want to say.
Murdoc: Most listened to political podcast is a, is a, you know, it’s a short race, Jamie.
Smith: But, but you guys listen to it and that’s important. We do. So, okay. I mean, you know, red light, red light, yellow light, green light. Let’s get back to that. Okay.
We’re going to start with green. What we got going for us is, is just the growth that we have, which is fabulous. Okay. I love that, but we’re going to say at the same time that that’s a yellow light to the growth that we have. All right. Is a, well, we got to, we got to watch this.
Okay. Because along with that growth, there’s going to be growing pains, right? And, and we’re starting to see those growing pains in certain areas. And so when it comes to the infrastructure to support those folks, when it comes to make sure that we actually, I mean, we’re telling everybody to come to South Dakota because you can get a job, but what’s our unemployment rate?
Right. We have people ending up in our communities that, that, that promise isn’t necessarily true, or they’re not trained in the right areas. And so we got to make sure that we’re able to provide the education, not just for the, our youth, but in education has to be great. But what can we do to re, retrain people for different jobs that are available at the different time and help, help them line those things up. And then when we get into the red light, I think that we can make sure that all, all folks in our, our community get to experience the great things in Sioux Falls.
Okay. We got to make sure that those opportunities are available to everybody. And so we need to be in that thing that we’re not an inclusive community. I think we really are. We do a really good job of, of, I mean, we have people from all over the world. You know, when you go somewhere in Sioux Falls, you’re going to see people from all over the world. And, but we got to make sure that we, we, I was talking to a guy that just, he’s a bank president, moved to Sioux Falls. And I asked him, how’s it going? And he said, pretty good, but it’s a little hard to break in to the community. Cause we all have our friends, family and all the habits that we have of who we hang out with.
Right. And, and so what can we do to make sure we’re inclusive of everybody welcoming? And then don’t just say hi to them, but actually, you know, act upon that in some way. So they, they really do feel welcome.
Murdoc: We’re talking to Senator Jamie Smith. He is the Senator from district 15 and he is running for the mayor spot in Sioux Falls to take after the mantle after Paul Tanagan. We’re going to take a break. Jake, Jake, when we come back, let’s maybe circle, let’s do a lap around peer and get some thoughts from the good Senator on the, on maybe the prison and some other topics. Plus Jake, I have a gizzard update. All right. Waited and withbaited breath. I’m sure you all are. So excited. Gizzard update. It’s Jake in the East. We’re back on the West. It’s Dakota Townell.
Jake: Welcome back to Dakota Town Hall. You’re here with once again, Jake in the East and we’re not going to the West. We’re back. The show is together again after our summer study of sorts. Yeah. We took a little sabbatical.
Yeah. And we’re here with Senator Jamie Smith running for mayor of Sioux Falls. Welcome back, Jamie.
Hey, good to be here. Jamie, you’re not just running for mayor. You’re also the current Senator. Senator for district 15. Um, and it was a busy session in peer, I’d say. Yeah.
Smith: It, uh, it was an interesting session. Of course, it’s always busy. This year was a little interesting compared to the couple of years prior as the revenue was down and, um, it’s always a little harder when you don’t have as much money to spend. And so, um, you know, we’re, we’re starting to see the pinch there a little bit and also different dynamics in peer with the way the primaries went, especially in the Republican party. So, and, uh, so that, that, that changed some things too.
Murdoc: Let me start there in, you know, most of the time on this show, it’s like 98.7% Republican fellas, right? Just cause that’s, that’s the, that’s the bench we’ve got to pick from. Yeah. How was it different being a Democrat this year?
Smith: You know, we were the difference makers on a lot of votes. If you look at it and break it down because the Republican party is so split. Um, and, and literally, I mean, even split in both the house and Senate. And so when you do that, all of a sudden there’s three Democrats in the, in the Senate and, uh, six in the, in the house. And when you do that, all of a sudden, um, those votes really do matter.
Uh, and so there were, there were times that man the pressure, but we, we, we, Liz and I share an office and, and I mean lobbyists after lobbyists, after lobbyists just putting the pressure on like, and I had never had that much attention, I’ll say, from the lobbyists as, as, uh, as we did this year.
Jake: Uh, so you’re on the prison project prison reset. I get that right. I keep saying it wrong every time. Um, pass force, pass force to hard to make, hard to make merch for. Um, you guys, uh, came down, I think last week on a decision to have, you were moving towards the idea of having it in Mitchell. I guess that would say,
Smith: but that’s one, one of, you know, we, we left it on the table, I guess is what I’m going to say rather than, you know, um, we, we took here on off, I was, first of all, I want to give kudos to both Mitchell and here on because I love communities that look at opportunities and say, you know what, we could, we could do something with that. And, and both here on Mitchell did that. They said, Hey, we could help out and it was good for us too.
Jake: Mitchell might want to take that. Yeah. Mitchell for a minute. Yeah. I want to take that kudos back from Mitchell there. They kind of, uh, a little rehearsal on you.
Smith: Well, you know, that’s starting to happen now too. When you’re getting some public feedback, right? All right. Well, let me tell you this though, right now the prison’s in my district. Okay.
District 15 has been for 140 years. Okay. Right up there at the top of the hill. Right. I used to have three not in my backyard things. Okay. We got John Morales. We have the stockyards and we have the prison all right there together. Right.
Murdoc: Perfect view behind the canopy hotel.
Smith: Who do you think probably was, is the, in my opinion, as a citizen living in that area, the least, uh, noticed neighbor. Got to be the prison. The prison, right?
Jake: John Morales is the worst downtown. I can’t say that. When the wind is out of the east, right? You know, I live to the west, right? And, uh, and downtown.
And, and so when the winds out of the east blowing that way back when the stockyards were there, especially, and you got that, I mean, now my mom told me all the time, that’s just the smell of money. Damn.
Murdoc: I was just going to say the same thing, Jamie.
Jake: You could put money other places and I’m all for a development, just not in downtown Sioux Falls.
Murdoc: Like we need another golf course. There’s more golf courses in Sioux Falls than elected Democrats in here.
Jake: You could put a golf course in the drops are too dramatic.
Smith: You know, you don’t want me on a golf course. Okay. Cause it’s just damages the course. So, um, but no, they, you know, so the prison for, for, you know, all these people that are worried about the prison being there, what I can tell you is it’s, they’re, they’re not a bad neighbor. Okay. Um, that, that being said, um, we got to put it somewhere and we’re overcrowded.
It’s terrible. You guys and both studies now, we’ve done another study now and both say we need 15 to 1700 beds right now. Well, you start building today. That doesn’t happen until 2029. And then I don’t know if you guys were able to read the second study, but it gave the projections that I’m glad we did that second study. Cause the projections say that if we don’t change what we’re doing, we’re, we’re going to have to build another one that big, you know, and, and that’s, that’s not good. That we incarcerate more people than, uh, I don’t know what state’s around.
Murdoc: We’re like the fifth largest incarcerator in the world.
Jake: And I believe that truth sentencing stuff from prior session really added that number up significantly in it, like an increase.
Smith: Well, there’s, there’s debate about that. If that’s it or not, then they’re, they’re come back on that. The folks that supported that are saying, but the judges are going to start to, once they know the truth and sentencing laws out there, they’re going to start changing their, you know, their sentences because they really wanted them to stay in jail X amount of years.
And, and so they gave them, you know, that really long sentence, but got them out. But, you know, we’ve got to do something different. We’ve got to figure out how to, how to keep people from going to prison. Then we got to help figure out how to keep them from going back.
Jake: Well, I think about the locations a little bit. So this place in Lincoln County owned by the state, you spent $60 million on it. Every single consultant says it’s the best place to be at for a prison that we have options for. It’s close to Sioux Falls, close to Interstate. As a taxpayer, why shouldn’t we go there? We spent our money there. I, I’m having a hard time other than it’s politically charged. Is there a reason not to go there?
Smith: Personally, I don’t have a reason other than the fact that we got to get something done and I don’t think we’re going to get anything done. That’s why I was willing to support the, the taking it off the table and moving on because we’ve got to do something. And I just felt like we were going to get bogged down and not get anything past. And so there’s got to be a political will to get it done.
Jake: And so that’s what it feels like to me that no one has the guts to be, to be the bad guy here.
Smith: That’s what it feels like to me. But well, the compromise for me was to say, we’ll take that off the table. But that doesn’t mean we’re not going to vote for something and put it somewhere. Okay.
Jake: It seems like, if you look at the Mitchell option, it’s going to cost there. So 600, 600 million dollars, right? That’s the goal. There’s just no way I could say that, right? I mean, I just don’t see a world where us changing location is going to be a cheaper option than keeping the current one.
Murdoc: You can put it in Hills, Minnesota, I guess.
Smith: You know, uh, there, the whole process of, of, of of picking a location, then, you know, we, we, we all determined relatively quickly, I believe that, yeah, we need something, right? It’s the other two that we’re having problems with, is where should it be and what should it be?
And they’re starting to be quite a bit of difference in the, in the committee. I personally, there’s, there’s a group of people that think we can just add, add beds at all the sites that we currently have. I personally don’t think that’s an option that the consultants for sure didn’t believe that was an option.
Murdoc: No one who thought that has done a tour of the prison. It’s ridiculous. Prison is too old. It’s too old.
Smith: Like it just, it’s just too old. People have actually that toured it. There’s people on the committee that have spoken that now, that they want to add, add beds. And then there’s a, we could build on top of what now is the Jameson annex and that is not going to, the, the cost, they broke that out for us. It, you basically get only like two, less than two thirds of a workday out of every employee that you put there because of what you have to do when you’re building it, when you’re building in a prison.
Okay. So cost wise, it’s astronomical to add beds there. That the price per bed, you guys, when we’re looking at $500,000 a bed, it makes you want to just, that’s awful.
Murdoc: Right? It’s like that. It’s like that toilet in San Francisco. Yeah. It’s nothing. No, that’s not right. Okay. Fair enough.
Smith: So we’re going to miss. It’s a good job there, Murdoch. Yeah. So, you know, the, uh, when, when you, when you look at that, though, the amount that we’re going to have to spend in that we’re ultimately people are willing to spend, you heard my comments, maybe at the last meeting at the very end is, we’re going to make a vote. We’re going to go for this. We’re going to build something.
I really do believe that’s going to happen. But if we were willing to spend that much money to lock people up, wouldn’t it be better to spend a lot of money on being proactive and not get them there?
Murdoc: That’s a crime.
Jake: Quit being a communist. Okay. I agree with that, but I feel like we’re already past that point. No matter what we do, new prison, like
Smith: that’s not like, we don’t have to build the second one. Jake, I agree with that.
Jake: No, I think you’re right. We got to change what we’re doing. I agree. We got to change what we’re doing.
Smith: And we got to figure that out. It’s really sad when you’ve seen stories out there of first grade teachers that can tell you who’s going to be incarcerated. If you can identify in that early, let’s find a way to support those families.
Because ultimately, I mean, there’s certain people out there that it’s just expected that that’s what’s going to happen. The other thing, we don’t talk about this, Jake. I just want to bring this point up. 60% of the women in the pen, the women’s prison, Native American, okay? 40% of the men, Native American, 10% of our population. Something’s way wrong there. Okay. Something’s way wrong.
Jake: So Jamie, you said they can tell in first grade, but I’m telling you right now, Murdoch’s here. And I, and his first grade teacher, it was certain he was going to jail. There was no done. Some can buck the trend.
Murdoc: I was a little butt kissing school nerd back then. They, they had to bet the over, I think.
Smith: It was that gateway drug of cannabis. They found the supports necessary.
Jake: I’m sure you’re correct. I make it joke, but you’re absolutely correct, Jamie. That does start there. It starts with things like feeding your kids lunch at school, having free lunches where it’s not, you’re not missing on lunch. They get a better education. They think better. They learn better. So I agree. We can’t get that bill passed though, Jay. Oh, I’m well, I’m well aware. We’re working for it in this podcast.
Smith: My friend, Caden brings that bill every year, right? You know, yeah. And it just, I mean, it’s not very much money.
Jake: It’s cheaper than a billion dollar prison. Not if you don’t build it. Well, we got me there. Yeah. What’s the interest on that account? It’s got to be, it makes the money on that account, right?
Smith: We’re making money on that account for sure right now. And that’s the other thing we have cash sitting there to do something, which is how many times in, in our state’s history, have you had a pilot cash like that to do a huge capital outlay project? Right. It just, that doesn’t happen.
Jake: Well, I’ve been got to give credit to do then. That was, that was Governor Noem who you
Murdoc: know, I was just going to say that, Jake. Yeah.
Smith: And I do give credit there, but we got, we got to do something though. I agree. We got to do something.
Murdoc: What are we doing on time? All right. Well, that’s prison. So well, we wrapped up prisons. Obviously we, that was easy. Let’s do property taxes now.
Jake: And I, a little plug for next week, we’re going to have Brian Mulder on to talk more about prisons. I’m going to get the, the right side perspective on that from the committee as well next week.
Murdoc: Oh yeah. We’re due, we’re, we’re live from the East.
Jake: Next, oh yeah, we’re live. I think we’re doing my office. I got a, I got a vacuum in here. Live from the Shonebeck studios. Yes. From the East River studio. You’re going to vacuum for Mulder? I will. I mean, I, you didn’t do that for me. Well, well, no, for my, when they’re going to be in, no, they’re going to be in my office.
Physically. Oh, okay. No, it’s, and this is, you know, my home office is kind of like your space. And I certainly make it my space. I need some vacuuming, some cleaning. So, okay.
Murdoc: So let’s get back to the session. We, you know, wheels, judge wheels.
Smith: You know, there’s a, there’s a, we’re going to miss, we’re going to miss him a lot. He was often the voice of reason. This last, this last session and you could count on him for his legal advice too, on things. There’s a group of people sometimes that like to do things that are unconstitutional every now and then.
And so having that lawyer expert really, really is a handy thing. I’m excited for him. I mean, you know, great opportunity for him. So excited for him and excited for his family on that. But we’ll definitely be a loss for us in the Senate.
Jake: Well, it’s a new spot on the Supreme Court. Maybe he wants to move a quick. I saw Supreme Court Justice Jeanine Kern is announced her retirement. So maybe he’s, you know, moving up in the world, but actually, I think that’s, it has to be a Western representation.
Smith: I don’t think you have to be an attorney.
Jake: You have to, you do have to be attorney. I have to not be an attorney and you have to be from the district you represent or the area. And she’s like the black heels basically. So Murdoch, I want to get your JD done real quick.
Murdoc: Oh, I don’t judge Murdoch. We could do one of them shows where you people come up and oh, bitch to me and all adjudicate money. Can I be the bailiff? I love this.
Smith: Would you be more like night court or would you be more judge Judy? Which, which way would you be?
Murdoc: Oh, night court. I don’t have, I don’t, you’d think judge Judy on the surface of this show, but you know, night court sounds more my speed.
Smith: That was a good show. That shows our age right there, though, that we know that reference there. It does a little.
Jake: I don’t even know what we’re talking about. I only know about night court because isn’t there like a, is it an episode 30 or something about night court? Yeah, they do a recreation. Yeah. Yeah.
Murdoc: That’s always I know night court. Great TV opening with that saxophone. Yeah. All right.
Smith: You don’t do that anymore either Murdoch.
Murdoc: Yeah. You know, can’t get a good sandwich anywhere.
Jake: You can. Greg’s subs in Sioux Falls, Greg’s substation, best sandwich in South Dakota. I know we’ve done this. He has a bit best sandwiches, but I love a Greg’s best sandwiches.
Murdoc: The season that’s next season. You know, you need some cliffhangers. Um, okay, let’s go with more party, you know, hypothetically, you’re the new head of the Democratic Party, not saying I’m not asking you to take position on current leadership, but like you’re in charge of the party. How do you grow it? Well, in South Dakota, which is tough.
Smith: We’ve been working on this for a really long time. And I think we. We keep, first of all, we have to just keep being the voice of reason and the big people in the room, not, not referencing my eyes when I say that.
Okay. But, uh, but we, we just have to make sure that we are constantly just using competence when we do stuff. Uh, but then somehow that word has to get out and it has to be okay to be a Democrat, you know, again in the state. I have a lot of folks that are telling me that, you know, I’m a registered Republican, but I voted for you or but this or but that, right? Um, and so when you go down the list, uh, of folks, what would it take to get them to be able to say, yeah, I’m a Democrat. It’s, it’s, it’s hard in the business world.
I know it. Um, I, I, you know, it’s, there’s a certain club there and, uh, it’s hard to break, break through that. So we’re going to keep working on it by just doing, doing the work of the people and for the people.
Jake: I think that’s well said. I think that’s a good approach too. That, you know, it’s okay to be Democrat. I don’t know if I’ve heard that from other state white Democrats as much, but that, that’s a really good way of looking at that. It’s kind of convinced people, okay, not the pariah in the room. Right.
Murdoc: Do you, how much of it is separating the national conversation versus the state?
Smith: It’s huge. It’s absolutely huge. And you bring up a good point. I mean, I, I, I think a little bit with Ken Martins now, you know, right, our neighbor from Minnesota, uh, you know, I, I know him personally, uh, had good conversations with him. I mean the, the struggle we went through on the national thing with like defunding the police, what a terrible, terrible catchphrase, right?
Murdoc: Not what I would have pitched in the ad meeting.
Smith: No, terrible, terrible. Right. And that, and then that got jumped on and everything like that in South Dakota. Uh, some of our most, um, revered people in their communities are law enforcement.
And so, um, by the way, you know, we, we, we have mostly all the people I know that are in law enforcement are great people. Can we do better? Sure. Are there things we can learn?
Sure. Even at a national level. I mean, my son found out that he wasn’t as liberal as he thought he was when he went to Washington university in St. Louis.
And it was during about this time that he got to college and there was a big, big push to defund, uh, the campus security on his campus. And he’s like, okay, this is Athenein. He said, I mean, these are the folks that like walk you home at night. So you’re safe.
You know, no, you don’t want to do that. You know, and so, um, can everybody learn to, um, you know, be, be better at their job and, and yeah, but, but let’s do it in a common sense, South Dakota way. So I’m proud to always tell people when I say it, I always tell them I’m South Dakota Democrat.
Murdoc: A clear difference, I think. I mean, Danny, I said that the other day too, when we had him on, right? There’s just a difference in party between national and not. Well, let’s take a break guys. When we come back, oh, Jake, we got to talk about old Doug. Lincoln County boy. Do you guys, oh my God, it never has it been more painfully obvious that the county commission race matters. So we’ll talk about that next.
Jake: Just a down the barrel story. Oh my goodness.
Murdoc: That’s what you think Doug’s gonna look like, by the way. Dang it. Um, that and guys, I guess, I know why you’re all hanging in with bated breath. A gizzard update when we return from Jake in the east. I’m Murdock in the West.
It’s Dakota town hall. You you you On the last lap. Welcome back to it. It’s South Dakota’s premier political podcast with Jake in the east. I’m Murdock in the west and this is Dakota town hall. Jake, we’ve got a wonderful guest this week.
We’ve had Senator Jamie Smith from district 15 who’s running for Seat Falls mayor. Thanks for coming on with us, Jamie. And where do you want to start on the last turn here, sir?
Jake: Real quick, forget the rest of the show. To do one, you know, condolences to the wife of Senator Elden Jensen. That would be marriage and jesson. She was the SDGP national committee woman. That’s how I definitely knew her.
And her husband, Elden’s former senator passed away. Really good family. They back from a Dan I golfed across state one summer. We stayed at their house that night when we were in Lemon, South Dakota.
Murdoc: Oh, lemon from the north.
Jake: We’re always nice people and they told us all about the petrified wood forest and lemon. It’s good. Which is a fun little check out.
Murdoc: Real odd creationism museum up there, which is, you know, setting science debate aside for a second. It’s worth the price of admission. And then there’s the who’s that who’s that there’s a great artist up in Lemon, too. We’re right across the street from the bar. John Lopez. Is that his name? Wonderful statue artist.
Smith: Lemons really, really good. Yeah, he’s got some really good stuff. Yeah.
Jake: Well, rest of peace, Elden is a good guy.
Murdoc: Uh, Gizzard update. Yes, Gizzard update for maybe months now in this show. I’ve been telling everybody about the gizzards and Kadoka. Won’t stop talking about it. And, uh, and, uh, I recently had them just to check in.
I got to say, I’m sorry, Kadoka, you change whatever you change. They’re not as good. I did have the gizzards at the sportsman’s club in a casca last week. And I must, maybe a little touch salty, but certainly better than the Kadoka gizzards. We have a new front runner.
Jake: I’m going to have to go and look for him in Sioux Falls. Maybe cake chicken would have that cake chicken would texture.
Smith: Well, don’t miss it. They do. They actually, yes. And they, I think they even have them on their lunch buffet there, Jake. They do. Okay. Should take me to lunch, Jake.
Murdoc: All these skinny marathon runners on here, Jamie lately, no one eats a gizzard. Thank God someone who knows about gizzards is finally on the show. A gizzard position. I’ve been waiting for it for months. Okay. Let’s go to, let’s go to, let’s go to old Doug.
Jake: This is, this is, I said, I don’t have any stories to my friends that I put in the golf. I sent this one because it made me laugh so hard of how ridiculous it is.
Murdoc: So, you know, Lincoln County, what’s his last name? Doug, what’s his name?
Jake: It is Doug Putnam.
Murdoc: Putnam, old Doug Putnam throws the, throws that line, you know, about Jewish people when everybody’s negotiating that certainly by the late nineties, everyone should have learned you can’t use that phrase anymore. Even giving them a long runway, the late nineties, early 2000s seems like that should have stopped by then, you know, about the same time he stopped saying gay in the, in the way you used to say it. That’s when you stop saying that phrase, give or take. And well, old Doug standing, standing on his ground. Do you mind if I quote Doug?
Jake: Please have at it. Not that quote. Daring. Here’s what you say in response. Evidently, I said something wrong and I’m supposed to be apologized, which I won’t. I don’t apologize for anything I say. I say what I say. I mean, what I mean, if somebody takes offense to that, they could actually give it in, in writing. And then it goes on to say that it’s somehow something to do with the LGBTQ movement that’s taken offense to this.
Murdoc: I thought that was a bold strategy.
Jake: I’ve seen the LGBTQ flag. Haven’t seen the Jewish star on it yet.
Murdoc: So I don’t know how it was like. Right. That’s what it is.
Jake: That must be. Yeah. Just, I don’t know.
Smith: Jamie, maybe he was taking, taking advice from what’s her name in Iowa. You know, everybody’s going to die.
Murdoc: Oh, then her Ernst journey, journey. Yeah.
Smith: Well, you’re all gonna die anyway. And then her apology in the cemetery. Yeah.
Jake: I need like a Phil Jensen comment on this. I didn’t see what he thinks on this.
Murdoc: That would make my day. Phil Jensen’s been blaming the gays since the 80s. So I, you know, I’m not, listen, I say this friend to friend, Doug. And I won’t say I’m the expert on public relations, by the way, a lot of smart voices in the room. But what I wouldn’t do just, you know, to you as a future candidate that’s listening to this podcast, when you get called on something and you screw up like that, what you don’t do is double down and blame the gays. It’s like chapter two in PR crisis.
Jake: I’m going to quote Abraham Lincoln here, right? It’s one thing to be thoughtful, but to open your mouth and prove it is another thing. Oh boy.
Murdoc: Although devil’s advocate, this is the same P, you know, it’s the same group of Kevin Jensen, Dingelings that are just, you know, I don’t, sorry, Kevin, I’m just tagging in the same lump group here, but like, it seems to be on brand for that camp. Never apologize. Go, go, go. It’s fine if you’re racist. It’s fine if you’re prejudiced. Just giddy up, jingle horse.
Jake: I don’t even think he thinks he’s being racist. I just think he just says, I agree. His quotes are wild. I mean, just like, I’m not going to apologize for anything. Maybe it’s time for a learning moment, buddy. Like, just, you know, say you’re wrong. It’s okay.
Murdoc: Readings for rich people. I don’t apologize. That’s also, I think, a strange way to go. Like, yeah, I bet you have a wife, Doug. You apologize to 16 times a day. Because my God, you’d have to.
Jake: You’d have to. I mean, I mean, insulting the Jews and then blaming the gays is a crazy move.
Murdoc: I just, I just, it’s an all star move. Even hearing it like that from someone who’s on their side is like, ee.
Jake: It’s wild. Like, that’s just a move I can’t even comprehend. You know what, Lincoln County? They need to still get a game on this show right now.
Murdoc: This is up to you. You might not be getting a prison, but I bet you’re getting a new county commissioner.
Jake: That’s for certain.
Murdoc: Okay. Let’s, um, I gotta hand it to, here we go. The first compliment to Toby Doden. Can’t believe it’s coming out of my mouth now that they might be listening. Uh, Toby’s coming on.
I will give his team credit. Reached out said, you know, we might not be, you know, you’re, you’re like minded folk, but they didn’t, they were like, you pick a date and here’s the date. It’s July, want to say the ninth? Yeah.
Jake: July 9th. Or the week of that week. I said, I said, next week, nope, it’s going to be July 9th. We had some scheduling things we had to change around a little bit. So July 9th, Toby Doden will be joining the town hall.
Murdoc: We should have had him pull his bus in somewhere. That’d have been fun. We could do it live from the bus. I could figure it out. Oh my God. Life in the bus.
Jake: I don’t know if I can get, I don’t think I can get there, but.
Murdoc: So they’ll beat up young Jacob. I’m not with his Kennedy heir. He looks so Republican. He wears a polo shirt. He’ll be fine. Um, okay. So also, um, who’s the kid?
Jake: Oh, uh, announced for governor. Uh, Robert Arnold. In fact, I found out I had a little scoop. I was, uh, doing a food tour in, uh, in Sioux Falls. And I ran, there’s Jamie Smith. Let’s get whatever’s happening. He wears swamp daddies.
Yep. I was swamp daddies and I was like, Jamie, you got to come on the show. Apparently he’d already had scheduled with his people and I didn’t even know.
Which is great. Way ahead of us. And then got next to him. One of the very few times I’ve been recognized by the way he’s like, because he’s like, are you Jake? Jake, I was like, I am. That was really cool.
Murdoc: You know, my voice is not weird when that happens. It’s very weird. When I said it Josiah’s, it’s like, that’s the epicenter of Dakota Town Hall listeners apparently. And they’ll just.
Smith: Certainly. Certainly. Thank you, Kirby family.
Murdoc: Um, okay. Well, I, Jamie, uh, you know, thoughts on.
Smith: You know, he was, uh, he was an intern for us in the, uh, in the Senate caucus. He’s, uh, nine. He right now. Is that right? I think that’s right. He’s going to be 20. And then by the time he would be elected, he’d be 21 because he did have to look at that. That was my question. Actually, thank you. Yeah. So he did that due diligence on that and was looking at that. And, uh, you know, um, uh, he asked to meet with me and as a person that ran for governor, I answered all of his questions. I, um, was a little bit concerned for him as, you know, his, I asked him what his intentions were and why he wanted to do it. And he just thinks there are things out there that aren’t being talked about that, that need to be talked about. And, uh, so, um, he’s super interested in the, in the process and in the, in the system. And, uh, you know, I’m not going to knock anybody that throws their name in the ring. They’re right off.
Murdoc: That’s exactly where I’m at, especially if it’s good intentioned.
Smith: You know what? It, uh, it’s not easy. And, uh, when you’re willing to put your name out there, I don’t care who you’re on what side of anything you’re on, if you put your name out there and are willing to try to share what you think, to try to make the state better, you know, more power to you. So we’ll, we’ll see how he does, but I just made sure I was as honest as I could see with him about the good and the bad, you know, because when you make a decision like that, you shouldn’t go into that without knowing everything.
Murdoc: I love the, I love the quote he gave the Dakota scout. He’s like, well, you know, the party told me they had someone else in mind, but you know, here we are.
Smith: And that’s what I was like. That’s what maybe. Then I announced, then I announced for me.
Jake: Um, okay. It’s a, it’s not that precedent though. I would say if you want a little history lesson here, quick. Jeff Haslett ran at 18 for governor in South Dakota. And then Ed driving hawk was likely around 21 when he ran. So it’s not the precedent to have someone run at this age.
Murdoc: Voter turnout in Sioux Falls is 3% for the school board race. A couple of kids running ain’t got hurt anybody. No, I love it. So, okay, let’s do something Sioux Falls specific.
Jamie, well, we have, we have about five minutes left here and give or take. So the city of Sioux Falls is going to fund nonprofits less. Is that a fair way to say that?
Smith: What I, you know, I’ve, I’ve, I’ve read the news on it. I haven’t talked to anybody about it that they’ve all been given a heads up that there’s going to be a tighten in their belts. And, um, with a budget as big as the city of Sioux Falls and the things that our nonprofit community does for us, I’d really like to dig into this a little bit more and see if this is really where we need to make the cuts.
Jake: I want to be their lawyer for a second. Well, I have one thing I want to expand this a little bit. They are starting, it’s going to be an RFP process. So it’s going to be at least we should see a little more transparent process for funding on some of these, which is kind of nice, which, you know, they’re doing that because they’re at, they have funding cuts, but it’s still at least there is to give them a little credence there. It’s going to be a little more transparent process in this.
Murdoc: And that’s just modernizing, you know, how these things are applied more than it is. Is it good or is it bad? Some perspective from Rapid, who just, Rapid City just went through this a little guys. And we, so we have a thing out here called the vision fund. And, and, you know, everybody’s hearts are very big and there’s, you know, 75 or whatever million dollars worth of ask where there’s only 12 or $15 worth of money to give. The thing that has been happening.
And again, not saying, I agree with Jamie’s comment on the things that nonprofits do for Rapid City, we’d be, we would never be able to do it through a municipality or business, right? So full stop. I agree. But here’s the problem. Everybody gets a little bit of money based on their project, which they have to go fundraise for. And now I’m using hypothetical numbers. There’s 50 nonprofits that are underfunded to actually complete their goal. And so if you, if you, yeah, some might be getting less money or no money, but in theory, then the things you can fund actually come to completion would be my argument for this.
Jake: So it forces the private sector to get more involved
Murdoc: and see, I can be a Republican when I need to be a Republican. Jamie’s just waiting for me to shut up and so he can tell me I’m wrong.
Smith: And I think, I think, and I can’t speak, but I just, I don’t want to minimize what these nonprofits do for our community. Fair enough. And so I also understand budgets, heartfalls, okay? And, and, and you, I think you have to look at absolutely everything, but that, that just the amount that we, that these organizations do for the people of Sioux Falls and most of the time too, they’re for the people that need the most help.
Murdoc: I agree with that as well. That’s why I have a new nonprofit I’d like to pitch to you guys. Racing, racing for your hearts. The street racing charity.
Smith: Are you going to do that on highway 100?
Murdoc: Yes, and it’s about family or whatever it says. Family. Highway 11. We’ll do a highway 11. We could do, we could do like the, what’s that Albert Reynolds movie? We’ll do the race from, you know, North Sioux city into, into, into tea.
Jake: Heart of the hills. There’s, there’s beer in Texarkana, Jamie. Jamie, before we, we end the show, I do kind of not done this as much recently, but I’d like to know because you’re a Sioux Falls guy. What’s the best burger in Sioux Falls? Oh man.
Smith: I, oh, you’re putting me on the spot here to say the best out of all of this.
Murdoc: This is your poll quote. Think about who donates.
Jake: Yeah. Think about who donates. Okay, here you go. Let me tell them what it’s going to be. It’s not, it’s not an MbHascist, by the way. Don’t say MbHascist because every Democrat comes out and says it’s MbHascist. It’s a good burger.
Smith: Did, Haska, Haska’s my chair in my committee. Did you know that?
Jake: Well, I, because they, because they’re cheers every Democrat they go on. Hey, MbHascist, it is.
Jake: I like MbHascist. I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna. Every Democrat comes to the show and goes, MbHascist is the greatest place on earth.
Smith: I’m really struggling here to go with the best, but I mean, my kids and I, we, I do enjoy, and I don’t know if it’s the best burger in Sioux Falls, but if I’m going to sit down and go for a burger, I like to have a beer with my burgers and I’ll go to JL beers.
I like more of a thin, I like a thinner smash type burger. My kids would disagree. My kids are five guys kids, my one son. And you know, I don’t like their fries as much. I’ll just be real honest with you about the five guys burger.
Jake: Hey, go to, go to looks. Looks has a great great fries, great beer. It’s got everything you need. And it’s a locally owned place. I love that. And Republicans own it too. That’s right. Yeah.
Smith: But again, the good news is running for mayor. That’s nonpartisan. Okay.
Murdoc: Oh yeah. I forgot how nonpartisan it is.
Smith: He’s district 15 Senator Jamie Smith. Also, he put his hat in the ring for Sioux Falls mayor. Where you got a website? Give a plug. You know, must have that stuff.
Smith: Smith for Smith for mayor.com.
Jake: Uh, next week, you got Smith for mayor. That’s a hard one to get. I don’t know how we did it, but we got her. That’s shocking. I mean, that seems like one that’s out the door day one. Yeah.
Smith: I’ve never been able to do that before.
Murdoc: So I’m next week, Jake live from the East River Studios.
Jake: I got to clean my office. We’re going to have Brian Mulder over here. Anybody else? Do we know that I
Murdoc: have a, I got a bunch of mad emails from doctors. So apparently we got to have a counterbalance to the, would that that Medicaid guy had on
Jake: some guy don’t know to be my office next week.
Murdoc: Apparently, you know, to be continued on who that’s gonna be. All right, we’ll do that and more. You can always follow us on some social media. And if there’s a few ways to give us some help, you can like or you can share.
Smith: Also, you hate listeners. Listen three times harder. We sure appreciate it. Thank you very much. I want to thank Jamie Smith for coming on with Jake in the East. I’m Murdoch in the West and this has been Dakota Town Hall. See you next week.
