Rapid City Mayoral Race Gets Dirty

Ever at the vanguard, the South Dakota War College has a post about and a scan of a pretty lowdown flier that went out against Sam Kooiker today.

The particularly disappointing thing is, the mayor of Rapid City isn't in a position to do anything about most politically partisan issues. Abortion, sex education, minimum wage, church/state issues...mayors don't really deal with this kind of stuff.

And though I have a reputation of being one of the most despicable right-wing nuts, and I have to confess: I've not heard anything about this "religious right's get-out-the-vote machinery." (Why didn't I get the memo? Who left me off the list?) I also missed that whisper campaign memo, too. I knew Hanks voted against the abortion ban, but I haven't heard a single one of my right-wing religious nut friends mention this fact, even in personal, private conversations.

I also don't know of any "far right political websites" clamoring for Kooiker or "trashing his opponent." Dakota Voice is running a paid ad for Kooiker, as is the South Dakota War College and Dakota Today (I don't think you could call Dakota Today a "far right" website by any stretch). If Hanks wanted to run an ad here, I'd certainly take his money and run it.

But I don't think I've ever endorsed Kooiker or said anything negative about Hanks. Some other people who can't seem to keep from interjecting themselves into everything political:yes, I've had plenty to say about some of them, but not Hanks.

From what little I know of Kooiker, he is a Christian and a serious one. But I don't know of him every being outspoken about his faith. Other people seem to want to make a big deal about his faith, though.

I've seen people that normally come down on both the Left and the Right endorsing both candidates. Why do you think that is? It's because the mayor's position isn't some big ideological office. It's more of an administrator position.

To me, this looks like just another classic playbook often employed by some Leftist ideologues (and yes, some of them are in the Republican Party, too): do something, in this case something unnecessarily divisive and partisan, and blame the other side for having done what you just did.