Budd: Natives elected Kooiker

Few dispute that Rapid City is divided by race and income. A discussion of its city election took place recently on Bill Janklow's idea of public radio where it was acknowledged that the previous mayor and council failed to adequately address the plight of a number of homeless living in that community.

An analysis of the recent referendum from Joseph Budd appeared in the Native Sun News and was reposted at Indianz.com:

But in all, it would prove to be a close fight, as Hanks would win 12 precincts, out of 25 in the city to speak of. For the Native Americans within Rapid City, voting in specific areas tended to highlight this. The Lakota Homes subdivision, located within the Ward Four, Precinct Three, would have 193 votes for Hanks, while 285 votes would be counted for Kooiker. North Rapid, the section that Kooiker had mentioned regarding gerrymandering issues, would vote for Kooiker as well, with a 198-109 total. Overall, Kooiker’s win highlighted the division in Rapid City, between the well-to-do living in West side and Sheridan Lake Road areas and the middle-lower class living on the East and North Side, but it also highlighted that those traditionally living in North Rapid, are now spreading out to other parts of Rapid City. During Kooiker’s censure, several people were brought forth to defend his freedom of speech, including Robert Doody, Executive Director of American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota.

Budd is a morbidly obese christian who regularly assails the rights of women and LGBT persons in the Rapid Reply section of the Rapid City Journal as an erstwhile poor runner for office. His metrics may be missing an element that is at least as nefarious as racism.

Former mayor Alan Hanks is a Roman Catholic. That sect is deeply rooted in the collective Native unconscious as the psychosexual predators that colluded with the US to abrogate the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. The opulent west side Blessed Sacrament Church parking lot looks like a Lexus/Lincoln dealership every Sunday. Sam Kooiker is a white evangelical Protestant with ties to the sovereign movement, the radical anti-government secessionist wing of the Republican Party, that seeks to woo tribal members in other political races.

KW has a revealing read today in the Rapid City Journal:

I pondered the question when I saw Kooiker Monday night during a Fourth of July celebration at the southwest Rapid City home of Qusi and Jamie Al-haj. Qusi is a former Republican Party leader in Pennington County and current West River director for U.S. Sen. John Thune. And when Qusi celebrates, he enjoys a little company. Last week, that included familiar Republicans such as Ken Davis and J.P. Duniphan. It also included the most devout of Democrats, Bill Walsh, who announced loudly that Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were the world's three greatest leaders.

David Montgomery also has a fun piece in today's Journal describing a stunt proposed by aforementioned earth hater, Pennington County Commissioner Ken Davis, to send a bug-killed pine to DC as the White House Christmas Tree. Note ip's barbed rejoinder in the comment section.

South Dakota's Krusti Noem is hosting a thinly disguised Republican group grope masquerading as a pine beetle listening session for supporters and the press in Hill City that will likely result in the mass slaughter of morale inside the BHNF. ip also made a few corrections to her poorly constructed assessment of Black Hills forest health in the Journal.

Oh well.