Fighting Back in South Dakota

Early last month, I highlighted an appeal to support progressive South Dakota State Senate candidate Charon Asetoyer. The Executive Director of the Native Women's Health Education Resource Center on the Yankton Reservation, Asetoyer is challenging an opponent--Cooper Garnos--who compiled a zero voting rank on women's health and safety issues during his previous legislative term.

In the wake of the South Dakota legislature's nearly complete ban on abortion last February, more women than ever before are running for office in the state--frequently on women's rights platforms. Asetoyer, a Comanche, decided to run (after an appearance on RadioNation with Laura Flanders) to combat bills detrimental to women's rights and the rights of families that were passed by the last two legislatures. "I feel we are going into a frightening time. Legislators are going down a dangerous path and it is very scary," she told Indian Country Today recently. ''They are trying to get the public to buy into the idea that contraceptives abort a pregnancy, that's wrong. They are trying to go after our contraceptives.''

Fortunately, thanks to the generosity of people like you, Asetoyer's campaign has gained ground. As she heads into the critical last four weeks of campaigning before the June 6 primary, she's up to speed with her buttons, bumperstickers, lawn signs and creative radio ads that started airing on two stations this week. She's also part of a wave in the state comprising three other Native American women candidates vying for Democratic primary nominations in order to take on some of the most reactionary members of any state Republican Party anywhere. These candidates--Faith Spotted Eagle, Paula Long Fox and Theresa Spry, along with Asetoyer, could actually win. But they really need more help.

Political races in South Dakota don't take nearly as much money to run as big state, big city races, but that doesn't mean they can run on nothing and so far it seems pretty unlikely that the SD Democratic Party is going to pitch in for them before the primaries.

So, our job is to help them win their primaries in a big way so that they become seen as "viable" by the party elite who control the pursestrings. A few dollars to each of these campaigns can help create change in South Dakota that we'll all feel wherever we live. The individual limit for donations to candidates in SD is $250, so consider maxing out, if you can. But $100, $50, or $25 can do a lot -- from helping to pay for candidate forums to ads in hometown papers and radio spots.

Here's where you can send your checks:

Charon Asetoyer (Dist. 21 Senate)
Campaign for Change
P.O. Box 472
Lake Andes, SD 57356
Charon@charles-mix.com

Faith Spotted Eagle (Dist. 21 House)
Faith Spotted Eagle for Change
P.O. Box 762
Lake Andes, SD 57356
Eagletrax@hotmail.com

Paula Long Fox (Dist. 33 House)
10520 Canyon Place
Rapid City, SD 57707
LongFox7@aol.com

Theresa Spry (Dist. 35 Senate)
821 Halley Ave.
Rapid City, SD 57701
Sprybunch@aol.com

As a small group of women working to highlight these candidacies write in a recent appeal (from which I drew most of the info in this post), "We're not just building grassroots political action, we're building grassfires of progressive activism that can spread across South Dakota and our whole country."

Comments (9)

1. Good luck to those ladies....GOP in South Dakota deserves to get creamed!

   Posted by Mask at 05/09/2006 @ 1:38pm

2. Posted by MARYBRETBRAD 05/09/2006 @ 2:12pm | ignore this person

   God Bless Richard Cohen....and God HELP him!

   He just opened up the s***storm of the world upon himself. The rabies-infected will come out for him with fangs bared and foam frothing.

   Posted by Mask at 05/09/2006 @ 2:41pm

3. Ah, the sound and the fury, continuing unabated as usual. Dug the comments and assessment of my posts as "racist", which I found hysterical given the quality of the foreign policy you right wing losers support.

   And I wonder what's going to happen in Puerto Rico, once they've had enough of the government you've bought down there? 100,000, out of work, in the streets, no pay, no unemployment compensation. And you vultures wonder why people in this world hate you as much as they do.

   Posted by bkarloff at 05/09/2006 @ 3:43pm

4. Posted by MARYBRETBRAD 05/09/2006 @ 2:12pm |

   good point, though after the pointlessly mean spirited vitriol poored upon anyone who dares not identify themselves as "conservative republicans" (treason! un-american! traitors!) i don't see how anyone could expect anything less than at least some righteous wrath from those non "conservative republicans" so unfairly, arrogantly, and nastily verbally ravaged for a good decade now...

   i think the anger will cool down into an icey and purposeful resentment and will to vengeance, which although not good for the long term psychological well being, will suffice nicely to flip the table, dumping the sanctimonious, arrogant, hypocritical tormenters crashing onto the kitchen floor...

   Posted by ibbleblibble at 05/09/2006 @ 6:32pm

5. Richard Cohen has a terrific article aimed at helping Progressives, Liberals, and Democrats. Your readers would do well to read it and heed his advice. He's writing about e-mail he's received on his Colbert article.

   Posted by MARYBRETBRAD 05/09/2006 @ 2:12pm | ignore this person

   I thought Peter Daou's response was well articulated.

   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-daou/the-abcs-of-liberal-blog_b_2067 8.html

   Posted by Lillian at 05/09/2006 @ 8:06pm

6. Posted by LILLIAN 05/09/2006 @ 8:06pm | ignore this person

   I read that....Daou basically goes on for a dozen paragraphs talking about how "We are the only ones DOING anything, you Inside-The-Beltway types are the problem".

   He never sees ANY extremism among the bloggers (if he did, he certainly wouldn't admit it...and get "Cohen'ed" himself by them) and paints them as the ONLY true defenders of freedom and the Constitution, while in point of fact, they've shown (in 2004) that they're just LOUD, but still a minority of even the Democratic Party.

   And the fact that they got worked up into a rage, over criticism of a COMEDIAN...shows how fringey they really are as well!

   Posted by Mask at 05/10/2006 @ 09:16am

7. MASK, it is an odd feeling for me to read your posts and find that they are not attacks on leftists.

   Are you sure you're not coming down with something? Feeling OK?

   Posted by ILOVEPHYSICS at 05/10/2006 @ 2:03pm

8. I read that....Daou basically goes on for a dozen paragraphs talking about how "We are the only ones DOING anything, you Inside-The-Beltway types are the problem".

   Posted by MASK 05/10/2006 @ 09:16am | ignore this person

   Wow, you must have read something completely different. The article I linked to contained 8 paragraphs and only 1 (the second shortest with exactly 2 sentences) could even remotely be desccribed in the way you did.

   As for the rest of your comment...

   He never sees ANY extremism among the bloggers (if he did, he certainly wouldn't admit it...and get "Cohen'ed" himself by them) and paints them as the ONLY true defenders of freedom and the Constitution, while in point of fact, they've shown (in 2004) that they're just LOUD, but still a minority of even the Democratic Party.

   And the fact that they got worked up into a rage, over criticism of a COMEDIAN...shows how fringey they really are as well!

   Posted by MASK 05/10/2006 @ 09:16am | ignore this person

   This is a PERFECT example of what the article is saying. To quote from the article...

   "In recent weeks, one member after another of the D.C. media establishment has gone out of his way to depict bloggers as hysterical, angry and destructive.

   To hear them tell it, bloggers sitting at their computers are akin to squalling brats in high-chairs chucking baby food at their sober, serious elders -- i.e., major figures at the established news organizations."

   This attempt to demonize and belittle the online community is old news, but lately it's taken on new urgency... and it's getting really tiresome.

   It almost sounds like he's perfectly desctibing your comments, Mask.

   Posted by Lillian at 05/10/2006 @ 6:22pm

9. great news about these women from s.d.! i will be sending them money and talking to everyone i see about them.

   Posted by loveloki at 05/15/2006 @ 12:00pm