It would seem like a pretty good week for Mrs. Sandlin in terms of her negative campaigning helping her catch up to Noem's notable and increasing lead. However, Mrs. Sandlin's smack talk about what this reveals about Noem's character might come back to haunt her now that Kevin Wooster is reporting Herseth's father Lars also has 17 tickets and two failures to appear. About that Pat Powers quips "Those who live in glass houses should not cast stones." [[I disagree with Mercer, this IS relevant to the race: since Sandlin is so quick to equate speeding tickets with flawed character, it is only a politically opportunistic comment unless Sandlin is willing to say "AND THAT INCLUDES MY DAD and MR HEIDEPRIEM and my CHIEF of STAFF." Until she says that, her self-righteous and pious comments will fall on deaf ears and be seen for what they are.]]

Mrs. Sandlin only having one ticket seems to reinforce the perception in South Dakota that she's been chauffeured since she was seventeen and left the state to live in Georgetown. The cartoonists in our state are having fun depicting Noem as speed racer. If I didn't have better things to do right now I'd take the time to do a cartoon of Mrs. Sandlin in the back of her limo, all aghast at the news of Noem's driving record, boasting through the little window to her driver how she doesn't have any traffic violations.

Here's what I think… Everyone needs to slow down, November will come soon enough.

Everyone needs to slow down and obey all the laws because, as we are seeing, it'll turn around and hurt the greater cause we represent. If we are going to be entrusted with much we need to be faithful with the little things. The Christian has a duty to obey all laws (unless they are immoral). There is no excuse, wiggle room or rationalizations and with the number of violations we are talking about here it's indefensible.  And that's why Kristi said… "Obviously, I'm not proud of my driving record but I been working hard to be a better example to young kids and young drivers out there." Many many people on both sides of the aisle have no room to talk. 

As a police chaplain here, I can tell you the law enforcement community isn't thinking this is funny. It's not. My dad was killed near his farm near Freeman, SD a few years ago by a driver going 67 mph in a 55 - he didn't see my dad standing in the road on one leg —the other leg was badly broken in a different accident just a few seconds earlier. So, you can see why I'm happy to tell people to obey the road laws, but Christians especially. Even more, with the whole Janklow thing in recent memory, respect for traffic laws and public safety is a very legitimate issue. And, now that it's out there, voters can sort it out how serious habitual speeding is to them and how much law breaking is tolerable to them.

A commenter named "Duh" on Dakota War College wrote today about some statistic that "the average person violates 5 laws per day" and that made me think everyone needs to be careful to cast the first stone…

This is stupid.  Speeding tickets yeah.  I know.  One shouldn't speed. 

I unfortunately have over 20 from different states.  Did I deserve them, most.  …Nonetheless, I broke the law and paid the fine.  Have I ever had a warrant out?  Yeah, forgot to pay the fine.  I forgot.  It's not the same as willful defiance of the law. I forgot.  Kristi probably forgot too you pinheads….

…Statistics state that the average person violates 5 laws per day.  Don't believe me?  Tomorrow, check our your jaywalking, spitting on the sidewalk, throwing cigarettes, wrappers out the window, passing traffic on the right on the interstate, speeding, illegal parking, shooting varmints in town, putting paint cans and chemical containers in your garbage, not coming to a full stop, changing lanes without signally, not shoveling your walks in time, Having one too many at a party, parking in the handicap spot, having a light out on your car, double parking, driving too fast for conditions, letting fido run loose, not fixing your mutts, licensing your mutts, riding your bike where you're not supposed to, it goes on and on.

Unless Mrs. Sandlin wants to draw her father and Mr. Heidpriem even more into this, I forecast she calls off the dogs. If she doesn't it's because she's that desperate. I'm pretty sure she doesn't want to go down the road of having the rap sheet of everyone around her make headlines.

In case you are curious, if memory serves me correctly I think I have three tickets in 20 years, two on the same day on the same road in SW Minnesota. The other was a speed trap (in early 2000's) on east 26th here in Sioux Falls where I was going six over. I'm curious how many Blake Curd has and Chris Nelson. Anyone know?

UPDATE: Looks like this will continue. Now we learn that Mrs. Sandlin's chief of staff was likely leaving Sandlin's house a couple days before the June 2010 primary way too drunk to drive. This from the new Noem v. Herseth-Sandlin website…

Does the Congresswoman want to come clean with the citizens of South Dakota and tell us whether her Chief of Staff was leaving the Herseth-Sandlin residence drunk on Saturday June 6…just days before the primary?  Did the Congresswoman know that her Chief of Staff was driving on the roadways under the influence?…

…Congresswoman Herseth-Sandlin: you should make just as a big a deal about your Chief of Staff endangering families by driving drunk on the roadways as you did about your opponent's minor speeding infractions.  It's unacceptable to employ a person in a position of great importance and trust who drives drunk on South Dakota's roads. 

You had the opportunity to show South Dakotans that you are serious about how drivers drive on the road and not just another political opportunist…unfortunately you failed us…your failure to hold your Chief of Staff to a high-level of conduct with serious consequences for dangerous activity shows South Dakotans that you are more political opportunist and less a person who gives a damn about safe roadways.

Next, I'll mention that a little national press came my way with this politico.com article.  Nationwide, apparently I'm one of twenty bloggers running for office this fall.

The group of 20 candidates includes 15 who are running for state House or Senate and four seeking municipal office. Only Slate’s Mickey Kaus, who mounted a primary challenge to California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, sought a post in the federal government. Steve Hickey, a South Dakota pastor and blogger, entered his state’s race for an at-large congressional district seat before withdrawing in February to run for a state House seat. Also on the list: 10 Democrats, seven Republicans, two independents and one candidate who is competing in a nonpartisan school board election.

I told the Politico reporter I've never used my blog here to solicit funds for my campaign. That was true. But now I will do that very thing.  If you have appreciated my commentary over the years here on Voices Carry, I would really appreciate you making a donation to help me get my message out and win in November. It's time to buy yard signs - would you consider sponsoring 5, 10 or 25 ($4.50 each)?? As this venue has been dedicated to the plight of the unborn, I especially want to reach out to the pro-life readers here at Voices Carry and ask that you continue the fight by helping me get elected. If you can give more please do, it's needed. You can donate directly on my campaign website… www.stevehickeyforstatehouse.com  Thanks!!

On ballot order I notice the Secretary of State has done the random drawing. I'm second on the ballot which is better than fifth. Five people are running in District 9 for two House seats. A campaign academy I went to quoted a study of state elections that showed candidates in the first and second positions gain 1-3 percentage points over third, fourth and fifth position candidates. Obviously I'm not going to bank on that but hey, every bit helps.

And, if you haven't seen it yet, here is my spot on South Dakota Public Broadcastings Meet the Candidates program which will air a few times this fall.

Here's the map of the top 100. How is it North Dakota has three cities in the top 100 to our one?  Bismark is #74, Fargo is #86 and Grand Forks is #97.

And way to go Lincoln County, SD (south Sioux Falls) for being NUMBER ONE in fastest job growth (67%)!

Tomorrow marks the thirty-third time in the history of our nation when July 4th, Independence Day, falls on a Sunday. The last time was 2004 and the next time will be 2016. The first time the Fourth of July fell on a Sunday was in 1779 when our nation was just three years old. Out of respect for Sunday being the Sabbath, the Lord’s Day, Congress ordered all celebrations for the holiday be held on Monday July 5th.

I know many municipalities all over America have scheduled their parades for Monday, July 5. And, some communities are opting for later celebrations Sunday afternoon or evening. I noticed Sioux Falls new Mayor Mike Huether is starting our city’s celebration at eleven o'clock Sunday morning.  It's called "Mayor Mike Huether's 4th of July Family Parade and Picnic."

Of course I commend him for a family event. Yet, how hard would it have been for the Mayor start things up at 2 P.M. and encourage people of all faiths to devote the morning to thanking God for our freedoms and seeking heaven's help for the enormous problems facing our nation?

People don’t even really squawk about stuff on Sunday anymore. I guess we figure we lost the battle or it really doesn’t matter. Neither is true. In our case, we've canceled two of our three services tomorrow and are only offering one at 10:30 AM.. Maybe we should have gone with our earlier service instead so people could participate in the festivities in our city. Of course, many will be heading to church Saturday PM or early Sunday and then over to Falls Park in the early afternoon. Bummer that the rest of us will be too late to enjoy the parade.

On a related note, I see the (what I call) "Keep America Out of Church" voices are making hay about the appropriateness of flags in church and the baptism of patriotism (see… Be careful what you worship on July 4th). There's never been any confusion about who we worship at Church at the Gate. Tomorrow we are joining tens of thousands of other Call2Fall churches nationwide in kneeling before God on behalf of our nation.  I'll be speaking on the topic of Josiah and National Reformation and yes, I will tackle head-on these "Keep America Out of Church" voices.  If you want to hear that, show up at 10:30 AM.

God Bless America. Happy Fourth of July to everyone!

• Japanese households are being urged to go to bed one hour earlier than normal in order to help tackle climate change. If you couple that news item with this one where they want Japanese companies to let workers off an hour early so they can pro-create, doesn't that mean an hour earlier in bed might actually heat the world up even more? Thankfully more and more scientists are conceding the Al Gore global warming alarmism is a enormous hoax and that the depopulation of the world and a demographic winter is the real looming crisis of epic proportion. But talking about that isn't politically correct as the solutions are to stop aborting and start upholding traditional marriage so fertilility rates rise again.
• Speaking of Al Gore, apparently he and his former boss have more in common than we thought. He's accused of being a "crazed sex poodle" and the lady apparently has body-fluid soaked garments to prove it. Déjà vu anyone? The gal describes Gore "as a tipsy, handsy predator who forced her to drink Grand Marnier, pinned her to a bed, and forcibly French kissed her."  It's not hard to imagine that forced kiss. Will any feminists decry this womanizing Alpha Male Democrat ? Don't hold your breath. She also described Gore as a "giggling sex crazed poodle" and as a man with a "violent temper as well as extremely dictatorial commanding attitude besides his Mr. Smiley Global Warming concern persona."
• And where are all these global warming devotees in relation to the oil spill crisis? They don't seem to care that BP is burning sea turtles alive right now. I'll tell you where they are… they are quietly waiting for Obama to exploit this crisis to ram cap and tax down our throats. He follows the Saul Alinsky/Rahm Emanuel manual closely and hits his agenda gas peddle in a crisis not the brakes. From the Oval Office he told us his plan to handle this crisis is lawyers, litigation and legislation. Did anyone else notice that in Obama's Oval Office address the other night he made four points and none of them had anything to do with actually plugging the leak?