Since people have given up trying to run for any office if they don’t belong to the Republican Party, the primary election on the 14^th will be the actual election for local offices. The election law was changed several years ago so that when the primary is effectively the election, everyone gets to vote in the primary.

The strangest race, for me, is the one for Public Defender. I just have a hard time dealing with the concept of an elected Public Defender. Given the people who vote in my county, what kind of ‘promises’ do you make to appeal to the whacko voters? Do you tell them that you can guarantee that no guilty person will get off if they elect you as Public Defender? If you are running for re-election, do you tell people that you haven’t won a single trial in 4 years?

I got a mailer from the incumbent and it is a piece of work. He is a proven ‘conservative’ because he cut the budget – well, except that the budget is established by the state legislature, they cut it.

He reduced personnel costs. If people in your organization are suspended while under investigation, I’m not sure you can take credit for not having to pay them.

I’m not really clear on the process for collecting money from people represented by the Public Defender, so I can’t comment on that claim.

Then he uses the back of the mailer to attack his opponent.

The opponent ‘worked for & supported liberal Democratic Senator James Abourezk’. Actually, his opponent was an intern for Mr. Abourezk while still in law school in 1993. Mr. Abourezk served one term in the Senate, from 1973 to 1979. A lot of people who have attended the law school at the University of South Dakota have interned for him.

Mr. Abourezk was the first Arab-American to serve in the Senate. His parents were Lebanese Christians who emigrated to the US early in the twentieth century, before he was born in 1931 in Wood, South Dakota. He served one term in the House followed immediately by one term in the Senate, and then returned to his private law practice. Not much of a politician.

As for not voting in 2008, you would have to check the supervisors of elections in four counties to find out if that was true.

The problem is all of the missteps the incumbent has made in the last four years, not who the challenger worked for in college, or whether he voted locally.

This is really pathetic.

Position: 12.6N 50.6W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: West-Northwest [285°] near 18 mph [30 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 35 mph [ 55 kph].
Wind Gusts: 45 mph [ 70 kph].
Minimum central pressure: 1008 mb.

Currently about 700 miles [1130 km] East of the Windward Islands.

A Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for Barbados, St Vincent & the Grenadines, Dominica, St Lucia, Martinique, and Guadeloupe.

This was Invest 99. Currently it is forecast to maintain this course, and slowly strengthen.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]