I've received a few e-mails from Rick Weiland's (D. SD) U.S. Senate campaign regarding the government shutdown. The one I received today is a message he is sending out to local press vowing to never shutdown the government:
To the editor:
I hereby pledge that, if elected to represent the people of South Dakota, I will never vote to shut down our government, or to place our government in default, in order to force it to act, or to prevent it from acting, on unrelated issues.
That is my pledge to South Dakota.
I am pledging nothing more than that, should you choose to hire me, I will do the job for which I have been hired.
It is sad that the utter irresponsibility of so many politicians makes such a pledge necessary. But when our government is shut down, and our nation threatened with default, because a small minority did not get their way on an entirely unrelated political issue, citizens have every right to ask those they would hire to promise that they will do their job.
I make that promise today and hope others seeking to properly represent their country will join me.
Rick Weiland
Candidate for U.S. Senate
This is good because Mike Rounds (R. SD) and the other GOP candidates are all for it:
http://www.argusleader.com/...
Republican candidates said they support the GOP-controlled House in its insistence that a government funding package curtail the controversial Affordable Care Act. They echoed congressional Republicans in blaming Democrats for the stalemate. Meanwhile, Democratic candidate Rick Weiland said Republicans were hurting the country in a quixotic assault on the health care law.
“I think this is important enough (to hold the line on),” said Larry Rhoden, one of the four Republicans running. “Obamacare will have disastrous consequences on our health care system.”
Rhoden and fellow Republicans Stace Nelson and Mike Rounds said they all see the Affordable Care Act as so catastrophic that stern measures are called for to oppose it – including refusing to pass a government funding bill unless it defunds, delays or otherwise weakens the Democrat-backed health care reform law.
Because Democrats in Congress have refused to vote for a government funding bill that does any of those things, the two parties have been unable to agree on funding, causing the shutdown.
While Rounds said it was “unfortunate that it came to this,” he said House Republicans did the right thing in holding their ground. It was Democrats who provoked the shutdown by not compromising over the Affordable Care Act, he said.
“You have Senate Democrats saying, ‘We won’t even discuss it,’“ Rounds said. “When you won’t sit down and visit with one another, we have a dysfunctional government that’s not getting its work done.”
Nelson said Democrats are “hold(ing) our country hostage over the Obamacare funding.”
“They’re using this to create such a drama, and to cause such anxiety in our country,” Nelson said, who endorsed a “full-court press” against the Affordable Care Act.
Weiland said it was Republicans, not Democrats, who were holding the country hostage. - Argus Leader, 10/1/13
Dr. Anette Bosworth's (R. SD) campaign did not state her position on the shutdown. But Bosworth thinks the NRSC is afraid of here:
http://atr.rollcall.com/...
Dr. Annette Bosworth is a political newcomer who, for now, is a long-shot to win South Dakota’s GOP Senate primary.
“If you look at all the upsets that have been done in the last two cycles, they come from outsiders with expert skills that are brave enough to run and that are principled,” Bosworth said in a video interview at CQ Roll Call’s offices last week. “And I think that my example would be a great representation for South Dakota.”
An acolyte of the late Republican Gov. Bill Janklow, Bosworth said she will continue to practice medicine as she runs for the Senate. She’s largely unknown, running as an outsider in the GOP primary against former Gov. Mike Rounds in one of her party’s top pickup opportunities of the cycle.
Bosworth described the National Republican Senatorial Committee as “worried” about her candidacy. The NRSC lost a handful of Senate races over the last two cycles, thanks to weak candidates who won GOP primaries.
“We’ve got several strong Republicans running for the race and they’re quite worried about a newbie coming on scene,” she said. “But in that retort, I would say I get why they are nervous. I am clearly not from the establishment.” - Roll Call, 10/8/13
Another e-mail I received from Weiland's campaign was a call for members of Congress and candidates to sign his Responsible Government Pledge:
It is time to put an end to the blackmailing of our government!
Sign our petition today:
http://pac.petitions.moveon.org/...
Insist that every candidate for, and Member of, Congress in the United States pledge in writing to his or her constituents that he or she will never again vote to shut down or bankrupt our democracy.
Blackmail is not part of the democratic process.
Blackmail to overturn the results of a vote of Congress, a Presidential election, and a Supreme Court decision is not part of the democratic process.
And blackmail that allows health insurers to drop your coverage at will, raise rates without justification, and classify pregnancy as a preexisting condition is certainly not a part of the democratic process.
Our democracy will not survive if radical minorities can shut it down every time they don't get their way.
We need to use the anger created by this latest outrage to get in writing a binding pledge from every single person we elect to Federal office.
Join us. Make them all state in writing,
"I hereby pledge that, if elected to represent you, I will never vote to shut down your government, or to place your government in default, in order to force it to act, or to prevent it from acting, on unrelated issues."
That is what our petition asks. Sign it now!
http://pac.petitions.moveon.org/...
As a candidate I have taken the pledge. As a citizen I have signed the petition asking other candidates to sign the pledge.
Together we can make the radical right pay for this disgrace to democracy, and to the United States of America, that they have inflicted on us and on our country.
If we care how can we do less?
Sign on now. Join us and let's take back our country:
http://pac.petitions.moveon.org/...
Rick Weiland
You can click here to sign Weiland's petition:
http://pac.petitions.moveon.org/...
By the way, Weiland will be holding two more Town Hall meetings this week:
Sioux Falls businessman Rick Weiland, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, will be holding two more “Take It Back!” town halls in Fort Pierre on October 10th and Wall on October 11th. Weiland, who is continuing his tour of more every town in South Dakota, says that South Dakotans across the state are increasingly angry at the government shutdown and the politicians who are holding our economy hostage.
“What we are seeing in Washington has to stop. There is simply no excuse for holding our economy hostage and gambling with the livelihoods of American workers to advance an ideological agenda. The politicians who are driving this shutdown are simply disconnected from reality.” Weiland said.
Media Advisory
LOCATION:
Perkins
217 East Hustan Ave, Fort Pierre, SD 57532
Thursday, October 10th
4:00 PM
Roadtrip Café
203 South Blvd, Wall, SD 57790
Friday, October 11th
4:00 PM
If you can't make the Town Hall meetings but would like to get involved with or donate to Weiland's campaign, you can do so here:
http://www.rickweiland.com/