2018 General Election Lost 51 — 48
Risky Business
That’s Billie Sutton https://www.suttonforsd.com/, not Willie. A risky a life in either case. People in South Dakota take risks. At least the Democrats do. Maybe it is the Suttons who do. Billie Sutton‘s grandfather Billie Sutton ran for Lt. Governor in 1978 and lost. In the last election, in 2014, the Democrat candidate for governor lost big — 70-25.
Billie Sutton is accustomed to risk. It runs in the family. His grandfather, the Lt. Governor candidate died in a farm accident. The next generation Sutton was a rancher and rodeo rider. Our Billie Sutton went to college and made a name in college rodeo. He came out of the University of South Dakota with more rodeo points (I’m not sure what that means) than any participant in the sport before him. Good enough to turn professional, he was ranked among the top 30 in the world (There are rodeos outside of the United States?). Billie Sutton was good enough to take risks. One risk went bad. He had a rodeo accident that caused lower body paralysis.
After his injury, Billie Sutton turned to banking, to providing financial advice. In that arena, he does not take risks or encourage others to take risks. He followed his grandfather’s example — politics. He ran for the state legislature, became Deputy Minority Leader, then Minority Leader in rapid order.
Injury and politics notwithstanding, Billie Sutton still works the ranch. He ropes calves. He is picked up, put in a specially designed saddle, and goes to work. From a distance, he looks like any other cowboy (A long distance away, I write from the Upper East Side of New York City and only pretend I know what any other cowboy looks like). He’s not like any other cowboy. He knows how careful his injury makes him. He has no feeling in his lower body, wouldn’t know it if he broke a bone. Careful, now, as a rider, he does get the work done.
Billie Sutton gets the work done in town, too. He goes to town in a pick up truck controlled with his hands. He rolls around town in his wheel chair. Campaigning, he does more public events than door to door campaigning. Too many houses have steps to make going door to door useful.
The community of Democrats is pretty small in South Dakota. Billie Sutton‘s grandfather’s campaign manager is still around. Billie Sutton‘s grandfather’s campaign manager’s son is the Sutton Campaign Treasurer. Democrats can get elected in South Dakota. Even though, the last Democratic Governor left office in January 1975, Stephanie Herseth, whose father was the next to last elected Democratic Governor, represented South Dakota in Congress for three terms beginning in 2004.
The outgoing, term-limited Republican governor is popular. With an open seat, at a time when Democrats have a better chance than usual, it was worth the risk for thirty-three year old Billie Sutton to run. He has his campaign issues. They are the legislative agenda he outlined for 2018 in the State Senate:
- Government accountability — transparency of and access to government information so that taxpayers can be certain that their funds are spent honestly and managed effectively.
- Economic development — make strategic public investments to restore both the struggling agricultural and non-farm economy in the state
- Educational improvement — skills and job training, needs based scholarships, early childhood education
- Housing — Create more affordable housing options
Could Billie Sutton https://www.suttonforsd.com/ win this election? There is probably no better time. Give him a hand. Give him the resources he needs. He is a good campaigner. He is an experienced state leader (a pretty young, experienced state leader). He has a great story. He has a family ambition to fulfill. He could do it.
