House: Jerry Bloomer, Rick Hanson
Senate: Catherine Ratliff
Rapid City Journal: District 30 races focus on schools
Jerry Bloomer
Jerry is a progressive candidate who wants to improve education, improve accessibility to health care, and promote jobs that pay a living wage.
Jerry Bloomer for SD House
2146 Minnekahta Ave
Hot Springs, SD 57747
Rick Hanson
I am from Custer and am a candidate for the State House of Representatives to represent District 30. I have been married over 21 years to my wife Barbara and we have three children, two daughters and a son.I have worked construction and later managed a dive shop in Georgia and taught scuba diving before pursuing a degree and career in archaeology. I have worked for both federal and state agencies as an archaeologist, including the Army Corps of Engineers, the United States Army, and the US Forest Service. I fought wildland fire and was a federal wildland firefighter until 2003. I have also worked for the State of South Dakota as an archaeologist and am currently employed by a contractor to provide archaeological services. I am still an active scuba diving instructor and have worked with a local community education program teaching a scuba diving class. In addition, I am a South Dakota resident producer licensed to write life and health insurance lines and will soon begin to work for a major insurance company.
I received a recommendation of my candidacy for election to the House by the South Dakota Education Association and an endorsement from Democracy in Action. I am involved in the South Dakota Democratic Party and have been the Custer County State Central Committeeman since 2003 and a member of the South Dakota Democratic Party Executive Board since 2004.
I believe sponsoring legislation such as House Bill 1215 (the abortion legislation) is none of my business or a legislator's business. I believe legislators have no business in South Dakotans' private lives. I think more legislation benefiting South Dakotans could have been accomplished during the latest legislative session if not for time taken up during the session by the HB 1215 piece of legislation.
If elected, I can work with Republicans and Independents. There are Republicans, Independents, and Democrats who want meaningful legislation passed. I will work together with them on real issues affecting South Dakotans.
I have been asking South Dakotans of all political affiliations in District 30 what issues they want to see addressed if I am elected to the legislature. Some of the issues are: affordable health care for all South Dakotans; meaningful education funding; ways to moderate rising property taxes; higher paying jobs; and some solution to the rising cost of gasoline and heating fuel.
I would appreciate your vote on November 7th. Thank you.
Rick Hanson
Rick Hanson for State House of Representatives
Barbara Hanson, Treasurer
1201 Bluebell Lane
Custer, SD 57730
rhanson@gwtc.net
Catherine Ratliff
I am a candidate for the SD Senate from District 30, which covers Fall River, Custer, and rural Pennington counties.The most compelling reason for my candidacy is that our system of government is out of balance. We the people ? mainstream moderate Democrats, Republicans and Independents, and new registered voters need to shore up our system of checks and balances beginning in the legislature, where one party dominates both the State House and Senate, both in numbers and in practice.
Our American democratic system doesn't work when we're this far out of balance. The evidence - legislators this year intruded into individual rights and women's rights, and imposed one sect of one religion on government. They voted for secrecy in legislative meetings; at the same time they tried to slash funding for public broadcasting, which is by far the best source of information on the legislative process in Pierre. They voted against education, the means by which real democracy is maintained. Their extremism made South Dakota an object of national focus, and negative attention.
I believe that the SD legislature's most vital job is to invest in education. Further, I believe that public education and religion don't mix, although ethics is a proper subject to be integrated in the curriculum. However, ideas like intelligent design should be taught at home and in church, not in our public schools. We can look at Iran and see what happens when religion rules government and public education ? and women.
In accord with the high value we place on education, we will not casually close rural schools that are the heart of the community. Schools go hand-in-hand with hometown prosperity and quality of life. Therefore, we oppose the recommendations of the Education Task Force established by the 2004 legislature and handpicked by the current governor, to close all of our schools with fewer than 200 students--one-third of South Dakota's small-town schools.
To help individuals get on the right career path, improve their lives and also the productivity and profitability of small business and industry, we need a stronger emphasis on career counseling in our schools and for adults in transition. The U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Labor and other government agencies provide ample reports of industrial and labor force trends, and which jobs will provide the best benefits for SD workers. We need to emphasize getting that information to students of all ages who are contemplating further training and education.
We need to look at our spending priorities. Our tax dollars support too many prisoners, prisons and jails. We need to invest in people through education, "at the front end," instead of paying the costs after they get on a wrong path, resulting in an expensive waste of tax dollars and lost productivity.
Most urgent, after education, is equity in health care. Our state government, doctors and insurance companies, working cooperatively, are capable of figuring out how to bring health care to 90,000 uninsured South Dakotans and under-insured families, and how to staff rural clinics and reduce turnover of medical providers. Other states are working out innovative ways to provide universal health care within their boundaries. Their efforts provide a menu of models, a place to start when we begin formulating a system of health care. That system must include more reasonably priced pharmaceuticals. There is no excuse for a system that makes the uninsured and Medicare recipients the only persons required to pay full price for prescription drugs
I support a minimum wage that single parents can live on without having to take two and three jobs. But a stronger minimum wage is just a start. We need good jobs so our kids have a choice to live here, so it's not just a beautiful place to retire ? although undeniably, this is a great place for retirees. South Dakota is also a great place to raise kids; we have cultural diversity, diversity in the environment and recreation, but we need good schools to draw families here, keep families here, diversity in the job market, more career paths, and career counseling.
Energy, the environment, recreation and tourism, logging, mining and ranching are industries with many overlapping issues. We don't have to have a tug-of-war, winners and losers over these issues. Rather, we can and will approach the concerns of groups managing and competing for resources with creativity and respect, aiming for win-win solutions.
Relationships between state and tribal governments, between Caucasian and Lakota people must be supported because these intersect frequently in South Dakota; and ancient wounds and rifts cannot begin to heal until we both acknowledge ancient wrongs and respect the dignity and value the culture of every person today.
A more balanced legislature and a more respectful discourse are the starting points to our grand goals of greater prosperity, liberty and quality of life for all of our citizens.... A balanced legislature will not continue to throw us off course. We will take back South Dakota, and we will have a state that makes us proud.
About me personally, I have three sons, all of whom graduated from South Dakota colleges, and four grandchildren in Watertown and Sioux Falls.
My background includes a B.A. in English and Master's in Counseling & Human Resource Development from SDSU, and a Law Degree from USD. I have trained as a mediator and served as an officer of the SD Mediation Association. Currently I serve on the Southern Hills Alcohol and Drug Referral Center board, chair the Eagle Valley Landowners Association and Fall River County Democrats. Memberships include the South Dakota Bar Association, National Organization of Social Security Claim Representatives, National Board of Certified Counselors, Southern Poverty Law Center, ACLU, Common Cause, and numerous human rights and environmental organizations. My law practice does federal court appeals for disabled people, winning economic support and necessary health care.
Ratliff for Senate
P.O. Box 844
Hot Springs, SD 57747
Phone: 605-745-4494
Email: bluestem@gwtc.net
ratliffecforsenate.org
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