Paula Hawks Will Make The South Dakota House Race Competitive

Chris Christie might want to punch former school teacher Paula Hawks in the mouth, but the 2-term progressive state rep has a better chance of being elected to Congress than he has of getting into the White House. I asked some of my friends how progressive she is and they were all pretty positive. "If," one told me, "Stephanie [Herseth-Sandlin, Blue Dog, DINO and the last Democrat to hold the seat] is a 3 on a 1-10 progressive scale, I'd have to say Paula is a 7+."

"If I'm elected to the United States House of Representatives," she explained in her announcement video (above),

I will stand and fight for our family farmers and ranchers [emphasis hers]. I will stand and fight for South Dakota's women and support equal pay for equal work, something our current Representative [Republican Kristin Noem] opposes. I will stand with our seniors and fight for lower drug prices. I will stand up for our young people who are pursuing a higher education to ensure that their degree gives them a career, not decades of student loan debt. I will stand up against Wall Street to make sure that your hard-earned dollars are not swept away by high risk practices that have crippled our economy.

One of my most trusted South Dakota sources, who knows Paula personally, told me:

As far as I know she's a good progressive, and I'm glad to see she's running. Corinna Robinson was a disaster last time, had zero clue about politics, and most Democrats just felt sorry for her and ignored her because she was such an embarrassment to the party. A lot of people complain when the party doesn't field a candidate, like when John Thune runs unopposed. And he probably will again in 2016. But Corinna Robinson demonstrates that sometimes "nobody" is better than an embarrassing candidate. I think Paula will be capable, and hopefully she won't be too coopted by the DCCC/Blue Dog crowd as she tries to win statewide. It'll be hard, though.

Noem narrowly beat Blue Dog Herseth-Sandlin in 2010, 48-46%, but last year she trounced Corinna Robinson 67-33%. Noem spent $2,284,548 in her race against Herseth-Sandlin (who spent $2,180,569), and last year she spent $1,684,069 against Robinson's $167,102. Noem has been an aggressive fund-raiser from outside special interests and has already amassed a $1.2 million war chest for 2016.