Gant Wins GOP Nomination

State Sen. Jason Gant of Sioux Falls hugs his daughter, Mallory, on Saturday, June 26, 2010, in Huron, S.D., after winning the South Dakota Republican Party's nomination to run for secretary of state. Gant will face Democratic state Sen. Ben Nesselhuf of Vermillion in November for secretary of state. Photo: Chet Brokaw / AP



GOP, Democrats finalize candidates for SD ballot

CHET BROKAW, Associated Press Writers, WAYNE ORTMAN, Associated Press Writers

Published: 05:59 p.m., Saturday, June 26, 2010

HURON, S.D. (AP) — Both major parties firmed up their candidate lineups for the November general elections Saturday at their state conventions.

State Sen. Jason Gant of Sioux Falls won a three-way battle for the South Dakota Republican Party's nomination to run for secretary of state.

Gant, 33, won the nomination on the second ballot, defeating Deputy Secretary of State Teresa Bray and state Rep. Tom Deadrick of Platte.

Gant and other Republicans said they're worried that the Democratic candidate, state Sen. Ben Nesselhuf of Vermillion, would weaken controls on voting by allowing registration on Election Day and doing away with some voter identification requirements.

"If we let him get elected, we're going to have very questionable elections in our state," Gant said of Nesselhuf.

Nesselhuf won the Democratic nomination without opposition. In accepting the nomination, he sounded a theme common throughout the day at the Democratic
convention in Sioux Falls: Republicans have held too many elected offices for too long.

"The people I'm running against are not bad people; they're good folks, I know them all," Nesselhuf said, "but the reason it's important to win this race is essentially the same crowd has been running this office for the past 32 years and it's time for some fresh energy, some fresh ideas."

The secretary of state's office supervises elections and handles corporate business filings.

Gant fell short of the required 50 percent on the GOP convention's first vote, where each county delegation gets to cast the number of votes it gave the Republican gubernatorial candidate in the last election. Gant, a health care consultant who is in his 6th year in the state Senate, got 51 percent on the second ballot.

Democrats nominated former state lawmaker Ron Volesky of Huron to run for attorney general. He will face Republican incumbent Marty Jackley, who won his party's nomination Friday without opposition.

Volesky was the Democratic Party's unsuccessful candidate for the same office four years ago. He ran briefly for governor before abandoning that race this year, then lost a primary race for the Legislature.

Volesky said he won't let past political losses defeat him.

"I am inspired and motivated by those traumas, those setbacks," he told fellow Democrats, "just as the party the setbacks we have suffered need to motivate us and strengthen us, ever diligent to go forward."

Steve Barnett of Aberdeen, an aide to U.S. Sen. John Thune, won the Republican nomination for state auditor, defeating former South Dakota First Lady Pat Miller and state Rep. Tim Rounds of Pierre. Barnett will face Democratic state Sen. Julie Bartling of Burke, for the right to run the auditor's office, which pays the state's bills.

Barnett, 31, has worked for Thune for about five years. He is the grandson of the late state Rep. Joe Barnett of Aberdeen, a legendary leader in the South Dakota House for many years.

Bartling said she brings experience to the job with 18 years as Gregory County auditor and 10 years in the Legislature.

In the race for state treasurer, Republican State Auditor Rich Sattgast will face former Democratic legislator Tom Katus, who said he finalized his decision to accept the nomination just before the Democratic convention began Saturday.

Sattgast cannot seek re-election as state auditor because of term limits. At the GOP convention, he defeated deputy state treasurer Mike Mehlhaff Sr. for the right to run for treasurer. The treasurer's office accepts payments to the state and invests the money.

On Friday, the Republican Party also nominated Public Utilities Commission Chairman Dusty Johnson and School and Public Lands Commissioner Jerrod Johnson to seek re-election. They were unopposed.

Democrats chose Doyle Karpen of Jefferson over John Zaiko of Pierre to run for the PUC and endorsed Bob Pille of Manderson to run for commissioner of School and Public Lands.

Wayne Ortman reported from the Democratic State Convention in Sioux Falls.