STURGIS - Sen. Tim Johnson has been storming the state during his campaign for the 2008 election.
Monday afternoon he made stops in Rapid City and Sturgis.
The first stop was in Rapid City, where Johnson honored the Canyon Lake All-Stars for being the first South Dakota team to qualify for the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Penn.
Then it was on to Sturgis, where he was guided on a “windshield tour,” with Mayor Maury LaRue driving the senator around town to show how the city is growing.
City manager David Boone, council member Bernadette Usera and Johnson staffer Matt Varilek also accompanied the pair as they viewed the Sturgis Industrial Park. While the tour was going on, Barbara Johnson, the senator's wife, toured the Crisis Intervention Shelter Services facility on Sherman Street.
The senator commented on how his campaign has been going.
“It's been going well. I have criss-crossed the entire state of South Dakota. I have skipped the Democratic convention to spend more time with South Dakotans,” he said.
He stated that every region has its own concerns. For instance, in East river there is the Lewis and Clark water system, corn and beans. But in west river there is interest in the military and tourism that is unique to the Black Hills and western South Dakota.
Being a chairman of military construction of the VA subcommittee, Johnson has a say in how military construction comes along as well as the VA hospitals. “I have a warm spot in my heart for Sturgis. The VA has an excellent hospital along with the clinic in Rapid City,” he said. In addition, he feels there is room for improvement at Camp Rapid and Ellsworth Air Force Base.
Johnson feels Congress should have a comprehensive plan when it comes to gas prices.
“It ranges from getting after speculators to common sense personal conservation initiatives to efficient automobiles, and trucks such as hybrids,” he said.
He stressed that Republicans and Democrats alike must stop fighting and quit worrying about who gets the credit for solving the crisis.
Johnson felt good about the Obama-Biden presidential ticket.
“It's a very good one and it will be a close election. South Dakota historically is a Republican state. The last Democrat to carry the state was LBJ in 1964. But it will be close. But the main thing is that we get rid of that partisanship and start concentrating on the American people,” he said.
Recent News Articles
- October 31, 2008 | from Aberdeen American News Tim Johnson Right Choice for U.S. Senate The American News endorses Tim Johnson for South Dakota's U.S. Senate seat in Tuesday's election.
- October 29, 2008 | from Mitchell Daily Republic Endorsement: Congressional Incumbents Deserve Re-election U.S. Sen. Tim Johnson and Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin are farm-state lawmakers. They’ve proven it during their terms in office, and because of their work in the past for farmers and this state’s agrarian concerns, we feel they both deserve election on Tuesday.
- October 24, 2008 | from Pierre Capital Journal Johnson the Right Choice for South Dakotans For the past 29 years, Tim Johnson has served South Dakotans to the best of his ability, achieving more for the state than those who first elected him to the state House of Representatives in 1979 would have ever imagined. And we believe the incumbent senator will continue to push above and beyond the expectations of the citizens of South Dakota, despite many people's concerns about his health.
- September 11, 2008 | from Black Hills Pioneer Sen. Tim Johnson celebrates second year back at work by trumpeting achievements In the midst of his promising re-election bid, South Dakota's senior senator celebrated his second year back on the job after a life-threatening brain injury with a party and a 151-page report on his work. A bit more than a year ago, Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., returned to the U.S. Senate after nine months recovering from an AVM, arteriovenous malformation. The bipartisan fanfare that greeted Johnson seemed as much a reflection of the Senate's well known collegial tradition as of Johnson's recovery from his initial grave condition.
- September 05, 2008 | from Pierre Capital Journal Meeting With Senator Johnson Provides Answers About Condition In the past few weeks, it seems that every newspaper, Web logger and voter in general has formed an opinion about Sen. Tim Johnson's decision not to debate this election year.
