John Thune just finished singing "Count Your Blessings" with the "Kitchen Band" (note the aprons) which was visiting Golden Prairie Manor in Winner, South Dakota to sing to the residents.
John Thune stumped in Winner, South Dakota yesterday and in the evening spoke to about 130 people at the Tripp County Lincoln Day dinner--such dinners are a tradition of the South Dakota Republican party. The Democrats don't hold such dinners. Winner is the county seat of Tripp County and is located in the south central part of the state. There are lots of ranchers and Republicans here and Thune won the county in 2002. Tripp County was not organized until 1909 and involved a classic county seat battle between Lamro, Colome, and Winner--the land developers around Winner picked a confident name and won the contest.
There are about 3,000 people in Winner and during pheasant hunting season in the fall the town triples in size to almost 10,000. Daschle's gun control votes in the last few months won't be very popular here.
The local drug store triples as a pharmacy, gun shop (the rifles, shotguns, and pistols are to the left), and fishing supply store:
Winner is also a military town. For a county with such a small population, more than 550 people served in World War I. Also, the local 153rd Engingeering Battalian just left for Iraq a few months ago, taking many local residents, including local high school teachers and the son of the owners of the Winner Bakery. Here's the wonderful monument at the courthouse dedicated to county's World War I veterans:
Winner is also served by the weekly newspaper the Winner Advocate, which first started publishing in 1910. The Sioux Falls Argus Leader and the Rapid City Journal is purchased by some county residents (the edge goes to the Rapid City paper, which covers more western South Dakota issues) and the Mitchell Daily Republic (Mitchell is only 40 miles away) has some followers. The editor-in-chief of the Winner Advocate is Dan Bechtold, whose father was the city editor of the Argus Leader for many years under the editorship of Fred Christopherson (back when the Argus was fiercely pro-Republican). Dan has been in Winner since he finished journalism school at SDSU in the 1960s (where he went to school with Tom Daschle and Dave Kranz--yes, it's a small state!). The Winner Advocate doesn't do political endorsements. Here's Dan:
The largest denomination in Tripp County is Catholic, which could be a problem for Daschle. Here's the Church of the Immaculate Conception:
Tripp County is also a good example of the graying of some rural South Dakota Counties. Just below is a picture of Thune and Roy Rice, who is 102. In the latest poll, Thune wins the 70 years-old-plus-demographic.
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