County, legislative seats opening

Posted

BROOKINGS – In addition to the election for Brookings County Sheriff, five other county positions are up for election this November:

• Brookings County Register of Deeds, held by Beverly Chapman

• Brookings County State’s Attorney, held by Abigail Howard

• Three spots on the Brookings County Commission, held by Larry Jensen, Stephne Miller and Lee Ann Pierce

All but the state’s attorney will serve four-year terms. 

The state’s attorney race will be to serve the remaining two years of Howard’s term. Howard will serve until Jan. 29, when she begins her duties as a Third Circuit magistrate judge. An interim state’s attorney will be appointed to serve from February to the end of this year.

On the legislative level, there are six spots between District 4 and District 7 up for election, all with two-year terms.

For District 4, those are the spots now held by Reps. Jason Kettwig and John Mills and state Sen. John Wiik. All are Republicans.

For District 7, those are the spots now held by Reps. Spence Hawley (D) and Tim Reed (R) and state Sen. Larry Tidemann (R). Both Hawley and Tidemann are term-limited out of their current posts and have said they do not plan to seek office in the other chambers.

Nominating petitions can be taken out now for those county and legislative races, with the petition deadline for Republicans and Democrats on March 27. For those running as Independents, the deadline for submitting petitions is April 24.

Petitions for county office must have 30 signatures for those running as Democrat, Republican or Independent or five if a minor third party.

Petitions for legislative positions must have 50 signatures if Democrat, Republican or Independent or five if a minor third party.

Petitions for county or legislative races can be picked up at the Brookings County Finance Office or printed from the South Dakota secretary of state’s website at www.sdsos.gov.

If there are any primaries for these races, they would be held on June 5. The general election takes place Nov. 6.

Contact Eric Sandbulte at esandbulte@brookingsregister.com.