South Dakota Democratic Senate candidate Rick Weiland, whose innovative Johnny Cash cover earlier this campaign helped spark his populist, town-to-town campaign into the national progressive blogosphere, has released a follow-up to his "Everywhere Man" video. Weiland has turned Roger Miller's "King of the Road" into "Bring on the Road," a self-testimonial about Weiland's second trip to every town in South Dakota.
Politics can become boring and predictable. That's what makes Weiland such a unique candidate, which is why I have been excited to be consulting for his campaign from the beginning. He's hitting parades on the weekends, coffee shops during the week and still isn't afraid to pull out his guitar in an effort to connect with voters who've become jaded by cynical political stunts, such as last week's launching of GOP Senate candidate Mike Rounds' so-called "Grassroots Express."
Rounds has taken heat for not traveling the state. He has focused on flying around the country instead, raising out of state big money. The Rounds' camp is cognizant of Weiland's ground game which has become the talk of South Dakota political circles as Republican editorial boards continue to heap praise on Weiland's work ethic. So, what do you do if you have millions of big-money dollars at your disposal? You spend $100,000 on a luxury RV and give it a cool, if totally inauthentic moniker.
So, in South Dakota it's the King of the Road taking on a conventional, corporate Republican. Keep an eye on this race because the upper Great Plains have a history of sending populists to Washington, DC and no candidate in the country is working harder than Weiland.
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