#ryan brunner

At the beginning of this month Todd Epp wrote an excellent article about the Libertarian Party having an opportunity to eliminate the School and Public Lands (S&PL) Commissioner position. As Epp noted it is not a new idea, but it is definitely worth having that discussion again. Here is a portion of Epp’s article I find most relevant to the discussion:

Further, the Libertarian school and public…

Republican candidate for Commissioner of School and Public Lands Ryan Brunner at the Brown County Fair. Photo by Ken Santema

In a continuation of my chats with candidates I took some time to talk with Ryan Brunner. Brunner is the Republican candidate for Commissioner of School and Public Lands, and currently serves as the Deputy Commissioner. The previously elected commissioner, Jared Johnson,…

State Rep. Jim Bolin is dropping out of the race for Commissioner of School and Public Lands to focus his efforts on opposing the Common Core Standards, he said Thursday morning.

Bolin has long been among the most vocal opponents of Common Core in the state. Those standards, developed by the bipartisan National Governors Association, aim to refocus English and math education in the United States. South Dakota, like many states, has adopted the Common Core — over Bolin's determined opposition in the Legislature.

The announcement leaves just one Republican running for the School and Public Lands office, current deputy Ryan Brunner. Bolin entered the race in March and had been visiting GOP events around the state since then.

In an email, Bolin said fighting Common Core would take too much of his time to also run for statewide office.

"My sole reason for this change in plans is that my de facto leadership role in the resistance to the Common Core educational effort is now requiring major commitments of time and energy," Bolin wrote. "Since March 2013 when I announced my candidacy, public attention, concern, and outright opposition to the national educational standards movement known as Common Core, has increased exponentially. Due to the fact that I was an early and vocal skeptic of the Common Core, I have been deluged with requests to comment on this subject from all over the state. I have concluded that I cannot run an effective statewide race and at the same time be heavily involved in efforts to oppose Common Core."

South Dakota's deputy public lands commissioner will run for the office's top job next year.

Ryan Brunner, 29, announced Monday that he would run for Commissioner of School and Public Lands.

"I bring a lot of different things to my office through my background in agriculture and economic development," said Brunner, who grew up on a Nisland ranch.

The current commissioner, Vern Larson, only started last week. He was appointed to replace Jarrod Johnson, who resigned this month. Johnson would have been barred from running again due to term limits.

Brunner was appointed deputy commissioner in 2012. Prior to joining the office, he worked for three years at the Brookings Economic Development Corporation.

The office of School and Public Lands manages state-owned lands across South Dakota, directing revenue from those lands to K-12 school districts and the state university system. It controls just over 700,000 acres and a $170 million trust fund, and typically sends around $10 million per year to education. It leases its lands for ranching, oil and gas exploration and other uses. 

If elected, Brunner said he wants to find "new ways to generate money for schools." Among his ideas are to shrink the size of oil leases South Dakota offers to match standard practice in North Dakota.

Brunner is the second Republican to enter the race. State Rep. Jim Bolin, R-Canton, previously announced his candidacy.

"I anticipated all along it would be a competitive race," Bolin said. "It doesn't change my plans or my efforts at all."

Bolin entered the race in March. Before his announcement today, Brunner had been quietly building support among party insiders for months. He said he decided to run after receiving encouragement from fellow Republicans.

In a surprising move, South Dakota's public lands commissioner will resign a year and a half before the end of his term.

Jarrod Johnson, 42, was elected in 2010 to a four-year term. But instead he'll leave office in August to spend more time with his children, including his son Clayton, who is about to start high school, and a daughter, Anna, in grade school.

"I'm going home to my family," said Johnson, a Corson rancher. "It's time. (Clayton will) be a freshman. I don't want to miss his high school years, even one moment of them."

Johnson, first elected to be commissioner of the Office of School and Public Lands in 2006, was prohibited by term limits from running again.

Gov. Dennis Daugaard will appoint a replacement to fill out the remainder of Johnson's term.

The governor is undecided about whether to appoint a placeholder or someone who will run for a full term in 2014 as an incumbent.

There's already one declared candidate for lands commissioner in 2014, state Rep. Jim Bolin, R-Canton.

But Bolin is constitutionally ineligible, as a sitting legislator, to be appointed to the job until the end of his term.

Daugaard "knows there's already one declared candidate on the Republican side, and a couple others that are widely rumored," gubernatorial adviser Tony Venhuizen said. "It certainly appears that there will be a Republican contest for that nomination. Those will be factors as he decides how to move forward."

Among the rumored candidates is Johnson's deputy, Ryan Brunner, who would be eligible to be appointed to the position.

Bolin said he was "surprised" by the news but plans to stay in the race.

"It doesn't really change my plans at all," Bolin said.

Johnson said the resignation wasn't political, and that he didn't know Bolin and other legislators were ineligible for the appointment.

"It's just one of those things where it's time for me to get my butt home," Johnson said. "There was no intention of any political gamesmanship in that move."