The 2009 legislative season ended with a whimper, not a bang, as lawmakers reconvened to consider all of Gov. Mike Rounds' vetoes. For the first time in memory, that number was exactly zero.

But that doesn't mean politics is dead, or even temporarily sleeping.

There's plenty of chatter going on out there, especially in the South Dakota blogosphere. It's there where the hard-core politcos go to bat for their specific causes and where one can see the elections of tomorrow taking place.

And even if they don't come to fruition, there's plenty of interesting information, from current polls, trends or even a story or two about things not so political filling up the realm.

Here's a few of my favorite over the past week or so.

Thune vs. Herseth Sandlin

In this political wasteland known as the off-year election following the presidential election, the guessing game of who will and who won't run and how the hypothetical race would turn out is often all politicos have.

That being said, the discussion of how the state's most promising politicians - John Thune and Stephanie Herseth Sandlin - would do in a straight on race is not bad for an off year topic.

Pat Powers tackles the topic at South Dakota War College, giving the nod to Thune in a possible decisive victory. The post is good. The comments are even better.

Tea Party in Memorial Park

These are tough times for those favoring less government over more government. That's largely due to the unpopularity of two-term Republican President George W. Bush.

And while conservatives find themselves largely out of power in Washington, in South Dakota, the rightest of the right aren't sitting idly. Former Journal columnist Bob Ellis reveals details on an event right here in Rapid City designed to further cement the "less-is-more" movement with a Rapid City Tax Day Tea Party at Memorial Park.

The 90-minute workday gathering (April 15 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.) will feature speakers and offer folks an opportunity to "tell Washington, D.C., what they think of the irresponsible government coming out of the halls of government."

Ellis' call to action isn't surprising out here in the heart of conservative South Dakota, considering the Democrats' stronghold in Washington. My only question is, when will those not so strongly allied with Republicans OR Democrats get mad enough to take their elected officials to task?

A race for mayor

On Mount Blogmore, the prospectus for the 2009 Rapid City mayoral race is brief and unbiased, simply seeking readers' input on who do they believe will win the race: long-time politico and incumbent Alan Hanks or outsider Bonnie Redden.

Both ran in the last mayoral race, with Hanks eventually taking the top prize with thousands of votes - in the field of seven or in the run-off - and Redden managing only 125.

Of course, like all good blogs, the proof is in the comments, of which few are coming out with flat-out predictions (other than one who somehow sees Redden actually losing votes despite the historical evidence that sitting public officials rarely make friends).

What really comes to light? Well, two things. One, the interest in being mayor in these tough times has certainly diminished compared to two years ago. With a job that pays in triple-figures territory, that seems a bit counter-intuitive, but I'm sure the hassle meter is working overtime at CSAC.

Secondly, there's much campaigning left to be had. So, let the games begin.

Abortion, politicians and the Republican stronghold known as West River

Former reporter turned blogger/filmmaker Denise Ross notes in a recent blog post that the abortion issue - when it comes to voters - had vastly different effects on the voting population between the 2006 version and the 2008 version.

Ross knows the abortion issue in South Dakota better than anyone. She covered it's movements through Pierre to the ballot, even making a feature length documentary on the issue.

In her latest post, she notes that although many Democratic-leaning voters opposed the ban, many Republicans did as well. And while the 2006 seemed to give a little more life to Democratic candidates, the 2008 failed to do so. Case in point would be District 32, which remarkably went Democratic in 2006 but returned to the GOP in 2008.

Ross asks "So, can we conclude that perhaps name ID and hot-button issues matter less than party affiliation, especially in a presidential year?"

Well, there is certainly that. And there's the fact that the 2006 Republican-led legislature led the effort to make the abortion ban law, whereas in 2008, it was an initiated measure.

Regardless, it's an issue that seems to persist in South Dakota politics regardless the year or the season.

Chasing lightning

And now for something completely different.

Blogger Todd Epp shares the story of Tom Warner of Rapid City, a former B-1B Bomber pilot and Ph.D. student who is studying the natural phenomenon of lightning rising from the Earth into the skies above.

As noted by Epp, this is no dry science. Warner used to fly an armored T-28 owned by the School of Mines into thunderstorms to record scientific measurements. The flights were somewhat harrowing as the lightning would sometimes strike the aircraft, leaving scorch marks.

Now he tools around the region in a van equipped with portholes from which sate of the art video equipment shoots lightning strikes in the Black Hills area.

According to Epp, Warner is the first person to get visual confirmation of lightning actually rising up from an object into the sky.

Fascinating stuff right here in Rapid City. And Epp offers up a series of urls to follow Warner's experiments and findings.