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ness owner who once served as a staffer for former U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle.
• Pressler, a Vietnam War veteran, said he supports scaling back overseas military bases in such countries as Italy and Germany. He would rather that money be used to strengthen Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota or go toward civil domestic projects such as water pipelines and the state's fish hatchery.
• He also would address issues important to South Dakota residents, such as air service. Passengers in the state are treated poorly by the airlines, as flights are too expensive, they're often collapsed together and changed without notice, he said.
• "South Dakota needs an old fashioned powerful senator, and I would seek the equivalent of earmarks for some of our projects because other states do," he said.
• Pressler, who twice supported President Barack Obama at the polls, said he would have voted against Obama's Affordable Care Act. But now that the act is law, Congress needs to work together with the administration to fix it, he said.
• "I've been in Congress long enough to know how to do it and how to approach these things and how to work on a bipartisan basis with other people," Pressler said. "I wouldn't have the White House mad at me."
• Of South Dakota's more than 509,000 registered voters as of April 1, slightly more than 96,000 listed themselves as independent or having no party affiliation. That's a 29 percent increase from the 2006 general election, but the state has more than 235,000 Republicans and nearly 176,000 Democrats, according to records from the South Dakota Secretary of State's office.
• That heavy Republican base makes it tough for an independent candidate to compete, said Jon Schaff, a political science professor at Northern State University in Aberdeen.
• Schaff said that Pressler has not held elective office in more than 15 years, fundraising has been a challenge, and his support of Obama and gay marriage might not play well in the state. But as a former Republican with name recognition, Pressler could snag some votes from a weak GOP candidate, and could help Weiland in the general election.
• "The best that he can hope for is to play a spoiler role," Schaff said.
• Pressler, who raised about $10,000 during the first quarter of 2014, said fundraising is a huge challenge, as very few individuals, political action committees or groups give to candidates running as independents.
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