Pure Pierre Politics

Barbara Basel is the new director human resources for the state Board of Regents central office. She moves to the South Dakota university system from Princeton University, where she has worked in administrative offices since 1988 and most recently was business manager. She succeeds Janice Minder, who is shifting to part-time duties overseeing student affairs.

Former U.S. Sen. Jim Abdnor, who died today at age 89, was an unlikely giant in South Dakota politics. Here is a story from his 1986 campaign for the Republican nomination when then-Gov. Bill Janklow was challenging him.  Jim was campaigning in Huron with then-U.S. Sen. Rudy Boschwitz of Minnesota. As they worked the downtown businesses that weekday afternoon, they of course stopped in the Humphrey drugstore. Inside they picked up that day’s edition of the Plainsman newspaper. On page 1 was a story about the Janklow campaign. Rudy read it and, told Jim that Bill was essentially conceding the race. He was right. Democratic U.S. Rep. Tom Daschle went on to defeat Jim Abdnor that November. Tom Daschle perfected the science of voter turnout. He won 52 percent to 48, exactly as his top staff had predicted in October. Ten years later, Democratic then-U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson beat Republican U.S. Sen. Larry Pressler, again as a result of the Democrats’ superior get-out-the-vote effort. When Republican then-U.S. Rep. John Thune challenged Tim Johnson in 2002, John tried to match the Democrats’ GOTV. He came up short. The Weekly Standard magazine made fun of his campaign’s efforts. Two years later, John Thune toppled Tom Daschle with a superior GOTV organization. In fact, Sen. Daschle conceded before the vote counting was finished at the Hot Springs courthouse for the Shannon County ballots. It took 18 years, but Republicans led by Jim Abdnor’s protege learned a very important lesson and implemented it. South Dakota’s political landscape was transformed in the process.

After recently tabling its previous decision to raise the livestock ownership inspection fee to $1 per head from the current 80 cents, the state Brand Board this morning decided to propose a compromise increase to 90 cents. The compromise has the support of the South Dakota Livestock Auction Markets Association and the South Dakota Cattlemen’s Association, while the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association is officially neutral at this time until its board can discuss the 90-cents approach on June 7. The auction markets and Stockgrowers had opposed the $1 plan, and the Brand Board withdrew it at the request of Gov. Dennis Daugaard. A public hearing will be held on a June date yet to be set by the board. Key components of the compromise also would be an additional $10 apiece for local inspections at ranches and other locations, and a trip charge to destinations of local inspections. The per-head fee would remain the only charge for inspections conducted at auction markets, which typically have high volumes pass through on sales days. Going to 90 cents would allow the Brand Board to finish the 2013 fiscal year in the black, according to director Larry Stearns’ projections. Staying at 80 cents would take the program into the red, especially if inspections don’t total 1.5 million head of cattle during the year. The projections are based on 1.5 million head. Board member Curt Mortenson of Fort Pierre noted that in the most-recent seven-year span, inspections topped 1.5 million only twice. The board will set the public hearing date this afternoon on the 90 cents. The goal is to have it take effect Sept. 1 of this year. The trip-charge would require approval from the Legislature, so that is one year away at a minimum. The ownership inspections are required by state law for cattle, horses and mules being sold, slaughtered or being transported from western South Dakota.

UPDATE: The rules hearing is set for 10:30 a.m. CDT on June 27 in Pierre at the Matthew Training Center in the Foss Building. The street address is 523 E. Capitol Ave.

This bit of information surprised me. There are 23 current legislators who officially said they don’t wish to serve on a legislative study committee during the 2012 interim. There are 24 other current legislators who evidently didn’t respond to the study-committee survey sent by the Legislative Research Council. That’s a total of 47 of the 105.

Some who didn’t respond aren’t running for election again, because of either term limits or voluntary retirement. They include Thomas Brunner, Joni Cutler, Elaine Elliott, Bob Gray, Jim Hundstad, Ed Iron Cloud III, Elizabeth Kraus, Nick Moser and Kim Vanneman. That they didn’t want to participate one last time makes sense so that others might.

The seven general members and one appropriations member who will be appointed from the Legislature to the new planning committee will be selected after the June party primaries, Rep. Chuck Turibiville, R-Deadwood, said this morning. He is chairman of the Legislature’s Executive Board.  The committee will have three other ex officio members. They would be House Speaker Val Rausch, R-Big Stone City; Sen. Bob Gray, R-Pierre, the Senate president pro tem; and the Executive Board leader, who currently is Turbiville. All three of those automatic slots will turn over with the 2013 session, as Rausch runs for the Senate, while Gray and Turbiville retire. Applications will be considered for the seven general positions.  A survey will be sent to legislators. The Executive Board will make the eight selections. ”This is going to be a fairly important committee over the next year or two,” Turbiville said.

Last year the Legislature halted travel for nearly all members. Financial conditions allows travel to be restored now, in the opinion of the Legislature’s Executive Board. But under the new policy adopted this morning and that takes effect July 1, there will be more restrictions than previous traditional practice.

Legislators who lose in a primary election or aren’t seeking re-election by choice now won’t be eligible for paid travel.

Legislators will be allowed one general trip out of state if the legislator is a member of a committee of the National Conference of State Legislatures or the Council of State Governments. Those appointments are made by the presiding officers in the state Senate and House of Representatives.

Sen. Bob Gray, R-Pierre, who is the Senate president pro tem, said his practice has been to allow senators to choose committees to which they want to be assigned by him. He described it as “a pretty easy process.”

Legislators who serve on governing boards of national organizations or have special appointments will be allowed additional trips.

The petition drive to refer House Bill 1234 to a statewide vote is steaming along, with a June 18 deadeline for submitting the signatures. If Secretary of State Jason Gant determines there are sufficient valid signatures of registered South Dakota voters – at least 15,855 are necessary — the legislation would be on hold until after the results ae known from the Nov. 6 general election. The legislation wouldn’t become law until July 1 at the earliest if the petition drive falls short. All of which calls for the question to be asked: Why did the state Department of Education proceed already in naming the members of three of the panels created in the legislation? Those are the teacher evaluation work group, the principal evaluation work group and the local teacher reward plan advisory council. Do the voters not matter?

The family of Bill Janklow met this afternoon with the Capitol Complex Restoration and Beautification Commission. The commission just unanimously adopted the family’s request for two portraits of him, one representing the 1979-86 two terms and the 1995-2002 two terms, to hang in the hall of governors at the Capitol. Josh Spies of Watertown will be the artist.

UPDATE: As someone later noted, there would have been two portraits if tradition had been followed, with one after the first set of terms and another after the second set of terms. Russ Janklow made the presentation with his mother, Mary Dean Janklow, next to him. Also present were Pam Derheim, the married older daughter of Bill and Mary Dean, and Art Janklow, one of his father’s brothers, whom Russ described as his dad’s closest friend, as were Marshall Damgaard, a long-time Janklow aide who’s in charge of the Janklow archives project at the University of South Dakota, and the renowned wildlife artist Spies, with whom Janklow had a good friendship.

That decision is the tough task facing the state’s capitol restoration commission. There’s an effort under way to get a round couch placed back into the Capitol rotunda. It was temporarily back in the rotunda as part of the Capitol centennial display and currently is back in storage at the Cultural Heritage Center. As I walked through the Capitol today, admiring the shine and cleanliness, I couldn’t help but wonder whether the old brown couch will add anything. It will have to be moved time and again as events are held in that area of the Capitol. Then there’s this thought. We sold off the old governor’s mansion, so maybe the couch could be sold too, with funds used for restoration work.

UPDATE: The commission deferred a decision and want to meet with Jay Vogt, director for the South Dakota State Historical Society, regarding what is being called “the bench.” The piece of furniture actually belongs to the society and was on loan for six months when it was placed back in the Capitol on a temporary basis from May to November in 2008. Vogt sent the commission a memo today stating he doesn’t believe the bench was part of the original Capitol. He referred to a 1910 photo showing the bench in the office of the society when the office was on the Capitol’s first floor. State Commissioner of Administration Paul Kinsman’s recommendation was that at most the bench be in the Capitol from April 1 to Oct. 31, so as to not interfere with the Capitol Christmas trees display and to keep the rotunda clear for other events during the legislative session in January through March. Kinsman said the bench would pose a difficulty for other events during the April-October period, such as weddings and government ceremonies. He said the only way to remove the bench from the Capitol for those events would be through the Capitol’s front doors and down the big stairs. So Wanda Dilley’s impassioned request remains on hold for now without a final decision. What’s becoming clear, however, is that at most the bench could be available on loan for placement in the Capitol for a maximum of two years under the society’s loan policy.

The state Board of Elections declared on a 6-0 vote this morning that its members lack any jurisdiction to take up a complaint filed by a Rapid City man alleging that President Barack Obama isn’t a natural-born U.S. citizen, uses someone else’s Social Security number and posts a false birth certificate. The complaint by Thomas Scheveck was filed under the Help America Vote Act, but the federal law’s specific sections regarding election complaints don’t cover the types of allegations being made. State laws and regulations regarding elections in South Dakota also don’t cover those types of allegations regarding a presidential candidate. The teleconference meeting lasted 11 minutes.

UPDATE: Scheveck didn’t participate.