We've been occupied with following Minnesota legislative hearings and election campaigns. Meanwhile, the comedy of manners of Republican one-party rule in South Dakota continues.
On Monday evening, Joe Sneve reported for the Argus Leader in Gov. Kristi Noem says impeachment billboards not her doing. Lawmakers don't believe her:
Gov. Kristi Noem denies any involvement in the latest targeting of lawmakers vetting the impeachment of Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg.
But legislators on the receiving end of the attack ads say mounting evidence suggests otherwise.
Dakota Institute for Legislative Solutions, an organization touting itself as a non-profit organized to carry forward the governor's agenda, began running billboard advertisements Saturday targeting four members of the House Select Committee on Investigation, which is conducting the vetting process.
The ads name the following committee members: Reps. Steven Haugaard, Jamie Smith, Jon Hansen and Spencer Gosch, the House speaker serving as chairman of the committee. The signs also call for the impeachment of Ravnsborg.
The legislative panel has been investigating Ravnsborg's conduct related to a 2020 crash that killed 55-year-old Joe Boever.
And Monday, a fifth lawmaker — Rep. Scott Odenbach — was added to list of legislators being specifically named in the advertisements, which suggest all five men are obstructing the impeachment process. . . .
Here's a tweet of that final billboard:
Another one up in Sioux Falls. Scott Odenbach isn’t even on the impeachment committee. pic.twitter.com/mxyCR3vukc
— Austin Goss (@AustinGossSD) March 14, 2022
Keloland's Jacob Newton has more in Pro-Noem mystery org targeting state lawmakers:
Drivers passing through some of Sioux Falls’ main intersections this week may have noticed some rather unique billboards, featuring the face of South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg, and the names (as of Monday afternoon) of five state legislators.
Those five legislators are House Speaker Spencer Gosch (R-Glenham), Jon Hansen (R-Dell Rapids), Steven Haugaard (R-Sioux Falls), Jamie Smith (D-Sioux Falls) and Scott Odenbach (R-Spearfish). . . .
The billboards were paid for by the Dakota Institute for Legislative Solutions, a 501c (4) non-profit (according to the release on its website) with a stated goal of generating support for Governor Kristi Noem’s agenda.
As of Monday afternoon, no filings for Dakota Institute for Legislative Solutions could be found in the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Tax Exempt Organization database. A search of the South Dakota Campaign Finance Reporting system and Federal Election Commission (FEC) also turned up no results.
The release announcing the formation of the Dakota Institute for Legislative Solutions states that the organization currently has a budget of $800,000 for the calendar year, and $1.5 million planned for the next two years. It is not readily apparent where the $800,000 claimed to be in the budget has come from. . . .
Reporting for the Associated Press on Sunday, Stephen Groves and Thomas Beaumont created an interesting explainer for Republican on Republican tussles in Pierre in How Noem’s struggles at home may enhance White House chances:
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s election-year fight with fellow Republicans in the Legislature has spurred criticism she is neglecting her job to angle for the White House, but the resistance could actually be helping her national brand rather than tarnishing it.
The first-term governor in recent weeks jetted to Florida to speak at a major gathering of conservative activists, announced on Fox News the release of an autobiography and blasted President Joe Biden’s energy policy as Russia invaded Ukraine.
Back home, the politician trying to corner the label as the nation’s most conservative governor has faced considerable defiance from members of her own party. They have derailed key parts of her agenda on issues including abortion, school prayer, COVID-19 vaccine exemptions and how racism is taught in schools.
Republican pollster Brent Buchanan says that in Donald Trump’s GOP, such intraparty squabbles aren’t a liability and may even be an asset for a politician trying to curry favor with the former president and the voters who support him. . . .
In a recent Statehouse setback for Noem, Republicans rejected her plan to keep K-12 classrooms free of “critical race theory” — an academic concept that has morphed into a political rallying cry on the right. They later passed a bill applying to universities, but not before reining in its scope.
Noem began this session by laying out an agenda that amounted to a wish list for social conservatives. But she has had to navigate a Legislature divided between conservatives pushing the state to take hard-line stands on social issues and a GOP establishment more likely to focus on bread and butter issues. Lawmakers rejected roughly half the proposals the governor highlighted in her State of the State speech at the start of the session.
Noem has long displayed a willingness to spar with the Legislature, but acrimony boiled over this winter. Republican House Speaker Spencer Gosch accused the governor of chasing headlines and TV appearances rather than doing the foundational work to build legislative support for her proposals at home.
Noem has shown a knack for the political theatrics invaluable in Trump’s Republican Party and last month won the former president’s endorsement for her reelection campaign. Her social media feeds are filled with images of her riding a motorcycle at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, on horseback carrying an American flag, showing off a flamethrower and hunting pheasants. . . .
“You have a governor who is trying to get her name out and sadly that’s what a lot of these bills are — it’s to be used for election material, not to affect any real policy change,” said Democratic state Sen. Troy Heinert. “It looks to me like we’re trying to out-crazy Texas and Florida.”
Noem has adopted some of Trump’s bombast, name-calling fellow Republicans on Twitter when they do something she doesn’t like. But it’s an approach that has backfired at times in the small government town of Pierre, where lawmakers pride themselves on decorum and often refer to one another as “friend” or “good representative” during debates.
She griped that two Republican lawmakers were acting like “wolves in sheep’s clothing” when they floated a ban on vaccine mandates last year. As talks with fellow Republicans over the state budget broke down this week, she took to YouTube to accuse them of “corruption” for holding a closed-door budget briefing with the state’s attorney general.
“I’m screwed either way, no matter what I say,” Noem said of her particularly tense relationship with Gosch, who has accused her of meddling in an impeachment investigation of the attorney general in a fatal traffic crash. “It’s probably been one of the biggest struggles I’ve had just because I know he’s looking for a reason to blame me for everything.”
“A lot of bridges have been burned,” said Jon Schaff, a political science professor at Northern State University. “There is a rump portion of the Republican Party that is just not on board with Kristi Noem.”
Even lawmakers who were once allies of the governor said they have often been left on the outside after daring to defy her.
The “breakdown is just not staying in touch with people, it’s not communicating,” said Republican Rep. Rhonda Milstead, who was appointed to the Legislature by Noem but became an outspoken critic after Noem effectively killed the trans athlete bill.
The drama at home may not matter if Noem pursues higher office. A decade ago, Minnesota U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann — known more for championing far-right social issues than for lawmaking — rode her polarizing image to an early splash in the GOP race for president in 2012 before fizzling out. . . .
At Keloland, Bob Mercer takes a look at how Noem, Haugaard and Smith fared:
Governor Kristi Noem had a mix of success and rejection during South Dakota’s 2022 legislative session. But she did much better than either of the two state lawmakers looking to replace her.
The Republican governor clearly outperformed her June primary opponent, Representative Steven Haugaard of Sioux Falls. House Democrat leader Jamie Smith of Sioux Falls, who was out gathering signatures so he can take on the GOP nominee in November, did no better.
Noem, who’s already filed her candidacy petitions, spoke about 28 specific proposals in her December 2021 budget speech, followed by 10 specific proposals in her January State of the State speech. Haugaard meanwhile was prime sponsor of 13 bills, one joint resolution and a concurrent resolution. Smith was prime sponsor of three bills and one concurrent resolution.
Noem achieved nearly all of her spending proposals. However, House members refused her $10 million plan to add 175 camping sites at Custer State Park, as well as a smaller revised version at a different spot in the park. House members also turned down her request that the state Game, Fish and Parks Department receive $2.5 million of state funding for a proposed shooting range near Rapid City and repeatedly rejected a Senate bill seeking the same.
Noem fared less well on proposed laws that she specifically listed in her January speech. On abortion, lawmakers approved her ban on mail-order abortion pills but refused to introduce her Texas-style proposal to ban abortion when a heartbeat could be detected.
They turned down her attempt to have public schools start the day with a moment of silence, as well as her plan to remove many filing fees for in-state businesses, and her proposed exemptions from COVID-19 vaccinations. Lawmakers OK’d her repeals of the bingo tax and many fees for concealed-carry pistol permits.
But senators rejected her proposal to ban divisive concepts in K-12 schools and significantly rewrote the one for higher education, so that divisive concepts can still be taught on campuses governed by the state Board of Regents and state Board of Technical Education, but faculty and staff can’t be forced to take training on them. . . .
Read how the guys are doing in the rest of Mercer's piece.
We concur with Cory Allen Heidelberger's observation in Failing as Governor Makes Noem a Better National Candidate for Trumpists?:
You've got to be kidding me. . . .
Related posts:
- Pants on fire at CPAC: Governor Kristi Noem claims "We kept kids in the classroom"
- South Dakota ethics: Will lawmakers resolve Governor Noem's closed-door meeting with daughter violated public trust?
- SD Gov Noem blames Soros' money for pipeline protests; cuts tribes out of anti-protest bills talk
Photo: Governor Kristi Noem on a horse.
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