We got through stories 6-10 yesterday, and it’s time for the rest. As we cruise towards the new year this coming weekend, here’s the rest of the list of the top ten SDWC political stories for 2015:
5. The long downhill slide of the SDDP
All year long, South Dakota Democrats have continue to shed voters, as well as high profile candidate possibilities as they’ve limped along to the end of the year. Recently, the party was cited as having the lowest level of Democratic registration since 1972.
Dems started off the year with promises and hosting fundraising events in hopes of improving their chances, but by the end of the year, it became apparent that these were hollow efforts, and we were treated to the “same old, same old” from the party of McGovern.
Rare signs of internal dissent have shown through the walls of silence about the party’s internal workings, showing a party that’s organizationally still trapped in the 50’s, and has ever declining organization and participation.
At a recent central committee meeting held by Democrats, only 18 of South Dakota’s 66 Counties had representation – geographically, representation came from only 27% of the state. Population-wise, it may be worse.
There have been reports of the party working it’s way downhill all year, as they prepare to go into the next round of elections. It’s hard to see a way up for them.
4. John Thune preparing to cruise to another unopposed victory.
Symptomatic of the previous political story is one that has farther reaching implications, and further illustrates the dire straits of the Democrat Party. They are currently preparing to hand US Senator John Thune a second, uncontested election in a row.
As noted in a recent article by a University of Minnesota Professor, “It has been 75 years since the last – and only – Republican U.S. Senator did not face a Democratic opponent in back-to-back elections.” Literally, the odds are ever increasing that we will see a – nationally – once in a lifetime event, where a Senator goes two terms in a row without a challenger.
A goodly part of that can be attributed to Thune himself.
Thune has managed to rise in the ranks in Washington like some of his predecessors, but maintains very strong ties to the state who has elected him. Unlike a Larry Pressler, or Tom Daschle, he has not, and will likely never establish a Washington, DC residence. Literally, Thune is seen in state as much as, if not more, than he’s depicted in his official duties in Washington.
Thune’s lack of any opposition in 12 years has also allowed him to amass over ten million dollars in reserves for a potential fight for his office. That’s enough to scare off anyone of any experience, which makes it tough for Democrats to argue to the inexperienced that they stand a chance.
That’s also borne out by the fact we’re at the end of 2015, with no Democrat candidate. Anyone with any political experience knows that a serious candidate would have been out raising funds six months ago. One fringe candidate, 2002 spoiler Kurt Evans, backed down in the face of Thune’s strength, leaving only another fringe candidate, Independent Mike Myers. Myers, who received 4% of the vote for Governor in 2014, is the only person even discussing the possibility of a race at the moment.
The closer we count down the minutes to 2016 makes the possibility of anyone running – even a poor candidate – ever the more remote.
Here’s another race you can draw a line through for 2016. Thune won this months ago. Period.
3. Blue Ribbon Task Force/Education funding
This was one of those things we talked about all year.
Nationally, there’s a crisis in retaining teachers in the profession. They can receive better pay and less aggravation elsewhere, so there’s been a decline in the numbers in the profession. Nowhere is that more evident than in South Dakota, which ranks last in average teacher salaries, and somewhere in the lower 1/3 of salaries based on adjusted income/cost of living.
Some debate whether it’s a teacher salary problem versus a teacher pipeline problem, but that debate doesn’t fill teacher jobs that are left empty by the time the new school year rolls around.
Governor Daugaard formed a blue ribbon committee charged with examining the problem in depth, and during that process people bickered over the process, the procedure, and proposed special session(s) to no avail.
The Governor gave the committee three clear goals: a quality system of schools focused on student achievement, a workforce of great educators, and an efficient and equitable funding system, and after months of hearings, they came back in November with a report based on their findings. The big ticket item is a $ $75-million teacher pay proposal for increases in ongoing funding for teacher salaries.
$75 million in new ongoing funding is going to be one of the highest hurdles to leap, coming at the same time as more ongoing funds for counties, and money to go into Medicaid expansion.
The only difference between these and the other two big ticket items for next session? This one might stand the greatest chance of passing.
2. Petition Madness
Remember Susan Powter? She’s wrote a book about fitness, and blared the term “Stop the Madness!” throughout the media in the mid 1990’s.
That could apply with this years’ glut of initiated measures and state constitutional amendments. Something in the neighborhood of 13 were proposed, 10 were successfully circulated, and now 7 or 8 of them remain to be validated for the ballot.
Proponents of the multitude of measures claim that the measures represent the failure of South Dakota’s citizen legislature to pass legislation, but most all of these measures come from special interest groups who didn’t even bother with going the legislative route, because they knew they would likely fail.
Pro-marijuana measures, public financing of political campaigns, eliminating right to work laws, dueling payday lending limitations, etcetera and so on, were shoved in front of people all summer, testing the limits of “South Dakota nice” to obtain signatures to achieve the ballot. And it was featured on the news almost every night.
It got even more lively when one ballot measure sponsor claimed homeless people were being shipped in to *gasp* eat at his coffee shop. At the same time he attacked the sponsors of a competing measure as being fake. It was sheer nuttiness into November, as courthouses had volunteers stalking visitors, and you could not go into a post office without being accosted.
Ever since, we’ve all been waiting to see how many of these measures ultimately will be placed on the ballot.
That is, of course, after the lawsuits on the ballot measures start being fought.
1. Annette Bosworth
What was I saying about “Stop the madness?” After her US Senate loss, and criminal charges arising as a result of her manner of certifying that she witnessed petition signatures, Annette Bosworth was inescapable in the news over the course of the past year. And it shows no sign of abating.
We watched her fight her battle in the media. We watched her surrogates attack the Attorney General often, and repeatedly, regardless of the truth. We watched her raise unknown amounts of money through solicitation letters for her legal fund, which many times made statements far past the realm of credibility, and so on and so forth.
We thought that much of this would end with her trial, and inevitable conviction. (She did admit she signed the things claiming she witnessed signatures while being on the other side of the planet, after all). But, of course, that would have been asking too much.
The Bosworth family circus has continued on since the trial with having her medical license revoked, court and license appeals being filed, and most recently, being sued by her former attorney Joel Arends for her characterizations of him.
And let’s not forget that late in the year, her husband, Chad Haber, has now been charged with the same offenses that Annette was convicted of.
Annette Bosworth dominated the political news in 2015, and unfortunately, it’s likely we’re going to continue to hear from her for a bit.
God help us all.
Agree? Disagree? Let us know your thoughts on the top ten stories below!
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