Letter to the Editor - Austad: District 2 State Legislature review
Another 38-day South Dakota legislative session has ended, wrapping up essentially on the Governor Veto day, March 27.
Watching new Legislator voting actions in our maiden District 2 is especially critical, well before the next 2024 election cycle. We have a whole new team of Freshmen Legislators that have not taken the floor battle field before. Legislatively, they had no prior “rap sheet” or track record voting position as House or Senate office holders.
Of the 35 districts, that each represent over 25,000 residents in the South Dakota Legislature, our neighborhood of Brandon, East Sioux Falls, and Valley Springs is under a completely new district boundary with new Legislators making up our “District 2”. In years past, we may have been in District 9, 10, and 25. In 2022, there were no incumbent Legislators representing us, which may not be a bad thing. We have State Senator Steve Kolbeck who has prior political experience as a State Public Utilities Commissioner in the mid 2000’s, as a Democrat. He recently switched parties and won as our State Republican Senator. John Sjaarda and David Kull are the new Republican House members in this district.
Every 10 years based on Census data, the South Dakota Legislature redirects, and modifies the District boundaries largely based on population changes. Essentially, the party in majority power of most seats in the legislature, and the Governor will be the party that controls the new redistricting maps. Lots of these changes are also/more importantly due to voter registration concentration, potential District Primary candidates, and boundaries that would favor a certain party candidate in the district at that time, or hurt the incumbent candidate that is of the opposing Party.
It is important to follow and keep in contact with your State Legislator when you have questions about bills and voting. During this last session I had a few questions and through emailing and calling, I did get return correspondence from all of them. This Is much appreciated, that is not always the case from other Legislators. They did well at returning and answering questions. Even though some did not answer the questions or vote in the way I often requested, they did respond.
Often times, following the will of leadership within the party is not congruent to the wishes of its constituents or the people living in the district. The candidate will to follow leadership can be very alluring and beneficial in primary races and elections when campaign funding is doled out by party leaders. The less voter scrutiny from us district constituents, the less stress it is for the compromising office holder to balance with a softer struggle in times when the party leadership will conflicts with the people represented. Though the two are not always mutually exclusive, voters need to be discerning and stay vigilant. Legislative rookies can often be malleable to the control of its leaders. When newbie Legislators do not sign onto questionable legislation or vote against the Governor or the Party Whip on a bill, they may lose future Committee appointments and chair positions. Or worse yet they may get their legislation shelved, they may not get funded in election races or they may face party picked opposition primary candidates. The pressures are real. Go along/get along Freshman Legislators are the biggest targets. Pay attention to how upper Senate and House and Governor strings are pulled against Legislators regarding certain issues.
The recent last week of session ended with dramatic shred between the internal GOP initiated by Senate President Pro-Tem Lee Schoenbeck against Governor Noem. A team that previously worked in unison form at a warp speed legislation train scheduling pace that would make Italian dictator Mussolini flush with envy. Then the barometer dropped with a vengeance. You could figuratively hear the old-time classic needle on the record scratch across that LP creating a horrible sounding rift, you could visualize the smoke rise from the carnage between a couple of interviews initiated by Schoenbeck, of Watertown, and the Governor. He basically called her incompetent and a bad leader compared to the three previous Governors he had worked under. He stated that she should have gotten back to the roots of how she governed in the beginning of her first term when she actually helped the people of South Dakota! Then there was a he said/she said accusation over sales tax cuts going back to last year. Schoenbeck was firing the verbal javelins against her. However, he has a history of throwing hate speak javelins at people that served under him and alongside of him in the state Senate and Legislature for a long time.
Governor Noem did not waste time defending herself, essentially saying that you never know what you get out of Schoenbeck. One day he is an ally and then he will “rip your face off”. Gov. Noem also stated that if she opened her texts and showed some of the many bad messages he has sent her over the years, he (Schoenbeck) would never get elected again. They are particularly fighting over a bill on digital federal reserve currency groundwork legislation that she had recently vetoed, HB 1193. Schoenbeck is the Pied Piper type puppet leader that has a lot of control over Legislators, especially the new ones.
This comes back to home right in our backyard with our new District 2 delegation. As a Senate leader during re-districting, Lee Schoenbeck specifically used his influence to carve this Brandon/Valley/East Sioux Falls area. He, along with the Governor funded and endorsed our current State Senator. As also proven by the many campaign postcard election mailings. You also may remember his son, Jake, who also ran for the House seat here last June, qualifying as a recently new resident to this area. Tens of thousands of dollars were funneled into these candidates to represent our neighborhood. Will this new rift affect future influence and representation to the voters in our neighborhood for the better?
New Representative David Kull not only voted for The Central Bank Currency Bill 1193 in he House committee to get to the House Floor, he was a key sponsor for the 117-page bill. Kull then voted for the bill on the House floor to speed through to the Senate for its next lightning fast pass move.
Steve Kolbeck immediately, along under Schoenbeck and other leaders, voted ‘yes’ to ram the bill through to the Senate committee, then jetting it to the Senate floor, where he voted ‘yes’. All 117 pages to this Central Bank Digital Currency bill 1193. I am not blaming them if they did not read it. Though I would second guess if they claim they did and fully understood it before they passed it. The point is, they did not have to expedite this bill, nor read it, nor pass it. They could wait another year to read it, evaluate it, let the public access it more, hold a study on the bill. Review the Devil in the details. In consolation, our Representative John Sjaarda voted against this. Thank you. None of this would take affect anyway until July 2024. Plenty of other states have not yet entertained this legislation yet. And before this bill would be enacted, other states will have to join. We would be one of the first states to pass it. We could easily let the time go and do more next year. Even if the Governor has her veto of the bill sustained, they could still strike back next year with a similar bill. We have read this blind Washingtonian scenario before. “Pass the bill before we read and understand it.” This is just the example of high-speed passing, make the train run on time efficient Legislation. Not exactly a lofty goal designed by the constitution for slowing up the process of thought, debate and review by the Press or the People.
The devil is in the details, quite often. The battle is now on to support Legislators like John Sjaarda. The battle is now to encourage our other new Legislators to change course and vote to sustain the Gov. Noem veto. The rally is now to get these Legislators to NOT override her veto. Please encourage Representative David Kull and Senator Steve Kolbeck to sustain Governor Noem’s veto of 1193. There is zero benefit to rush this through this year on HB 1193, which does set the pavement track for Federal Reserve Central Bank digital Currency. Be steadfast in watching your new Legislators voting record
Mike Austad
Minnehaha County Republican Party/Precinct Committee Man/District 2 /Sioux Falls
