The Argus Leader editorial page carries an editorial today headlined "Keep Senate race clean."
The AL editorial board really need to cast a glance inward before they talk about a "clean race." At the conclusion of the 1990 election cycle, the December 1990 edition of Campaigns & Elections magazine, in a veiled reference to the AL, had the following to say about the Senate race in South Dakota that year:
The papers here seem to take their cues on congressional affairs from Beltway bigwigs. Consequently, a man whose only crime was to serve South Dakotans before the designs of DC power brokers was nearly destroyed by a communications blitz right out of "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."
The New York Times and Roll Call also took a dim view of the AL's coverage of the Senate race that year.
Over a dozen years later, the Campaigns & Elections analysis of the AL still rings true. Take, for instance, the report from David Kranz, the dean of South Dakota political reporters, in the Tuesday edition of the AL, headlined "Thune aims to unseat Daschle." In his piece, Kranz quotes a fellow by the name of Don Frankenfeld, a former state senator and "a one-time challenger to then-Rep. Tim Johnson, [who] likes Thune, but is one Republican who can't support him." Typically, Kranz "forgets" to add relevant context as to who Frankenfeld is. Don Frankenfeld has a website, found at frankenfeld.com. Practically the first thing you see on the site is a banner at the top of the page with the text "Senator Daschle Lauds ATLA, Trial Lawyers and Don Frankenfeld." ATLA, of course, is the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. If you click on said banner, you can hear Tom Daschle praising Don Frankenfeld in a speech he gave to the ATLA convention in San Francisco last summer. We discover that Frankenfeld's consulting firm caters to the needs of trial lawyers. And, of course, trial lawyers are among the biggest contributors to Tom Daschle's campaign. It seems that Mr. Frankenfeld has more than just a passing interest in Tom Daschle's re-election. One could reasonably arrive at the conclusion that it is a pecuniary interest (what better way to attract clients than to have the Democratic leader give you a plug at the ATLA convention?).
On Monday night, Thune made his announcement at around 8:00 P.M. David Kranz was there at least until 9:00 P.M. covering the event. His deadline to file the story could only have been a few hours later. Are we to believe that Kranz wasn't fed this quote by the Daschle campaign, given that we now know that Frankenfeld has a close relationship with Tom Daschle? It seems that in this election cycle, as in the 1990 cycle, South Dakotans will be subject to a newspaper that takes its cues on congressional affairs from Beltway bigwigs.
UPDATE: Back in 2000 post-election fracas between Bush and Gore, Frankenfeld advocated a "Bush-Gore" government, according to the last paragraph in this report at the time from Slate's Timothy Noah.
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