Fallout

Sibby Online details an incident in the 1980 McGovern-Abdnor Senate race that indicates David Kranz, the dean of South Dakota political reporters, who was then with the Mitchell Daily Republic, was collaborating with the McGovern campaign on a negative story about Republican Congressman Jim Abdnor. Interestingly, the 1976 bombshell memo (pdf) discovered in the Abourezk papers indicated that a negative story about Rep. Abdnor was in the works at the Mitchell Daily Republic, where Kranz was the managing editor. Kranz seemed to have developed a lot of animosity toward Congressman Abdnor from 1976 to 1980. But Abdnor went on to defeat McGovern in 1980 anyway.

Meanwhile, Jeff Gannon, resident DC expert on South Dakota politics, has a follow-up report about the bombshell memo.

DVT says this could be the biggest story of the 2004 campaign to date, and notes the "Inst-lanche" from the good professor, as well as the link from Powerline. As DVT states, these two blogs are powerful hit generators, and my hit counter has literally exploded through the roof.

Kristi Golden was sitting in for Greg Belfrage yesterday afternoon on Sioux Falls radio station KELO 1320, and spent over an hour discussing Kranz and the bombshell memo.

All in all, there's been quite a bit of fallout already in the alternative media in the state and around the country.