South Dakota Politics

State Democratic Convention "shies away" from issues

The South Dakota Democratic Convention was held this weekend, according to an AP story headlined "Democrats wrap up state convention." Excerpt:

Democrats ended their state convention Saturday by adopting a political platform that shies away from direct support for a state income tax, abortion rights and gay marriage.

Delegates decided instead to stick with generic platform language that covers hot-button issues for which there was uncertain consensus, fearing that being more specific will make unnecessary targets of Democratic candidates.

Very typical. You can read more about the convention HERE. Tom Daschle was conspicuously absent from the convention. According to a blurb by David Kranz, the dean of South Dakota political reporters, in yesterday's edition of the Argus Leader, Daschle was "unable to attend because of leadership responsibilities."

According to a Reuters story headlined "US Senators Visit Baghdad Before U.S. Handover" Daschle was in Iraq today. Excerpt:

A bipartisan delegation of U.S. senators paid a surprise visit to Baghdad on Saturday to discuss the June 30 handover of power with top U.S. and Iraqi officials, a spokesman said.

Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, Democrat Joseph Biden of Delaware and Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina traveled to Baghdad and Kuwait in a show of support to U.S. soldiers in the region.

"It is a rescheduled trip to show bipartisan support for the soldiers and to meet with (U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority) and Iraqi officials before the handover," said Todd Webster, spokesman for Daschle. The trip was originally planned for April.

Daschle was supposed to go to Iraq with Senator Bill Frist earlier this month, but backed out at the last minute because "the itinerary was uncertain." Frist went to Iraq without Daschle, and met the new Iraqi prime minister. (See the AP story here.) When Frist came back from Iraq, he criticized the media for giving the impression that Iraq is "falling apart." Senator Bennett, who was part of the Frist delegation visiting Iraq, made the same observation. It will be interesting to observe whether Daschle makes similar comments.

E.J. Dionne on Herseth's victory

Liberal Washington Post columnist has a piece today discussing Stephanie Herseth headlined "Running on Independence." Excerpt:

In the two recent special elections, both Herseth and Chandler were more willing to argue that independence also meant being willing to break with Bush and the Republican majority in Congress. Why? "There is just not the level of confidence out there for Bush that there was seven or eight months ago," Chandler said.

Herseth sees voters reacting against Republicans in Washington much as they reacted against the Democrats when they dominated Congress a decade ago.

"From 1992 through 1994, when Democrats had both houses, there was a sense that the Democrats had overreached," she said. "Now, there's a sense that Republicans have overreached in domestic and foreign policy."

Four Directions and Dennis Langley

Who is Dennis Langley? He's the National Vice Chair of the South Dakota Democratic Party. Why is he significant? Well, one big reason is the fact that the Four Directions PAC owes him a whopping $100,000, according to this report. The Four Directions PAC, of course, is the predecessor of the Four Directions Committee so often in the news lately, harassing South Dakota Secretary of State Chris Nelson (who is doing a fine job in difficult circumstances, by the way). What's more, there's no evidence that this $100,000 loan from Dennis Langley to the Four Directions PAC has ever been repaid.

It seems that this Four Directions PAC has had some serious failure-to-file issues with the Federal Election Commission, which earned a nasty letter from the FEC. The letter warned that failure to timely file a receipt and expenditures report "may result in civil money penalties, an audit, or legal enforcement action."

It turns out that Dennis Langley has quite a history. From 1993 to 1999 he was the Chairman of the Kansas Democratic Party, and was (perhaps still is) owner of the Kansas Pipeline Partnership. According to a story in the Lawrence Journal World, Langley was mentioned in a 67 page criminal complaint filed by the Milwaukee County District Attorney's office. A story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, headlined "MG&E gave $45,000 to Democrats; That's $20,000 more than at first admitted" has more details.

The bottom line is that Dennis Langley came to South Dakota with quite a record of campaign problems behind him, and Four Directions PAC owed him a lot of money when it terminated. As always, this investigation only leads to more questions. How has Langley come to South Dakota? Why? Was he run out of Kansas? How did he become vice chairman? How does he earn his money? Who financed that loan to Four Directions? Was it repaid? What was the money used for? Were there any consequences for failing to file timely reports?

These are questions South Dakota journalists should be investigating. The AP story linked above is a good start, but obviously, it's only the tip of the iceberg.

AP: Four Directions Committee tied to Dems

This is a very interesting story on the Four Directions Committe headlined "Get-out-the-vote group, former political action committee linked." Excerpt:

Records from The Institute on Money in State Politics state that the Four Directions PAC gave $224,500 to the state Democratic Party and $1,750 to a legislative candidate. Federal Election Commission records indicate the PAC was organized in April 2003 and dissolved March 3, 2004.

I'll have more on this later today.

Kranz Watch

DVT and Sibby Online have done a good job of analyzing David Kranz's latest piece. David Kranz, of course, is the dean of South Dakota political reporters, who has been systematically scrutinized for his pro-Daschle bias for well over a year. The only thing I would add to DVT's and Sibby's observations is an observation in light of the following passage from the Kranz piece:

Last Thursday, three Thune staffers or advisers sent e-mails within an hour of each other, all mentioning an interview earlier in the week by Chris Matthews on MSNBC's "Hardball" show.

How nice that Kranz details who sent along this information to him. In the future, can we expect Kranz to detail who sends him a negative piece of information about John Thune? Why, I think NOT!

Herseth off to a shaky start

For those of you who missed the link and excerpt I supplied in an earlier post, see this story from The Hill headlined "Rep. Herseth moves fast — a bit too fast." It seems Herseth's press release operation is firing on all cylinders, while her "independent voice" has already been exposed as a lemon.

Herseth's out-of-state volunteers

The Capitol Hill publication The Hill has a story headlined "Imported volunteers helped Dems in S.D.; Mobilization for Herseth outdid national GOP." Excerpt:

Despite a wave of press reports about grassroots campaigning by national Republicans, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) recruited more out-of-state volunteers in South Dakota’s recent special election and expects a big voter outreach effort in November.

Overall, the DCCC flew 400 volunteers — most of whom were Hill staffers — to South Dakota on three chartered planes and bused in an additional 450 from 13 surrounding states, including Oklahoma, Illinois and Wisconsin.

Elsewhere in The Hill is a story headlined "Rep. Herseth moves fast — a bit too fast." Excerpt:

“Stephanie Herseth announced that the House Appropriations Committee has approved a significant increase in funding,” Herseth’s June 9 release stated.

The only catch is that Herseth, who won her seat in a special election June 1, had nothing to do with the funding measure, part of the Interior Department’s appropriations bill for 2005. While House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Young (R-Fla.) and other members were hammering out the bill in Washington, Herseth was stumping for votes in South Dakota.

Herseth votes to kill energy bill, then votes for it on final passage

It's "Energy Week" in the House of Representatives, an attempt to underline the fact that the Senate has yet to pass the energy bill, in large part because Tom Daschle refused to use his vaunted clout last fall to get the the two votes necessary to kill a Democratic-led filibuster (Daschle said on the Senate floor that he "reluctantly" supported the bill). Daschle's refusal or inability to use his clout left ethanol in a lurch.

The AP has a story headlined "House Resends Power Bill; Action Unlikely." Excerpt:

But a Democratic attempt to kill the bill failed 230-192. The House then passed the legislation 244-178 with all but a handful of Republicans voting for it.

A quick look at the House roll call vote on the Democratic attempt to kill the energy bill shows that Stephanie Herseth voted with the Democrats to kill it. Remember, this bill includes provisions for ethanol so important to South Dakota. When that attempt to kill the energy bill failed, and the bill was up for final passage, Herseth turned around and voted FOR the bill she had just tried to kill. It's a classic having-it-both-ways maneuver, which Herseth no doubt learned from the master of the technique.

Thanks, Power Line

Hindrocket over at Power Line has some kind words for SDP and DVT today, under the headline "Let's Hold the Senate." Excerpt:

As a native South Dakotan, I follow that state's politics fairly closely, and Thune is a solid conservative and a terrific candidate. He also is, or claims to be, anyway, a Power Line reader. In truth, I suspect he knows us mainly through South Dakota Politics and Daschle v. Thune, two excellent South Dakota blogs. In South Dakota, probably more than any other state, bloggers are playing a key role in mitigating the influence of liberal news media.

Voter Fraud Watch

Late last week, I noted that a fellow by the name of Howard Brewer from Arizona pled guilty to voter registration fraud in Codington County. Brewer claimed to be working for a group called "Choose to Vote." I encouraged the local media to investigate the group called "Choose to Vote," as that organization's name had appeared in an earlier story regarding the scrutiny of voter registration.

Now, an indispensable source has done some sleuthing, and reported back some interesting facts. First of all, the organization is called "Choose2Vote" and can be found at the website choose2vote.org. This website is registered to a person named Derrick Lee of Gilbert, Arizona. Gilbert is a suburb of Phoenix, which is where Howard Brewer is from, according to the AP.

A Google search of the terms "Derrick Lee" and "Arizona" yields some troubling pieces of information. It turns out that Derrick Lee is a well-known figure in the petition industry, and his employees are frequently investigated for fraud. A piece in the East Valley Tribune headlined "The Petition Machine;
The petition industry operates with few rules and many controversies" reports that less than half the signatures were valid in one of Lee's petition efforts in 2000. Further into the piece, we find this fact:

Lee's company also is at the center of many of the major controversies that have arisen in petition drives in recent years. Four of the five paid petition circulators who have been prosecuted for fraud and forgery since 1997 were working for Lee at the time they committed their crimes, according to court records.

The Phoenix New Times has a long piece on Derrick Lee that I've only partially read, headlined "Autograph Hound; Derrick Lee is the most powerful political figure you've never heard of."

The Phoenix New Times also has a piece headlined "Bad Sign; High rate of Reform Party invalid signatures may signal trouble for other ballot measures" detailing the infamous fraudulent signatures episode referred to above.

Interestingly, Lee was also hired to obtain signatures in the ultimately successful effort to recall Governor Gray Davis of California.

Campaigns hire Derrick Lee to gather signatures in order to put their candidate or initiative on the ballot. In other words, he makes money for every signature he turns in. Apparently, he is now being paid to turn in voter registration forms in South Dakota. The big question now is: who exactly is paying Derrick Lee to turn in voter registration forms in South Dakota?

The newest member of the Dakota Alliance

Everybody give a warm welcome to Quentin Riggins, the newest member of the Dakota Alliance. Quentin just finished his first year of law school here at The University of South Dakota, and will be adding his opinions and analysis of the South Dakota political scene. Welcome aboard, Quentin!

Will Daschle endorse Kerry here in SD?

The Washington Times has a piece today by Bill Sammon headlined "Kerry's liberalism a weapon for Bush." Excerpt:

President Bush's re-election campaign has begun a concerted effort to divide the Democratic Party by forcing its congressional candidates to either embrace or reject Sen. John Kerry's liberalism....

[Bush campaign manager Ken] Mehlman suggested that the strategy has the potential to split the Democratic Party along ideological fault lines.

"The way that Democrats are able to get elected in states like Louisiana and South Dakota and Georgia and North Carolina and South Carolina is by running as Louisiana or South Dakota or North Carolina Democrats, not as liberal Democrats from Washington," he said.

"And the problem that the Democrat candidates are going to have is they're going to have to choose between either the John Kerry Democrat Party, which does not represent the values and interests of the people at home, or representing the values and interests of the people at home, which means you're not standing at a lot of podiums with John Kerry," he added.

But one recent prominent race suggests that Democrats can win in conservative-leaning states if they do wash their hands of Mr. Kerry.

Democrat Stephanie Herseth, who did not invite Mr. Kerry to campaign for her, won the June 1 South Dakota special House election against Republican Larry Diedrich, who enjoyed campaign visits by Vice President Dick Cheney and first lady Laura Bush.

Note that Tom Daschle is running internet blog ads (an image of which can be seen nearby) on blogs unlikely to be seen by a majority of South Dakotans which show him side by side with Kerry.

By contrast, at home here in South Dakota Tom Daschle boasts of supporting President Bush 75% of the time. Also, Daschle doesn't run any ads here in South Dakota showing him side by side with Kerry

Then there's also the Reuters picture seen below, taken March 11, 2004, at the conclusion of a press conference in which John Kerry refused to apologize for calling President Bush and his advisors “the most crooked ... lying group I’ve ever seen.”

Kranz Watch

David Kranz, the dean of South Dakota political reporters, mentions Tom Daschle's "blog ad" in his column today:

Daschle, like Thune, has a political ad on an Internet blog site. The Daschle message says, in part: "Besides his own re-election for president, there is nothing more important to George Bush than defeating Tom Daschle. You can help fight back. Don't let Washington Republicans have their way. ... The more you help, the better chance we have to defeat Bush and Frist."

Curiously, Kranz omits the most prominent, hard-to-miss text on the face of the ad, which read "Help Stop George Bush! Bush & Thune Team Up To Defeat Tom Daschle! It's Up To You To Stop Them!"

It's easy to see why Kranz omitted the Daschle quote "Help Stop George Bush!" The word "stop" is synonymous with the word "obstruct." Nothing "disappoints" Daschle more than being called an obstructionist, as the term was used to describe him in 2002, with devastating results. But out of their own mouths shall ye know them. Once again, we see an example of Kranz placing Daschle in the most positive light possible.

Even more curiously, the Daschle campaign has now discarded the blog ad mentioned in Kranz's column. In its place is a new blog ad, seen below.

Interestingly, the image captured (shown at right) is not the image you see on the ad, which has pictures of Tom Daschle and John Kerry side by side. Nevertheless, one can read the small print below the message "Give John Kerry a Senate He Can Work With!" You can see the ad at, among other blogs, www.mydd.com.

UPDATE: A reader has kindly captured the main photo from the Daschle blog ad, with photos of Daschle and Kerry side-by-side: