If you'd like to support a hard-working, together, local party that's on the ropes (our candidates got absolutely hammered this year), please consider throwing our opponents an anvil. A little goes a long way ($20K is an expensive Legislature race in these parts).
After qualified Democrats got creamed even worse than 2006 in West River, the Rapid City Journal gets around to publishing a week-old AP wire story from October 27 on the lack of integrity in our State government. (I am simply shocked, of course, that they held it back until a week after the election.)
South Dakota is ranked 50th in the study by the Better Government Association. It ranked states based on government transparency, accountability, whistleblower protections, open records and campaign finance laws.
A few thoughts:
- Lest you call me a leftie crank, I want to a shout out to some bright lights in this area: Legislative Research Council, the SD Dept of Health (against all odds, given the sex-obsessed Republican legislators), and (usually) Sec of State Chris Nelson (who got ranked low for a low-tech SOS website, I think unfairly).
- And, before you poke fun at New Jersey getting first, I lived there fairly recently, (1987-1995) and (probably because of the horrible corruption and mob influence up until the 1960s) they have strong anti-corruption laws, a vibrant press that lets neither party off the hook, and a a highly involved citizenry that keeps a close eye on government officials from borough up to the governor's office. If the New Jersey governor hired his family for key positions, you'd probably hear about it. Here, it's just what we do.
- The report, released right before an election (download here) is was notably non-political... and no state apparently did very well. But do we in South Dakota really have to be last?
- According the BGA:
...this updated [2008] edition of the Index rates the performance of states in five areas of law: open records, whistleblower protections, campaign finance, open meetings, and conflicts of interest.
Notice that the RCJ article left out that bit about conflict of interest. Shocking.
Take our West River (South Dakota) Republican Representatives, (please)
- Alan Hanks, (32-House-R), resigned when elected Rapid City mayor, who in the Legislature in the 2007 session spoke openly and voted against changes in Custer State Park policies that would have directly affected his campground business. (To be fair, the RCJ did criticize him on this abuse of his office.)
- Jeff Haverly, (35-House-R), elected decisively to the 2009 State Senate last Tuesday, who proudly speaks and votes from his legislative seat about the child care issues that directly affect his income as owner of a longtime daycare business.
- David Lust (34-House-R) who showed a lot of integrity by telling the RCJ exactly why he is running for Legislature:
I want to contribute to the policies that will impact me and my family. I work with business, business code and regulations. That has been my focus in my first term.
When he was labeled a "one-trick-pony" for being only interested in promoting business, he said (at a forum I attended) that if he could only do one thing, it would be to promote business. (Remember, Lust is a business lawyer; these are his clients.)
I'm sorry. I have a problem with this.
If you are in Pierre as a legislator, and your livelihood or family are directly affected by a law, you may (and probably should) get up from the table, walk around to the front of the hearing room, and argue your case. But you definitely do not have the right not sit up there in your legislative chair and speak and vote from your chair.
You were elected to represent the good of your District and your State, not yourself and your family. Is this a difficult concept? Yet we continue to elect these people.
Until we can get legislative candidates that are qualified, and have integrity AND that the voters know they can trust, this will continue. This is why Democrats continue to run for office here, folks. We just aren't willing to accept this.
So, maybe you're proud, like many Rapid Replyers on the RCJ site, in being dead last.
I and my friends invite you to join us when you finally get sick of it.