SDGOP Digging Fiegen's Grave with False Whining about McGovern's Name

South Dakota Republicans have been moaning about Matt McGovern's name since long before McGovern's run this year to replace appointee Kristie Fiegen on the Public Utilities Commission. They tried launching that moaning as a last-minute campaign ad yesterday:

Narrator: Who is Matt McGovern? Well, his real name was Matt Rowan. He was born in Wisconsin, moved here in 2004, worked for Obama and Gore’s radical energy policies, which would cost South Dakota families over $2,000 a year — an expense he said was “minimal.” He wasn’t born here, hasn’t lived here, changed his last name just to run for the PUC, and now he wants to be in charge of your utility bills. South Dakota can’t afford to be fooled by Matt McGovern.

I'd play the video, but the SDGOP has pulled it from YouTube. According to McGovern's Facebook page, so have five television stations, because the ad is malicious malarkey:

"It's unfortunate that my opponent and her allies have lowered themselves to false personal attacks rather than focus on the issues that matter to South Dakota families and businesses. I wasn't born in Wisconsin and I also wasn't born yesterday. I know that allowing the utility companies to hike rates on South Dakota families is the wrong thing to do. As Public Utilities Commissioner, I'll fight any rate hike that forces South Dakota families and businesses to pay more so that some over-paid CEO can avoid standing in line at the airport."
BACKGROUND FACTS:

• At age 2, Matt McGovern's parents changed his name from Matthew David Rowen to Matthew David McGovern-Rowen.
• In 2007, he officially changed his name to drop the hyphenation.
• He is the grandson of former U.S. Senator George McGovern.
• 5 television stations have pulled the South Dakota Republican Party ad for inaccuracies [Matt McGovern for PUC, Facebook post, November 1, 2012].

SDGOP exec Tony Post sniggers that the only factual error in the ad was the misstatement that McGovern was born in Wisconsin. Post says, complete with snarky emoticon, that the party will be happy to correct the ad to say McGovern was born in Washington, D.C. If Tony keeps this kind of failure, he'll be out looking for a new job before the Republicans who will lose on Tuedsay.

The GOP's name game is foolishness. Kristie Fiegen changed her name, and no one freaks  out about that. "Fiegen" is as real a name as her maiden name. "Heidelberger" is as "real" a name for me as any of the matrilineal names in my family tree.

Matt McGovern is as much a McGovern as he is a Rowen; the only reason anyone notices is that we cling to patriarchal anachronisms that make Dad's last name somehow more legit than Mom's.

Republicans, if you want to defend Kristie Fiegen's seat from the McGovern surge, have the decency to stick to policy, not irrelevant distractions about names.

Matt McGovern. Yeah, McGovern. What's It to Ya?

What is Pat Powers's problem with Matt McGovern? Sure, McGovern is working to convince the public that we need to get off our addiction to fossil fuels and invest in clean energy, which of course we know is just a Marxist plot to take away Pat's freedom to rev his engine. Yes, Matt McGovern is the grandson of George McGovern, which in Pat's world can only mean the younger McGovern is just another über-liberal who loves Fidel Castro and wants to turn South Dakota into Lib-a-palooza.

PP is entitled to go ape over McGovern's liberal politics and pedigree. He's entitled to fret over McGovern's actual and potential political activities and launch some flak to give his nervous Republican readers some cover.

But PP's obsession with Matt McGovern's name is an overblown distraction from real issues. More than once, PP has made a fuss of the fact that Matt McGovern's folks hyphenated his last name when he was born. Matt McGovern-Rowen.

After discussing how his work for clean energy is a natural result of his South Dakota family values, McGovern takes time to discuss his family name with Tom Lawrence at the Mitchell Daily Republic. He said he's been known simply as "Matt McGovern" since he was a kid. He said he formally switched the order, putting his dad's name in the middle and his mom's name at the end, for the perfectly logical reasons that "Matt McGovern" sounds better (alliteration is a good thing), is more convenient than the hyphenated form, and helps build his "brand" as a practicing lawyer.

Is a man not entitled to do what he wants with his name? Can a man not change or shorten his name for convenience or even to help business? I don't see Pat Powers going by "Patrick" or "Patrocles" or whatever his full given name may be. Is he hiding something? No: he probably just likes the sound of "Pat" better. One short syllable followed by a cool last name, both alliterating—that's good branding! And that's exactly what Matt McGovern is doing.

There is no deception in Matt McGovern's legal name. He didn't change his last name to Mickelson or Reagan or Christ or some other moniker with high recognition. He chose his maternal grandfather's name, a name that's on his birth certificate. We wouldn't even notice his choice if we didn't live in a patriarchal society that favors father's names.

Ah. Could that be the real source of PP's angst? Is he just upset to see a man favor his mother's name over his father's and thus threaten male headship? PP suggests South Dakota's "collective psyche" might have issues with a man picking his mom's name... but that sounds like projection of PP's psyche.

Russ Janklow gets to boost his attorney's brand with his famous last name. His kids will have an easier time using Grandpa Bill's big name as well, if they so choose, just by the luck of their dad's chromosomal draw and patriarchal tradition. If Shonna Janklow Haugen's kids decide to boost their brand in South Dakota and pick mom's name over dad's, it will be perfectly practical and understandable. Of course, if the judgment of history swings the other way, Shonna's kids might want to stick with Haugen. And that's fine, too.

I have my political disagreements with PP, but I don't try to win those disagreements by pointing out that he has a girl's name or that his initials sound like the second or third thing I do each morning. When Orly Taitz was in the news, I didn't have to make an issue of her name (and oh, the punnery possible!) to pound her nutty beliefs. Such name games are just silly, not to mention intellectually lazy.

Matt McGovern is Matt McGovern. That's his name. Cranky Republicans and fossil-fuel addicts can and will call him all sorts of other names... but none of that has anything to do with the real issues of building a sustainable energy economy.

Farmers Union Holds Climate Change Forum in Brookings Wednesday

While the Farm Bureau gets a little free press for its pro-Big-Ag, anti-Michael-Pollan propaganda, the Farmers Union provides a forum Wednesday for all sides to discuss climate change legislation. Tomorrow night, Wednesday, November 18, 7 p.m., speakers and interested citizens will gather on the SDSU campus in Rotunda D to talk about what we need to do about clean energy and American energy security.

Among the speakers are two fellas known to be on opposite sides of the issue: Matt McGovern of Repower America and Rep. Todd Schlekeway (R-11/Sioux Falls). Rep. Schlekeway signed the misnamed "No Climate Tax Pledge" for the Americans for Prosperity last summer, but he did vote for limiting some local carbon emissions last winter; perhaps he and McGovern can find some common ground after all! Maybe they'll even promote conservation and carpool from Sioux Falls....

Also serving on Wednesday's forum panel:

• Jay Bender, President of Falcon Plastics, Inc., Former Chairman, SD Chamber of Commerce (let's see if he takes the Apple line on the Chamber's climate change denial)
  
• Doug Sombke, President of South Dakota Farmers Union (get ready for a check on the pro-corporate line)
  
• Steve Wegman, Executive Director of the SD Wind Energy Association
• Moderator: David J. Law, KXLG Radio News Director

Note to all forum participants: see the really cool map (maybe cool isn't the right word) Badlands Blue provides of NASA data on global temperatures. Pass the lemonade... or the supermodels.