Powers Seeks Judicial Activism, Claims Journalist's Shield to Dodge Subpoena

Dan Willard goes to court in Lake County tomorrow for making Russ Olson feel bad with some critical anonymous robocalls last year. It is worth noting that the statute under which the state is prosecuting Willard no longer exists, and Olson will no longer be a Senator by the end of next month. But no matter: as our Oglala Sioux neighbors can attest, when you make the South Dakota GOP mad, they will come after you.

In response, Dan Willard is coming after SDGOP mouthpiece-blogger Pat Powers, subpoenaing him to testify at his trial this week. What Willard thinks he can learn from Powers in court is a mystery (one could say the same about what anyone thinks they can learn from Powers on his blog).

Whatever Willard's intent, Powers doesn't want to talk. In an affidavit submitted yesterday, Powers asks the judge to quash the subpoena, issue a protection order, and sanction Willard for being mean.

Perhaps of interest to readers of the South Dakota blogosphere is Powers's appeal to the journalistic shield principle. South Dakota has no shield law for journalists, but Powers angles for some legislation from the Lake County bench. Here are the relevant points from his affidavit [along with some editing we would expect of a journalist]:

7. Your affiant considers himself a journalist who competes with other journalists for news stories primarily focused on South Dakota state government, politics, and news stories. [News stories focused on... news stories.]

...9. Your affiant has cultivated relationships with confidential sources that provide me [sic: shift from third person to first person] information on the basis of their anonymity.

...20. If your affiant is forced to reveal any privileged information gathered as a result of my [sic] reporting and journalistic efforts, it will chill the relationship between myself [sic] and confidential news sources and critically impede the ability to report news.

21. Your affiant believes that Daniel Willard has subpoenaed me [sic] in this case in order to gather information protected by the Reporter's First Amendment Privilege [Pat Powers, affidavit, State of South Dakota vs. Daniel Willard, 2013.08.24].

Keep in mind, this is the same Pat Powers who has made false and defamatory hay of wanting to know the sources for my information. But hey, if the judge wants to extend journalist's shield protection to South Dakota bloggers, I'm game!

Indian Vote Suppressors Frankenstein and Gant Can't Agree

Rapid City lawyer Sara Frankenstein and the SDGOP are vindictive bullies for using the courts to shake down Oglala Sioux Tribe members who dare fight for their voting rights. Secretary of State Jason Gant uses specious obfuscation to further suppress the Indian vote.

But Frankenstein undermines Gant's contention that he can't use HAVA funds to help tribal members vote with satellite voting stations:

Frankenstein said that in negotiations on her side, she persuaded the secretary of state to change what she termed “internal policies” and release South Dakota’s HAVA money for the satellite office in Shannon County, which overlaps much of Pine Ridge. He could do this, she said, because in May 2008, South Dakota had completed HAVA’s initial requirement to modernize elections with up-to-date voting machines and the like.

From then on, Frankenstein said, the state was free to spend its federal HAVA appropriation on additional ways to improve elections, including satellite offices. Brooks v. Gant testimony and court documents confirm this. In Judge Schreier’s opinion, she noted that Shannon County residents had “minimal” early-voting access until Brooks v. Gant was filed [Stephanie Woodard, "'They Caved': Tribe Claims Win in SD Voting-Rights Suit," Indian Country Today, 2013.08.13].

Internal policies—that's code for "Jason didn't want to."

Republicans Frankenstein and Gant are both enemies of Indian voting rights. But even Frankenstein can't run with Gant's resistance to using federal money to carry out federal law to help Indians vote.

Republicans Want Indians to Pay for Fighting for Voting Rights

So much for Indian-White reconciliation.

Earlier this month Judge Karen Schreier dismissed Brooks v. Gant, an Indian voting-rights lawsuit brought by residents of the Pine Ridge reservation. The dismissal came only because the filing of the lawsuit forced Secretary of State Jason Gant to open a satellite voting station in Shannon County, thus fulfilling the demands of the plaintiffs.

The state claimed victory, and Rapid City lawyer Sara Frankenstein (who also happens to be treasurer of the state Republican Party) threatened the state might use that "victory" as grounds for demanding that the "losers" pay the counties' and state's court costs. Representatives of the plaintiffs said the threat to force poverty-stricken Indians to pay rich white folks' lawyers was so morally politically repugnant that it was probably just bluster:

“That’s breathtaking,” said Bret Healy, Four Directions consultant. “They have the insurance public officials typically hold to cover lawsuits. We all met the plaintiffs via their depositions—single parents, one with an epileptic child, others caring for infirm elders, from one of the poorest counties in the nation. The state of South Dakota and the counties are really going to do this? God have pity on their souls.”

“Won’t happen,” said [Four Directions co-director OJ] Semans. “It’s just a way to scare off Natives who might want to ask for equal rights in the future.”

“Granting costs would discourage plaintiffs from bringing suits to enforce the Voting Rights Act and would be contrary to the fundamental purpose of the Act,” agreed Laughlin McDonald, director emeritus of the ACLU Voting Rights Project. He also doubted it would happen.

McDonald, who has litigated Native enfranchisement cases since 1983, explained that a prevailing party in a federal case is ordinarily entitled to recover costs, but not when it comes to voting rights. “Federal courts have denied or severely limited recovery in those cases,” said McDonald.

What about recovering attorney’s fees? “I think such a motion would be filed in bad faith and even subject to sanctions,” said McDonald [Stephanie Woodard, "'They Caved': Tribe Claims Win in SD Voting-Rights Suit," Indian Country Today, 2013.08.13].

But Frankenstein wasn't bluffing. She has filed a motion to take over $6,000 in court costs from 25 Oglala Sioux Tribe members. Frankenstein says golly gee, she's not doing this "to be vindictive or send a message"; it's just what winners do in federal cases.

Four Directions calls that B.S. and has sent a letter of protest to various state officials, including Governor Dennis Daugaard. Here's a chance for the Governor to expand on his newly found reconciliatory spirit, admit that the counties and state "won" Brooks v. Gant only in technical terms, and tell Frankenstein to back off.

Instead, he kicks the Four Directions protest letter to Attorney General Marty Jackley, who flips Indians another finger:

In an emailed statement, Jackley said: “Under federal law, a prevailing party is permitted to request the court for certain allowable costs. The county defendants have made a request, and if there is an objection the federal court will determine whether and to what extent costs may be assessed” [Jonathan Ellis, "Voting Rights Case Settled, But Legal Costs Questions Isn't," that Sioux Falls paper, 2013.08.24].

Translation: Don't bother me. You uppity Injuns will get what's coming to you from the court.

Governor Daugaard seems happy to play the benevolent friend of the tribes when they humble themselves by asking for help and give him a chance to exercise the power of the state. But when they challenge the power of the state, when they have the gall to ask for protection of voting rights that they will likely use to vote for Republicans' opponents, Governor Daugaard lets his friends bully our tribal neighbors.

Governor Daugaard, you have lawyer Frankenstein's number. Give her a call, and tell her to let Brooks v. Gant go.

Reconciliation at Work: Crow Creek Sioux Invite Highway Patrol to Help at Pow-Wow

Governor Dennis Daugaard tells a good story about tribal and state government taking a positive step toward building trust (I was going to say rebuilding, but has that trust ever existed?) between our two peoples at last weekend's Crow Creek Sioux Tribe pow-wow:

This year’s pow-wow marked the 150^th anniversary of the founding of Fort Thompson, the headquarters of the tribe. Anticipating a large crowd for the event, Chairman Brandon Sazue and the Tribal Council reached out to the South Dakota Highway Patrol to lend a hand with law enforcement and crowd control.

State authority of any kind on tribal land has long been a sensitive issue, so the council and the chairman knew they were taking a risk. They did it for the safety of their citizens. The Highway Patrol responded enthusiastically, offering five troopers and two police service dogs with handlers for the weekend [Governor, Dennis Daugaard, "A Small, Important Step at the Crow Creek Pow-Wow," press release, 2013.08.23].

Daugaard says the tribal–HP collaboration went well: troopers interacted with tribal members with respect and cultural sensitivity. Some troopers have volunteered to help at next year's pow-wow if invited.

Our governor, however, labors under no illusion that one weekend scores all the reconciliation points he needs for 2014... or for the good of all South Dakotans:

None of us is naïve enough to think one event on one weekend will change decades of distrust. Improving race relations is an ongoing, difficult task. It requires persistence, by all involved. It also requires some risk, reaching out and getting to know each other and beginning to trust each other. At the Crow Creek pow-wow last weekend, a group of good-hearted people did reach out. It’s a small step yet an important one. We can be hopeful [Daugaard, 2013.08.23].

(Daugaard also gets HTML-special character points: that umlaut on naïve is in his original text!)

I don't like to mingle reconciliation and score-keeping. But the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe took the harder step here, setting aside their mistrust to admit they needed help and ask for help from The Man. Now it's The Man's turn to reciprocate: what can the Governor and the Highway Patrol do to reach across their mistrust and offer the Crow Creek Sioux an empowering opportunity?

Weiland Campaign: 123 Towns in 36 Days

Unlike Marion Michael Rounds, who seems to be focusing his Senate campaign on big fundraising events that give him an excuse to fuel up his private plane with campaign donations, Rick Weiland has caféstormed over 100 South Dakota towns in less than 40 days. And unlike Annette Bosworth, who wails à la Bernhardt that campaigning is "a huge grieving process for me," Weiland finds inspiration on the campaign trail. From Thursday's presser:

“People tell me I should be tired, but I’m in fact, drawing energy from the people I meet and the communities I travel to,” Weiland said. Weiland has been talking to South Dakotans about how everyday citizens can “take back” their country from the big money special interests that have high-jacked government and put it on the sides of big corporations and billionaires.

...“We start each trip early and end late,” Weiland said. “I feel like that classic Johnny Cash song – ‘I’ve Been Everywhere’. What a great way to experience and connect with the people of our state,” he added [Weiland Senate campaign, press release, 2013.08.22].

The best candidates, the best speakers, the best workers get energy from doing their jobs. That Weiland  is tapping such energy amidst a grueling early campaign schedule shows that, contrary to some wishful thinking and bored Wikipedia "journalism", Weiland can indeed keep South Dakota's Senate seat "in play" for Democrats.

Here's Weiland's list of the 123 towns he's visited over the past five weeks:

• July 16: Dell Rapids, Flandreau, Madison, Egan, Trent, Chester, Colman & Wentworth
• July 18: Worthing, Canton, Beresford, Vermillion, Yankton, Irene, Alcester, Centerville & Meckling
• July 30: De Smet, Wessington Springs, Huron, Volga, Arlington, Lake Preston, Iroquois, Cavour, Lane, Woonsocket, Artesian, Fedora, Roswell, Forestburg, Vilas & Howard
• August 1: Hartford, Humboldt, Salem, Mitchell, Montrose & Alexandria
• August 3: Watertown, Kranzburg, Goodwin, Altamont, Clear Lake, Brandt, Toronto, White, Bushnell & Aurora
• August 7: Baltic, Sherman, Garretson, Corson, Brandon, Valley Springs, Alcester, Big Springs, Spink, Elk Point & Centerville
• August 8: Davis, Hurley, Menno, Olivet, Turkey Ridge, Scotland, Tyndall, Springfield, Avon, Dante, Wagner, Armour, Corsica, Stickney, Chamberlain, Oacama, Kimball & Pukwana
• August 11: Parker
• August 14: Henry, Clark, Raymond, Doland, Frankfort, Redfield, Ashton, Northville, Mellette, Warner & Aberdeen
• August 15: Bath, Groton, Claremont, Amherst, Britton, Langford, Pierpont, Bristol, Holmquist, Webster, Waubay, Ortley, Summit, Marvin & Milbank
• August 17: Rapid City
• August 19: Blackhawk, Piedmont, Sturgis, Whitewood, Central City, Deadwood, Lead, Belle Fourche & Spearfish
• August 20-21: Keystone, Hill City, Custer, Pringle, Edgemont, Buffalo Gap, Hot Springs & Hermosa

Professor Schaff will criticize Weiland for the absence of Pierre on that early itinerary; Pat Powers surely will not. But all four declared Republican candidates need to look at Weiland's list and start playing catch-up.

Atheist Billboards, Commitment to Ethics, and Personal Choice

We missed the South Dakota Coalition of Reason's new non-believers billboards in Rapid City and Spearfish on our trip west this week. However, I did hear Southern Baptist theologian (wait: they have those?) Russell Moore promulgate the American Christian persecution complex with the absurd claim that being a Christian is no longer "culturally helpful" in our country.

As a South Dakota atheist, let me say that if Moore's contention were true, there'd be no such billboards, or at least no news reports about them. We also would not see "Christian" in the first sentence of any Senate candidate's bio. (Rhoden waits until paragraph 4 to establish his Baptist cred; Rounds doesn't mention his Catholicism in his current Web bio).

The Coalition of Reason makes a declaration of moral intent that should be culturally helpful for any candidate or citizen of any religious persuasion:

Members of our community and student organizations self identify as atheist, agnostic, humanist, freethinker, secular, skeptic, non-religious, rationalist, empiricist, and more. Like everyone else, we also benefit from a supportive community of friends and family. South Dakota CoR strives to foster a better understanding of our secular values with our neighbors, and to promote and defend those values in our government. No matter how you self identify, we affirm that all have the ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity [emphasis mine; South Dakota Coalition of Reason, "Welcome," downloaded 2013.08.23].

I can hear my theist friends and even my own skeptical soul asking, "But where does that responsibility come from? Why bother with the 'greater good of humanity' if there is no God?"

I lost little sleep over that question when I was younger; I lose no sleep over that question now. If I didn't behave ethically, my daughter would be sad and my wife would be mad. If no one behaved ethically, life would suck. That response is selfish, sentimental, and sloppily utilitarian, but it works.

Some Christians I know will still declare the Coalition of Reason's commitment to ethical living empty and flimsy: how can we rely on a secularist's professed principles when they are rooted in nothing more than personal choice?

I do not doubt that atheists may make mistakes and fall away from their principles. But in that fallibility, do atheists differ at all from Christians? My Christian friends choose, with the same faculty of free will exercised by me and my secular friends, to follow the teachings of an ancient tribe that caught heck from Pharaoh and walked around the desert a lot, with amendments by a carpenter and convicted criminal from Nazareth. Prominent in those teachings is the idea that all people are fallible. We all suffer weakness. We all make mistakes. Are Christians not by definition as prone to waver and err in their convictions as everyone else we meet in the street?

I'm not big on joining clubs. I've never gotten the sense that joining a Christian club would help me make wiser, more humane, more effective decisions. I don't think joining an atheist club will bolster my decision-making ability.

But I do hope that the South Dakota Coalition of Reason can build on these new billboards to open lengthy conversations between people of all faiths—in God, in Wakan Tanka, in human dignity—that will help us all understand our common abilities and responsibilities to build a better world for all of our relations.

Medicaid Stimulus Provides South Dakota over $19M to Promote Electronic Health Records

We're still having trouble persuading Governor Dennis Daugaard to expand Medicaid to help South Dakota's working poor. All that Obamacare money is just too unreliable to dirty South Dakotans' hands.

But Governor Daugaard has had no problem handing out an extra $19,340,218.57 in extra Medicaid money from President Obama to South Dakota hospitals, doctors, and other caregivers. That's the amount of federal money, as of August 7, that the South Dakota Department of Social Services disbursed through its Electronic Health Record Incentive Payment Program. This money comes to South Dakota courtesy of the HITECH Act of 2009, which Congress folded into the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act—yes, our friend the 2009 stimulus.

So far 29 of South Dakota's 50 hospitals have received EHR incentive payments as a reward for adopting, implementing, and/or upgrading computerized record-keeping methods. Such rewards are money well-spent: electronic health records are good medicine, as demonstrated by the pioneering Veterans Health Administration.

The spreadsheet I received yesterday from DSS also shows 216 individual health care providers who have received EHR incentive payments. They include:

• 76 physicians
• 68 pediatricians
• 37 nurse practitioners
• 5 certified nurse midwives
• 7 dentists
• 24 physician assistants.

The first payments DSS lists went out on March 23, 2012, to the Mobridge hospital ($646,400), two physicians, ten pediatricians, and two NPs. A steady stream of disbursements has followed, including, on May 2, 2013, a payment of $21,250 to Annette Marie Bosworth.

Yes, the Annette Marie Bosworth who, one month and one day later, let leak her first public mention of her intent to run for Senate as a Republican determined to fight government involvement in health care.

Republicans from Governor Daugaard to candidate Bosworth understand the GOP drill: fulminate against federal money, but take all the money Uncle Sam offers.

Debunking Two Big Lies about Initiated Measure 15

I voted for Initiated Measure 15, the extra-penny sales tax to fund K-12 education and Medicaid. I'm not deeply enamored with IM15. There are decent arguments against this regressive tax. Whether IM15 passes or not, we will have some serious legislating to do to make our state taxing and spending more just and effective.

But I can recognize bogus arguments made against Initiated Measure 15. Two of the biggest fibs about Initiated Measure 15 are the following:

1. IM15 is the biggest tax increase in state history.
2. IM15 dumps much more money into education and Medicaid than has been cut.

The first one is a matter of mathematical interpretation. The dollar figure, $180 million in new revenue, may be correct. But raw dollar figures over time and inflation are bogus. Percentages matter. Jon Walker lists changes in the sales tax in his November 4 article on IM15. We implemented a state sales tax of 2% in 1935 (in the midst of the Depression and the Dust Bowl, no less!). In 1937, we upped it to 3%. Adding that extra penny increased the net sales tax by 50%. In 1969, we added another penny, a 33% increase in the sales tax. In 1980 and 1987, we implemented brief extra-penny increases, each of which was a temporary 25% increase. IM15 proposes to increase the state sales tax from 4% to 5%, a 25% increase. That's a lot of money, but proportionately, it is not the biggest tax increase in South Dakota history.

The second claim above is also untrue, at least in terms of K-12 funding. Jon Walker provides the following numbers on our state per-student allocation for K-12 education:

year	per-student state aid	change	PSA if  increased by 3%
2006	$4,238
2007	4,365	3.0%
2008	4,529	3.8%
2009	4,665	3.0%
2010	4,805	3.0%
2011	4,805	0.0%	4949.15
2012	4,390	-8.6%	5097.625
2013	4,491	2.3%	5250.553

I added the fourth column to show what would have happened to the state per-student allocation if we had followed the funding formula in 2011, 2012, and 2013 and increased education funding by 3%. We'd be at $5,251 per student. That would be $760 more than we are spending this year per student.

According to this year's sales tax revenue and K-12 enrollment, Initiated Measure 15 would increase state spending on K-12 education by about $720.

In other words, Initiated Measure 15 restores 95% of the funding that schools should have received if Pierre had not reneged on the K-12 funding formula for three years in row. Under IM15, compared to where they would have been under the the fiscal policies preceding 2011, our K-12 system will still be running short $40 per student, or a touch more than $5 million statewide.

IM15 is a big tax increase, but it is not the biggest in South Dakota history. And it does not put back into education more than has been cut. It actually falls just short of filling the gap our legislators have dug in the last three budgets.

Adventures in Online Campaign Finance: Lindsay Late, No Supplemental Filing Button

David Montgomery says Secretary of State Jason Gant's new campaign finance system still gives him fits. Yes, it's an improvement over the old paper system, but it's still a pain in the neck for users, especially for the candidates who count on this system to file their legally required data.

Roy Lindsay likely feels that way this fine election morning. The Democratic District 8 House candidate did not have a campaign finance report on file by the October 26 deadline. Secretary Jason Gant himself said that he had received no pre-general campaign finance report from the Lindsay campaign as of yesterday morning. Team Lindsay swore to me last week that they had filed it.

It's there now, dated yesterday, November 5. Lindsay has $8,687.81 on hand, mostly his own money, after spending a meager $1,792.19 so far. At least $250 of that will go to Secretary Gant as the penalty for not filing on time.

But it's hard to tell if the screw-up was really Lindsay's or the system's. Consider this cotemporaneous tale of Gant-tastic computer adventures:

I hear another person who runs a PAC (runs it? I think he is a PAC... but that's a whole nother blog post) was trying to file a supplemental report yesterday. PACs and other committees have 48 hours to file those reports from the time of the receipt of big chunks of cash; if they fail to meet that deadline, they face a Class 1 misdemeanor penalty, which can be a year in jail and a $2000 fine.

So PAC-man's clearly motivated to file that paper pronto. He logs into his account on the Secretary of State's website. He's looking for the button to file "Supplemental." Button, button, button... no button. I haven't filed reports on the new system, so I don't know if there's a supplemental report button or not. But PAC-man says there was one and that it disappeared from his account. He's got a time-sensitive document and the button that would have allowed him to file it has gone poof? That's a hair-raiser!

PAC-man called and got help: the Secretary of State's office advised simply printing a form and faxing it in, as apparently have other committees with last-minute contributions to report. There's just one more flaw in Secretary Gant's online jalopy: during the busiest time of the campaign, the system does not allow online filing of the most time-sensitive document required by the campaign finance system.

District 32: PACs Go Big for GOP Incumbents; Indivs Favor Dem Swanson

Here's a quick breakdown of the District 32 House money race between Republican incumbent gunbernatorial patronage beneficiaries Brian Gosch and Kristin Conzet and their sole Democratic challenger and teacher Jackie Swanson:

donations	Gosch	Conzet	Swanson
small indiv	$8,015.00	$425.00	$7,900.16
big indiv	$1,500.00	$650.00	$3,050.00
Parties	$200.00	$460.00	$116.34
SD PACs	$16,050.00	$10,850.00	$2,450.00
out-state PACs	$5,550.00	$1,650.00	$0.00
candidate cmtes	$0.00	$250.00	$0.00
in-kind	$10.75	$0.00	$700.00
total	$31,325.75	$14,285.00	$14,216.50

Now let's break that down by percentage:

donations	Gosch	Conzet	Swanson
small indiv	25.6%	3.0%	55.6%
big indiv	4.8%	4.6%	21.5%
Parties	0.6%	3.2%	0.8%
SD PACs	51.2%	76.0%	17.2%
out-state PACs	17.7%	11.6%	0.0%
candidate cmtes	0.0%	1.8%	0.0%
in-kind	0.0%	0.0%	4.9%
total	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

Every two out of three coins in Gosch's fountain splashed in from political action committees. Conzet got five sixths of her kitty from PACs. Swanson has gotten more than three-fourths of her campaign cash from individual donors, over half from folks giving a hundred bucks or less.

The Republican incumbents appear to be the PAC picks. Swanson appears to be the people's pick.

Kristi Noem Criss-Crossing South Dakota in Party Bus

Taking a page from the Gordon Howie campaign handbook, Kristi Noem has decided to counterprogram Matt Varilek's beautiful Buick and tour the state in a big RV:

Ah, the Noemobile. No word on how big a contribution you have to make to get a ride on Kristi's bus.

There's plenty of room for high-kicking daughters Kassidy and Kennedy. Komfy, I'm sure.

Noem is touring the state in RV comfort in what she calls the "Farms, Families, and Friends Tour." With this season-ending campaign blitz, Noem is effectively doubling the number of public meetings... although they aren't really public meetings open to all citizens, at least not citizens looking to document the vacuous campaign-trail malarkey Noem spreads.

On her entirely public Facebook campaign page, Noem snaps this metaphorically appropriate photo:

The water's rising, Kristi. Let's be honest, admit Noem is in over her head, and elect a Congressman who can do the job.

LAIC Buys into Main Street Program; Madison the New India?

Two noteworthy economic developments are afoot in Madison. First, I hear from my local correspondents that Lake Area Improvement Corporation director Julie Gross has officially endorsed—i.e., spent money!—on making Madison part of the Main Street program. The idea of the LAIC doing exactly what I recommend under previous do-nothing CYA director Dwaine Chapel. But Gross has bought into Main Street and convened a downtown development committee that is open to the public. I hope this isn't a sign that we are going to freeze over hard this winter.

The LAIC also gets to toot its horn about Dakota State University's new partnership with Advantenon, the evil overlord of Gamma Regulus whose robot hordes are invading this sector of the galaxy—oh, oops! Sorry, the cool alien name threw me.

Advantenon develops software for mobile devices. They base their business model on employing college students in rural areas to keep costs down—i.e., to pay less wages than they would hiring experienced talent in spendy urban areas. Advantenon discusses this strategy on a page called "Why Rural?"

Advantenon delivers mobile applications more efficiently, with fewer issues than applications outsourced to offshore teams, at costs up to 50% less than traditional on-site development.

By leveraging technically competent resources in lower cost rural communities, project costs are significantly reduced. By combining staff located outside major metropolitan areas with a limited number of onsite resource Advantenon delivers the benefits of rural and onsite flexibility [Advantenon, "Why Rural?" company website, retrieved November 5, 2012]. 

For years, IT companies have been saving money by offshoring labor to India and other lower-wage countries. The labor cost-savings outweigh the disadvantages of language barriers, time-zone separation, and quality control. As wages in India catch up with the West, the cost advantage erodes. South Dakota wages may still carry a premium over India, but they are 29% lower than in Minnesota, Advantenon's home base. Hire college students, and the premium is even less. For their money, Advantenon gets quality work (you DSU kids do have the storied Midwestern work ethic, don't you?) from folks who sprechen sie Englisch, are smack in the middle of most North American customers' time zone range, and are a short domestic flight away from a snap inspection by the boss.

This can be our niche, South Dakota! Get trained, know your tech, and you can be the next Indians. You won't even have to make up a normal sounding name to answer the phone... until the Chinese become our primary customers.

And when you get done with work, you'll be able to walk downtown and enjoy a wonderfully revitalized commercial and cultural core district.

District 8 Legislative Candidates' Forum: What They Said

I managed to watch the final District 8 Legislative candidates' forum this weekend, courtesy of KJAM's diligent election videography.

Here's what I learned:

1. Charlie Johnson could have become a lawyer. In his introduction, Johnson said he was accepted into USD's law school but turned that down to work as a small-farm advocate.
2. The man Johnson wants to replace, Senator Russell Olson, doesn't understand the disconnect between what he says and what he does on education. He says he's deeply concerned about raising teacher pay. He says he opposes Initiated Measure 15 because it doesn't guarantee that the new revenue goes to teachers. He says he supports Referred Law 16 because it is the first time he and his fellow legislators have made an effort to pay great teachers more. But Russ, if paying teachers more is such a priority for you, why didn't you get around to it until the sixth year of your time in Pierre?
3. Leslie Heinemann isn't a complete GOP tool. Instead of the vague, evidenceless claims that Senator Olson and fellow House candidate Gene Kroger make for Governor Daugaard's education agenda, Heinemann admits his reservations about the bonus program for teachers. He says he can "discriminate" in his small business and pay more to the employees he thinks are working hard. He recognizes, however, that it's difficult to impose the private business model on public schools.
4. Charlie Johnson sums up Referred Law 16's merit pay plank best: "I don't cultivate, fertilize, and harvest only 20% of my acres. I take care of all my acres. That's the way we have to do education, take care of all of education." He says Russ and the Governor are using Referred Law 16 as a "diversion tactic" to keep us from focusing on the real problem if their neglect of K-12 education funding.
5. Amendment M is not going to pass, and even Russ Olson doesn't care. He says the amendment on corporate voting and regulation would create a more business-friendly climate in South Dakota—and when Russ says "business-friendly," he means crony-capitalist. But Russ acknowledges that there hasn't been much effort to educate the public on the merits of M, so he appears to shrug at its prospects, as did most other candidates at the podium.
6. As I expected, Gene Kroger is least equipped to deal with policy issues. On Initiated Measure 15, while the other candidates addressed the regressive nature of the sales tax, the size of the proposed increase (excellent rebuttal from Roy Lindsay, explaining that IM15 is not the largest tax increase in South Dakota history), and the merits of spending the money on K-12 education and Medicaid, Kroger reverted to his Grumpy Old Party talk about inflation and how he has to pay twice as much for his pork and beans. Note to Gene: under President Barack Obama, monthly inflation has averaged 1.6%. Under President George W. Bush, it was 2.8%. From 1914 to 2008, it was 3.4%.
7. Asked about rising student debt, Kroger again shrugged his grumpy old shoulders and said students have to "decide if this is what I want to do and do I want to pay the price to do it." He asserted that South Dakota tuition is lower and students have less debt than in other states, which is GOP code for "Quit your bellyaching." It's also only one-third true. South Dakota graduates have the median student debt in the country, which happens to be less than the national average. But South Dakota has the second-highest percentage (76%) of students graduating with debt. And given that our wages are the second-lowest in the nation, those students have an even harder time paying off their debt.
8. All six candidates expressed their eagerness to use government to create jobs by protecting and expanding Dakota State University. Senator Olson confirmed that he is hoping to arrange for the state to acquire the current Madison Community Hospital property when that organization builds its new facility on the south side of Madison.
9. While Russ Olson thinks getting DSU more land and buildings will help the university, Charlie Johnson says that if we want students to fill those buildings, we need to find more state support to keep tuition affordable. 

On the whole, if you have to pick a Republican in District 8. He at least shows signs of critical thinking that go beyond what Fox News or Governor Daugaard tell him to think. But the joy of living in District 8 is that you do not have to pick a Republican. You have a full slate of Democratic candidates. Charlie Johnson, Scott Parsley, and Roy Lindsay will legislate with more concern for the common good and sensible, evidence-based policy than their Republican counterparts.

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.

Dan Kaiser Threatens to Bring Ron Paul Nullification Agenda to State House

The South Dakota Democratic Party twists Pat Powers's knickers again with a hard attack postcard sent to District 3 to tie police officer Dan Kaiser to his support for Ron Paul's radical libertarian agenda.

Now Kaiser doesn't mind. In a July interview, he invited all comers to "feel free to drag me through the mud... bring it on."

But this card isn't mud; it is essentially true. Dan Kaiser calls himself an "avid Ron Paul supporter." Ron Paulavidly if impotently supports legalizing drugs. Ron Paul was weaselly on Social Security during the 2012 primary, but he has said Social Security is unconstitutional, has compared it to slavery, and that he'd like to get rid of it. Ron Paul would eliminate farm subsidies. It is hard to imagine Dan Kaiser being an "avid" Ron Paul supporter and not aligning with Ron Paul's positions on these significant issues.

Incredibly, Powers manages to raise a larger issue: does the South Dakota Democratic Party misfire by attacking Kaiser (and Rep. Jon Hansen, according to a DWC commenter) on national policies that won't be much in his bailiwick as a state legislator? I agree that the Dems' attack on Kaiser smells of the same irrelevancy that I've heard from folks like Gordon Howie and Jason Bjorklund who campaign for state office on Tea-Party karaoke that has little to do with immediate practical policymaking.

However, Dan Kaiser appears to be using his candidacy for State House to promote himself and his pursuit of Ron Paul's national agenda. Listen to Kaiser holding forth in this July video interview with national "Paul Fest" organizer Mat Larson (starting at 32:30):

Popout

Kaiser says he is running to promote the "cause of liberty" and "revolution" to "take this country back from a state level all the way up." He says he is seeking to get his name more visible in party and statewide, with an eye toward other races.

Interestingly, the next office most clearly in his sights is not national but local: when a caller tells him to run for sheriff so that he wouldn't have to answer to anything but his personal interpretation of the constitution, Kaiser says he'll consider it in two years when the current Brown County sheriff's term is up. Kaiser says a State House position could get him the name recognition to easily win sheriff's race.

Kaiser sees himself as promoting Ron Paul's national agenda even now in uniform as an Aberdeen police officer. He does so in a careful dance between his strict libertarian principles and the need to keep his job... which Officer Kaiser himself calls "hypocrisy." He speaks with apparent regret of busting a drug house. "If I happen to come across an illegal drug... I'm going to do my job to require me getting a paycheck." Kaiser "would challenge anybody to find any record that says I've ever wrote... a seat belt ticket." The video host says Kaiser won't be out as a "Nazi cop" there enforcing local laws, and Kaiser doesn't disagree.

Apparently Officer Kaiser thinks his role is not merely to enforce the laws the people have chosen, but to decide which laws are worth enforcing. And his commitment to enforcing some laws appears to be no deeper than his selfish commitment to keeping his paycheck.

Kaiser shows his Ron Paul stripes clearly with his language on guns. He says the Second Amendment is not about self-defense or hunting. He says the Second Amendment isn't about going to shoot deer with a government-approved license. He says the right to bear arms is about having the ability to overthrow the government if it becomes too tyrannical "To clarify," Kaiser adds, "I'm not advocating that right now."

Kaiser refers to "garbage" from Mitt Romney about assault weapons having no place in our communities. He declares Romney an "idiot." Kaiser says he is "an avid carrier myself" and believes that "everyone should carry."Everyone.

Instead of defending Kaiser, Powers should be going ape over Kaiser's Republcian apostasy. Relevant to drug policy, Kaiser says, "I don't want the government telling what I can and can't put in my body." That sounds like a direct endorsement of drug legalization.

Kaiser also says "I don't want the government telling me whom I can and can't marry... if it doesn't affect me, I don't care." That sounds like a rejection of the GOP's insistence on denying homosexuals the right to marry.

In a move that might endear him to some Republicans, Kaiser sounds inclined to skirt campaign finance laws. A caller urges him to send a note to a Ron Paulite PAC. The caller notes that Kaiser Dan can't coordinate with the PAC after that first call. Kaiser says he'll do that. That sounds like a sleazy wink-wink dodge of our already too-weak campaign finance laws.

Kaiser also drops the big Ron Paul nullification bomb. He says we "need to get liberty-minded folks across the state to understand such things as nullification, just so we can kind of flex our states rights under the tenth amendment." Like his fellow Ron Paulite Rep. Hansen, Kaiser embraces the idea of ignoring the laws we don't like. That attitude should disqualify a policeman. It should also disqualify a legislator.

And just to send the GOP a signal that they shouldn't mind the Dems' attack, Kaiser makes clear he'll be the next Stace Nelson. On Pierre and politics, he says, "I have no ambition of going there and making friends. I want to go there and butt heads with some of them... we might need a cop in there because there are a lot of criminals in state legislature right now. I want to go there and clean house...." Later in the video, the first legislator that springs to mind as worthy of his and Ron Paulites' endorsement is Rep. Stace Nelson, as well as conservative radicals Isaac Latterell, Manny Steele, Lance Russell, and Brian Liss. Kaiser dismisses all of his potential Senate counterparts: he says "we've got no hope" in the Senate and "can't think of any Senators that are real staunch liberty folks."

Ron Paul's policy positions may not all be relevant to state legislative policymaking. But Dan Kaiser's embrace of Ron Paul's nullificationism appears to cause him to ignore his sworn oath to uphold the law, not just the laws that he prefers. In this regard, pointing out Kaiser's allegiance to a national ideologue and agenda are perfectly relevant to District 3's evaluation of his fitness to hold public office.

Madison Central Charges Admission to Vote?

Madison Central School District held the first of its scheduled early-voting sessions this week. One local basketball fan reports that, contrary to the spirit of the 24th Amendment, to vote at Tuesday night's boys' basketball game, one had to buy a five-dollar ticket for admission to the game.

According to my correspondent, the polling station was located in the concession area in the middle school lunchroom. During games, the only way to access that area is through the northwest entrance to the middle school, where the ticket table for the game was located. There was no sign at the ticket table announcing that voting was being conducted on the premises, and my correspondent received no advice at the ticket table that one could enter to vote without buying a ticket. The only public notice of the active polling came at halftime, when the PA announcer, Mike Materese, told the crowd that they could go vote for the MHS renovation project in the lunchroom.

The polling station was managed by Monica Campbell, executive director of the Madison Central Education Foundation, which stands to gain new office space in the renovated high school if the bond issue passes.

Now I'm having trouble pinning this down in statute, since our district seems to be winging it on election law on this early-voting scheme. But if election day rules apply to early-voting sessions, publishing a schedule of early-voting sites online and in the newspaper isn't enough. Let us turn to SDCL 12-14-14:

On election day a sign, with a minimum size of eleven inches by seventeen inches, shall be conspicuously displayed outside of the entrance to any building in which a polling place is located to clearly identify the building as a polling place.

If election law allows early voting, election law should hold early voting places to the same standards to protect voter rights as regular election day voting. Individuals should not have to purchase tickets to access a polling place. The polling place should be conspicuously announced by a sign at the entrance of the building.

By the way, as we consider spending millions of dollars to build a 2500-seat gym, my correspondent reports there were plenty of open seats in the current 1200-seat gym.

Governors-Elect Consider Cutting Drug Programs -- Why Not Legalize Pot

Florida's Republican Governor-Elect Rick Scott is cutting jobs in the Office of Drug Control created by former Governor Jeb Bush. South Dakota's Republican Governor-Elect Dennis Daugaard inherits from his predecessor a proposal to cut meth treatment programs.

I'll invite Mr. Newland to expound further. For now I'll just note that we could probably save a lot more in law enforcement and incracertation costs by legalizing marijuana. At least that's what televangelist Pat Robertson thinks.

Web Spinning, Media in the Tank for MHS New Gym

Some statistics of interest, Web and otherwise:

• 245: hits received by the Madison Central New Gym/Renovation Project website since launched earlier this month. Superintendent Vince Schaefer crows about this popularity on the front page of last night's Madison Daily Leader.
• not mentioned: number of those hits coming from the Madville Times.
• 700: hits received by the Madville Times yesterday.
  
• 163: votes submitted to the Madville Times online poll on the school bond issue in one week.
  
• 109: views of MHS Tour Intro, the most popular of the 18 videos I shot and posted of the MHS facility tour last month.
• 60: views of MHS Locker Room Toilet, the second-most popular video of the MHS series.
• 17%: amount of $16.98-million bond issue projected for new gym.
• 75%: possible understatement of actual new gym cost.
  
• 0: individual components of plan that cost more than the new gym.
  
• 9: paragraphs you have to read through before encountering Chuck Clement's first use of the word gymnasium in last night's front-page 12-paragraph article on the project.
• 16: paragraphs you had to read through to find new gym in Clement's October 8 19-paragraph article on the project.
• 2: times Clement said "screw you" to me last March in response to my criticism of his journalism.
  

Legislature Posts First Proposed Bills of 2011

What's that under my tree? Christmas bills! Yahoo! Start your RSS engines: the first pieces of legislation to be proposed in the 2011 session of the South Dakota State Legislature are in the e-hopper.

First in from the State House: two bills on the agricultural productivity tax (you know, the quasi-income tax now imposed on farmers in place of plain old property tax). House Bill 1001 changes shall to may in a couple spots (ah ha! So shall and may do mean different things!) and allows the folks in charge of this tax to incorporate more data in the calculations. HB 1002 clarifies the need for documentation and the kinds of data the director of equalization can use to assess taxes on ag land.

HB 1003 empowers the Interim Rules Review Committee to revert rules that impose "unreasonable" costs on local governments and school districts. If I'm reading the law right, the interim committee already has the power to revert rules for other reasons. But I wonder if this change will resurrect debates over costs that are better settled during session by the full body.

The Senate is a bit slower out of the blocks, with a couple of style and form changes. Senate Bill 3 has a little more substance: it clamps down on the use of South Dakota's state seal. Section specifies that the state seal may not be used for the following:

1. On or in connection with any advertising or promotion for any product, business, organization, service, or article whether offered for sale for profit or offered without charge;
2. In a political campaign to assist or defeat any candidate for elective office; or
3. In a manner which may operate or be construed as an endorsement of any business, organization, product, service, or article.

In other words, if this passes, Senator Russell Olson (R-8/Madison) will have to get the Bulldog Media folks to whip up a new header for his website:

Small but deadly: Senate Bill 3 would ban use of the state seal in political campaign literature.

Senate Bill 3 would empower the Secretary of State to come up with rules to "assure tasteful and high-quality reproduction of the seal." I welcome readers to compose their own punchlines.

The Interim Bureau of Administration Agency Review Committee put this bill together. They even had the foresight to pre-empt complaints of censorship. Says Section 7:

Nothing in this Act prohibits the reproduction of the state seal for illustrative purposes by the news media if the reproduction by the news media is incidental to the publication or the broadcast. Nothing in this Act prohibits a characterization of the state seal from being used in political cartoons.

Hey, Ehrisman! You're still good to go! But now let's see if there's floor debate on whether blogs meet the Legislature's definition of "news media."

There's much more fun to come from our hearty 105 in Pierre. Stay tuned!

MHS Publishes Early Voting Schedule: No Tickets Required

I see the Madison Central School District has posted a list of absentee voting opportunities. Permit me to post the schedule hear in clean and simple text to spare you the trouble of clicking on the school's needlessly bandwidthy PDF:

Date	Event	Location	Time
12/20	Middle School band/choir concert	High School Auditorium	7:00 p.m.
12/21	Boys basketball	Cafeteria	4:45 p.m.
1/7	Girls basketball	Cafeteria	4:45 p.m.
1/10	Boys basketball	DSU Fieldhouse	4:45 p.m.
1/12	Open voting	Elementary Commons	12:45 p.m.
1/13	Girls basketball	DSU Fieldhouse	5:00 p.m.
1/15	Gymnastics	Cafeteria	Noon
1/17	Forum	Cafeteria	7:00 p.m. after Forum
1/18	Open voting	Elementary Commons	3:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.
1/20	Boys basketball	DSU Fieldhouse	5:00 p.m.
1/21	Wrestling (Madison Square Garden)	Cafeteria	6:00 p.m.
1/25	Forum	Cafeteria	7:00 p.m. after Forum

Dang—I already missed a couple!

A couple things occurred to me last night about the school district's early-voting scheme. First, the school can't conduct early voting at a basketball game... or at least not on the other side of the ticket table. Suppose concerned citizens want to observe the voting, as they are entitled by state law to do. Suppose they're on a tight budget and can't afford a ticket to the basketball game. If school business manager and election officer Cindy Callies sets up a voting table on paid side of the ticket booth, she creates a barrier to poll watchers, not to mention potential voters.

There can be no price of admission to access any polling place. That's why, in the above schedule, the polling during high school games is listed at the cafeteria or the auditorium. But there still had better not be any electioneering near that voting table!

Note also that it's a bit tough to make to observe the polls when the school district doesn't include a closing time for its early polls. Keeping democracy honest is hard work, but on January 20th, for instance, it would be nice to know if voting will run for just an hour or if I should pack a snadwich and expect to be there for four hours.

Absent from the school's new gym/renovation information site is a list of workplaces that have requested early voting sessions. If any such sessions are scheduled, we should expect similar public notification.

Note, business owners, that if you invite Mrs. Callies to hold early voting at your business, you'll need to open your doors to any person who wants to come in and watch or even vote. That's our right. You can't call Mrs. Callies and say, "I have five employees who want to vote; please bring five ballots down." If folks on the street hear that you're conducting an early vote at your office, and they want to drop in and vote at that time as well, you have to let them in, and Mrs. Callies has to bring enough ballots for such a contingency.

The school district has already lost one supporter with its gaming of the vote. I hope the school will compensate for its questionable vote-stacking by keeping the process as transparent as possible.