Tag Archives: governor

Rounds v. Johnson

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Just over a year ago, Mike Rounds told me he felt Tim Johnson, a Democratic senator, was a friend and a good man whom he had worked well with over the years.

Johnson spoke highly of Rounds as the Republican governor prepared to leave office at the end of 2010. Job well done, he said.

Such nice South Dakotans, working well together, crossing party lines for the good of the state, yadda, yadda yadda …

But now these two highly successful South Dakota politicians may butt heads in 2014. We’ll see how much buddy-buddy talk is exchanged then.

When Johnson suffered a severe brain bleed on Dec. 13, 2006, there was a great deal of speculation that Johnson might die or have to step down and Rounds, who was about to start his second term as governor, would have to name a replacement.

But the governor said he would have none of it. When I spoke with Rounds at the end of 2010, he said he ordered his staff not to even mention the possibility of replacing Johnson.

Johnson recovered, returned to the Senate and easily won a third term in 2008. Poor Joel Dykstra couldn’t attack Johnson without looking bad and didn’t garner much money or support. It was a non-contest.

Now Johnson again faces the question: Will he run for the Senate again? If he does, he may find Rounds waiting for him on Election Day.

The former governor told the Rapid City Journal’s Kevin Woster that he was seriously looking at a run for the Senate in 2014. I offered a historic look at these two political powerhouses in Monday’s Daily Republic.

Back in 2010, as he reviewed his career, Rounds told me he almost ran against Johnson in 2002. At the time, it appeared John Thune would run for governor and Rounds, an ambitious young state senator, set his sights on the U.S. Senate.

But Thune was persuaded by then-VP Dick Cheney and others to run for the Senate and Rounds, in an amazing contest, won a three-way GOP primary and wound up as governor.

Will Rounds run for the Senate this time? He may have a lot of company.

Will Kristi Noem run for the Senate as well, especially if she wins a second term in the House this year and is contemplating a move up in class?

Of course, Johnson, now 65, after more than 30 years in elective office and a quarter century in Washington, D.C., may decide to retire. He is still deeply impacted by the brain bleed, which left his speech slowed and slurred and his body greatly weakened.

While Johnson and his staff say he is completely capable of serving in the Senate, and he appears still quick-witted and on top of things. he may decide Rounds is a very formidable opponent at this stage of his life and decide to call it a career.

He also might want to clear the way for his son, U.S. Attorney Brendan Johnson, who is widely seen as a future senator, congressman, governor — something. And Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, who bowed out of the 2012 election recently, may want to run for the Senate as well.

But if Mike and Tim end up on the same ballot for the same office, it would be great contest to observe. Neither man has ever lost a race for office and both are rather proud of that fact.

If Johnson wins, he would become the most successful politician in South Dakota history, with five terms in the House and four in the Senate.

If Rounds would run and win, he would follow in the footsteps of the man he calls his role model, Peter Norbeck, who served in the Senate after two terms as governor.

Political observers have been saying for months that 2014 will be a fascinating year in South Dakota politics. Rounds’ announcement added fuel to that fire.

Tim, you’re up. Any more news for us?

Janklow

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People loved him. People hated him. Almost all had strong feelings about him.

They adored him and voted him into statewide office six times, elevating him to nationwide prominence. They despised him and cursed him and celebrated his problems.

Few people had neutral feelings about Bill Janklow, who died Thursday at 72. He was a driven, angry, sentimental, caring, razor-sharp, bitter, vindictive, brilliant man.

I knew Janklow for more than 30 years and wrote about him many times. For some reason, we got along well and never had an argument, nor did he call me late at night to chew me out.

I admired him and feel his reputation will only grow. Others who I like and admire feel differently.

Now he belongs to the ages.

Is 60% really all that high for a Republican gov in SD?

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SD Gov. Dennis Daugaard earned a solid 60% job approval rating in a recent poll, but other Republicans have outshined him. Is that really a good number for a SD Republican in his first year in office?

Dennis Daugaard is just about the nicest guy you will ever meet. South Dakota has its share of nice politicians, but this one tops them in my book. (Isn’t there a Twitter person going by Denny Do-good?)

So when I ask if the governor’s 60% job approval rating in a recent poll is really all that high, I’m not asking if Denny is likeable. He most certainly is. So is Barack Obama, but that hasn’t helped his job approval ratings of late, either.

I remember Mike Rounds scoring an off-the-charts 75 or something, the highest approval rating in all the land. John Thune got re-elected to Congress a few times by that very comfortable margin.

And while many a politician would give a year’s worth of campaign contributions to get even close to 60%, the number struck me as low for a Republican on the Second Floor in his first year.

So I wonder aloud if anyone else had the same reaction.

Could it be the budget cuts? I know I winced when nobody blinked on cutting 10% across the board, being the mother of 2 toddlers and caring very  much about the school down the street. (I know schools didn’t suffer the entire 10%; it was still rough.)

Could it be somehow the flood? I have heard through the grapevine that some residents of the northeastern lakes territory felt a bit chagrinned that so much focus went to the Mighty Mo while they, too, faced rising waters. I have also heard grumbling about disproportionate use of National Guard resources in the tony Dakota Dunes community.

Even if these complaints are unwarranted – and I must confess I have not followed up, the perception is certainly out there. And, you know, people talk.

Could it be a lawyerly, perhaps professorial speaking style that, for all of Denny’s niceness, lacks a bit in the broad charisma that is the currency of modern-day politics?

Could it be that the stepped-up rhetoric coming from the Dems is having an impact?

Could it be that I’m simply all wet? That 60% is really quite high in the current electoral climate?

TPaw, we hardly knew ye …

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I thought I’d better write this before Tim Pawlenty is forgotten, a footnote if that in the 2012 presidential campaign.

I covered Pawlenty when he was the governor of Minnesota and liked the guy. Unlike the cold, clumsy image that was created and sold in recent months, I found him funny, caring and a decent person.

He didn’t seem to sell that in the last few months, however, and his hopes for 2012 died in the summer of 2011. Perhaps he just wasn’t ready for prime time.

I spent time around Pawlenty in 2003-2005, while I worked as an associate editor at The Free Press in Mankato. Pawlenty was a Republican governor in a traditionally Democratic state, a moderate to conservative in a land known for 10,000 lakes and a lot of social programs.

TPaw won both his races for governor by appealing to what’s called the “out-state” vote in Minnesota, the rural and small-town voters who lean more Republican than their relatives and friends in the Twin Cities. He fought for balanced budgets and in general governed effectively, which was impressive after the poor performance from the man he followed, wrestler/actor/feather boa model Jesse Ventura.

I saw Pawlenty at National Guard events, where he made good speeches and displayed a gentle, decent touch with soldiers and their families.

I covered him at a hunting lodge, where his quiet, wry sense of humor was fully on display. Pawlenty displayed his sense of humor during an overseas trips with other governors when he wore a bright yellow SPAM T-shirt to promote the Austin, Minn., business while his fellow governors donned jackets and ties.

And I saw him deal with the media, which he did with a deft touch and a sense of humor. His presidential ambitions were apparent and his politics and pronouncements took a right turn in his closing months in office as he eyed 2012.

He seemed like one of the Republican frontrunners and the top challenger to Mitt Romney, but the success of his fellow Minnesota, Michele Bachmann, was his undoing in Iowa. Pawlenty finished a distant third in the Iowa Straw Poll Saturday and dropped out of the GOP race Sunday.

The Minnesota Republican Party is now trying to get him interested in a race for the Senate in 2012 and perhaps he will. He’s young — just 50 – talented and  a proven winner, at least in Minnesota.

His campaign pitch may have been off, and his moderate reputation turned off some deeply conservative Republicans who were looking for their dream candidate. TPaw have stubbed his toe in this campaign, but we may see him again.

And I bet he’s got a SPAM T-shirt somewhere, too, to remind him of the good times.

Dennis Daugaard, climate change believer?

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For most Republican politicians, dissing climate change or global warming or whatever you choose to label it (I expect ObamaWeather to pop up soon), is just part of toeing the party line.
The GOP doesn’t believe in abortion, gay marriage or climate change. Dennis Daugaard, a self-professed conservative, has always been in line with the party’s beliefs.
That’s why it was striking when DD said he didn’t entirely dismiss climate change as a cause for the wild weather we are enduring in South Dakota. The governor made that statement during the Capital for a Day events in Mitchell Wednesday.
From the story: “He also said he does not know whether the flooding will be a pattern that will repeat next year or if the flooding is caused by climate change.
“’It’s sure possible,’ Daugaard said in response to the climate change question.”
Not a ringing endorsement but hardly the hard-line denial we have heard for years. Maybe living in SD when record flooding is causing pain and problems across the state can cause a person to reconsider any and all ideas on weather and climate.
Here’s the whole story: http://www.mitchellrepublic.com/event/article/id/54041/