Senator Lee Schoenbeck accusing Rep. Drew Dennert of gerrymandering redistricting proposal, and says House plan is for “taking care of a few of their friends”

@SoDakCampaigns

From the Argus Leader, State Senate President Pro Tempore Lee Schoenbeck is mincing few words on redistricting as he believes House members are trying to draw lines to protect themselves after saving their proposals for very late in process, and trying to keep a district that was drawn 10 years ago to protect incumbents:

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Sen. Schoenbeck

“Ten years ago, a conurbation district didn’t exactly give us a great proposal for District 25. It’s oddly shaped,” Crabtree said last week. “I don’t think we should go back and make the same mistake we did 10 years ago.”

Schoenbeck told the Argus Leader on Friday the House’s map, drafted by Dennert, is “gerrymandered” and looks like “they gave a monkey a switchblade and said carve up South Dakota.” He accused House members of inserting self interests into the process.

“The Speaker put people on the committee who’s goal is to draw lines to protect Legislators who have, let’s say, unique worldviews,” Schoenbeck said. “It’s the House committee taking care of a few of their friends.”

Knife-wielding monkey gets even more dangerous in Photoshop battle
(possibly Drew Dennert) from imagur

and..

Gosch pointed to a proposed district map Schoenbeck published on a conservative blog this summer and its similarity to the map the Senate Redistricting Committee is recommending.

Read the entire story here.

“a conservative blog?”  Apparently the Argus must have an editorial ban on mentioning the SDWC.  (You can read Schoenbeck’s “alluded to” column here.)

Going to be an interesting special session.

6 thoughts on “Senator Lee Schoenbeck accusing Rep. Drew Dennert of gerrymandering redistricting proposal, and says House plan is for “taking care of a few of their friends””

  1. Listening to redistricting meeting meetings on PBS, the House committee chaired by Representative Gosch was very well done with welcome collaboration by all members. They followed the agenda so that the listeners could understand the process. There was much back and forth attempting to meet the requests from the residents of their particular districts, in particular Aberdeen, Vermillion, Turner County and specific concerns for reservation districts. Not so the previous meeting when the Senate Chair “tossed” the agenda and allowed unscheduled action in. Both meetings available online so be sure to listen before you assume this finger pointer is telling the truth

  2. Politics gets personal. I am looking to our listening session and November 8 Special Session

    Senator Lee Schoenbeck is a hard working individual with great leadership responsibility.

    Representative Drew Dennert and I are the House members for District 3. Drew was the youngest legislator ever in the state of South Dakota, he has high integrity, is the Chair of the House Taxation Committee and has the best interest of the Republicans. I am proud to be associated with him.

  3. I want to see less about the personalities, less about the finger-pointing, and much more about the issues that are at stake and what is the overall good that we’re seeking together for the common good of South Dakota.

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