It’s that time of the year again, where I do an annual list of the top political stories of 2015.
Admittedly, very often my lists tend to set the stage for next year, but in politics, events of the present often foreshadow the events of days to come. Part 1 of my top ten list is no exception, as all of them will affect the upcoming legislative session, upcoming elections, and how we view South Dakota’s political class.
So, let’s get on with it, and start the countdown…
10. The Westerhuis Murder investigation.
A horrendously tragic murder-suicide of a family in Platte, SD found itself over the course of a month and a half investigation in the middle of a political firestorm whipped up by the media, conspiracy theorists, and those who would like to make political hay out of it for the sake of political gamesmanship. Welcome for what passes for propriety in South Dakota nowadays.
The employer of the Westerhuis family parents had been given notice that their employer had lost a significant federal grant administered by the state hours before the tragic deaths occurred. The grant involved a program administered by the Co-op, the GEAR UP program. This discretionary grant program is designed to increase the number of low-income students who are prepared to enter and succeed in postsecondary education.
The grant, and the educational cooperative’s administrative handling of the program soon became an issue, with information coming to light about the state directly intervening and providing extended involvement and hand-holding in trying to get them back on track over a series of years. Some criticized the hiring decisions by the Ed Coop, others criticized the state for having not dropped the hammer to strip them of the grant earlier, and getting in too deeply involved in helping them salvage it.
Democrats wasted no time by crassly using the occasion of the Atty General reporting on the status of the murder investigation to claim that “majority party dominance has resulted in a lack of government accountability.” Despite the fact the Educational coop is a non-partisan entity.
It’s hard to simplify this case down to a few paragraphs, but watch for legislation to be proposed and for more clucking by Dems for the TV cameras. Ultimately, little will come of it.
What’s more likely to occur will be stronger rules about state grant audits, and when state agencies need to cut the cord with programs that aren’t producing.
9. Legislative departures
Political resignations are always noteworthy, but 2015 was an unusual year for those political departures. Adding to the oddness were three departures in particular.
Dan Lederman announced his departure at the tail end of the legislative session, as his family absences coupled with increasing business demands dictated that he needed to take a step back from serving in the legislature, and as Assistant Senate Majority Leader. No one was more surprised than Senate Majority Leader Tim Rave, who announced his own retirement from the legislature shortly thereafter, due to a job change.
These departures left massive vacancies and necessitated a complete reorganization of the Republican Majority in the Senate, which led President pro tempore of the South Dakota Senate Corey Brown to step down, and assume the majority leader role.
Also of note was the departure of State Representative Steve Hickey. Hickey had been noteworthy as being involved in the demand for an investigation of Annette Bosworth for petition violations, and at the same time he announced his resignation, he was accused of similar actions as he himself had accused Annette Bosworth of. Hickey departed the country to study in Scotland, and the accusations were not deemed credible enough to pursue.
8. Presidential politics
We named this as one of our top stories of 2015 because the presidential race has been a hot political topic all year, and only continues to gather steam as we close out 2015. As the 2016 Presidential races have heated up, politics on both sides of the aisle have dominated conversations among South Dakotans… despite the fact caucuses and primaries were months away. South Dakota Politicians have been lining up with their candidates as well.
Senator Mike Rounds was an early supporter of Mike Huckabee, and a number of early supporters of Jeb Bush, led by Assistant House Majority Leader Steve Westra, made their support public as well. Atty and GOP activist Joel Arends was an early supporter of Donald Trump, and organized a California Event for him that liberal news organizations pounced on and attacked.
Later in the year, Both Congresswoman Kristi Noem and former GOP Chair Bob Gray came out for Marco Rubio.
7. Medicaid Expansion
Democrats have been long attempting to use this as a wedge issue, as they try to paint the GOP as uncaring, despite the massive costs it would promise to add to South Dakota taxpayers were this entitlement to be implemented.
Later in the year, Governor Dennis Daugaard came forth with a proposal he’s been negotiating with the federal government to offset the costs of such an increase in the welfare rolls by the federal government honoring their commitment to pay for the medical costs of Native Americans through the Indian Health Service. As described in the Argus Leader:
Currently, Medicaid-eligible American Indians can choose to receive covered services from any provider that participates in a state’s Medicaid program. Depending on where those patients seek services can affect the rates the state and federal government have to pay.
If a patient seeks care from a non-IHS or non-tribal facility, the federal government pays between 50 percent and 74 percent, while the state pays between 26 percent and 50 percent. By comparison, if that patient seeks care through an IHS or tribal provider, the feds cover 100 percent and the state doesn’t have to chip in.
This would go a long way to making such an expansion economically feasible . The question is whether legislators would view it as politically feasible, as some are already expressing concern over expanding to cover able-bodied persons, adding 10% of the state’s population to the welfare rolls.
The discussion has been pervasive in 2015, and is going to continue past the end of the year into next session.
6. Kristi Noem in Washington
Congresswoman Kristi Noem isn’t just having a good year – she’s having a great year in politics. Noem’s bipartisan Human Trafficking Prevention, Intervention, and Recovery Act was passed in July, and the measure has already been recognized as increasing prosecutions. In November, she helped push the highway bill through the House. In December, Noem has helped pass the first education 
overhaul since 2002. And, I could go on and on.
But let’s not forget the big enchilada – Early in 2015, U.S. Rep. Kristi Noem was appointed to the House Ways and Means Committee. Noem, the first South Dakota member of Congress to serve in the committee, has jurisdiction over tax, trade and other economic policies. Her higher profile has kept her in the spotlight, and she shows no signs of slowing down.
Noem is literally at the current height of her power and influence in Washington, and it shows with her strong popularity in her home state. A weak opponent , State Representative Paula Hawks has already caused the race to be labeled by national prognosticators as going “Strong Republican,” and her fundraising has proven to be more anemic than that of Noem’s unknown 2014 opponent.
Stick a fork in this race for 2016. It has already been won.
Stay tuned for part 2!
Political cronyism should be the first headline. Gear-up cronyism is only one of the manifestations of Pierre corruption. The Rounds’ economic development scheme to sell green cards for money for his cronies is number one. EB-5 is the Solyndra of South Dakota. I wish some in the SD GOP had the integrity to do their job and confront the problem.
I’d probably put the murder/gear up debacle in the top 5.
The job Krebs has done in the SOS office in the top 5.
Medicaid isn’t about whether you’re able-bodied. Medicare is. Medicaid is about how poor you are and if you qualify, you qualify no matter how many people it irritates.
BUT, if you are able-bodied and able to work but are encouraged by the social services system to NOT work and instead to get all the govt handouts you can get, then something is wrong with the system. And yes, it DOES irritate me because I am paying the bill for this.
Give me the name of the Social Services professional who encourages anyone to not work and I’ll turn them in for the reward. Just ONE name. That’s a TeaParty myth.
Also…It’s ironic that Republicans despise welfare but every penny they take in mortgage interest deduction is just as much welfare for the middle class as Medicaid is for the low income voters. There’s no reason for it other than to pander to those with “more than the poor”.
Sorry, Porter, this is not a myth. It does happen. And I don’t personally care whether you believe me or not. The system is skewed backwards and exists simply to get more people dependent on the federal government when a person can make more by not working than by working..
I had a classmate in nursing school, in 1985, who was a single mom with 4 kids. While the rest of us were struggling, she was on the full package of benefits: Medicaid, food stamps, housing, utilities. She paid nothing for her 4 bedroom, 2 bath townhouse apartment with full basement, laundry hookups, and off-street parking. Her childcare was paid at $1.50/hr/child, which meant her babysitter was making more money than her social worker at the time. (This annoyed even the social worker)
I calculated the value of what she was receiving and it came to $31,000/year after taxes. I told her “you know we’re not going to make that much after graduation.” She said she knew, but the impact didn’t really sink in until we both got our RN licenses and went to work at the same hospital for $7.50/hour. As a college grad with a professional license, her standard of living collapsed when she went off welfare. That’s how it works. I don’t think much has been changed since 1985.
I had a single co-worker who was told by a social services admin that “I can’t help you unless you have a baby”
I don’t know the name of the person who said it though.
But I knew a lot of single mothers who were working in Dell Rapids in the nursing homes there, but lived in Pipestone, because they qualified for Medicaid in Minnesota.
Let’s see: if you deduct your mortgage interest from your taxes and keep more of your own money, that’s welfare?
keeping your own money, that you earned, is the same as receiving money earned by somebody else, taken from that other person at the point of a gun? (If you don’t pay your taxes, do you know what eventually happens? ) yes taxes are collected under threat of violence, at the point of a gun. So keeping your own money is the same as armed robbery in your mind?
Porter I am a Republican and I personally love our country’s indebtedness to those willing to die for my right to write or speak out on anything I believe to be true. I also am a Shriner and love what the Shrine does for children born with any abnormality or accidental physical problem regardless of their ability to pay. As I and surely you help civic causes of great need, most are of epic tragic proportion hopefully of a once in a lifetime occurrence. The only problem with expanding Medicaid is the prevalence for servitude onto the Supreme Federal Government forever until death do us part.
Are you 100% sure this is what America stands for?
So the problem is that tribal members seek medical care in Non-IHS facilities. The IHS is contacted for authorization and the treatment is approved.
It’s approved but never paid for.
As a manager at Select Specialty Hospital complained “they’ll approve a helicopter ride around the world but they’ll never send any money to pay for it.”
And since nobody can sue the federal government, there is no recourse for the provider who rendered the care.
So now the governor has gotten this idea that IHS will help offset the cost of putting tribal members on Medicaid. I have no doubt that IHS will agree to that. They won’t pay for it, but they’ll agree to it, just like they agree to everything else they don’t pay for. And the state of South Dakota will end up paying for it. By the time the bills come in, Daugaard will be out of office and his successor will be trying to find the money, raising taxes and cutting funds for education to pay for it.
Anne, you need to forward this to Gov. Daugaard. He should be willing to listen to those who know how the IHS system really works. And talk to our GOP legislators. I have no doubt though that our Dem counterpart will be wholly and gleefully in support of this expansion. I am going to do the same.
This group would rather worry about what a poor person is getting for food and health insurance than be proud of what they’ve made of themselves. You property owners are getting more welfare than all the poor combined. Mortgage interest deductions are billions and that’s just welfare, plain and simple. The interest the poor pay on loans and credit cards isn’t deductible. The rent the poor pay that pays the landlord’s mortgage and interest isn’t deductible. Only the interest on your middle class homes and real estate IS. Why? Because someone bought your vote and convinced you that you’re better than the poor. It’s Republican low self esteem and bullying at it’s ripest.