By Denise Ross

Calling South Dakota’s own Sen. John Thune “a favorite son,” the American Spectator is asking John Thune to run for president.

Why? To save the GOP from John McCain.

Mainstream conservatives are being routed in this year’s presidential contests. And if John McCain or, less likely, Mike Huckabee goes into the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis with a first-ballot majority, the conservative movement will be completely shut out of a general election presidential campaign for the first time since 1976. For the movement that has brought peace, triumph and prosperity to this nation for 27 years, such an outcome would be a disaster — and, worse, it would be a disaster for the country.

The Spectator wants Thune and a few others it deems worthy to get on the ballot only in their home states. Thune would have until March 25 to file nominating petitions for SD’s June 3 primary. And then?

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By Denise Ross

Almost all of the action will be in the Senate Education Committee Thursday in the SD Legislature. Democrats get to make their point about how state government doesn’t live by the budget rules it has imposed on schools and counties. Of the two in-your-face bills the Dems have put up, I like Senate Bill 149 better for its simplicity.

An Act to  increase general funding for school districts, to impose a temporary limit on the growth of state general fund spending, and to suspend the transfer of moneys from the general fund to the budget reserve fund and to the property tax reduction fund.

Another bill wraps the technical institutes into this, but SB149 - surely destined for martyrdom - makes a more direct point. And it makes it during an election year in which the Senate Dems are a scant 2 seats away from taking the majority and in the midst of a bitter lawsuit against the state over school funding. These bills and their certain deaths are part of a larger narrative. Expect to hear about them and their funerals again.

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By Denise Ross

Sen. John Thune, R-SD, said he plans to call for a study of the tribal court systems as an effort to beef up law enforcement and improve public safety on Indian reservations. As part of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, which had been before the US Senate but got sidelined, Thune wants to commission the study.

I’ve been working to bolster law enforcement on reservaztions to help combat the problem with crime that I hear about a lot. I want to put a measure in the bill to require an in-depth study of the tribal court system and offer ideas on how to improve it.

Thune said that providing a “basic level of security” is essential to ensuring good health. Listen to his initial remarks in the audio in the post below and in more about it during a Q&A with reporters in the audio with this post.

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By Denise Ross

On his conference call Wednesday morning, Sen. John Thune, R-SD, gave his Democratic colleagues no benefit of the doubt when it comes to forming a Farm Bill conference committee.

We should be talking about how to get this done and how to get it done now.

Thune told reporters that “squabbling” between Democratic leaders of the House and Senate is causing an unnecessary delay in an already delayed “2007″ Farm Bill. In the 6 weeks since the Senate passed its version of the bill, Thune said that the chairmen of the respective House and Senate agriculture committees (both Dems) have been negotiating, and House leaders have been negotiating directly with the White House. That will only serve to delay passage of a new farm bill, he said.

They need to announce and name conferees and do it immediately.

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By Denise Ross

Here we are, half-way through another legislative week, and the fun hasn’t worn off yet.

Please find below the Hoghouse’s pick for the 3 bills most worth further study before the South Dakota Legislature for Wednesday, January 30.

House Bill 1284 - One can imagine why some lawmakers believe that state employees charged with buying land “for highway or other state purposes” ought to be certified real estate appraisers. Hmmmm. What could have gone wrong? And where? (It gets even more interesting when one considers HB1270, which begs the question, “You mean this wasn’t already against the law?”)

I have no idea what the House Commerce Committee will do with this, but it’s bound to be an entertaining hearing.

Senate Bill 160 - He knows when you’ve been bad or good … This one would publish criminal histories online, in an apparent effort to make background checks easier for employers, landlords and creditors.

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By Denise Ross

With a hearing on Sen. Gene Abdallah’s bill to restore $2 million in budget cuts in the Highway Patrol budget already postponed once, I wonder if lawmakers aren’t quite sure which path to take to get that job done. They’ve got 2 more weeks to move SB172 out of the Senate, which is a fair amount of time in the South Dakota Legislature.

But at Saturday’s crackerbarrel in Rapid City, I saw signs of a few wobbles.

(Photo by David Larson)

Sen. Bill Napoli, R-Rapid City, is all for SB172, which would reverse Gov. Rounds’ plan to scale back spending through a combination of less driving and more parked patrols and the delay of new equipment purchases.

Napoli said that the Legislature’s power over the purse strings isn’t absolutely absolute.

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By Denise Ross

Looooonnnggggtime state legislator Gordon Pederson, R-Wall, announced his plans to switch seats, from one in the House to one in the Senate from District 30 - which includes much of the southwest corner of South Dakota.

Gordon Pederson (Photo by David Larson)

Pederson was one of the featured speakers at Saturday’s crackerbarrel in Rapid City, which means he was one of 3 legislators who got to stand up at the beginning and make a little speech.

After the term-limited House Transportation Committee chairman talked about the depleted highway fund, trains backing up on the highway at Edgemont and making a reference to his legislative service during the Kneip administration - which is one reason reporters listen when Gordon talks - he offered this statement:

One of these days I’m going to be making an announcement that I’ll be running for the Senate from District 30.

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By Denise Ross

My headline might be outlawed by a bill sponsored by Sen. Bill Napoli, R-Rapid City. But I reserve the right to call Senate Bill 185 FANTASTIC!

On a day that looks like it’s shaping up to be a mass slaughter of Democratic bills by the majority GOP, SB185 leads my lineup for the 3 most interesting bills of the day - none of which are sponsored by Dems.

No doubt spurred on by the MPEACHW kerfluffle of the summer, SB185 seeks to “restrict the combination of numbers and letters which may be permitted on personalized motor vehicle license plates.” Perfect entertainment for those mid-session doldrums.

It starts off, in Section 1, sounding like it could thread that tiny needle where free speech might be hampered:

Combinations of letters or numbers that are, in any language, vulgar, derogatory, profane, racial epithets, or obscene.

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By Denise Ross

If you’re running for statewide office in 2008, but you won’t have the budget of, say, John Thune in 2004, this new air taxi service might interest you.

I attended the launch party of this new service, called VisionAir Share, at the Elks Theatre in Rapid City last week. (You can watch a video at the VisionAir website.)

Michael Reynolds, one of the people behind VisionAir, called it ”a carpool in the sky,” a combination of a charter service and commercial flying. The more people who fly VisionAir, the cheaper it gets.

Here’s the brochure.

The new service has a 4-plane fleet of “cabin-class aircraft,” with the individual planes being able to handle up to 10 passengers. People can book flights at the VisionAir site (link is embedded above.)

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By Denise Ross

House Bill 1142 - Along the lines of the much ballyhooed SB126, HB1142 would remove a cap on the number of liquor licenses a person or business can have (or have an interest in), provided that less than half the revenue of a given establishment comes from liquor sales and provided it all goes down in the bigger cities (first class municipalities, if you want to be fancy).

The House Commerce Committee gets this gem, along with enough other liquor-related bills to make one think it was Friday night, not Monday morning. Meanwhile, SB126 is up for reconsideration on the Senate floor Monday afternoon. (See post below for more info.)

Senate Bill 172 - It doesn’t look like it’s in its final form, but this has got to be the bill to put back the $2 million into the Highway Patrol’s budget that the gov wants to cut. The first signs of a backlash towards SB172 appeared at Saturday’s crackerbarrel in Rapid City. More to come on that soon.

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