By Denise Ross

Yes, Republicans have super-delegates, too, although they don’t like to call them that. They prefer the descriptor “automatic.” Nonetheless, SD GOP Chairman Karl Adam agreed with me that, at this point, that’s merely a semantics question.

Anyway, a reader e-mailed me asking about this, so I tracked down some details. Here’s the scoop for South Dakota. We have 3 Republican super-auto-delegates, compared to 7 on the Dem side.

The lucky GOP 3 are, by virtue of their posts within the party, Adam himself, of Pierre, national committeeman Ron Schmidt of Rapid City and national committee woman Mary Jean Jensen of Lemmon.

Let’s all pause for a moment to reflect on the irony that Mike Rounds and John Thune are not super-delegates, but Ron Schmidt is.

OK.

Now, it’s not too late for Republicans in good standing to become regular, pledged delegates to the party’s national convention in Minneapolis in September. It’s a 3-step process, explained on their website, the first of which is a county-level caucus on Thursday, March 6. (It appears the Republicans lack the formal application process that the Dems have. Given the Dennis Schmidt troubles with party registration, is that wise?)

This concludes today’s civics lesson.

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