By Denise Ross

One term shy of a full run, state Sen. Bill Napoli, R-Rapid City, won’t seek re-election in 2008. Here’s the story in the Rapid City Weekly News, copyrighted and sent to the AP, so if it shows up elsewhere without proper credit, somebody’s not playing nice.

Anyway, the cantakerous politican who has entertained us for so many years says being outraged most of the time has finally wore him down.

Napoli said he feels like a dinosaur who doesn’t fit in the Legislature any more. He said the process and the people have changed.

“And maybe I don’t like it,” Napoli said. … “I’ve seen it going downhill for the last eight years. A lot of things I love and respect have disappeared.”

My very favorite part of this good read is Napoli declining to seek higher office. (Please, Sen. Napoli, for the media’s sake, won’t you reconsider? The debates alone need you.)

He said the state is ready for a strong conservative for governor and he has been asked to run for the post.

“I’m firmly convinced I could be a viable candidate for that,” Napoli said. “But I’m not going to run for that.”

Love him or hate him, Napoli is the rare legislator who has elevated to statewide name recognition, largely due to his activism on various statewide ballot measures - inheritence tax, property tax, term limits (first for and now against). He is a faithful writer of letters to the editor and is a regular critic and activist at the local level, so I’m not expecting him to quietly fade away.

Nonetheless, the Legislature certainly won’t be the same.

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