By Denise Ross

“My name is Jim Abourezk, and I used to work for the government.” That was the opening line - and an applause generator - at a Friday night fundraiser in Rapid City. The local labor temple, a favorite of local Democrats, is a dimly lit cinder block cavern made cozy by well-worn vinyl flooring and metal folding chairs. This makes it an unlikely venue for a statewide barnstorming tour of not one but two iconoclasts.

What the place lacked in warmth former Sens. Jim Abourezk and George McGovern delivered - Abourezk in a fiery, unapologetic screed against a corrupt GOP and McGovern in a heart-warming, professorial, self-effacing essay about the greater good. (Disclosure: I’m assuming that’s all that McGovern’s speech was, as I had to leave in the middle of it - baby’s bed time and all. That’s what it was up until my departure, and that’s McGovern’s signature style.)

Above, Abourezk addresses the Friday night crowd.

The event was a fundraiser for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Scott Heidepriem, the state’s Senate minority leader of Sioux Falls. Neither Heidepriem nor his campaign manager Steve Jarding were on hand.

(I had expected to be late to the party when it came to publishing a report on this event, as weekend activities kept me from the blog. However, even though Mount Blogmore’s Kevin Woster, Dakota Day’s Sam Hurst and robbinsdale radical’s Curtis Price were in the house, they are apparently even busier than me. No other published reports as I write this.)

Here’s a closer look at Abourezk.

We need a government that is honest, Abourezk said. This one-party system is ruining South Dakota’s clean reputation.

Gasps, tsk-tsks and here-heres came from the crowd.

Among the unforgivable crimes committed by South Dakota’s GOP, according to Abourezk, are the following:

• Gov. Mike Rounds and the governor-appointed Board of Regents allowing SDSU President David Chicoine to serve on the board of directors for Monsanto, “one of the dirtiest chemical companies in the world,” for $400,000 per year - in addition to a state salary Abourezk says is $300,000 per year. (A Google search seems to confirm these numbers - they’re often-quoted - but I did not find original source documentation.) As the crowd tsk-tsk’d, Abourezk said: “You can see the conflict, but they can’t.”
• A too-friendly relationship between the state Department of Envirnment & Natural Resources / governor-appointed Board of Minerals and Environment and Hyperion company officials, as Hyperion seeks to build a huge oil refinery in the middle of pastoral Union County farm territory. Abourezk named Hyperion top dog Albert Huddleston cited a dinner out among Hyperion officials and the state officials who were considering whether to grant the permits needed to build the refinery. “It’s so pervasive they don’t even notice it,” Abourezk said.
• A $300,000 state grant to former state legislator and 2008 GOP US Senate candidate Joel Dykstra, for a Dykstra business venture. (Again, a Google search lends support to this accusation, although it appears this was originally a loan, and $200,000 was later converted to a grant. This also matches what I remember having been reported at some time in the middle-past.)
• More than 1,800 no-bid state contracts. (One might assume this implies that a Dem governor would not have no-bid contracts? Just wondering.)

Abourezk did conclude with this:

Scott Heidepriem is tough enough to resist the desires of cronyism.

That would make him the rare politician indeed. Even the rare human being indeed.

McGovern reviews his notes before speaking Friday night in Rapid City.

I don’t have nearly as incendiary quotations from McGovern. Most of what I heard involved a story about how, as a US House member, he got sent to speak on behalf of Hubert Humphrey to the great disappointment of the fellow who picked him up at the airport and then introduced him with: “My fellow Minnesotans, I have some bad news.”

The Abourezk-McGovern tour is a fascinating bit of political sociology/archeology on many levels. The contrast in styles is stark - tour organizers are wise to have Abourezk wind up the crowd and then have McGovern put warm, fuzzy smiles on their faces. Perhaps this leads to bigger checks being written? The sheer history wrapped up in this idea, both to South Dakota and the nation, is cat-nip to us junkies. The wisdom of putting up these two unapologetic liberals to campaign in a South Dakota gubernatorial race is a question that will be debated for the next year. There is the danger that they might overshadow Heidepriem himself, who is a mix of the two personalities.

For all that, I love that this political odd couple is on the road.

Spread the word

Hide Sites