Minority Leaders Sutton and Hawley must feel like Dwarves watching the Goblins and Wargs marching their way, with no prospect of Great Eagles swooping in to save South Dakota for democracy.
Reid Wilson of the Washington Post reports that Republicans across the country plan to press their advantage in state legislatures this year:
The unprecedented breadth of the Republican majority — the party now controls 31 governorships and 68 of 98 partisan legislative chambers — all but guarantees a new tide of conservative laws. Republicans plan to launch a fresh assault on the Common Core education standards, press abortion regulations, cut personal and corporate income taxes and take up dozens of measures challenging the power of labor unions and the Environmental Protection Agency [Reid Wilson, "Republicans in State Governments Plan Juggernaut of Conservative Legislation," Washington Post, 2015.01.02].
Wilson doesn't get anyone from South Dakota on the record waving the culture-war colors. Instead of digging for Senator Phil Jensen to reveal his next move in fighting gay bullies or for Senator Dan Lederman to lay out this year's ALEC agenda, Wilson talks to boring (in this context, that's a compliment!) Senator Deb Peters:
“With the increasing costs of Medicaid and education, balancing the budget is going to be a challenge,” said South Dakota state Sen. Deb Peters (R), who chairs the Appropriations Committee [Wilson, 2015.01.02].
Never mind that we won't get around to balancing the budget until the end of the session. I'd say we have nine harrowing weeks during which our Republican legislators will do all they can to keep up with the conservative antics of their colleagues across the country. Forget quiet: with no great economic uptick to fire imaginations with mad money (like that billion-dollar surplus across the border in Communist Minnesota) and with the apparent resistance of the Republican leadership to wielding their resounding popular mandate for bold policy initiatives, the temptation will be there for aspiring legislators to make their mark with culture-war headlines.
And with so few voices of reason sitting to the Speaker's right, some of those crazy bills just might pass.
Senator Sutton, Rep. Hawley, stand and speak boldly against the conservative juggernaut.