Senator Billie Sutton tried to throw a minor monkey wrench into the proceedings of the Senate on Veto Day this morning. After the Senate failed to override Governor Dennis Daugaard’s veto of Senate Bill 94 (sorry, homeschoolers!), the Democrat from Burke moved to suspend the rules and introduce a resolution calling on Congress to provide funding for school resource officers in every school.
Suspending the rules for such an unusual move requires a two-thirds vote. Sutton’s motion barely got one-third:
- Ayes: Cammack, Frerichs, Greenfield, Jensen, Kennedy, Killer, Maher, Nelson, Rusch, Solano, Stalzer, Sutton, Tapio, and Youngberg.
- Nays: Bolin, Cronin, Curd, Ewing, Klumb, Kolbeck, Langer, Monroe, Netherton, Novstrup, Otten, Partridge, Russell, Soholt, Tidemann, White, and Wiik.
Now technically that vote was on suspending the rules to have a debate, not the resolution itself. No statements were made for or against Sutton’s proposal. It is quite possible that a nay merely represented opposition to cluttering the Veto Day schedule with a new, unrelated matter that would have no practical effect. Maybe some partisans even smelled some political grandstanding from the Democratic candidate for Governor and didn’t want to provide him an opportunity to campaign from the Senate floor.
But those seventeen Nays prevented the Senate from debating and urging Congress to put its money where the mouth of many Republicans is and put more guns in schools. Given my consistent, principled opposition to guns in schools, maybe I should be glad those seventeen Republicans did shoot down that debate.
I’ll give credit were credit is due and say thanks to Stace for voting for this. This was one resolution that actually made sense.
Of course the big winner on this would be the gun manufacturers
The Republicans are afraid to give Sutton credit or make him look good. If you believe in something, it’s not a ploy, but for the Republicans, it’s merely an election year and that’s truly all they really believe in often…. Well, other than protecting the 1%, that is……
That’s what I smell, JKC. Still, separate from the partisan politics that may have been in play, consider this general question:
It’s Veto Day, the last day of the Legislature. The agenda is set. A member moves to suspend the rules and introduce, without preview, a resolution—an item purely for debate, without any practical force. Do you vote to add that surprise resolution to the Veto Day agenda?