Former Daschle aide Steve Kinsella pens a column for the Star Tribune about the importance his old boss placed on meeting the public face to face. He tells this story from early in Daschle’s first term in the Senate, in the 1980s, about Daschle’s reaction to the suggestion that he spare himself some grief from grumpy voters and schedule fewer public events:
…Daschle and the aide drove to the region to attend the well-advertised listening meetings that anyone could attend. He did so because he made it a point of visiting every county in South Dakota every year, and because he knew that as an elected official he had to.
He survived the meeting, although he was vocally taken to task. Later, when I asked him why he would hold these meetings when we could easily schedule less public visits, he looked at me, somewhat confused by the suggestion, then spoke almost as a parent does to a child — half lecturing, half nurturing. “If you face your constituents and intelligently explain to them what you did and why, the majority, while they may not love you for your vote, will nonetheless respect you for it” [Steve Kinsella, “Political Representation: Daschle’s Example Shows Why You Meet Constituents Face to Face,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 2018.04.04].
The dedication to host public meetings may be hard to sustain when they draw non-crowds like the sparse audience that attended Rep. Kristi Noem’s show in Aberdeen yesterday morning:
But elected officials have to keep trying, keep offering opportunities for the public to practice real democracy, where we look each other in the eye, explain our positions, and shake hands, even over our disagreements.
Loved when Daschle would come to Hanson County. If I remember right it was well advertised and at a time that people could attend. Sometimes very few people showed up but he didn’t seem to disappointed.
I know you mentioned Noem’s public meeting but was it advertised elsewhere? Plus was it done at a time when people could attend? Considering how much they work in Washington hosting a meeting at night or on the weekend doable.
Does not look like Noem created much interest or the guest list was very short.
Marty now has a horse in his ads also.
Prediction Marty defeats Kristi, Billy Defeats Marty
Kristi doesn’t want people to attend who might question her actions as Rep or as potential Governor, like all Republicans today, unless she can minimize flak with a safe venue like this. https://www.instagram.com/p/BgzQxkChWE2/
(Instagram GWB pres/board mbr republican KENNETH J KARELS (GREAT WESTERN BANK/BANKER), (Zip code: 57252) $500 to DIEDRICH FOR CONGRESS (against Steph Herseth) on 09/15/2004)
Her governor run is based on her own misunderstanding of addiction (a popular opiod campaign issue): ” I’m so proud of her for getting clean…” Would she be proud of a cancer survivor? of course not, Kristi is still stuck in stigma. https://twitter.com/KristiNoem (Feb 22)
Listening sessions are fine, but what is more important is opening government up to citizen participation. A big part of that is letting people know what decisions are coming up, how they can testify or submit ideas or comments, rather than just spring stuff on folks. And celebrating citizen input means having an easy to use initiative and referendum process.
Let’s look at a particular example, the Agnico-EPA-State of South Dakota Settlement Agreement on the Gilt Edge Superfund Site. If it hadn’t been for Seth Tupper’s article in the RCJ and Cory’s blog no one would have known about it. Neither the State nor EPA bothered to let people know that this corrupt deal was being negotiated in secret. Neither asked for citizen input until the deal was 99 percent done, and then we found out about it only because two journalists had the initiative to dig out some facts.
Senator Rounds happens to chair the subcommittee that oversees Superfund issues. You would think he would have been clued in to this corrupt deal, yet he did nothing. Even if he supported it, he should have insisted on citizen input during the year or so that it was being negotiated in secret. Maybe he was out of the loop, in which case, he’s not doing his job very well. In either case, he owes the people of South Dakota an apology.
We had the same issue with the borehole project. No one in political leadership in South Dakota thought getting citizen input before springing a nearly cone project on the public was necessary. And then they wonder why folks reactive explosively to such shenanigans.
You would think Sen. Rounds might want to hold some Superfund oversight hearings in South Dakota, to put EPA and State of South Dakota officials on the spot about their attempts to corruptly open a mine at the Gilt Edge Superfund Site, rather than clean it up. From what I’ve been reading, the Superfund programs is going down the same corrupt path that happened during the Reagan administration, when several of Reagan’s appointees went to prison. Senator Rounds needs to get Pruitt and his folks under oath and start grilling them.
“If you face your constituents and intelligently explain to them what you did and why, the majority, while they may not love you for your vote, will nonetheless respect you for it” [Steve Kinsella.“ Tom Daschle
Perfect. But my district has a Kock representative, the Minnesota Embarrassment, AKA–Lewis. We do not love him, nor do we respect him. We don’t even have to tolerate the sight of him because he has shown us that he is most proficient at hiding from us. We hope to have a representative beginning in 2019, when Angie Craig is sworn in. This lack of representation is no fun.