Rapid City District 32 Representative Sean McPherson died of cancer yesterday. The Governor need not talk about the legal implications of a sitting legislator’s passing, but McPherson’s passing creates the 17th Legislative vacancy of Dennis Daugaard’s governorship.
McPherson’s death also creates an awkward primary situation. As happened in the District 34 House general election in 2016, Rapid City voters will see the name of a deceased legislator on the ballot. The ailing McPherson filed for reëlection on March 26, thus triggering a primary among himself and Republicans Scyller Borglum and Ed Randazzo. Primary candidates, even deceased ones, cannot be withdrawn from the ballot after two days after the filing deadline, the last Tuesday of March (see SDCL 12-6-8.1). Besides, early voting started last Friday, so even if state law allowed withdrawing from a primary at this date, throwing out cast ballots would be extremely problematic.
However, this situation differs from 2016 in one key way. When Rep. Dan Dryden died at the end of August 2016, Governor Daugaard appointed David Lust to fill the immediate vacancy in the Legislative seat. When District 34 voters took Daugaard’s advice and reëlected the late Rep. Dryden, they opened the door for Governor Daugaard to again appoint Lust to a full two-year term. In this situation, the Governor can obviously appoint a replacement for the remainder of McPherson’s current term. However, if District 32 primary voters choose McPherson as one of their nominees, they will create a vacancy on the general election ballot that will be filled by Pennington County Republican Party central committee members who live in District 32—note, not the entire PennCo GOP leadership, but just those who live in McPherson’s district, per SDCL 12-6-56.
Cory, a bit of compassion is in order here. Sean was a man of the people, a public servant, dad, husband, counselor, friend and a community leader. All things that every man should strive for in his lifetime.
I don’t post on this site, but do read your information. In this post it is glaringly obvious that you have chosen to ignore that Sean is a gentleman and a man of God.
He is, to those whom know him, our colleague and friend. He believes in forgiveness as well as the eternal possibly of a second chance for all humans.
I assume you will take after my post for grammatical errors and syntax. But as you didn’t have the pleasure of knowing this gentleman, his family, his congregation and friends we will have a chuckle about this piece that only writes of SDCL and not the man whom made a difference.
Representative
Kristin Conzet
District 32 Representative McPhearsons District mate
“…you have chosen to ignore that Sean is a gentleman and a man of God.”
I mention many public figures without mentioning their religion or their personal politeness or lack thereof. I rarely write obituaries, as others with more personal knowledge and experience have that situation covered. I frequently write about matters of public concern. The status of ballots that have already been cast and the impact of a vacancy on a ballot in an ongoing election are matters of immediate public concern. There is nothing discompassionate about discussing such matters. If any of your District 32 constituents ask about what their votes mean, I hope you will not superciliously chuckle at them… even as you attempt to superciliously chuckle at me based on false assumptions.
Rep. Conzet, your thinly veiled contempt shows forth. Rep. McPherson may well be everything you say and more but Cory’s post wasn’t an edification but meant for education purposes. Cory does research very well for ALL of us to keep informed and God knows S Dakota’s citizens need sunlight!