Dead men tell no tales, but they win elections in Rapid City. District 32 Republicans had three candidates for two House seats. 35% of them voted for deceased incumbent Rep. Sean McPherson. 39% of them voted for petro-engineer and political newcomer Scyller Borglum. Only 26% voted for right-wing gun theocrat Ed Randazzo.
Rapid City District 34 voters did something similar in 2016, when they elected deceased incumbent Dan Dryden to the House, allowing Governor Dennis Daugaard to fill the slot with David Lust.
But the general election ballot position isn’t the Governor’s to fill. It is now the statutory duty of Pennington County Republican party officials from District 32 to choose a replacement ticketmate for Borglum. (I invite anyone who knows those PennGOPers‘ home addresses to figure out which handful of politicos gets to make that pick and whether they lean toward the Daugaard wing or the wingnut wing.)
Governor Daugaard still gets to appoint someone to fill McPherson’s seat in the Legislature, if he wants, although there’s not much if anything for a legislator not assigned to any summer studies to do. If Daugaard does appoint someone, I guarantee he’ll name the seemingly moderate Borglum to give her a technical incumbency advantage in November or pick a hard-boiled egg before he nominates the kind of Rapid City wingnut against whom he regularly expends campaign funds in primaries.