The easy visuals, homey narratives, and riveting horserace of the Noem/Sutton gubernatorial contest crowded every other race out of the media consciousness. Dusty Johnson thus didn’t have to work as hard as he did to ride the Republican label to a 60%–36% victory over Democrat Tim Bjorkman. Johnson scored more votes than any South Dakota midterm U.S. House winner since Stephanie Herseth (not yet Sandlin!) in 2006.
| US House | GOP | Dem | ind | Lib | total |
| 2002 | 180,023 | 153,551 | 333,574 | ||
| 2004-Jun | 129,415 | 132,420 | 261,835 | ||
| 2004-Nov | 178,823 | 207,837 | 2,802 | 389,462 | |
| 2006 | 97,864 | 230,468 | 328,332 | ||
| 2008 | 122,966 | 256,041 | 5,230 | 384,237 | |
| 2010 | 153,703 | 146,589 | 19,134 | 319,426 | |
| 2012 | 207,640 | 153,789 | 361,429 | ||
| 2014 | 183,834 | 92,485 | 276,319 | ||
| 2016 | 237,163 | 132,810 | 369,973 | ||
| 2018 | 202,673 | 121,002 | 7,322 | 4,912 | 335,909 |
At least 40,414 voters who found Billie Sutton’s bipartisan moderatism worth voting for didn’t notice Tim Bjorkman’s very similar and gentle nonpartisanship. 3,245 blew right by the Johnson/Bjorkman slot at the top of the ballot and skipped to the marquee governor’s race.
Rejecting the thug language of the opposing party, Bjorkman called in his concession speech for spirited unity:
In his concession speech, Democrat Bjorkman says he ran his campaign not on partisan rhetoric but on values. In it he calls for civility in partnership across political divides.
“Those of the other party are not members of a warring tribe. They’re our fellow caretakers in this great American democratic experiment,” Bjorkman says. “So just as iron sharpens iron, we need to let one another sharpen our own views and our own ideas because that’s how we work best as a government and as a people” [Lee Strubinger, Adria Botella Moreno, and Jackie Hendry, “South Dakota GOP Sweep Statewide Elections,” SDPB Radio, 2018.11.07].
The man who beat Bjorkman in mostly barbless fashion, Dusty Johnson, is perhaps the sole major Republican winner whose post-election comments don’t have me switching off the radio. Like Bjorkman, Johnson comes across as a sincere public servant. He campaigned like a policy wonk, and now he’s talking about getting to work as a policy wonk, starting with the Farm Bill:
Johnson said Tuesday night that getting the overdue farm bill passed through Congress will be his top initial priority.
“I’m going to get on the Ag Committee,” he said, “and I’m going to bust my butt to make sure we get a farm bill across the finish line” [Seth Tupper, “Johnson Wins Big in House Race,” Rapid City Journal, updated 2018.11.07].
Shipped off to a Democratic-majority House, Johnson can do little harm and maybe some good. Freed of the demands under which Kristi Noem labored during her two-year gubernatorial campaign to hold the line with the GOP majority for Il Duce, Johnson may find himself freer to work with Democrats to do some honest good for South Dakota… at least during his first year, before Congress shuts down for the 2020 election.
After an awful election in which South Dakotans elected a cast of Warren G. Harding kakistocrats over honest and competent Democrats, I need to find some small glimmer of tolerable governance. I choose to find that glimmer in the U.S. House, where one decent guy beat another decent guy to do South Dakota’s business in Washington, D.C.
Go to serve, Dusty. Let Kristi hog the mic at home. Outdo your predecessor by going to hearings and getting things done. Stay out of the culture war and use your office to talk about policy, policy, policy.
I’m afraid of had it with South Dakota politics. I’ve had people accuse me of voting a straight Democratic ticket. Which for the most part I have. But I’ve always done research.
Last night those same Republicans accusing me of just voting for just the party did exactly the same thing, but they didn’t do their research.
The Attorney General race should have been a run away for Seiler. Instead they voted in a man who has no experience. The people just voted for the “R” with no research.
You can make close to the same claim with the Noem-Sutton race. The last 2 weeks of the campaign were the worse I’ve ever seen. Noem’s negative ad’s were terrible.
So goodbye, for me, with South Dakota politics. No more Cracker Barrels-no nothing. I’m tired and I’ve had it.
“South Dakotans elected a cast of Warren G. Harding kakistocrats over honest and competent Democrats.”
That’s sure the truth.
I know there are MN Democrats, including my new Congresswoman, Angie Craig, who will be happy to work with Johnson on a good farm bill. MN got rid of 2 extreme trumpelstilskins and replaced them with moderate Democrats so Johnson ought to look them up, among others.
Did Dusty Johnson vote for the XL pipeline while on the PUC? If he did, I have no idea why Bjorkman did not nail him to a crude oil leak marker post.
Dusty is a groomed SD republican Soldier from their good ol boys secret society club in Pierre so I’m sure he voted for the pipeline.
But MN also gained a Trumplestilskin in the 1st District, Debbo, unfortunately. Hagedorn won by roughly 1400 votes.
Dusty was a Phi Delt pres in college and my dau remembers him as a humble straight shooter. Jenny and Douglas are likely correct and Debbo’s hopes for a bipart Farm Bill perhaps will be realized. But to chose handsome youth over seasoned wisdom is typical and leaves GOP in full control. It is almost funny the damage this does to the electorate. It has taken Republicans since 2010 to understand the deaths caused by their obstruction of the ACA. Dusty will no doubt support party obstruction over principle every time the GOP tells him to. Republican Party Loyalty pays.
Dusty had a good, if humble, upbringing. He was a neighbor when we lived in Pierre and my daughter played with his younger siblings. He has different politics than I do, but he’s not going to go into the mud, unless it’s to play with his kids. Yeah, he’s more conservative than I would like, but he’s level headed. And, yeah, he probably has an affinity to fossil fuels since his grandfather lobbied for the utilities, but the cure for that is letters and activism. Let him know what you think. He’ll listen.
Goodbye, Mr. reitzel. Know that grudznick voted for Mr. Seiler, because Mr. Ravnsborg is completely inept. grudznick also voted for Mr. Dusty, but thought Mr. Bjorkman seemed a swell enough fellow and could have supported him in years past against different candidates. Mr. Dusty was just better this time.
I will miss your bloggings from time to time. Best wishes, and perhaps someday you’ll return while I’m still upright and sane enough to blog.