Representative Kyle Schoenfish (R-19/Scotland) doesn’t have much to say, but at least he says something. Two weeks into the Legislative Session, I haven’t seen a single letter or update from any of my District 3 Republican legislators in my local paper. Representative Schoenfish at least takes seriously his obligation to inform the voters about serious policy discussions in Pierre.
Alas, there’s one little misrepresentation in his stream-of-consciousness update to voters in the Yankton paper last week:
As your legislator, I will keep working to help keep South Dakota a great place to raise a family, do business and call home [Rep. Kyle Schoenfish, “Mental Health, Drugs Emerge as Early Themes,” Yankton Press & Dakotan, 2019.01.15].
“Keep working”—that phrase implies he’s been working. As we all know, the physics definition of work is force applied over a distance, and whatever limp force Schoenfish has exerted in Pierre hasn’t moved any policy ball very far.
Consider his opening example, in response to Governor Kristi Noem’s air-pushing:
The first week of the 2019 South Dakota Legislative Session began Tuesday, Jan. 8. Gov. Kristi Noem gave the State of the State Address.
It is encouraging to hear about plans to expand affordable housing opportunities, especially in smaller communities. I served on a Workforce Housing Summer Study two years ago. There is a clear need for affordable housing. I look forward to hearing more ideas about workforce development [Schoenfish, 2019.01.15].
Ah, the Workforce Housing Study Committee—yes, young Kyle sat through four meetings and put his name on six bills brought forth by his colleagues’ interim labors. not one of those bills survived first contact with committee in 2018 (see 2018 SB 1, SB 2, SB 3, SB 4, SB 5, and SB 6). It’s no wonder Schoenfish says he looks forward to hearing more ideas—the ones he helped come up with were apparently complete stinkers.
By the way, on the topic of working, at the Workforce Housing Study Committee’s final meeting on November 9, 2017, Chairman David Lust asked Representative Schoenfish to carry the tax refund program for workforce housing projects as prime sponsor. Yet that refund bill, 2018 Senate Bill 5, shows Rep. Lust as prime House sponsor.
Rep. Schoenfish spent last summer on another interim committee (again, more ambitious than my District 3 delegation: Senator Al Novstrup is apparently too busy running go-karts in the summer to do much on interim committees: he checked in for one 19-minute meeting of the 2018 interim Retirement Laws Committee on July 9, 2018, but skipped two meetings, September and December, of a 2017 interim Commerce and Energy committee to which he was assigned, as well as one September 7, 2017, meeting of an interim Retirement Laws Committee) dealing with special education. This time he got something done… or did he?
I served on the Extraordinary Cost Fund for Special Education Summer Study. I was asked to be the prime sponsor for SCR 1, a resolution asking Congress to fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) at 40 percent, as intended when the act was passed in 1975. The Federal Government does not provide funding anywhere near that level, putting the burden on the state and local school districts. Resolutions don’t have the force of law but they make a statement and send a message to Congress and if there’s a time and place for a resolution it would be this one. SCR 1 passed the Senate 32 to 3, and the House 50 to 13, showing strong support in the legislature for Special Education [Schoenfish, 2019.01.15].
Schoenfish’s resolution asking the feds to spend more on special education is as meaningless as his District 19 Senate counterpart Stace Nelson’s SCR 4 asking the feds to spend money on a border wall or windbreak or whatever to make South Dakotans stop using meth. Neither resolution has any force; both Schoenfish’s and Nelson’s resolutions only show the hilarious hypocrisy of our Republican legislators who sound like profligate liberals when it comes to wishing Uncle Sam would pour more money into their campaign propaganda.
Speaking of campaigns and propaganda, while Rep. Schoenfish doesn’t have room in his first update to talk about any real state policy initiatives of his own, he finds time (like Trump) to refight past elections:
After six years of attacks and thousands of dollars spent against me, it is truly an honor to keep receiving such overwhelming support from the voters in District 19 [Schoenfish, 2019.01.15].
In his usual disjointed style, Schoenfish throws this blurp into his conclusion, apropos of nothing else in his little essay. He doesn’t connect it to any details of the attacks or the campaign spending he mentioned. Without context, it’s hard to tell what he’s complaining about: he outspent his 2018 general election opponents by more than double (his year-end report isn’t in yet, but as of October 21, Schoenfish had spent over $8,200; independent Roger Hofer spent $3,830, while independent Alison Bowers reported spending nothing).
Here my District 3 delegation outclasses Schoenfish. I haven’t heard the incumbent I ran against, Al Novstrup, kvetching in public about the money and words expended against him in the 2018 campaign. I doubt Senator Novstrup wastes any time out in Pierre, even in the privacy of the GOP secret caucus, talking all the mean things I said about him. He’s probably just listening attentively and waiting for leadership to hand him his bucket of water to carry.
Rep. Schoenfish should keep writing; practice could make him a better writer. Now if only he’d start working in Pierre.
Cipher.
Mr. Novstrup, the elder, is noted for being a quiet and deep thinking fellow with a remarkable haircut who does not complain about people calling him names but still continues to rack up huge numbers of votes in the pollings. I suspect he is term limited shortly and others might stand a chance, unless Mr. Novstrup, the younger, chooses to return to the legislatures.
My representative, a Democrat, and senator, a moderate Republican, regularly post on FB about the week when the lege is in session, January into May. Sen. Draheim posts things in the summer too. This is Rep. Lippert’s first term, so I don’t know about his summer communication. My senators and rep in DC do the same.
To me that is simply part of the job, a responsibility as a public Servant. Those who aren’t doing so are failing at the job and ought to be voted out at the first opportunity.
“Those who aren’t doing so are failing at the job and ought to be voted out at the first opportunity.”
Many of those who are doing “so” are failing at the job, also, and ought to be voted out at the first opportunity.