I like Dusty Johnson, and I’d rather he be Governor than boring, trudgerous Larry Rhoden. But Dusty’s attack on Larry for a lack of action on prisoner rehabilitation misses the mark in a couple of ways.
Johnson criticized the lack of major legislative action during a roundtable discussion he organized Tuesday in Rapid City with officials from law enforcement, addiction counseling and other related fields.
“I just can’t believe that after we told everyone that we would have big new rehabilitation and treatment within the walls of the prison — that was a part of the deal of how we got the new prison — that the governor and some members of the Legislature walked away from it,” Johnson said [John Hult and Seth Tupper, “Governor Candidates Clash over Inmate Rehabilitation as State Builds New Prisons,” South Dakota Searchlight, 2026.04.07].
True, the Governor and the Legislature paused their discussion of rehab and recidivism in favor of focusing on taxes this Session. But as Lieutenant Governor Tony Venhuizen noted last month, the task force he chairs on those issues will be working through this year to develop proposals for next year’s Legislature. Rhoden put Venhuizen in charge of that effort immediately after Venhuizen’s successful leadership of the task force that put together the plan to build a new penitentiary. Convincing lawmakers to spend more money to help prisoners may be harder than convincing them to spend money to house them, so the rehab task force may well need this full year to build consensus on effective, comprehensive proposals that can survive House and Senate votes.
Besides, a sitting member of this Congress like Dusty Johnson is in no position to complain about a lack of major Legislative action:
Congress is wrapping up the year in the shadow of the longest government shutdown and with a growing reputation as the least productive in modern history.
“Congress is in a coma. It has a pulse, but not many brainwaves,” said former Rep. Jim Cooper, a Democrat who represented Tennessee for 32 years. “It’s hard to tell that it’s even alive as an institution” [Barbara Sprunt, “‘Congress Is in a Coma.’ Former Lawmakers Sound Alarm on Health of the House,” NPR, 2025.12.21].
I have no doubt that Dusty, unleashed from the paralysis of a U.S. House beholden to the Golden Dictator, will push all sorts of dynamic policy initiatives through the Legislature. But his participation in this uniquely unproductive Congress puts him in a precarious position to criticize the Rhoden Administration’s plodding but proceeding work on prisoner rehabilitation.
Republicans don’t believe in prisoner rehabilitation. That’s the problem.
Republicans want a police state, Libertarians want anarchy and Democrats just want a good ol’ fashioned representative democracy with all the warts of a constitutional republic.
I’m sure others on this forum know Dusty better than I, but “leader” is not a word that pops to ,mind when I hear his name. Why would he be better for SD when “unleashed from the paralysis of D.C.?” My image of him is him following Mike Johnson around the House floor like a love sick puppy dog, trying to get Mike elected Speaker. Mike Johnson is Dusty’s idea of “leadership? He wants that for SD? Alas, what are the choices!
I agree with Loren. “Opportunist and sycophant” seems more accurate descriptions.
And now a socialized war machine! “The plan includes creating the South Dakota Defense Institute (SDDI), backed by a $5 million investment from the Future Fund over the next five years.”
https://www.kotatv.com/2026/04/08/gov-rhoden-announces-new-defense-institute-boost-south-dakota-economy/
Loren, BCB, I maintain faith that Dusty has not changed as much as Kristi did during her eight years in Washington. Dusty on the Public Utilities Commission was a problem solver. Put him back in Pierre where he doesn’t have to answer to Mike Johnson and Trump every day, and he’ll bring dynamic leadership to South Dakota government… maybe not in the direction we want, but there will be action. Dusty is a policy wonk, and he’ll have much more opportunity to put that wonkery to work in charge of South Dakota’s Executive Branch than he can as one of GOP tools in the federal Legislative Branch.
But it’s still silly for him to criticize Rhoden for not working hard enough when Dusty’s record for the last eight years in Congress isn’t much richer with achievements that Noem’s was.
Cory, I hope you’re right about Dusty since he reportedly currently polls as the favorite for a primary victory. A good friend of mine that has been deeply involved in SD politics for decades told me he thinks that if Toby Doeden is the Republican choice that this would actually give the Democrats’ candidate a meaningful chance to win. My friend thinks that there are enough reasonable and intelligent Republicans that would find a Doeden/MAGA governor abhorrent and would vote for the Democrat. But if Dusty is the Republican pick the Democrat would be toast as usual.
Dusty is smart enough and is Midwest nice, but his Congressional tenure shows he’s a proven coward, willing to bend to the DC KIng. Marjorie Taylor Green has more balls than Dusty.
He tends to push safe ideas, does not stand up for democracy, will try to further cripple ballot measures, will support all efforts for environmental rape of South Dakota, will not make the tax system fair by instituting any tax on the wealthy, will sell out to any and all out-of-state interests, will not reform TIF, will not limit data centers, will support nuclear power generation, will push forward with a vastly overbuilt prison…Need I go on.
Mark and Larry are right – Republicans (at least South Dakota Republicans) don’t believe in prisoner rehabilitation, and I can say that after volunteering in the Sioux Falls prison system for 12 years, and watching state government in action. It doesn’t matter how many inmates get out on parole and / or commutation and do well, if one inmate goes back on the drink / drugs / and even worse, well, then that proves (to them) that the whole idea of rehabilitation is just an expensive luxury sop to the liberals who think everyone’s nice. No, we don’t think everyone’s NICE. We think they’re human, fallible, and that’s why we have a police force. But it doesn’t taint the fact that most people, given a second chance, work like hell to keep it.
I only wish the GOP would save that attitude towards the Epstein Class currently in power, because one thing I do know – it is possible for a drug addict / alcoholic to get sober and stay that way. But I’ve never heard yet of a pedophile or a mass murderer who has ever been able to lose the hankering for the one thing that gets their rocks off. Take them all down.
Dusty just applauded Rapid City’s mayor for renouncing parole so that’s another tell about locking people up because federal dollars pay for recidivism.
Anyone that fails to publicly rebuke the words and actions of the POTUS is unfit to be governor of South Dakota.