Third time the charm for South Dakota bill that would ditch a convention for a primary?
PIERRE — A slimmed-down version of a bill to change how political parties nominate candidates for office passed a House committee Monday morning after a rigorous hour-long debate.
HB 1198 is the third attempt by Republicans to go from a convention nomination process to a primary election after the 2022 Republican convention was usurped by factions of the party and led to 10 counties being unable to cast nominating ballots.
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Rep. Tyler Tordsen, R-Sioux Falls, said the bill Monday morning was the product of weeks of conversation, collaboration and compromise after a resolution he sponsored to change the entire nomination process failed.
The bill would have the gubernatorial candidate pick the lieutenant governor, while candidates for the attorney general and the secretary of state would go through a primary election. Other statewide offices, such a public utilities commissioner and treasurer, would go through the normal convention nomination process.
“I also believe that these positions are still too important to just let a couple hundred people decide and looking at our state motto that ‘under God, people rule,’ should guide us in this decision,” Tordsen said.
Former Attorney General Mark Barnett said while he had benefited from the convention nomination process, he felt that the fairest election was the one he lost when he ran in a primary against Mike Rounds in 2002 for governor.
“The reason I say it was the fairest was because it was a primary and it was all voting Republicans, not just a sum of the Republicans that I could convince to run for delegate,” he said.
Barnett said he believed the attorney general race was critical to state government because a “hostile AG” could make the lives of the governor and the legislature more difficult.
“My way of thinking is the voters are better served if they all get involved in selecting such a critical position,” he said.
South Dakota is one of three states that continues to use the convention nomination process, a fact that was told repeatedly during Monday’s debate as well as the resolution debate three weeks ago. A bill in 2023 also attempted to change the convention nomination process to a primary election, but it failed.
Opposition centered around the scarcity of the convention with multiple people saying by holding a candidate primary, the state would be opening itself to big money influences.
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Stu Cvrk, the chairman of the Bon Homme County Republicans, warned HB 1198 could turn South Dakota purple, meaning a mix of Republicans and Democrats in statewide office, if out of state money started flooding in for primaries.
Rep. Jon Hansen, R-Dell Rapids, attempted an amendment in committee to only allow the governor to pick the candidate for lieutenant governor. He said the bill was a “knee-jerk” reaction to what had been a bad convention in 2022.
“Just because we can wield this power to change this process doesn't mean we should, especially when our party doesn't want it,” he said, after Republican chairman and Sen. John Wiik, R-Big Stone City, testified against the bill.
However, the amendment failed and the original HB 1198 passed out of the House State Affairs committee with a 10-3 vote. Committee members who approved it said they wanted to see the House debate it and there would be room for changes to the bill.
“I think that by doing that I think we're going to encourage additional discussion, both with the (GOP) central committee and with the legislature as a whole,” Rep. Gary Cammack, R-Union Center, said.
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: South Dakota bill advances to change nominating convention to primary
