PRESS RELEASE

(11/09/2006)

South Dakota Family Policy Council Update

To: Friends of the South Dakota Family Policy Council

From: Robert Regier, Executive Director

Date: Thursday, November 9, 2006

Abortion

It’s disappointing the abortion ban failed, 56-44. Yet, we must be pleased with how far the pro-life movement has come in South Dakota. Abortion advocates, including Planned Parenthood, didn’t even bother debating whether a new human life begins at conception, a critical victory in recognizing the right to life of the unborn.

They were relegated to arguing whether an abortion ban should include an explicit exception for rape and incest, which account for less than 2% of the excuses for abortion. We’ve proven how easy it could be to ban 98% of the abortions in our state. Some polls showed it could pass a referendum 3 to 1.

Whether that’s the right thing to do is for future debate, but it would be interesting to see whether those who claimed the ban was “too extreme” would vote for a bill that included those exceptions.

Marriage

As for the marriage protection amendment, it was a good victory, 52-48. It was awfully close, though, in part because the pro-abortion group did a good job of getting out their vote, and most pro-aborts support same-sex marriage.

Also, South Dakotans are typically and understandably cautious about amending the Constitution. Amendment C was the only proposed amendment that passed. In fact, the other three amendments lost in huge landslides. Only three of the eleven ballot measures passed.

As expected, a crowded ballot made for a confusing ballot, and confusion breeds questions that aren’t easily answered in campaign commercials. And it did not help that Governor Rounds told people to vote “no” on ballot issues about which they were unsure. Absolutely horrible advice.

Further, promoting the marriage amendment was a bit like trying to sell health insurance to a healthy 22-year-old. I don’t think a lot of people saw the urgent need for it. We don’t have a lot of homosexuals in South Dakota, and not many of them are publicly demanding marriage rights.

Yet, we know that’s their desire. They’ve had success in other states. It’s a good thing we took care of the issue now, before homosexual activists find a sympathetic judge willing to redefine marriage.

Video Lottery

Not much of a surprise on this issue. It lost 67-33. Not much to say. Our government will continue to fund its programs off our state’s video lottery addicts. A poor way to fund government, if you ask me. For now, though, repealing video lottery seems a dead proposition.

I suggest that the next move should be to prohibit the state from advertising and promoting it. The state makes quite a bit of money from tobacco and alcohol, but it doesn’t run advertisements encouraging people to smoke and drink.

Governor and Legislature

Governor Mike Rounds easily kept his spot at the Capitol. By a 63-26 margin, he beat Jack Billion, who made his campaign a mini-referendum on the abortion ban.

Former South Dakota Family Policy Council employee Manny Steele was victorious in his first run for the State House in district 12.

However, one of our board members, Elli Schwiesow, lost her State Senate bid in district 32. She can hold her head high, though. She held strong to her principles and ousted one of the most liberal members of the Senate, Stan Adelstein, in June’s primary.

We lost a couple conservative seats in the Senate. The House remains strongly in the hands of pro-life/pro-family Republicans and Democrats, though.

Congress

Republicans lost control of the House of Representatives. Rep. Stephanie Herseth beat Bruce Whalen 69-29.

Unless a couple legal challenges change the outcome, it looks like they lost control of the Senate, too. For 6 years, Republicans controlled Congress and the White House. Yet, their spending habits were worse than when President Clinton was in office. Little has been done on social issues. A couple decent tax cuts. That’s it.

Republican leaders used Christian conservatives to get elected, but they failed to advance the conservative cause. That’s why we saw a resurgence of conservative Democrats on Tuesday. The Democratic National Committee did everything it could to reach the “values voter” in various states. Even Rep. Herseth touted herself as a more conservative “Blue Dog” Democrat.

Some pundits are actually claiming the House may have actually become more conservative than when it was under Republican control. It may be hard, though, for those new conservative Democrats to deal with the San Francisco liberalism of the new Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.

Please share this Weekly Update with friends and family. For more information, contact the South Dakota Family Policy Council at mail@sdfamily.org  or at 605-335-8100.