Denise Ross: Wannabe Daschle challenger takes aim

By Denise Ross, Journal staff | Tuesday, June 10, 2003

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Chances are the name Neal Tapio rings a faint bell for you, but you're not sure why you know the name. He's that guy from Sioux Falls who says he might run against Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., in 2004.

The 32-year-old entrepreneur started and sold a business in Seattle, has worked in South Dakota for Norwest Financial and now is a training consultant for commercial shop-equipment manufacturer Cuda Cleaning Systems.

He has amassed a fortune large enough to write checks to the IRS for more than most South Dakotans earn in a year. And the Watertown native has said he plans to spend as much as $60,000 of his own money on what can be described as a noncampaign campaign.

Maybe that's not quite right. Tapio will run a campaign, all right. But election is not his primary goal. Under the new campaign-finance laws, candidates can directly criticize other candidates, whereas it's quite difficult for other individuals and groups to legally level the same direct criticism.

Tapio and his fellow Minnehaha County Young Republicans quickly found a solution to that problem. Make somebody a candidate under the law and begin criticizing.

Tapio and I talked in a Minerva's booth on Saturday, May 31, before potential Daschle challenger John Thune spoke to a gathering of the Pennington County Republicans.

Tapio said he hasn't gotten much sleep since he announced last month that he might challenge the Senate minority leader, a man with whom he has one unpleasant thing in common. He said he has already received a death threat.

Ross: Other people are saying that you are doing this to be a placeholder for whomever, ultimately, the candidate will be — that you don't have any intention of being on the ballot but just want to provide a vehicle to criticize Tom Daschle under the constructs of the new campaign-finance laws.

Tapio: To say I would never want to be on the ballot is inaccurate. However, I think the values of the Republican Party have to be spoken. And I don't believe that Sen. Daschle represents those values.

Ross: He is a Democrat.

Tapio: I mean the people of South Dakota's values. I believe the people of South Dakota's values more resemble the Republican Party than the Democrat Party. Sen. Daschle represents interest groups in New York City and Hollywood and not the people of South Dakota. The purpose of me looking into testing the waters is to determine how much sentiment is out in South Dakota. If for some reason a John Thune or a Bill Janklow doesn't come forward, it's very important to begin organizing early against an $11 million war chest and 20 campaign workers that are going to start (in June) in South Dakota. Something has to be done to counter that right away.

Ross: Is this more about Tom Daschle than it is about what Neal Tapio wants to do for South Dakota? Would you be organizing a campaign if it were someone other than Tom Daschle?

Tapio: If a Republican held this seat, I would never run. Tom Daschle is going to be very, very, very difficult to beat, and it's going to take the efforts of every Republican and everybody who shares that message of local control and personal responsibility. Everybody who shares those values will have to work harder than they've ever worked before.

Ross: If you end up on the ballot and end up being elected, what sorts of things do you think you would do for South Dakota in the U.S. Senate?

Tapio: I believe that South Dakota needs representation that speaks for them all of the time, not just part of the time. That's what we have with Sen. Daschle. I think it's unfair to the people of South Dakota to have to choose between their business interests and their conservative values. We can have both.

Ross: Do you have any specific programs that you think need reform or other ideas you might try once you got to Washington?

Tapio: The major emphasis would be to bring control back to the people of South Dakota. Local control. The federal judiciary system is out of control. The recent tax-cut legislation helps the people of South Dakota to keep the power close to the people of South Dakota. So, I would try to bring control of the federal agencies back to the people of South Dakota. For instance, the national forest issue here. We shouldn't have to go a decade fighting the federal government. It should be decisions made right here, at home, that can determine whether or not we thin our forest to prevent forest fires.

Ross: Are you aware that Daschle was key in putting together two things — the local (advisory) committee, the first in the country, to help make forestry decisions on the Black Hills National Forest? And, two, the Beaver Park legislation where they brought the interest groups together, brokered an agreement, and that legislation to thin was passed?

Tapio: There are a hundred ways to answer that question. There is a fight nationwide over who controls public land. When I was in Washington, the state, the federal agencies tried to close down the federal dams because they wanted to protect salmon. The public lands in South Dakota, they're trying to prevent local ownership based on an endangered species called the prairie dog. There is a group trying to solve the problem. I give Daschle credit for fixing the problem that he created.