Conservative victories mark trend

By Kevin Woster, Journal Staff Writer | Thursday, June 08, 2006

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RAPID CITY — Elli Schwiesow’s narrow victory over state Sen. Stan Adelstein Tuesday in the District 32 Republican Senate primary is at least in part an affirmation of conservative GOP principles on issues that touch the heart and soul.

But it also shows the value of face-to-face voter contacts, committed volunteers and the make-or-break chore of getting targeted supporters to the polls.

Schwiesow was one of three conservative Republicans — all outspoken supporters of HB1215, the Legislature’s controversial, nearly total ban on abortions — to sweep Senate seats in high profile district races in Rapid City. And they were part of a larger contingent of conservative victors in legislative primaries across South Dakota.

“There were 17 races that conservatives were watching across the state, and in all 17, the conservative won,” Schwiesow said Wednesday from her campaign office. “It’s something that’s always been there. We are a conservative state. We like our leadership to reflect that.”

It remains to be seen whether the conservative outpouring in primaries — where turnout is unusually low and dominated by the most committed party members — carries through to the general election this fall. It also is unclear what Schwiesow’s win, and others like it, said about the expected referendum vote in November on HB1215.

But there isn’t any question that Schwiesow’s campaign — adequately funded at $50,000 but still far less than the war chest of Adelstein’s personal wealth — succeeded, in large part by identifying supporters and getting them to vote.

Schwiesow, a self-professed Christian conservative who lost to the more moderate Adelstein in the 2004 Senate primary by 122 votes, won the rematch Tuesday by 174. And in her vote total of 2,145 — to Adelstein’s 1,971 — there were many names and faces well known to Schwiesow and her staff, which totaled more than 170 volunteers.

Campaign poll watchers at every district voting place checked names off the list and reported back to other workers who would search for missing voters.

“You find out where they work, what they’re doing after work, things like that. That’s the only way you can keep track of those supporters. We did a lot of voter IDing, so we know who our supporters were,” Schwiesow said. “We had identified more than 1,600, and somebody here said that we only had seven that were unaccounted for. That’s pretty amazing.”

Schwiesow said she needed an effort like that, along with the $50,000 in cash to stay in the spending war at all with Adelstein. Adelstein contributed more than $100,000 of his own money to the primary two years ago and was expected to easily top that this year.

He bought a savvy and expensive media campaign that looked more like a congressional campaign than a legislative battle, hitting key differences between the candidates aimed at labeling Schwiesow a conservative extremist.

“We could never keep up with what he was doing,” Schwiesow said about Adelstein’s blitz of media and mailings. “I had volunteers who were so committed to this race, because of the issues and their feelings. You just can’t beat that.”

Adelstein found that to be true this year, despite his own staff of paid campaign workers and a group of volunteers. The six-year legislative veteran spoke confidently going into the primary and actually led by a substantial margin as the first and second precinct reports came in. But subsequent precincts turned sharply in Schwiesow’s favor, leaving Adelstein and his supporters stunned late Tuesday evening.

Adelstein said Wednesday that he still wasn’t ready to discuss the loss. Instead, he issued a news release saying he was grateful for the chance to serve in Pierre but disappointed that voters had “validated a brand of social conservatism that I consider to be exclusionary and harmful to the health and well-being of South Dakota women and their families.”

Adelstein worked unsuccessfully to defeat HB1215, saying he couldn’t support an abortion ban that didn’t provide exceptions for victims of rape and incest and to protect the pregnant woman’s health. HB1215 would allow abortions only to save the woman’s life.

“For better or for worse, HB1215 — the extreme abortion ban — dominated the primary in all districts and has become a divisive issue in election campaigns,” Adelstein said. “South Dakota voters will have another chance to overturn this very bad law in the general election.”

Funded in part by Adelstein, HB1215 opponents gathered almost 38,000 petition signatures — more than twice the amount needed — to refer the bill to a public vote in November. State officials have until July 1, when the law would take effect, to verify the needed 16,728 valid signatures to suspend the law and put the issue on the ballot.

Adelstein has spoken harshly about the bill and said during a rally against HB1215 in downtown Rapid City that some who supported it should be voted out of office. House Republican Leader Larry Rhoden of Union Center, an HB1215 supporter who easily survived his primary Tuesday, said Adelstein’s less-than-conservative philosophy and statements eventually caught up with him.

“I saw Stan become more and more bold on some of those things during his six years in office,” Rhoden said. “Then, he was calling for us to be voted out of office, and it absolutely blew up in his face.”

One of the most flamboyant supporters of HB1215, Sen. Bill Napoli, R-Rapid City, won big over Rep. Alice McCoy, a more soft-spoken anti-abortion candidate, in District 35. And Sen. J.P. Duniphan, who voted against the bill because it lacked rape and incest exceptions, lost to Christian conservative Dennis Schmidt 1,079 to 652 in District 33.

Duniphan said negative campaign tactics and distortions of her record by Schmidt were as important to her loss as any difference in philosophy.

“This was probably the most personal, nasty, negative campaign that I’ve had against me in my 12 wonderful years in the Legislature,” she said. “It’s been an attack campaign, a negative campaign against me and the others, where it should have been on the issues.”

Schmidt said he was merely commenting on Duniphan’s record. And Rhoden said those who lost, including Adelstein and Duniphan, are out of step.

“It was statewide,” Rhoden said. “Elli and Stan? That was David and Goliath. For her to win in that race, you had to take a clear message out of it.”

Rhoden admitted that a primary is one thing and a general election — with all voters involved, instead of the party faithful — could be another.

“I don’t know how much stock to put on it for the general,” Rhoden said. “With such a low voter turnout, I think you get some of the most conservative Republicans out. When you get to November, obviously, some of the more moderate Republicans show up.”

Duniphan blames her loss in part on the 22-percent voter turnout in her district.

“I think they motivated their small minority, and I understand that,” she said. “It’s not sour grapes at all; I just think it’s unfortunate there wasn’t a bigger turnout.”

Turnout was 55 percent in the Adelstein-Schwiesow race, both because of aggressive get-out-the-vote work and the prickly, high-profile nature of the campaign. Schwiesow knows she will have to reconfigure her voter effort and campaign style for a broader range of voters in the general election against Democrat Tom Katus and Constitution Party candidate Daniel Lautenschlager.

Katus, who calls himself a “flaming moderate,” said he matches up well against Schwiesow. He’ll seek support from Democrats, independents and moderate Republicans — including Adelstein supporters.

“Some have already called me, and I’ll certainly reach out to them,” Katus said Wednesday. “Had Stan won, I’d have had a difficult time remaining in, because we were quite close on a number of issues.”

Schwiesow said she expects to lose some of Adelstein’s Republican supporters in the general election. But she aims to keep as many GOP voters as possible, which is a crucial edge in a district with 7,430 Republicans, 3,959 Democrats and 2,146 independents.

And, despite her big win two days ago, she won’t wait long to start the next campaign.

“You sift through things, start looking at the statistics, and your mind starts focusing on how to frame things,” Schwiesow said. “I think you start today.”

Contact Kevin Woster at 394-8413 or kevin.woster@rapidcityjournal.com