Speaker discusses Amendment at Democrat forum
This item is available in full to subscribers.
To continue reading, you will need to either log in to your subscriber account, or purchase a new subscription.
If you are a current print subscriber, you can set up a free website account and connect your subscription to it by clicking here.
If you are a digital subscriber with an active, online-only subscription then you already have an account here. Just reset your password if you've not yet logged in to your account on this new site.
Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing.
Please log in to continue |
HURON – South Dakotans angered over the Legislature’s repeal of an initiated measure passed by voters in 2016 to address campaign finance and election-related issues have mobilized in a bipartisan way to bring Constitutional Amendment W to the November ballot.
“It really doesn’t matter if you’re a Republican, a Democrat or you’re an independent, having a government that functions out in the open and in an accountable manner is something that benefits all of us equally,” Represent South Dakota Field Director Doug Kronaizl of Vermillion said Thursday.
Amendment W would amend campaign finance and lobbying laws, establish a government accountability board and protect the initiative process.
Initiated Measure 22 was approved by voters in November 2016, but repealed by legislators two months later. In February 2017, Gov. Dennis Daugaard signed the bill, saying voters had been “hoodwinked.”
“It struck me as arrogant, condescending,” Kronaizl said of the argument that the voters didn’t understand what they were voting for.
Legislators promised to replace provisions in IM 22. In one, they replaced a measure to create an independent accountability board to make sure laws are being followed with one that exempted themselves from oversight, he said.
“It goes to show that if you look at where we were before we voted on IM 22 and where we are today, it’s not very different,” he said at the District 22 Democratic Forum.
Instead, the replaced provision “put us inches ahead,” he said.
Kronaizl said it’s unlikely any more changes in ethics laws will come out of Pierre. Lawmakers feel they accomplished what the voters wanted in IM 22, he said.
“Obviously, 50,000 South Dakotans didn’t think that way or else they wouldn’t have signed petitions to put a new measure on the ballot,” he said.
A “W is Wrong” coalition has come out in opposition to the proposed amendment.
PHOTO BY ROGER LARSEN/PLAINSMAN
Doug Kronaizl, the S.D. Field Director for Represent South Dakota, discusses proposed Constitutional Amendment W with District 22 Democrats on Thursday.