HURON – A former state legislator whose family is well known in political circles for its long history of public service said he fears that some lawmakers today don’t have a clear understanding of leadership.
“Good government is when you involve people and it’s not about yourself,” Quinten Burg of Wessington Springs said Thursday.
Too often people are talked into running for the Legislature, but are not committed to the job, he said at the District 22 Democratic Forum.
Legislators who fully understand their role are those who work at it every day of the year. The weeks spent each winter in Pierre are a small part of it, Burg said.
“It’s not easy. It takes a lot of your time,” he said.
It’s also a continuous learning process, from the day one takes the oath until the day he or she retires from office.
“The more you know, the less you know,” Burg said. “You just think you’ve got something figured out and you realize there’s so much more there yet.”
Burg served in the House from 1999 to 2004 and again from 2007 to 2010. Throughout that time, he was a member of the Appropriations Committee, representing Beadle, Jerauld and Hand counties.
As the 2018 election cycle nears, he said Democrats Billie Sutton, a state senator running for governor, and U.S. House candidate Tim Bjorkman, a retired judge, bring unique styles of leadership to the race.

As a former judge, Bjorkman knows what problems arise when there’s a lack of leadership, Burg said. Sutton is a young man with deep roots in South Dakota, he said.
“I think we’ve got people who understand why they’re there,” Burg said.
After observing state government in action over the years, and with his own family heavily involved in politics, Burg said he decided to run in 1999. One of the greatest mentors a young legislator could have was long-time lawmaker Bob Duxbury of Wessington, he said.
“He never let it get to be about him,” he said. “And he took more beatings on ideas than anybody, but he never let it be about him.”
Burg said it’s important for legislators to take strong stands on issues such as corrections, education, mental health and helping others.
He said he asked his niece, a fourth-grade teacher, the other day if she could tell the difference between students who had attended preschool and those who had not. She replied that, yes, she could.
“It’s so easy to correct problems at an early age than it is at a later age,” Burg said.
Prisons are so full because the state hasn’t committed the money upfront before problems like drug and alcohol abuse occur, he said.
As an appropriator, he said drug and alcohol treatment officials would appear before the committee to beg for more money to treat people before they offended again.
“When you have to wait to get into treatment, then you’re going to re-offend,” Burg said.
“Once you’re in the process, it’s hard to ever get out of the process in corrections. But it’s putting money upfront.”
On the national level, he said the country has allowed a very loud minority to take charge.
“They think leadership is intimidation,” Burg said. “Leadership is not intimidation. Leadership is selling your ideas, and if your idea is good enough it should be able to go on that.
“Leadership is knowing that people are going to follow you because of your ideas and because of your principles, not just because I’m the loudest voice in the room and I never make a mistake,” he said.
Burg said he thinks the only thing saving the country right now is the judicial system. He believes the United States is in a fragile state, with many asking for the whereabouts of the Constitution.
If there was ever a time when Congress needed to step up and do its job, it’s now, he said.
“I think they wake up every morning just hoping something doesn’t happen, instead of taking the steps they’re going to need to take,” Burg said.