SD House to consider bill barring spouses of legislators from lobbying

MARCH 6, 2023:

(South Dakota Broadcasters Association)– South Dakota’s House of Representatives defeats a bill this morning (March 6, 2023) that prohibited a legislator’s spouse from being a lobbyist. SB 197 failed 24 to 44. The bill had previously passed the Senate.

Bill sponsor, Democratic Rep. Linda Duba from Sioux Falls, said the bill was not targeting any specific legislator but closed an ethics loophole. She said legislative staff sometimes don’t know how to treat a legislative spouse who is also a lobbyist, as spouses have special access to the chambers that others do not.

Duba also said the bill was designed to prevent conflicts of interest and financial gain.

However, opponents said the bill targeted Republican State Sen. Julie Frye-Mueller from Rapid City. Her husband, Mike Mueller, is an unpaid lobbyist for South Dakota Citizens for Liberty. Both were involved in an incident with an LRC employee that the Senate censured Sen. Frye-Mueller for.

“What our good friend from Minnehaha County (Duba) is trying to do is to bring their dirty laundry over from the Senate,” Republican Rep. Liz May from Kyle said. “Don’t allow them to drag their mess here. These kinds of bills cause for a lot of hard feelings.”

May tried to amend the bill to have the measure apply to legislators’ spouses if they worked in any capacity for the State of South Dakota. That amendment failed 13 to 55.

MARCH 1, 2023:

(South Dakota Broadcasters Association)– Spouses of legislators would not be able to be private lobbyists under a bill passed this morning (March 1, 2023). The House State Affairs Committee passed SB 197 9 to 4. The measure has already passed the Senate.

Bill sponsor, Democratic Rep. Linda Duba from Sioux Falls, said the restriction was “long overdue.” “This bill is so a spousal lobbyist can’t leverage undue influence,” she said.

Another sponsor, Republican Sen. Michael Rohl from Aberdeen, said the bill does not restrict a legislator’s spouse from testifying on their own behalf. He said that if he really wanted to influence a legislator, “I’d lobby the spouse of a legislator (who is a lobbyist).”

Mike Mueller, the husband of Republican Sen. Julie Frye-Mueller from Rapid City and a lobbyist for S.D. Citizens for Liberty said the bill targets him and his wife. “As a volunteer lobbyist, I receive no personal benefit,” Mueller said. “We the people benefit.”

He said the bill abridges the First Amendment. Mueller also wondered why legislative spouses who work for the executive or judicial branches of state government were excluded.

Republican Rep. Becky Drury of Rapid City asked if the bill would prevent lobbyists from running for the legislature. “Yes, it works both ways.”

The bill now heads to the House for consideration.

FEBRUARY 14, 2023:

The South Dakota Senate passed a bill this afternoon (Feb. 14, 2023) that bars a legislator’s spouse from lobbying.

The vote was 22 to 13 in the 35-member chamber.

Bill sponsor, Republican Sen. Michael Rohl from Aberdeen, said the legislator-spouse relationship could be self-serving, as legislators cannot themselves vote for bills that would directly benefit them. On the other hand, their spouse could influence others to do so.

“This is a dangerous loophole,” Rohl said. “We need to show that Pierre is capable of monitoring ourselves.”

He said it was also confusing to legislative staff, interns, and pages when they should treat the lobbyist-spouse as a lobbyist or as the legislator’s marriage partner.

Republican Sen. Julie Frye-Mueller from Rapid City said the bill was aimed at her and her husband, Mike Mueller. He is an unpaid lobbyist for South Dakota Citizens for Liberty.

Lobbyist forms currently do not make a distinction between paid and volunteer lobbyists. It asks all lobbyists who “employs” them. According to the S.D. Secretary of State’s website on applying to be a lobbyist: “Any person acting as a lobbyist to seek the introduction of legislation or to promote, oppose, or influence in any manner the passage by the Legislature of any legislation affecting the special interests of any agency, individual, association, or business shall register the name of the person so employed or agreed to be employed, with the Secretary of State. (SDCL 2-12-1).” There was no attempt on the floor to amend the bill to carve out an exception for unpaid lobbyists.

Frye-Mueller asked why the spouses of legislators who work in the judicial or executive branches also are not similarly barred. She said there was a “certain agenda” behind the bill regarding her and her husband. Earlier in the legislative session, Frye-Mueller and her husband Mike Mueller were present during a conversation with a Legislative Research Council staffer that the employee reported as harassing and improper.

Republican leaders suspended Frye-Mueller after the complaint; a special committee heard testimony; the Senate reinstated her but censured her and forbade her from working with legislative staff unless she went through the head of the LRC.

SB 197 now goes to a House committee.