PIERRE, S.D. (SDBA) — House committee members this morning (Feb. 8, 2024) defeat another attempt to speed the filling of legislative vacancies.
On a 10 to 0 vote, the House State Affairs Committee dispatched two bills to the 41st legislative day that would have had the governor pick from a list of three names from the vacant legislator’s party’s central committee.
The sponsor of both bills, HB1188 and HJR5002, Republican Rep. Tina Mulally from Rapid City, said the citizens of District 35–her district–have already waited 175 days to fill the Senate vacancy.
Mulally also said there have been 71 gubernatorial legislative appointments in the state’s history. She says Republican Gov. Kristi Noem has made 13% of those appointments.
HB1188 would have changed via statute how the governor would appoint replacement legislators and HJR5002 would have done the same thing, only by voters adding the language to the state constitution.
District 32 is also without a House member. For most of the session, District 34 Republican Sen. Mike Diedrich from Rapid City has been excused because of illness. Further, District 30 Republican Sen. Julie Frye-Mueller from Rapid City is still banished from serving on any legislative committees after an episode with a Legislative Research Council employee last session.
Noem and legislative leaders have asked the South Dakota Supreme Court for an advisory opinion on conflicts of interest following legislators running afoul of the use of state COVID-19 funds. The governor wants to hear from the high court before making the appointments. The court took oral arguments on the issue the day before the legislature started on January 8, 2024.
Committee members and opponents were concerned that having county central committees in multi-county districts could be more cumbersome than even a special election to fill the vacancy. They pointed out that the process for the central committee or committees to make the recommendations was unclear.
However, Republican House Majority Leader Will Mortenson from Pierre, the committee chair, said he understood Rapid City-area residents’ concerns about not being fully represented and the slowness of the process. He said the situation was unique because of the Supreme Court’s involvement in the conflict-of-interest issue for legislative appointees.
Last week, the Senate State Affairs Committee killed SJR504 on a 7 to 2 vote. In a constitutional amendment, it would have provided for voters in the district to hold a special election to fill the vacated legislative seat.
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