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Last Updated June 22, 2005
The junior senator from South Dakota is John Thune, a Republican elected in the most important of the 34 Senate elections held in 2004. He grew up in Murdo, on the dusty plains west of the Missouri River, where his father was a teacher and the family was Democratic; he went to college and business school at the University of South Dakota. As a high school freshman he met then-Congressman Jim Abdnor, when Abdnor spotted him at a grocery checkout counter and recalled that he had missed one of six free throws in the basketball game the previous night. They kept in touch and Thune got a job on by-then Senator Abdnor's staff in Washington in 1985; he stayed with Abdnor after he lost to Tom Daschle and was appointed to the Small Business Administration. He returned to South Dakota in 1989, at 28, to become executive director of the state Republican Party. In 1991 he became state railroad director under Governor George Mickelson and in 1993 director of the state Municipal League. Thune nevertheless entered the 1996 race for the House as very much an underdog. The favorite in the Republican primary was Lieutenant Governor Carole Hillard, but Thune attracted the support of religious conservatives and presidential campaign leaders, fresh from organizing for the presidential primary. He won 59%-41%. The Democratic nominee was Rick Weiland, a former state director for Senator Daschle. Thune was against all tax increases (and against Bob Dole's tax cut, pending a balanced budget) and pledged to refuse the congressional pension; he promised to serve only three terms. Weiland attacked Newt Gingrich and Medicare "cuts" and called for an "impact fee" on big hog producers to build a loan fund for small hog producers. Thune won 58%-37%. In the House, Thune had a conservative voting record and served on the Agriculture and Transportation committees; he was chosen the freshman class representative to the Republican leadership. In May 1997 he criticized the House leadership for attaching other issues to the bill for relief of floods that had devastated much of North Dakota and Minnesota and damaged much of South Dakota that spring. As farm prices started plunging in 1998, Thune proposed to increase price supports; after meeting resistance, he proposed a bill to allow farmers to receive the present value of Freedom to Farm Act transition payments due up to 2002. He said he was pleased with the ultimate $6 billion emergency aid package, which allowed farmers to claim 1999 payments early. On Transportation and Infrastructure, Thune worked on the May 1998 transportation bill, which raised South Dakota's payments from roughly $120 million to $180 million, and for funding of other South Dakota water projects. He backed country-of-origin meat labeling for animals born, raised and slaughtered in the United States. He won reelection 75%-28% in 1998 and in 2000 he won 73%-25%, with the largest vote margin ever for a statewide candidate. After winning reelection in 2000, Thune did not flinch from keeping his promise to run for no more than three House terms. Instead the question was whether he would run to replace Governor William Janklow or against Senator Tim Johnson. National Republicans hoped he would run for the Senate. Johnson had been elected by only 51%-49% in 1996, and Thune led him in Republican polls by 48%-41% in March 2001. But Thune's wife and daughters, after trying life in metropolitan Washington, had chosen to live in Sioux Falls, and Thune seemed to be opting for a run for governor. In December 2000 he set up an exploratory committee for the governor race but on his trip to South Dakota in March 2001 and in a White House dinner in April, George W. Bush urged Thune to run for the Senate; in December 2000 Thune had $483,000 in his House campaign treasury, which he could use for a Senate run. Tom Daschle, majority leader starting in June 2001, said the race was "the most important political effort for me" in 2002. Daschle helped Johnson by getting him a seat on the Appropriations Committee, from which he could funnel money into South Dakota. But Thune argued that the state would have been better off with a bipartisan Senate delegation. Of course, there was a caveat: a Thune victory could give the Republicans a Senate majority and make Daschle minority leader again. Johnson argued that he and Daschle made a uniquely powerful team. The two candidates spent record amounts for South Dakota--Johnson $6.1 million, Thune $6.0 million--and the national parties and independent expenditure groups on both sides spent much more. The biggest local issue was the drought that hit western South Dakota for most of 2002. Daschle and Johnson responded by sponsoring $5 billion in disaster aid for farmers and ranchers, arguing that if floods and tornadoes triggered disaster relief, then droughts should too. But this was opposed by the Bush administration, which wanted any aid to come out of the $190 billion approved for farm spending. On August 15 George W. Bush came to South Dakota amid speculation that he would offer more. But, to the disappointment of the Thune campaign, he didn't. Defense was also a central issue. Thune attacked Johnson for voting against the Gulf War resolution in January 1991 and for joining the group of Democratic members of Congress who sued George H.W. Bush challenging his conduct of the war. Johnson pointed out that his son served in the 101st Airborne Division in Afghanistan from December 2001 to June 2002 and could be sent to Iraq (which he later was) if the United States went in; Johnson announced that he would vote for the Iraq war resolution. There was one more issue blazing in October: fraudulent Indian voter registrations. The state Democratic party set up offices on each of the state's Indian reservations and paid bonuses to contractors who brought in signed voter registration cards. In October, a consultant for the Sioux Tribes Voter Education and Registration Committee was indicted on five counts of forgery of voter registration cards; Attorney General Mark Barnett and the U.S. attorney launched investigations. All this made headlines in a state with a tradition of squeaky-clean voting and a memory of the violent Indian movement of the 1970s. Johnson said that the voter registration operation was run by the state Democratic party and that his campaign had nothing to do with it. This election turned out to be the closest in the nation. During most of election night and into the morning Thune led in the counting. Then the last two precincts came in, from Shannon County, which includes most of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Those two precincts put Johnson over the top, by a margin of 524 votes--in percentage terms, 50.1%-49.9%. In Shannon County, 3,118 votes were cast; the vote was 92%-8% for Johnson. In the six main reservation counties, turnout was 11,275, up from 7,500 in 2000. These six counties voted 78%-21% for Johnson. Many Republicans urged Thune to contest the election. But on November 13, he announced he would not. "The people of South Dakota have been subjected to one of the longest and most expensive campaigns in South Dakota history. I choose not to subject them to more." After the 2002 election, Thune opened up his own lobbying firm and was a consultant to a D.C. law firm. But it wasn't long before he began thinking about seeking public office again. In December 2003, his successor in the House, former Governor William Janklow, announced he would resign in January; Thune was mentioned as a possible candidate. The other possibility was a challenge to Senator Tom Daschle. Daschle had been reelected by wide margins in 1992 and 1998 against lightly funded opponents. In 2001 and 2002 he was one of several national Democrats considering running for president; in January 2003 he announced he would not run for president. But even as he was committing himself to the Senate, it seemed clear he would have trouble winning reelection. Thune's favorable ratings remained high after his defeat, and Republican polls in November 2002 and March 2003 showed Thune 1% to 2% ahead of Daschle--the same kind of dead heat in almost every poll taken during the Johnson-Thune race. Thune figured to have the advantage of all-out support from the Bush White House and fundraising prowess as great as Daschle's, assets that none of Daschle's previous opponents had. And George W. Bush, who carried South Dakota 60%-38% in 2000, would be at the top of the ballot. Daschle was Senate majority leader from June 2001 to January 2003 (and for 17 days in January 2001) and minority leader from January 1995 to June 2001, and then again from January 2003 going forward. The emergence of a 50-50 Senate and the election of George W. Bush made him one of the pivotal figures in American politics. In December 2001 Dick Cheney said Daschle "unfortunately has decided … to be more of an obstructionist." In January 2002 Daschle delivered a speech arguing that the Bush tax cut "probably made the recession worse" and set the stage for "the most dramatic fiscal deterioration in our nation's history." Increasingly Republicans attacked Daschle for obstructionism and Democrats rallied to his defense. Ads ran in South Dakota attacking and backing him. In June 2002 Bush called for a new Department of Homeland Security, something previously championed mostly by Democrats. But Bush said that the labor relations provisions of the Senate Democrats' bill were unacceptable. "The Senate is more interested in special interests in Washington and not interested in the security of the American people," said Bush at a September 23 campaign appearance in New Jersey. Two days later Daschle rose in the Senate and spoke with evident anger, saying that Bush was "politicizing" the debate. This came two weeks after Bush's speech to the United Nations and his announcement that he would ask for congressional authorization of military action in Iraq. The Senate voted on the resolution October 11; Daschle and Tim Johnson were two of 29 Democrats to vote in favor. But the homeland security bill was the subject of continued debate, and no version passed the Senate before the election. Daschle's insistence on solidarity with federal employees' unions on homeland security helped to undermine Democrats' credibility on national security. On Election Day Democrats picked up one seat in Arkansas but lost three in Georgia, Minnesota and Missouri; Tim Johnson held on by 524 votes. The next day Daschle's face was etched with disappointment. But, perhaps heeding some Democrats who argued that their party had not opposed Bush vociferously enough, he seemed determined to carry on, from the minority, much as before. Senate Democrats embarked on a filibuster of a lower court nomination--the first in history. On March 17, 2003, as Bush was to address the nation that evening announcing a final 48-hour ultimatum to Saddam Hussein, Daschle said, "I'm saddened, saddened that this president failed so miserably at diplomacy that we're now forced to war. Saddened that we have to give up one life because this president couldn't create the kind of diplomatic effort that was so critical for our country." Republicans chastised him for criticizing the president at an inappropriate time. In January 2004, Thune made it official: he would run against Daschle. "I had people encouraging me to run for House. But the House isn't where the problem is. The House is going to be just fine. I don't know of a place more in need of leadership than the U.S. Senate," he said. "We need to put aside partisanship and the politics of obstruction and give the leadership that is right for the country." With that statement, Thune was laying out the lead theme in his campaign--that Daschle was the chief obstructionist in the Senate, the leader of the Democratic forces that stood stubbornly in the way of the Bush administration agenda. To underscore this idea, in May Majority Leader Bill Frist broke with Senate tradition and traveled to South Dakota to campaign against Daschle. Daschle began running ads in the summer of 2003. His campaign revolved around the same theme used by Tim Johnson against Thune-Daschle's clout as a national party leader. He argued that a freshman senator could not hope to match his influence in Washington and he highlighted the various pork projects he delivered to South Dakota - in the last fiscal year alone, according to his campaign, he brought home more than $269 million for more than 90 projects. This was the most expensive election of the year, as both national parties and numerous third-party interest groups poured millions of dollars into South Dakota; through mid-October, the two candidates raised a combined $33 million. By the end, they had spent $35 million. Much of that money paid for television advertising; almost nothing was off-limits. The state Republican party sent a mailer attacking the lobbying practices of Daschle's wife Linda, a former FAA official who later became an aviation industry lobbyist. The Club for Growth ran an ad called "Tom's House" that featured Daschle's $2 million house in a tony D.C. neighborhood; another showed Daschle as a bobble-head doll, nodding in unison with Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton bobble-head dolls. Daschle's campaign criticized Thune for continuing his lobbying work even as he was running for office; Thune said candidates were entitled to make a living and that his work was for South Dakota clients. Daschle aired an ad that featured footage of him embracing Bush; this infuriated Republicans who frequently referred to Daschle as "the obstructionist-in-chief" to the Bush agenda. Thune boasted of his friendship and ability to work with the president. He said Daschle was out of touch with South Dakota values and priorities and contended that the majority leader put the interests of the national party over the needs of the state. "He's not the same guy who put his suitcase in his station wagon and drove the family to Congress in 1978," Thune told National Journal. "He now is an inside-Washington, D.C., guy who lives in a multimillion-dollar mansion. The broader question is, who is more in touch with South Dakota?" Having Bush at the top of the ticket was a help to Thune: Bush won 60% in South Dakota. But South Dakota Republicans also orchestrated a highly effective, Internet-based campaign against Daschle, and the newspaper they viewed as his mouthpiece, the Sioux Falls Argus Leader. The paper is the state's largest and its primary news source; GOP activists, some of whom were paid by Thune's campaign committee for research consulting, attacked the newspaper's coverage of Daschle and questioned its writers' objectivity on web logs, or blogs, and a quasi-news Web site. This was a closely fought race which brought out a huge turnout, up 23% from 2000 in a state with only modest growth. Thune won 51%-49%, marking the first defeat for a Senate party leader since Ernest McFarland lost to Barry Goldwater in 1952. The popular vote margin was 4,508--small, but more than eight times as large as the 524-vote margin by which he lost to Tim Johnson in 2002. The contours of the vote were very much the same. Thune narrowly lost Sioux Falls's Minnehaha County, but won fast-growing Lincoln County next door by a bigger popular vote margin. He carried the counties including Mitchell, North Sioux City, Pierre and, by wide margins, Rapid City's Pennington County and the Black Hills counties around it. Daschle won most of the counties in eastern South Dakota, where he started his congressional career by winning his 1978 House race by 139 votes. As compared to 2002, Thune's percentage rose in most eastern South Dakota counties and fell in most West River counties, but he increased his share of the vote significantly in the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations (Shannon and Todd Counties): his refusal to question the reservation vote in November 2002 may have helped him. Thune returned to Washington a conquering hero, celebrated by Republicans as a giant-killer. Senator George Allen, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, put it this way during the campaign: "When John Thune wins in South Dakota, that's like picking up three seats in itself." But in May he suffered a setback when the military base closings recommended by the Defense Department included Ellsworth Air Force Base. He had said during the 2004 campaign that a Republican senator with good relations with the Bush administration could better look out for Ellsworth's interests; when the base appeared on the closure list, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee immediately used the opportunity to attack him.
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