Latest news with #JimEschenbaum
Yahoo
26-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Instead of bipartisanship and courage, new GOP chairman wants purity test
Jim Eschenbaum, representing the South Dakota Property Rights and Local Control Alliance, participates in an election forum on Sept. 19, 2024, at Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell. (Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight) One of the toughest jobs in the South Dakota Legislature has to belong to Republican Party whips. Four legislators in each chamber are tasked with keeping their fellow GOP lawmakers in line. They're supposed to ensure that the will of the majority leaders in both chambers is carried out by the party faithful. Whipping has to be a tough job in the Republican Party because there are so many members — 64 in the 70-member House and 32 in the 35-member Senate. It's also a tough job because the Republican Party has been suffering from some growing pains, casting aside seasoned, traditional members in favor of a new breed with a different set of goals. There are plenty of new Republican faces in the Legislature and they bring with them a new set of issues. They're keen on election integrity even though South Dakota elections are squeaky clean. They're big on property rights, with many of the new batch winning primaries against incumbents who had the bad luck to vote for the Landowner Bill of Rights. They have a penchant for wanting to mix religious symbols with public education. Like traditional Republicans, they like to stretch the limits of the Second Amendment, this time going to the point where college students can be armed on campus and then don't have to disarm themselves when they head to their favorite bar. Some South Dakota lawmakers want to subject ballot questions to a tyranny of the minority While criticizing absent Republicans, Democrats should look for their own candidates Full archive Keeping a watchful eye on the work of legislators is Jim Eschenbaum, the new chairman of South Dakota's Republican Party. A former Democrat, Eschenbaum earned his GOP bona fides by helping to recall the Landowner Bill of Rights and then defeating it at the ballot box. For those who pay attention to such things, the dust-ups between traditional Republicans and the new breed have been fun to watch. Eschenbaum seems intent on draining away that enjoyment. It looks like he wants what the Old Guard once had: everyone in the party voting in lockstep with leadership. If that's the case, Eschenbaum had to be less than happy with a recent South Dakota Searchlight story that told how Republicans and Democrats worked together to soften a bill that, in its original form, would have caused librarians to be led away in handcuffs if a child was somehow allowed to check out obscene material. The path that House Bill 1239 took through the Legislature doesn't reflect well on the Republican Party whips or party unity. The bill went through the House Education Committee on a 10-5 vote with four Republicans voting against the bill. In the full House, where a party-line vote would be 64-6, the bill passed 38-32 with 27 GOP members seeking its defeat. Over in the Senate, HB 1239 was endorsed 5-2 in the Senate Judiciary Committee with both no votes coming from Republicans. It was in the full Senate that the bill was amended to dispense with criminal penalties and instead require an appeals process for challenging materials in school and public libraries. That wasn't easy-going, either, as the 18-16 vote included 16 votes to amend coming from Republicans. The amended bill sailed through the Senate 32-2. Back in the House, the amended bill was accepted, but not without a fight. The vote was 36-34 with 31 Republicans voting in favor of the amendment. That kind of split in the party will be grounds for a primary challenge if Eschenbaum has his way. In an interview with South Dakota Searchlight, Eschenbaum said a Republican should be a constitutional conservative, voting to represent the South Dakota Constitution, the U.S. Constitution and the conservative values reflected in the party platform. To make sure lawmakers are toeing the party line, Eschenbaum has proposed a South Dakota GOP scorecard to keep track of how legislators vote. 'I don't know if the state central committee will decide to do it,' Eschenbaum said, 'but it would be based on those three principles, the two constitutions and the party platform.' Just as lawmakers who voted for the Landowner Bill of Rights were targeted in the last primary, it's not hard to imagine Eschenbaum's scorecard being used to drum up primary opponents for Republican lawmakers who insist on going their own way. 'Just because you're elected to office currently does not guarantee you're going to get reelected to office again,' Eschenbaum said. 'It just doesn't.' Some people may take heart when they see Republicans and Democrats working together in the Legislature so that librarians won't be led away in chains. Others may think it's refreshing when lawmakers have the courage to vote their conscience rather than toe the party line. It's obvious that the new chairman of the Republican Party doesn't see it that way. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Q&A: South Dakota's new Republican Party chair wants to weed out fake Republicans
South Dakota's new Republican Party chairman is a former Democrat, but he's been a Republican for nine years. Now he's concerned about 'Republicans In Name Only,' or RINOs, and wants to weed them out. 'RINOs are a real thing,' Jim Eschenbaum said. 'People say, 'Don't call us RINOs.' Well, If you're supporting abortion or gun control in any way, or any kind of sequestering of First Amendment rights, well, that does not align with conservative principles.' Eschenbaum is a 62-year-old Hand County commissioner and farmer. He was a registered Democrat for 32 years until he and his wife switched when Democrats nominated Hillary Clinton for president in 2016. 'We said we couldn't align with that one, so we were already planning to vote for Trump, and we both switched and became Republicans,' he said. Eschenbaum got more politically engaged while fighting Iowa-based Summit Carbon Solutions' proposed $9 billion carbon capture pipeline, which he calls a 'boondoggle.' The project would transport carbon dioxide emissions from dozens of ethanol plants in five states to an underground storage site in North Dakota, where the carbon could also be used to extract oil from old wells. For the carbon it sequesters underground, the project could qualify for billions in federal tax credits for removing heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere. The project's need for eminent domain has motivated staunch opposition in South Dakota. Eminent domain is a method of forcing landowners to provide access to their land, in exchange for compensation determined by a court. Members of a grassroots movement against the pipeline's use of eminent domain have had a big impact on South Dakota politics. They helped oust 14 state Republican lawmakers in last June's primary election; referred what pipeline critics considered a pro-pipeline law to the ballot in November, where voters rejected it; and helped pass a law earlier this year barring carbon pipeline companies from using eminent domain. Eschenbaum was a leading figure in the ballot referendum campaign. 'That did indeed gain me a lot of public exposure,' Eschenbaum said. 'I did public informational meetings all over the state before the general election.' Eschenbaum said the people he met along the way encouraged him to run for state Republican Party chairman. Some of those same people were becoming more active in the party themselves, and were shifting the party's power balance to members of the anti-pipeline movement. 'They said we need good, honest, outspoken leadership,' he said. 'I always tell people the truth is easy to speak. It's not tough to speak what you believe.' The state party elects a chair during the first meeting of its state central committee in each odd-numbered year. Voters include Republican county chairs, vice-chairs, state committee members and other designated officials. Eschenbaum was elected chairman in February and recently spoke with South Dakota Searchlight. The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity. It is, because of the state organization, the county organizations, the county precinct committeemen and committeewomen, and the elected Republican officials in the county who are part of that county central committee. It exists, most importantly, because of its party platform. That party platform is amended by the entire group of people, which would include precinct committeemen and committeewomen who go to the state convention. That platform shows what the South Dakota GOP stands for, and then I think our elected officials should be held to the task of promoting and voting along the lines of that platform. And so there is a purpose. I agree that people are funding candidates now instead of just throwing all the money to the state or state party. And I am perfectly OK with that. We don't need any more money thrown to the state GOP than what we need to operate. And we've already taken $77,000 out of the annual operating costs of the state GOP. Reggie Rhoden, Governor Rhoden's son, was executive director and he was being paid $5,400 a month. He resigned at the meeting on February 22, when we did the elections. And we have decided thus far that we don't need an executive director. Nobody knows that he was doing much. I think you should be a constitutional conservative. And what I mean by constitutional conservative is that you vote and represent Republicans based on the two constitutions: the South Dakota Constitution and the U.S. Constitution, which everyone raises their right hand and swears an oath to when they're sworn in. And then our party platform, which is conservative values. I have even proposed a South Dakota GOP scorecard. I don't know if the state central committee will decide to do it, but it would be based on just those three principles, the two constitutions and the party platform. Well, it's establishment power players and power to the people. The average Joes are realizing they have a voice. It comes from that 2024 primary. A lot of those candidates that got voted out, those incumbents that got voted out, had all kinds of money behind them from the ethanol plants and Summit Carbon Solutions. And the people got out and talked to people. This is what party politics should be. This is what government should be. The best thing I can do to bring them all together is be open and honest and communicative with them, and I've been doing that. I feel like the South Dakota GOP has been run by just a few power players, and they really didn't want a new voice or input. I've stated this so many times: They ask for our money and our vote, but they don't want our voice. They don't want us involved in the process, and that's just a terrible thought when you've got a state central committee that's composed of about 200 members and the bylaws. The bylaws make it clear to me that the chairman's job is to facilitate the operations and decision-making of the state central committee. The state central committee should have the power, not the chairman or any other executive director or anything. The state central committee's discussions and decision-making should guide the party. And that's what I ran on. I ran on a campaign of power to the people and being accessible to the people, and so far it's going good. Some of these counties that did not want me elected are starting to talk to me. There was quite a while there that they didn't like this farmer from Hand County getting in amongst the politicians. But I said our state motto for God's sake is 'Under God the People Rule,' and some of these politicians, they get elected to office, they get a fat head about what it is they want to do or who they want to benefit, or using government to do business, and that's not what government is intended to be. It's supposed to be a minimal service to the people, and it just keeps growing and growing and growing and getting more authoritarian and powerful, and that's not what our founders intended it to be, in my opinion. My wife and I were both raised in Catholic Democrat families. And what do young people do if they haven't really gotten themselves involved in politics in high school and started making decisions of which way they're going to go? You register the same as your parents were. Well, as abortion became a bigger topic, my wife and I both agreed we wouldn't support any Democrat that supported abortion. The Democratic Party that we aligned with was more of that JFK kind of a Democrat that worked for the working class and common people. The party got away from that. They just got further and further away from it. They just keep stepping to the left even more all the time and supporting all kinds of foolishness that the Republican Party does not support. I'm extremely involved as chairman — like I said, responsive to people. I'm trying to make every Lincoln Day Dinner [a fundraising event for county Republican parties] across the state that I can possibly get to. These are complaints that I heard about the previous chair or previous administration. You'd have a Lincoln Day Dinner, give plenty of notice for it, and they're like, 'No, very busy that day.' If you take a job like this, you have to commit the time that it takes to do it right. I don't know why that didn't happen previously. It could be speculated probably two or three different ways. I said when I took this job, 'I will not be a butt kisser to any politicians. I'm working for the people to elect good politicians.' Just because you're elected to office currently does not guarantee you're going to get reelected to office again. It just doesn't. This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: SD's new Republican Party chair wants to weed out fake Republicans
Yahoo
13-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Q&A: South Dakota's new Republican Party chairman wants to weed out fake Republicans
Jim Eschenbaum, representing the South Dakota Property Rights and Local Control Alliance, participates in an election forum on Sept. 19, 2024, at Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell. (Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight) South Dakota's new Republican Party chairman is a former Democrat, but he's been a Republican for nine years. Now he's concerned about 'Republicans In Name Only,' or RINOs, and wants to weed them out. 'RINOs are a real thing,' Jim Eschenbaum said. 'People say, 'Don't call us RINOs.' Well, If you're supporting abortion or gun control in any way, or any kind of sequestering of First Amendment rights, well, that does not align with conservative principles.' Eschenbaum is a 62-year-old Hand County commissioner and farmer. He was a registered Democrat for 32 years until he and his wife switched when Democrats nominated Hillary Clinton for president in 2016. 'We said we couldn't align with that one, so we were already planning to vote for Trump, and we both switched and became Republicans,' he said. Change is 'eminent': Property-rights fight transforms this year's SD Legislature Eschenbaum got more politically engaged while fighting Iowa-based Summit Carbon Solutions' proposed $9 billion carbon capture pipeline, which he calls a 'boondoggle.' The project would transport carbon dioxide emissions from dozens of ethanol plants in five states to an underground storage site in North Dakota, where the carbon could also be used to extract oil from old wells. For the carbon it sequesters underground, the project could qualify for billions in federal tax credits for removing heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere. The project's need for eminent domain has motivated staunch opposition in South Dakota. Eminent domain is a method of forcing landowners to provide access to their land, in exchange for compensation determined by a court. Members of a grassroots movement against the pipeline's use of eminent domain have had a big impact on South Dakota politics. They helped oust 14 state Republican lawmakers in last June's primary election; referred what pipeline critics considered a pro-pipeline law to the ballot in November, where voters rejected it; and helped pass a law earlier this year barring carbon pipeline companies from using eminent domain. Eschenbaum was a leading figure in the ballot referendum campaign. 'That did indeed gain me a lot of public exposure,' Eschenbaum said. 'I did public informational meetings all over the state before the general election.' Eschenbaum said the people he met along the way encouraged him to run for state Republican Party chairman. Some of those same people were becoming more active in the party themselves, and were shifting the party's power balance to members of the anti-pipeline movement. 'They said we need good, honest, outspoken leadership,' he said. 'I always tell people the truth is easy to speak. It's not tough to speak what you believe.' The state party elects a chair during the first meeting of its state central committee in each odd-numbered year. Voters include Republican county chairs, vice-chairs, state committee members and other designated officials. Eschenbaum was elected chairman in February and recently spoke with South Dakota Searchlight. The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity. It is, because of the state organization, the county organizations, the county precinct committeemen and committeewomen, and the elected Republican officials in the county who are part of that county central committee. CONTACT US It exists, most importantly, because of its party platform. That party platform is amended by the entire group of people, which would include precinct committeemen and committeewomen who go to the state convention. That platform shows what the South Dakota GOP stands for, and then I think our elected officials should be held to the task of promoting and voting along the lines of that platform. And so there is a purpose. I agree that people are funding candidates now instead of just throwing all the money to the state or state party. And I am perfectly OK with that. We don't need any more money thrown to the state GOP than what we need to operate. And we've already taken $77,000 out of the annual operating costs of the state GOP. Reggie Rhoden, Governor Rhoden's son, was executive director and he was being paid $5,400 a month. He resigned at the meeting on February 22, when we did the elections. And we have decided thus far that we don't need an executive director. Nobody knows that he was doing much. I think you should be a constitutional conservative. And what I mean by constitutional conservative is that you vote and represent Republicans based on the two constitutions: the South Dakota Constitution and the U.S. Constitution, which everyone raises their right hand and swears an oath to when they're sworn in. And then our party platform, which is conservative values. I have even proposed a South Dakota GOP scorecard. I don't know if the state central committee will decide to do it, but it would be based on just those three principles, the two constitutions and the party platform. Well, it's establishment power players and power to the people. The average Joes are realizing they have a voice. It comes from that 2024 primary. A lot of those candidates that got voted out, those incumbents that got voted out, had all kinds of money behind them from the ethanol plants and Summit Carbon Solutions. And the people got out and talked to people. This is what party politics should be. This is what government should be. The best thing I can do to bring them all together is be open and honest and communicative with them, and I've been doing that. I feel like the South Dakota GOP has been run by just a few power players, and they really didn't want a new voice or input. I've stated this so many times: They ask for our money and our vote, but they don't want our voice. They don't want us involved in the process, and that's just a terrible thought when you've got a state central committee that's composed of about 200 members and the bylaws. The bylaws make it clear to me that the chairman's job is to facilitate the operations and decision-making of the state central committee. The state central committee should have the power, not the chairman or any other executive director or anything. The state central committee's discussions and decision-making should guide the party. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX And that's what I ran on. I ran on a campaign of power to the people and being accessible to the people, and so far it's going good. Some of these counties that did not want me elected are starting to talk to me. There was quite a while there that they didn't like this farmer from Hand County getting in amongst the politicians. But I said our state motto for God's sake is 'Under God the People Rule,' and some of these politicians, they get elected to office, they get a fat head about what it is they want to do or who they want to benefit, or using government to do business, and that's not what government is intended to be. It's supposed to be a minimal service to the people, and it just keeps growing and growing and growing and getting more authoritarian and powerful, and that's not what our founders intended it to be, in my opinion. My wife and I were both raised in Catholic Democrat families. And what do young people do if they haven't really gotten themselves involved in politics in high school and started making decisions of which way they're going to go? You register the same as your parents were. Well, as abortion became a bigger topic, my wife and I both agreed we wouldn't support any Democrat that supported abortion. The Democratic Party that we aligned with was more of that JFK kind of a Democrat that worked for the working class and common people. The party got away from that. They just got further and further away from it. They just keep stepping to the left even more all the time and supporting all kinds of foolishness that the Republican Party does not support. I'm extremely involved as chairman — like I said, responsive to people. I'm trying to make every Lincoln Day Dinner [a fundraising event for county Republican parties] across the state that I can possibly get to. These are complaints that I heard about the previous chair or previous administration. You'd have a Lincoln Day Dinner, give plenty of notice for it, and they're like, 'No, very busy that day.' If you take a job like this, you have to commit the time that it takes to do it right. I don't know why that didn't happen previously. It could be speculated probably two or three different ways. I said when I took this job, 'I will not be a butt kisser to any politicians. I'm working for the people to elect good politicians.' Just because you're elected to office currently does not guarantee you're going to get reelected to office again. It just doesn't. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
SD Democrats announce town hall meetings as frustration grows, even among some Republicans
SIOUX FALLS — A lack of in-person town hall meetings by South Dakota's members of Congress has Democrats upset, and also some Republicans. The South Dakota Democratic Party announced on Monday that it will conduct public town halls in four South Dakota cities 'in the absence of South Dakota's Republican senators and congressman.' Afterward, state Republican Party Chairman Jim Eschenbaum told South Dakota Searchlight by phone that he's also heard complaints about the congressional delegation's accessibility. 'Even some Republicans have been saying that,' Eschenbaum said. Democrats held a press conference to announce their town halls, which will be led by Nikki Gronli, former state rural development director for the U.S. Department of Agriculture during the Biden administration. Julian Beaudion, a Sioux Falls businessman and former state trooper turned community activist, will also participate in the town halls. The press conference came two days after thousands of people took to the streets in Sioux Falls, and lesser crowds also gathered in other cities, to join in national protests against the Trump administration. Democrats at the Monday press conference alleged that the congressional delegation has been 'silent' and ignored calls and emails from constituents who are upset about the Trump administration's mass firings of federal employees, dismantling of federal departments and programs, freezes or cancellations of federal grants and spending, and tariffs. 'A chainsaw has been taken to the pocketbooks and retirement plans of hardworking South Dakotans, all while safety net programs are being dismantled,' Gronli said. Beaudion added, 'We are about putting the people first.' The announcement follows public criticisms of U.S. Senators John Thune and Mike Rounds, along with Rep. Dusty Johnson, who are all Republicans, for not holding in-person town halls. None of the three offices responded immediately Monday to South Dakota Searchlight's request for a response to those criticisms. Last month, media outlets including Politico reported that U.S. House Republican leaders advised their members to avoid in-person town hall meetings due to increasing confrontations with constituents over policies carried out by President Donald Trump and his Department of Government Efficiency, led by billionaire Elon Musk. The reports said House Speaker Mike Johnson and National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Richard Hudson recommended shifting to virtual formats like tele-town halls to mitigate disruptions from protesters. The South Dakota Democratic Party on Monday released the following schedule of public town hall meetings: Rapid City Monday, April 14 7-8 p.m. Mountain Dahl Arts Center Sioux Falls Tuesday, April 15 7-8 p.m. Central Hamre Hall at Augustana University Vermillion Thursday, April 24 7-8 p.m. Central Farber Hall at the University of South Dakota Aberdeen Monday, April 28 6:30-7:30 p.m. Central Aberdeen Public Library This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: South Dakota Democrats announce town hall meetings as frustration grows
