South Dakota’s At-Large U.S. House District
Noem vs. Herseth-Sandlin
“Baptism by fire” is the way to describe what happened to Kristi Arnold when she was 20. While Kristi was working on the family farm in Castlewood, S. D., her father Ron Arnold was killed while unloading a grain bend with 50,000 bushels. Along with experiencing the tragic loss of a parent she loved, Kristi had to quit college to help her mother, brothers and sister run the farm.
This all gave Kristi a full-blown education. The Arnolds expanded their farm and started a hunting lodge and restaurant, which Kristi managed.
These early “adult responsibilities” proved very helpful to Kristi after she married and, as Kristi Noem, managed an insurance business and a ranch with her husband. And they proved invaluable when she was elected to the state house of representatives in 2006 and became assistant Republican leader in ’08. As South Dakota faced a massive deficit, it was state Rep. Noem who helped lead the charge for cutting spending by trimming programs. In addition, the two-term lawmaker helped craft a measure that made property taxes more equitable and rolled back regulation that was discouraging wind-power developers from coming to South Dakota.
“And I’m still working on that bachelor’s degree!” said Noem, now a mother of three. But finishing her classroom education will have to be put off, since the 42-year-old Noem defeated two opponents in the Republican primary for South Dakota’s lone U.S. House seat and now faces Democratic Rep. Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin.
The grand-daughter of both a former governor and a former South Dakota secretary of state and the daughter of a long-time state senator who ran for governor in 1986, Herseth-Sandlin seemed destined to entered politics. Beaten for the House in 2002, she won the seat with ease when it became open two years later.
“She insists she’s a ‘Blue Dog Democrat’ and cites her vote against the Obama healthcare measure as proof,” the GOP hopeful notes dryly. “But when it looked like she was going to face a primary opponent who would make an issue of that vote, she announced she would not work to repeal the bill, and the Democrat who was going to oppose her, Dr. Kevin Weiland, announced he wasn’t running. “I’m fully committed to repealing ‘Obamacare,’ says Noem. My opponent has rendered herself ineffective on this issue in the next Congress.”
Blitzing the sprawling state in her SUV, Noem denounces the votes by Herseth Sandlin (lifetime American Conservative Union rating: 30.07%) for cap-and-trade climate legislation and for massive TARP funding (“the bailout slush fund” Noem calls it), and for “spending that has raised the national debt by 39% since she came to Congress.”
In the process, Kristi Noem offers a contrast not just in issue stands but in terms of life experience—and experience that has tempered her solidly.
(Kristi for Congress, P.O. Box 852, Sioux Falls, S. D. 57101; kristiforcongress.com)
Washington State’s 2nd U.S. House District
Koster vs. Larsen
There are always arguments over whether sequels to movies should be made. Whether any of the subsequent Star Wars or Batman films were really as good as the originals is hotly debated by cinema lovers.
In the case of the political drama now playing in Washington State’s 2nd District, there is no argument among conservatives on the need for a sequel to a saga of ten years ago.
When Republican Jack Metcalf, the grand old man of Evergreen State conservatism, honored his term-limit pledge and retired after three terms, his friend, State Rep. John Koster, sought the open House seat. Running as an unabashed conservative on cultural and economic issues, dairy farmer Koster faced his polar opposite in liberal Democrat Rick Larsen, Snohomish County councilman. With Al Gore sweeping the district, Larsen edged Koster by a narrow 51% to 49%.
Larsen (lifetime American Conservative Union rating: 12.89%) went on to vote the opposite of how Metcalf voted and Koster would have voted. In an ironic turnaround, Koster won the vacancy on the county council created by Larsen’s election to Congress. To the surprise of no one, Koster emerged as the council’s leading fiscal hawk, opposing all tax increases.
And this year, the two old foes are in a rematch of their 2000 contest.
“But what’s different,” explained the 58-year-old Koster, “is that in 2000, we had a $236 billion budget surplus. Now we have a national debt of $13 trillion and counting. My opponent’s record in Congress has a lot to do with the condition of the country now—and that’s something I’m close to weeping about.”
In offering his own agenda of cutting taxes and a healthcare plan composed of tort reform and other market-based elements, Koster pastes Larsen with “the Democrats’ healthcare plan, cap and trade, and opposing the defunding of ACORN.” Today, as he did ten years ago, Koster trumpets a cause near and dear to him: repeal of the estate tax once and for all.
“I never forgot my mother dying and my father forced to borrow money to pay the estate taxes,” he recalled. “And then our being forced to do it all over again when he died. I know first-hand how unjust that tax is and—I swear this in memory of my parents—I’ll see that the death tax is repealed before I leave Congress.”
Strong language, all right, and one of the most highly charged of any House races this year. With the right support, John Koster will turn the tables after ten years and star in a sequel that has a happy ending for conservatives.
(Koster for Congress, P.O. Box 231, Arlington, Wash. 98223; 360-926-2235; kosterforcongress.com)
North Carolina’s 2nd U.S. House District
Ellmers vs. Etheridge
Months before what many in North Carolina’s 2nd District call “The Incident” in June of this year regarding Rep. Bobby Etheridge, nurse and political newcomer Renee Ellmers committed herself to unseating the seven-term Democratic congressman.
“I decided that defeating him was the only thing that was going to keep me from yelling at the TV when Fox News had its latest report from Washington,” said the 46-year-old Ellmers, wife of a surgeon and a mother. So the woman whose sole political activity consisted of writing checks to candidates decided to become one herself and won the Republican nomination to oppose Etheridge.
Driving herself to any group that would listen to her, the fledgling candidate hit hard at Etheridge’s very liberal record (lifetime American Conservative Union rating: 8%). Then, in June, “The Incident” occurred: the congressman was approached on a sidewalk in Washington by three young men who said they were students working on a project. When they asked Etheridge if he “fully supported the Obama agenda,” he suddenly grabbed one of them by the wrist and neck and asked repeatedly who the young men were. After the young man he was holding kept yelling at Etheridge to let him go, the 69-year-old congressman released him—all as the incident, like so much that is embarrassing these days, was filmed by a videocamera.
Etheridge, of course, apologized. But in the process, he became an overnight Youtube sensation—albeit not a he role sought—and opponent Ellmers was suddenly on the political map. In 24 hours, more than $60,000 in small donations came her way, some from as far away as California.
“But the message was all the same,” she recalled. “The incident exposed the arrogance of power. My opponent says he’s conservative at home yet he votes the far-left line in Washington—and that means supporting cap and trade, card check, and 97% of the time siding with Nancy Pelosi!”
These days, many of groups in the ten-county district are asking Renee Ehlers to speak. As one who has spent her adult life in the health field, she speaks with authority when vowing to “dismantle, defund, and repeal” the healthcare plan Etheridge voted for and replace it with a measure that would include tort reform and the ability to purchase health insurance across state lines.
“With all the critical things Congress will have to deal with,” she says, “the sooner I get there, the better.” For conservatives, that says it all about the need to elect Renee Ehlers.
(Renee for Congress, P. O. Box 904, Dunn, N.C. 28335; reneeforcongress.com)
