South Dakota: Noem Victory Tabbed Top Story

By Dirk Lammers, Associated Press

SIOUX FALLS — Republican Kristi Noem’s November defeat of Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin was voted the year’s top South Dakota story by the state’s Associated Press member newspaper editors and broadcast news.

A year earlier, Noem was a little-known state lawmaker and Herseth Sandlin was considered a safe bet to win re-election. But Herseth Sandlin got caught up in a wave of frustration with Washington to become the first South Dakota House member to lose a re-election bid in nearly three decades.

The 2010 runner-up in the AP’s survey is the state’s widespread spring flooding, which resulted in a presidential disaster declaration with millions of dollars in damage to roads, culverts, bridges and other public infrastructure.

Grabbing the No. 3 spot is voters’ overwhelming passage of an expanded statewide smoking ban restricting residents from lighting up in bars, video lottery establishments and Deadwood casinos. Lawmakers had passed the law in 2009 but opponents gathered enough signatures on a petition to force the November ballot initiative.

Rounding out the Top 10 are:

— Gov. Mike Rounds proposes a state budget that would cut state aid to schools by 5 percent.

— Republican Lt. Gov. Dennis Daugaard defeats Democratic Sen. Scott Heidepriem to become South Dakota’s next governor.

— Ethan Johns avoids a possible death sentence by pleading guilty to killing shooting Turner County Deputy Sheriff Chad Mechels to death in March 2009.

— Sen. John Thune says he is considering running for president.

— The Legislature balances the state budget with a combination of spending cuts and one-time transfers from various accounts.

— Voters reject a measure that would have allowed marijuana for medical use.

— A South Dakota jury convicts John Graham of felony murder during the kidnapping of Annie Mae Aquash, whose death came to symbolize AIM and its often violent struggles with federal agents during the 1970s.


 

Read more at Kristi Noem for Congress