Some very familiar faces haven’t been seen during this election season in South Dakota.
Gov. Mike Rounds has virtually disappeared. Apparently Rounds didn’t want to overshadow his lieutenant governor, Republican gubernatorial candidate Dennis Daugaard, and didn’t want to provide ammunition for Democratic candidate Scott Heidepriem, who has hammered the “Rounds-Daugaard administration” for what he claims is mismanagement of the state budget.
Rounds isn’t running for anything but it’s unclear if he is done as a political candidate.
Two men who have ended their elective careers, former senators George McGovern and Tom Daschle, haven’t been seen endorsing Heidepriem or Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin. McGovern has the energy to leap out of airplanes but isn’t being asked to make speeches for Democrats in the atate.
Daschle no longer lives in the state and wasn’t registered to vote here as of this summer. Both men did provide recorded messages for Heidepriem, however.
Herseth Sandlin, running for Congress in a year when incumbents are in danger, has continued to disassociate herself from her party. Appearing with liberal icons like McGovern and Daschle isn’t part of the plan, although she did salute McGovern during the Corn Palace debate, as did her Republican challenger, Kristi Noem.
Sen. Tim Johnson made a campaign appearance with Herseth Sandlin in Aberdeen, I was told by her staff. But he has not been at her side, holding her hand in the air, this fall in an effort to lend support.
Noem, meanwhile, has campaigned with Sen. John Thune, who has served as her warm-up speaker at rallies around the state. On Monday, Noem, Thune and Daugaard all appeared at a big GOP rally in the Black Hills.