The rift between Senate leader Lee Schoenbeck and Gov. Kristi Noem grew wider in the past week after the two publicly criticized each other.
Noem on Wednesday accused Schoenbeck of lying about her desire to roll back the state’s sales tax on groceries, saying she came to him during the last legislative session asking for the cut.
“This is how Lee operates,” she said. “It’s unfortunate. He has not told the truth on a lot of subjects. He knows clearly that over a year ago I came to him and said I want to repeal the sales tax on groceries. He’s just been opposed to it the entire time and will use whatever tactic he has to try to stop me.”
The grocery tax repeal emerged as a key campaign issue for Noem as she sought re-election. During the last legislative session, Noem opposed an effort by House Republicans to lower the overall tax rate. When they made a last-ditch effort to change that to a grocery tax repeal, the Senate opposed the move
Schoenbeck, the Senate president pro tempore, has said that Noem opposed the grocery tax repeal during the last session.
The governor threw a sharp elbow at Schoenbeck following Schoenbeck’s appearance on The Dakota Scout’s podcast. During his appearance, Schoenbeck was asked to compare Noem with Govs. Bill Janklow, Mike Rounds and Dennis Daugaard. Schoenbeck was first elected to the Legislature in 1994.
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“She’s the weakest by a long shot, and I wouldn’t have said this two years ago,” he said.
Schoenbeck criticized her for focusing on national ambitions in Washington while ignoring South Dakota, saying it’s become a “theme” of her administration. In her absence, she has hired out-of-state staff who are inexperienced and out of their element.
He also accused her of supporting legislation to curry favor with national conservative media.
Kristi Noem: ‘The biggest chicken you ever saw’
“They shake their fist at her, and she runs like the biggest chicken you ever saw,” Schoenbeck said.
“If I had a wish for South Dakota and my friend Kristi Noem, it would be she go back to the governor she was in her first two years when she cared about South Dakota,” he said.
Noem said Wednesday that Schoenbeck has a history of making derogatory comments about people.
“That’s the thing with this guy,” she said. “He can be your biggest fan one day and the next day 180 degrees the opposite direction ripping your face off. If you guys could see the text messages he’s sent me over the years, I don’t know if the guy would ever get elected again.”
Schoenbeck told The Dakota Scout that he has no plans to run for re-election after his current term expires next year.
Besides criticizing Noem, he also criticized the vocal members of the Republican Party who constitute an active, vocal fringe, of whom there are 400. Among them are R. Shawn Tornow, a Sioux Falls attorney and former lawmaker who won the chairman’s race for the Minnehaha County Republican Party, and Rep. Tina Mullaly, a Rapid City lawmaker who Schoenbeck said “couldn’t pass gas” in the Legislature.
Schoenbeck specifically cited Noem’s veto of House Bill 1193, which sought to update the state’s Uniform Commercial Code to include language about “electronic money.” The veto was supported by Tornow and other “fringe” conservatives who are in “la la land,” Schoenbeck said.
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In an email to The Dakota Scout, Tornow accused Schoenbeck of being an “empty-sweatered” lawmaker who rubber stamps legislation that is “minimally reviewed.” The bill in question, he added, was prematurely drafted, and it would broaden bureaucratic, “Big Brother” oversight into the financial affairs of state residents.
“As such, it appears that weak-whining and childlike name-calling as well as additional government overreach have become, in form and effect, a legislative fetish of sorts for certain Watertown legislators,” Tornow said. “Ultimately, all Republican legislators need to get on board by supporting Gov. Noem in her reasonable and common-sense veto of such premature legislation like that sought to be rammed through in the final days of our legislative session under HB 1193.”
Mullaly did not return a message.