Re: [A-List] RE: Janklow guilty on ALL charges!!!

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

MessageThis anodyne reportage is no doubt typical -- it's a tragedy all
right: a great political career has been ended.

-----

In South Dakota, Parties Focus on Filling Empty Seat
By MONICA DAVEY
New York Times: December 10, 2003

FLANDREAU, S.D., Dec. 9 - The political machinery of South Dakota, which had
seemed to sit frozen since a fatal traffic accident in August, started up
again on Tuesday, the day after Representative Bill Janklow was convicted of
manslaughter in the crash and announced that he would resign.

By Tuesday morning, party leaders were preparing to compete for Mr.
Janklow's seat in a special election set for June 1, with Democrats hoping
to secure the state's three legislative spots in Washington and Republicans
racing to find a candidate who might match Mr. Janklow's clout and
authority.

Voters, meanwhile, began considering the future of the state's leadership
without the man some had viewed, as one voter put it, as the king of South
Dakota. The departure of Mr. Janklow, the state's sole representative in the
House, will leave South Dakota without a vote in that body for more than
four months, until the special election can be held.

"It's hard to believe he is gone," said Bill Millman, 78, as he waited for
lunch in a coffee shop here in Mr. Janklow's hometown.

Mr. Janklow, 64, has said he will officially resign from the House on Jan.
20, the day he is to be sentenced here for second-degree manslaughter,
reckless driving, failure to obey a stop sign and speeding in the Aug. 16
crash that left a motorcyclist dead. But reached at his home on Tuesday
afternoon, Mr. Janklow made it clear that he was already stepping away from
his prominent role in South Dakota.

"I'm on my way to private life," he said. "My public life is over."

In Washington, an aide who answered the phone at Mr. Janklow's office said
that the seven employees there were unsure what would become of them and the
five workers in Mr. Janklow's offices in Sioux Falls, Aberdeen and Rapid
City.

For the Republican Party - which Mr. Janklow led over 30 years as attorney
general, governor and finally representative - his resignation came, in a
way, as a relief. Since the accident, even as Mr. Janklow's popularity fell
in polls, many party leaders in South Dakota had remained silent about Mr.
Janklow and whether he should seek re-election next November.

"Any day and any minute now, you were going to start to see some party
leaders trying to tackle this difficult issue," said David Kranz, the
longtime political writer and columnist for The Argus Leader newspaper of
Sioux Falls. "Congressman Janklow spared them the difficult task of trying
to move him in one direction or the other on this."

Though Mr. Janklow was probably the best-known Republican in the state,
leaders said on Tuesday that the party would survive his departure. "The
party is ready to rally," said Jason A. Glodt, executive director of the
state party. "We've got incredible candidates. A new star will emerge."

The pressure on Republicans to retain Mr. Janklow's seat is high because the
state's senators, Tom Daschle and Tim Johnson, are Democrats.

Among a half-dozen people discussed on Tuesday as possible replacements for
Mr. Janklow, John Thune, the former representative, is mentioned most often.
Mr. Thune, however, has also been courted as a possible opponent to Mr.
Daschle, who is up for re-election next fall.

On Tuesday, Mr. Thune made no public statements about the situation, except
to extend his sympathies to the families of Randy Scott, the motorcyclist
killed in the wreck, and Mr. Janklow, said Ryan Nelson, Mr. Thune's former
political director.

By Tuesday, the state parties had already begun planning meetings of their
central committees, which will pick nominees for the special election. The
winner will fill Mr. Janklow's seat at least until the regular election in
November.

The Democrats already had a favorite to seek Mr. Janklow's job. Stephanie
Herseth, who lost to Mr. Janklow in 2002, recently announced plans to run
for the seat again.

Still, some voters in Flandreau suggested, Ms. Herseth may have had an
easier race against Mr. Janklow, given his troubles, than against a
candidate like Mr. Thune.

Jason Schulte, executive director of the state's Democratic Party, dismissed
that notion, saying, "What the other party decides to do or not do is not so
much of a concern for us."

This town of about 2,600 grew quiet again on Tuesday, the chaos of a
high-profile trial gone and a thick layer of snow having covered the place
overnight. The abrupt end to Mr. Janklow's career was still settling in,
though. At the pharmacy, a clerk turned teary and red-faced when asked about
it.

In the coffee shop, Mr. Millman was mulling all that had happened. "He did a
lot for this state, but he's lucky he didn't kill a whole family," he said.
He said he had voted for Mr. Janklow many times over the years, but, he
added quietly, he would not have done so again.