Jim Eschenbaum, representing the South Dakota Property Rights and Local Control Alliance, participates in an election forum on Sept. 19, 2024, at Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell. (Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight)
One of the toughest jobs in the South Dakota Legislature has to belong to Republican Party whips. Four legislators in each chamber are tasked with keeping their fellow GOP lawmakers in line. They’re supposed to ensure that the will of the majority leaders in both chambers is carried out by the party faithful.
Whipping has to be a tough job in the Republican Party because there are so many members — 64 in the 70-member House and 32 in the 35-member Senate. It’s also a tough job because the Republican Party has been suffering from some growing pains, casting aside seasoned, traditional members in favor of a new breed with a different set of goals.
There are plenty of new Republican faces in the Legislature and they bring with them a new set of issues. They’re keen on election integrity even though South Dakota elections are squeaky clean. They’re big on property rights, with many of the new batch winning primaries against incumbents who had the bad luck to vote for the Landowner Bill of Rights. They have a penchant for wanting to mix religious symbols with public education. Like traditional Republicans, they like to stretch the limits of the Second Amendment, this time going to the point where college students can be armed on campus and then don’t have to disarm themselves when they head to their favorite bar.
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Keeping a watchful eye on the work of legislators is Jim Eschenbaum, the new chairman of South Dakota’s Republican Party. A former Democrat, Eschenbaum earned his GOP bona fides by helping to recall the Landowner Bill of Rights and then defeating it at the ballot box.
For those who pay attention to such things, the dust-ups between traditional Republicans and the new breed have been fun to watch. Eschenbaum seems intent on draining away that enjoyment. It looks like he wants what the Old Guard once had: everyone in the party voting in lockstep with leadership.
If that’s the case, Eschenbaum had to be less than happy with a recent South Dakota Searchlight story that told how Republicans and Democrats worked together to soften a bill that, in its original form, would have caused librarians to be led away in handcuffs if a child was somehow allowed to check out obscene material.
The path that House Bill 1239 took through the Legislature doesn’t reflect well on the Republican Party whips or party unity. The bill went through the House Education Committee on a 10-5 vote with four Republicans voting against the bill. In the full House, where a party-line vote would be 64-6, the bill passed 38-32 with 27 GOP members seeking its defeat.
Over in the Senate, HB 1239 was endorsed 5-2 in the Senate Judiciary Committee with both no votes coming from Republicans. It was in the full Senate that the bill was amended to dispense with criminal penalties and instead require an appeals process for challenging materials in school and public libraries. That wasn’t easy-going, either, as the 18-16 vote included 16 votes to amend coming from Republicans. The amended bill sailed through the Senate 32-2.
Back in the House, the amended bill was accepted, but not without a fight. The vote was 36-34 with 31 Republicans voting in favor of the amendment. That kind of split in the party will be grounds for a primary challenge if Eschenbaum has his way.
In an interview with South Dakota Searchlight, Eschenbaum said a Republican should be a constitutional conservative, voting to represent the South Dakota Constitution, the U.S. Constitution and the conservative values reflected in the party platform.
To make sure lawmakers are toeing the party line, Eschenbaum has proposed a South Dakota GOP scorecard to keep track of how legislators vote. “I don’t know if the state central committee will decide to do it,” Eschenbaum said, “but it would be based on those three principles, the two constitutions and the party platform.”
Just as lawmakers who voted for the Landowner Bill of Rights were targeted in the last primary, it’s not hard to imagine Eschenbaum’s scorecard being used to drum up primary opponents for Republican lawmakers who insist on going their own way. “Just because you’re elected to office currently does not guarantee you’re going to get reelected to office again,” Eschenbaum said. “It just doesn’t.”
Some people may take heart when they see Republicans and Democrats working together in the Legislature so that librarians won’t be led away in chains. Others may think it’s refreshing when lawmakers have the courage to vote their conscience rather than toe the party line. It’s obvious that the new chairman of the Republican Party doesn’t see it that way.
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