Political Smokeout

Daugaard to call legislative special session in June (updated)

Wed, 22 May 2013 16:45:00 -0500

Gov. Dennis Daugaard will call a special session of the South Dakota Legislature late next month to deal with a $10 million cost overrun in the construction of a new state veterans home in Hot Springs.

Lawmakers had appropriated $41 million in state and federal funds for the project earlier this year — but the lowest bid for the project was “considerable above projections,” Daugaard wrote in a Wednesday letter to legislators announcing the session. The total cost overrun was about 25 percent of the project’s initial budget.

The governor will be asking the Legislature to appropriate $14 to $20 million in surplus money from the current fiscal year to pay the extra veterans home costs instead of letting that money go into reserves.

“Needless to say, I am very disappointed with our architect,” Daugaard wrote to lawmakers. “My priority is to build a durable, quality facility for our veterans – they deserve nothing less. I do not believe that we can cut $10 million from our plans and still build the facility that we need.”

The revised budget for the 2013 fiscal year, which ends June 30, will have about $7 to $10 million in extra revenue and about $7 to $10 million in lower-than-normal expenses, according to new projections.

That’s the second year in a row the state budget has run millions of dollars in surplus, as Daugaard has encouraged legislators to be cautious about predicting new budget growth.

Rep. Bernie Hunhoff, D-Yankton and the Democratic leader in the state House, predicted the extra money would have broad support in both parties.

“I don’t think there’s anything political about it at all,” Hunhoff said. “We need to get this thing built.”

House Majority Leader David Lust, R-Rapid City, agreed.

“I don’t expect any controversy whatsoever,” Lust said. “When this first came through, the project and the funding, it was unanimous. I don’t expect this will change based on the increased costs.”

Hunhoff said the cost overrun was “disappointing” and that lawmakers would be sure to ask questions about where it came from and the source of the money, but predicted “broad support” in the end.

He also said Democrats would be unlikely to try to use the special session to raise other issues aside from the veterans home.

Lust said calling a special session will cost the state around $30,000. Daugaard tried to find ways to resolve the issue without calling a special session, Lust said, but ultimately had to call the Legislature back to Pierre.

The special session will be the second special session of Daugaard’s tenure as governor and the first not to be pre-planned. The Legislature convened in late 2011 to approve new legislative districts, a meeting added to its calendar long in advance.

In his letter, Daugaard predicted the special session would last a single day. He’s working with legislative leaders to pick a specific date in late June for the session.

ArgusPoliBlog: Thune's '04 campaign manager signing on with Rounds

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:02:47 -0500

ArgusPoliBlog: Thune's '04 campaign manager signing on with Rounds :

arguspoliblog:

The Mike Rounds for Senate campaign has announced that Dick Wadhams, John Thune’s campaign manger from 2004, has signed on with the Rounds campaign as a general consultant.

The hiring of Wadhams sends a strong message, which is that the Rounds campaign is prepared to get tough. Wadhams has a…

Next up for SD politics — Pat O'Brien?

Tue, 21 May 2013 23:44:42 -0500

The 2014 South Dakota Senate race has already been among the most fascinating in the nation, with a lot of national attention, machinations by multiple parties, hurt feelings and the potential for more to come.

Could it about to get a whole lot crazier?

In a throwaway moment on Adam Carolla’s podcast today, Sioux Falls native and longtime sports and entertainment broadcaster Pat O’Brien referred to an interest in entering politics.

“(University of South Dakota political science professor William Farber) always wanted me to run for office in South Dakota — which I still may do,” O’Brien said, referring to his mentor at USD.

O’Brien, the former host of “Access Hollywood” and a longtime sportscaster, has previously identified as a “McGovern Democrat” and flirted with returning to South Dakota to run for office before.

Eric Ostermeier of Smart Politics notes that in 2003 O’Brien spoke about possibly challenging Mike Rounds for South Dakota governor in 2006. Now Rounds could be the GOP Senate nominee in 2014.

Of course, O’Brien brings with him his share of baggage. He’s had a high-profile battle with alcoholism that climaxed with “sexually graphic” voicemails placed while drunk — a gift from heaven for an opposition researcher.

O’Brien has been very frank about his battle with alcoholism, discussing it not only in the Carolla interview but also in his autobiography and in a recent appearance at McCrossan Boys Ranch.

Of course, O’Brien didn’t actually single out the U.S. Senate race or 2014 in the Carolla interview. The 65-year-old could be pondering a different race (governor? House?) or a different year. And the entrance of someone like O’Brien into any of those races would certainly shake things up. But none of these races will be more prominent than the Senate race, so as a chronicler and observer I can only dream…

What happened with Noem's official Facebook page?

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:22:55 -0500

A commenter on “100 Eyes” today asked about Rep. Kristi Noem’s official Facebook page, which no longer exists.

Noem used to have two Facebook pages — one for her campaign, one for her official office. But now the old page — which used to be at http://www.facebook.com/RepKristiNoem, per this old tweet — is no longer up. Was it taken down?

A Noem aide emails that official page was in fact taken down, a few months ago. It “makes sense to only have one,” the aide wrote.

That one is here. Mystery solved.

Daschle on Weiland, Herseth Sandlin, and 2014

Tue, 21 May 2013 10:47:09 -0500

With Tom Daschle hitting the news again, I went back to my interview with him last week and dug up some of his more interesting quotes:

On Rick Weiland:

“Rick has become an extraordinarily experienced and very well-rounded candidate. He’s been successful in business, he’s been success in politics and government, he’s been successful as a father. He has enormous credibility, especially among many of us who have known him as long as we have. He’s paid his dues, he’s worked hard, he’s accomplished a lot.”

On how Rick got into the race:

“We talked about different roles in the administration. It was clear that he again wanted to be engaged in public service at some level. But he actually was the one who came to me and said he was thinking about another run for public office, and what did I think. I was very encouraging.”

On how he’ll be able to help Weiland’s campaign:

“I don’t even pretend to have the ability and reach that one would have in the Senate or House at this point. I want to be helpful, and certainly will do whatever I can to be helpful.”

On Rick’s chances in the 2014 Senate race:

“It helps in the Dakotas as a Democrat not to be running in a presidential year. I can attest to that.”

On what Democrats need to do to succeed in South Dakota:

“One, you have to have an important narrative. You have to be able to define your candidacy and what it means for typical South Dakotan.

“(Second,) you have to work enormously hard. Democrats have to work harder in states like South Dakota, just because we are in the minority and we have to persuade Republiccans and Independents.

“Third, you have to have a superior organization. It’s so critical to be well-organized, and that includes well-funded.”

On DSCC skepticism of Weiland:

“I’ve been involved in DSCC deliberations for many, many years. Not recently. I know what pressures they are under to make critical decisions about where they ought to put their resources and priorities. I’ve been involved in conversations with candidates around the country, oftentimes who simply had not yet persuaded us that they were qualified to receive the support. I think a candidate has to prove him or herself worthy of that support. I don’t blame the DSCC for wanting to see more evidence of a strong candidacy, and I have every expectation Rick will be able to do that.”

On Stephanie Herseth Sandlin:

“I have great admiration for Stephanie. I’m fortunate enough to have known her for a long, long time. I went to school with her father and have considered Stephanie a good friend for many years. We’ve had opportunities to work together for many, many years. I hope she will consider a candidacy again.”

On Herseth Sandlin’s vote against the Affordable Care Act:

“I feel very strongly about some of the issues on which (Herseth Sandlin and I) differ, but I also understand that everybody has to make up their own minds with regards to how they’re going to vote… We have to accept the fact that there are going to be differences from time to time.”

Politico: Weiland pick spurs Daschle-Reid 'feud'

Tue, 21 May 2013 09:12:58 -0500

Lone Democratic Senate candidate Rick Weiland is “not my choice,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told Politico, in a surprisingly blunt statement of national Democrats’ preference for Stephanie Herseth Sandlin.

Reid also dismissed Weiland, saying “we’re going to have a candidate there; we don’t have it yet.”

The Politico story adds Reid’s quotes and some anonymous sourcing to my report from Sunday looking into how Weiland got into the race, Tom Daschle’s role in that and the skepticism Weiland is facing as he tries to build up a Senate bid.

It also adds a juicy feud angle, talking to anonymous Democrats who say Reid is furious at Daschle for encouraging Weiland to run:

Daschle’s endorsement of Weiland helped persuade Herseth Sandlin to pass on the Senate race, according to Democratic sources close to the issue. Reid and top Senate Democrats were stunned and outraged by Daschle’s move, a sentiment Reid communicated directly to the former senator, according to several people familiar with the incident.

The first assertion there, that Weiland’s endorsement helped keep Herseth Sandlin out, is something I had heard rumored, too. People in both the Weiland camp and the Herseth Sandlin camp were skeptical when I asked them about it, with one Herseth Sandlin ally saying “If she felt the right thing to do was to run, she would have been 100 percent in there.”

That doesn’t necessarily mean the anonymous information I and Politico both heard is wrong; just take both conflicting reports into consideration.

Other revelations in the Politico report:

Daschle was defensive of his support for Weiland, noting their decades-long friendship and pointing out that Herseth Sandlin was never committed to the race, merely exploring it.
A national Democrat suggests the DSCC won’t mobilize resources for Weiland after his role in allegedly pushing Herseth Sandlin out of the race. “This is [Daschle’s] race,” the anonymous Democrat said. “If he wants to encourage someone to get in, if he wants to endorse someone to get in, he should be prepared to raise all the money necessary to support them.”
Reid is apparently taking Daschle’s endorsement as a personal slight between the two longtime colleagues; Daschle is downplaying it and says he’s still planning to host a DSCC fundraiser.
As rumored, the story confirms that Reid met with Tim Johnson and his wife Barbara to urge them to keep their son, U.S. Attorney Brendan Johnson, out of the race. (The Politico story also gets Barbara’s name wrong, referring to her as “Martha.”)

Read the full story here.

DemandAction.org, a campaign from the pro-gun-control group...

Mon, 20 May 2013 20:55:49 -0500

DemandAction.org, a campaign from the pro-gun-control group Mayors Against Illegal Guns, bought a local billboard to thank Sen. Tim Johnson for his vote in favor of expanded background checks.

Except, as KSFY astutely caught, they made a teensy little typo.

As a journalist, I’m actually sympathetic to the folks at Demand Action. Most reporters have at one time or another made the public/pubic typo. It’s easy to make and spellcheckers don’t catch it. Fortunately copy editors usually do. (But not always — I recall my college newspaper had an inadvertent “pubic” in a pullquote once.)

After KSFY “made calls”, the typo was corrected.

Vern Larson, making history

Mon, 20 May 2013 15:37:44 -0500

Newly appointed public lands commissioner Vern Larson had already made a mark as the longest-serving constitutional officer in state history, with 24 years as auditor and eight as treasurer after getting term limited.

Now he’s poised to enter the South Dakota political history books again this August when he replaces Jarrod Johnson at School and Public Lands.

He’ll be the first person ever to serve as three different South Daktoa constitutional officers in his lifetime.

According to Gov. Dennis Daugaard’s adviser Tony Venhuizen’s historical research, no one before Larson will have served as more than two constitutional officers — which are defined as the statewide elected offices created in the state constitution, or governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, auditor, treasurer and commissioner of school and public lands.

(It doesn’t include U.S. House, U.S. Senate, state legislators or the public utilities commission; the first two are federal offices, the third is not statewide and the fourth was created by statute.)

Larson won’t be the first person to serve in three different statewide offices. Four different men have done that, though all involved at least one federal office:

Bill Janklow (attorney general, governor, U.S. House)
Peter Norbeck (lieutenant governor, governor, U.S. Senate)
William McMaster (lieutenant governor, governor, U.S. Senate)
Coe Crawford (attorney general, governor, U.S. Senate)

Jim Abdnor comes close — he served as lieutenant governor, U.S. representative and U.S. senator, but he was a congressman at a time when South Dakota had two congressional districts and so only had two statewide positions.

Larson, who won’t seek a full term as public lands commissioner and says he’s not interested in running for office again, will only end up being appointed to his record-setting third position. But it’s still a fascinating coda to an already fascinating career.

Thanks to Tony for the research.

Daugaard taps Vern Larson for School & Public Lands (UPDATED)

Mon, 20 May 2013 14:14:00 -0500

Gov. Dennis Daugaard picked veteran government official Vern Larson to fill the remainder of Jarrod Johnson’s term as commissioner of School and Public Lands when Johnson resigns this August.

Larson, 64, has been elected to statewide office ~~seven~~ eight times, including ~~five~~ six terms as state auditor and two terms as state treasurer.

But Larson says he’ll just be a placeholder commissioner and won’t seek a full term in the 2014 election.

“I am not going to be a candidate,” Larson said. “There are already people that were expressing interest in the job. I don’t think it’s my place to run for the job in (a situation) like that.”

State Rep. Jim Bolin is the only announced candidate for the school and public lands position in 2014, though several other people are rumored to be interested.

Bolin said Daugaard “made an excellent choice” with Larson, whom he called “very competent. He also applauded the choice of someone who wouldn’t seek reelection.

“It’s the right move to pick someone who’s not going to run in the future, who wouldn’t use it as a springboard,” Bolin said.

Johnson previously announced he would resign late this summer to spend more time with his family.

Larson said it was “an easy decision” to accept Daugaard’s offer to be the commissioner of school and public lands, the third constitutional office Larson will have filled.

He said his experience as auditor and treasurer will help him hit the ground running when he takes over from Johnson. Historically there have been several attempts to combine the offices of Treasurer and School and Public Lands.

Quite the exchange on Twitter between Glodt, Nelson

Fri, 17 May 2013 20:04:00 -0500

The past two days, state Rep. Stace Nelson (a potential “conservative alternative” U.S. Senate candidate to former Gov. Mike Rounds) has had a fascinating debate on Twitter with Jason Glodt, a senior member of Rounds’ campaign team, about Rounds’ record.

I’ve compiled the exchange, which you can read after the jump:

Someone mailed tea bags to Johnson, Thune

Fri, 17 May 2013 19:53:00 -0500

There was some tumult in Aberdeen today, as the local offices of South Dakota’s congressional delegation all received suspicious packages.

Hazmat teams were called in as the buildings were evacuated.

Late this afternoon, word came that at least two of those suspicious packages contained not ricin or anthrax but tea bags — a harmless, if politically symbolic item.

Read the full story here. It’s unclear who sent the packages, and indeed if we’ll ever know — the investigation could stop here or continue.

Later that day: Noem, less coy on the Senate

Thu, 16 May 2013 16:11:00 -0500

This morning, Rep. Kristi Noem told reporters she hasn’t “spent a lot of time thinking about a timetable” for making a decision about running for Senate and would “deal with politics a little bit later.”

~~Apparently “a little bit later” meant “that afternoon.”~~

A few hours after her morning interview, Noem told The Hill that she is “watching the (Senate) race,” has “had some conversations with organizations” about a Senate run. She even gave a timetable:

“We haven’t made up our minds on what we’re going to do at all, and probably won’t for several months yet,” Noem said.

UPDATE: I’m told Noem’s comments to The Hill were actually made Wednesday, though the article was published today.

Read the new, more forthright comments from Noem here.

Rep. Kristi Noem still coy on Senate

Thu, 16 May 2013 11:29:27 -0500

Rep. Kristi Noem had some news to share.

“I also wanted to make an announcement about something new today I’m going to be doing,” Noem told reporters dialed in to her weekly conference call with the South Dakota media.

But the announcement was that she would be holding an ag-focused conference call with South Dakota citizens next week (at the ungodly hour of 6 a.m.).

The announcement a lot of people are waiting for Noem to make — whether she will run for U.S. Senate — will have to wait for another day.

“I’m still focused on doing the job I was elected to do,” Noem said when asked about the Senate. “With the farm bill going on right now I’m focused on that. So we’ll have to deal with politics a little bit later.”

That’s basically the same answer Noem has given for months to this question. It hasn’t changed despite some Noem advisers going further and confirming her interest in the race to the media.

$1M ticket or not, the lottery is still a fool's game

Thu, 16 May 2013 10:45:00 -0500

News broke this morning that a Sioux Falls store sold a metaphorically golden lottery ticket worth $1 million (minus taxes).

Whenever a local person wins the lottery, or when the PowerBall jackpot gets up into the stratosphere, a peculiar but predictable kind of mass mania tends to take over. People speculate longingly about what they would do if a million dollars or more dropped into their lap. Otherwise sensible and sober individuals go out and buy lottery tickets — sometimes a lot of them — driving the jackpot higher and higher in a feedback loop until someone, finally, cashes in on the big bucks.

This frenzy is no accident, of course. Lotteries are designed to excite our baser emotions, to fire up our greed until it overpowers our good sense.

That’s why it works. Buying a lottery tickets makes no sense if you make a decision based on good sense.

The math is pretty basic probability. The “expected value” of a gamble is based on the total jackpot times your chance of winning. So if you buy one of 10 raffle tickets, your odds of winning are one in ten. If the prize is $100, that’s your payout. The expected value of one raffle ticket is (1/10)*$100, or $10. If the ticket costs $10, then you’ll break even — imagine if you bought every single ticket, you’d spend $100, and win $100 back, for zero change.

But if each ticket cost $11, then the expected payout is below the cost of the ticket, and becomes a bad bet (so long as your chief goal is making money).

Lotteries, of course, like video lottery and casino games, are designed to have a negative payout. That’s how the governments running them make money — they’re not doing this as a charity. A few people will win big, and everyone else is out their money.

(Note: When the Powerball jackpot gets really large, the expected value can actually exceed the cost of the ticket — if you look at the pre-tax jackpot. Once you reduce the payout to account for taxes and the chances that you’ll split it with other people, the payout drops back to negative. It’s less stupid to buy a ticket for the big jackpots than it is for smaller jackpots. But it’s still stupid.)

That’s not even accounting for the fact that winning the lottery often ends up being a disaster for these “lucky” gamblers. A huge percentage of them end up going bankrupt, squandering their newfound largess. Of course, you’d be different. You’d break the trend.

There’s only one way buying a lottery ticket makes sense: if you don’t need the money and don’t care about winning. If you view the lottery ticket as a form of entertainment rather than a financial investment — $2 spent for the ephemeral pleasures of participating in Lottery Fever, $2 that you might as well have put toward an ice cream cone, a cup of coffee or a song on iTunes — then knock yourself out. Even I will sometimes get in on an office pool when the jackpot gets big. I can spare a couple bucks as the cost of entry into a social ritual with my coworkers. If I were broke, though, I’d pass.

Buying one lottery ticket will hardly hurt, of course. It’s the people who play the lottery every week who are flushing serious money down the drain over time.

Sadly, millions of Americans take part in this fool’s game every year. And many or most of them probably aren’t going into it with clear heads. Congrats to the winners — 28 coworkers from Beal Distributing, who look like they’ll get about $26,000 each after taxes — but they’re the anomaly, not the rule.

(And if this little social ritual were to pay off for me with a jackpot? I’d take my winnings as a yearly payout, not the lump sum. Less money up front means less pressure to squander it. The taxman takes a smaller percentage of my money. And even the lesser payout of the annuity would still be more than enough to resolve my financial pressures and let me pursue whatever dreams I desired, while still saving up plenty for later in life.)

Noem's not out of this yet

Wed, 15 May 2013 15:56:39 -0500

Rep. Kristi Noem has stayed quiet lately about the U.S. Senate race, with intrigue focusing on the Democratic side of things. But in the past week we’ve gotten two indications that the GOP congresswoman still could very well challenge Mike Rounds in a primary.

First came some anonymous quotes from The Hill last week, after Rick Weiland declared his candidacy but before Stephanie Herseth Sandlin opted out.

And Weiland’s entrance into the South Dakota race makes it more likely that Republicans will face a potentially bruising primary as well. Conservative Republicans are frustrated with Rounds’s record and have been looking for a challenger, though none has yet emerged.

But a source familiar with Rep. Kristi Noem’s (R) thinking said the news that Democrats may face a contested primary “will certainly pique” the Tea Party favorite’s interest in the race.

“This could potentially make our path to a run for Senate easier,” the source said.

The source added that Rounds’s paltry first-quarter fundraising haul — she raised about $184,000 — had also increased Noem’s interest in the race, and she’s expected to have a decision made on her potential run soon after Labor Day.

Just a few minutes ago, Roll Call published an on-the-record quote from Justin Brasell, a respected GOP consultant who worked for Sen. John Thune for many years and is now working with Noem:

Rep. Kristi Noem, who defeated Herseth Sandlin in 2010, is still “taking a serious look” at the race, her consultant Justin Brasell said.

“Taking a serious look” is a lot further than Noem has gone, with her carefully phrased refusal to rule out a candidacy and indication that she would revisit the issue this summer.

South Dakota may not see a heavyweight Democratic primary this cycle, but a clash of Republican titans could still materialize.

Rounds headed to Israel

Wed, 15 May 2013 13:19:34 -0500

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rounds will travel to Israel this month, his campaign confirmed today.

Stan Adelstein, a Jewish state senator and wealthy businessman who backed Rounds’ gubernatorial campaigns, wrote on his blog that Rounds will have an “intense six-day briefing” in Israel.

“He will have an in-depth confidential discussion with three Israeli generals concerning the military situation. In addition, he will be meeting with business leaders, press individuals, and members of both parties of the Israeli Knesset,” Adelstein wrote.

Rounds aide Jason Glodt didn’t have additional details about the trip, which is on Rounds’ initiative rather than part of a group journey. The former governor was traveling Wednesday and wasn’t immediately available to discuss the trip.

With his political experience being in the South Dakota statehouse, Rounds has minimal foreign policy experience. This trip will provide an international perspective as he runs for the U.S. Senate where he’ll be expected to weigh in on foreign affairs.

Support for Israel is also an increasingly important position among GOP primary voters.

Varilek appointed to Small Business Administration post

Tue, 14 May 2013 12:14:07 -0500

Matt Varilek, the Tim Johnson aide who ran for Congress in 2012, has been appointed to a post with the federal Small Business Administration.

Varilek will be the regional administration for SBA’s Region 8 — a six-state region including South Dakota. It’s one of 10 regions for the federal agency.

As a Johnson aide, Varilek focused on economic development.

He resigned from Johnson’s staff in late 2011 to challenge Rep. Kristi Noem for Congress, and handily won the Democratic primary against Minnehaha County Commissioner Jeff Barth. But Noem beat him handily, 57.5 percent to 42.5 percent.

Johnson announced Varilek’s appointment in a news release and praised his “private sector experience and strong roots in the region.”

Herseth Sandlin speaking now to Young Professionals

Tue, 14 May 2013 11:54:13 -0500

Fresh off her decision to not seek the U.S. Senate, Stephanie Herseth Sandlin is meeting over the lunch hour today with the Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce Young Professionals Network for one of their recurring “A Seat At The Table” events.

The events connect business leaders with members of the Young Professionals, and the description says Herseth Sandlin will be focused on sharing “her expertise on working in the private sector.”

The Chamber and Herseth Sandlin’s office at Raven declined my request to attend the luncheon.

YPN events are “typically not open to the media,” said Lesa Jarding, the YPN manager at the Chamber. “I did check with Stephanie’s office, and she’s okay with keeping it with YPN members only.”

Daugaard declares 'Al Neuharth Day'

Tue, 14 May 2013 11:34:11 -0500

Gov. Dennis Daugaard just declared Friday to be “Al Neuharth Day” in South Dakota, in honor of the Eureka native and USA Today founder.

Neuharth, 89, died April 19. The University of South Dakota is hosting a public tribute to Neuharth on Friday starting at 10 a.m.

“From Eureka to USD to USA Today, Al Neuharth was a great South Dakotan who revolutionized the media industry,” Daugaard said in a press release. “Even as he became one of the nation’s top media figures, he never forgot his roots, and was a generous supporter and frequent visitor to Eureka and to the university.”

On a more personal note, in high school a scholarship from Neuharth’s Freedom Forum to attend a week-long journalism seminar in D.C. was instrumental in persuading me to pursue journalism as a career. If it wasn’t for him maybe I’d be an attorney today. You can decide whether or not society is better off for this.

Letterman hits Thune over gun control

Tue, 14 May 2013 10:32:17 -0500

Late night comedian David Letterman has been running a segment criticizing the senators who voted against recent gun control legislation, each night naming a different one “Stooge of the Night.”

On Monday, it was Sen. John Thune’s turn to be the “Stooge.”

The sketches all seem to be the same general theme:

For “Stooge of the Night,” the senator’s official head shot and Twitter feed fills the screen for at least a full minute, an agonizingly long interval during which Letterman offers a few tame riffs (“[Iowa senator Chuck Grassley] enjoys ceramics, big band music, and his ‘A’ rating from the NRA”), but is also content to let the audience sit in awkward silence. (“Let’s just leave that up there a little longer,” Letterman says of the photo of Sen. Jim Inhofe’s rictus, as the audience titters nervously.)

That was the case with the Thune bit. I can’t figure out how to embed just the segment, but if you go to the whole episode page here and click just past the first commercial break, you’ll get to it.

Here’s a partial transcript:

LETTERMAN: South Dakota Sen. John Thuuuuuune, everybody. This man voted no on gun reform legislation despite the fact that 79 percent — 79 percent, more than three quarters of voters in his state — wanted background checks for gun buyers. Sen. Thuuuune said, ‘Eh, I don’t think so.’ Sen. Thune has an A+ rating for the NRA, which is given to those who are regularly seen in public wearing a coonskin cap.

…

Let’s really get to know him, leave him up there a little longer.

John Thuuune, ladies and gentleman. Once accidentally shot himself in the foot cleaning his teeth. What! Is that possible?

There he is. 79 percent said, no, we’d like background checks. Sen. John Thune said ‘Ohoho, it’s not gonna happen.’ Then he got on his tricycle and rode off.

We’re killing valuable network time at the senator’s expense now.

I am not sure where exactly that polling number about South Dakotans and background checks came from. I’ve seen national polling to that effect (though recent polls have shown a decline in support for gun control since the pre-vote polling showing huge majorities), but I hadn’t seen any South Dakota specific polling. I’m not sure if Letterman was referring to something in particular or if he was misconstruing a poll.