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the last being in 1978 when Lt. Gov. Harvey Wollman replaced fellow Democrat Dick Kneip, who resigned to become U.S. ambassador to?Singapore. Wollman's term ended Jan. 1, 1979 when he was succeeded by Republican Bill Janklow and since then it has been one Republican after another.
• South Dakota has sent a number of Democrats to Washington over the past several decades but when it comes to state government, Republicans generally rule the roost. All current elected statewide office holders are Republicans and so are significant majorities in both houses of the Legislature. The Democrats have lost their grip on Washington, too, as Republicans hold two of our state's three congressional seats.
• The obvious question is why Republicans have been able to not only keep and hold their grip on political power in South Dakota, but expand it over the years while

Democrats have fallen farther off the pace. Is it the message Democrats are sending that isn't working??Is it a lack of money or organization? Or is it simply that South Dakotans, for whatever reason, feel more comfortable with Republicans calling the shots in Pierre and see no reason for a change? Those are questions, quite frankly, we don't have answers to.
• The result, however, is South Dakota has for years been a state dominated by one party and at present there does not appear to be any

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