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full six-year term on the commission that regulates grain warehouses and natural gas, electric and telephone utilities. McGovern likely will face current PUC member Kristie Fiegen of Sioux Falls, a former state lawmaker.
• Democrats also nominated Nick Nemec, 53, a farmer from Holabird and former state lawmaker, to run for a four-year term on the commission. He likely will face PUC Chairman Chris Nelson, former secretary of state.
• Fiegen and Nelson both were appointed to the panel last year to fill vacancies. Both have declared their candidacies, though the Republican Party will nominate candidates for the commission at its state convention next week.
• McGovern told delegates that the current commissioners should have done more to protect farmers hurt by the collapse of Anderson Seeds Co. Inc., which owes farmers in North Dakota and South Dakota an estimated $4 million for sunflowers the farmers delivered to the company.
• "It's just a horrible scandal and an absolute failure of the PUC to protect farmers as they should," McGovern said.
• Nemec said the Anderson Seeds incident was one of the main reasons he decided to run for the commission, calling it an example of South Dakota's failure to properly regulate businesses.
• "This is a travesty," Nemec said.
• Nelson said the Democrats' criticism is unfair because the current three members of the commission -- all Republicans -- have done everything they legally could to protect the unpaid farmers.
• "For them to say we failed is an absolute falsehood because we complied with state law in every regard," Nelson said.
(Continued on page 18)
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