(Continued from page 18)

• State Democratic Party Chairman Ben Nesselhuf said Jindal is ignoring the fact that the economic crisis began under Obama's predecessor, former President George W. Bush. The U.S was losing hundreds of thousands of jobs per month toward the end of the Bush presidency, but employment has grown in the past two years under Obama, Nesselhuf said.
• "The idea that Gov. Jindal is pitching is to go back to policies we know don't work," Nesselhuf said.
• Nesselhuf said Jindal was wrong to praise Daugaard for seeking merit pay for teachers when the South Dakota governor instead should be trying to raise general state financial aid to school districts to offset cuts made a year ago.
• Jindal's speech echoed themes Rep. Kristi Noem, South Dakota's lone U.S. House member, talked about in a speech to the convention earlier Friday.

• The South Dakota Democratic Party has said Noem attended just four of 20 Agricultural Committee meetings since being appointed to the committee a year ago. But Noem told convention delegates that South Dakota Democrats are falsely accusing her of missing too many House committee hearings as a tactic to avoid talking about federal spending and other issues.
• Noem said she has answered criticism that she failed to show up at House Agriculture Committee, so Democrats are now complaining that she hasn't talked much at committee meetings.
• "There is enough talk in Washington, D.C. What we need is more action," Noem said in a brief speech to the convention. "I didn't run for office to give speeches. I ran to get things done, and I have."
• Noem said she has succeeded in her first term in blocking federal agencies from regulating dust on farms and preventing young people from doing most jobs on farms. She said she also has led the effort to get federal agencies to do more to fight the mountain pine beetles that are killing trees in the Black Hills.
• Democratic House candidate Matt Varilek, a former aide to Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson, repeated his criticism Friday that Noem has failed to show up to most Agriculture Committee meetings.
• "I'm running because I think South Dakota deserves a leader who stands up for middle-class people, defends and strengthens traditional Medicare and aggressively and energetically advocates for South Dakota's interests in Congress, including in committees," Varilek said.
• Varilek said Noem has voted to privatize Medicare and cut taxes for the highest earners. Varilek has said he would keep most of the tax cuts passed a decade ago,

(Continued on page 20)