Commentary: Law and disorder: a troubling trend among South Dakota Republican lawmakers

In January, it looks like some legislators in the Republican Party may have to attend their caucus meetings via Zoom. There’s a chance they could be in court or jail.

Three Republican lawmakers have faced or are facing criminal charges since the last legislative session. We’ve all heard that government is corrupt, but it’s usually Republicans making that accusation. Now when they get together, the conversation isn’t about pending legislation but about who might know a good lawyer. 

It’s easy to write off one run-in with the law as a fluke and two as an anomaly. But three? That’s a trend. Legislative Republicans are developing quite a rogues’ gallery.

The first offender was Rep. Travis Ismay of Newell. He initially faced felony charges for damage to a road. He pleaded no contest to a similar misdemeanor charge and promised to pay for the damages. It turns out that grading a road isn’t as easy as it looks. 

Another South Dakota Republican lawmaker is facing a criminal charge

Ismay may have been upset about the results of the last legislative session. He was the prime sponsor on 11 bills, all of which failed, in one way or another, to become law. Maybe doing a little freelance road-grading was his way to work off his frustration. 

Next on the docket was Sen. Tom Pischke of Dell Rapids. He faces two felony counts of filing a false or forged instrument. He’s accused of signing and submitting nominating petitions for county party precinct positions without the candidates’ knowledge. Allegedly Pischke didn’t like the direction of precinct politics, hoping that clandestinely filling a bunch of precinct positions would make it too tough to have a quorum present when it was time for a meeting. 

As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Pischke should know better. It’s usually Republicans claiming that South Dakota’s perfectly safe elections need more protection from interference. It’s ironic that it’s a Republican who would allegedly try to stack the deck by submitting falsified nominating petitions. 

The latest defendant is Sen. Mark Lapka of Leola, who was cited for driving under the influence. If convicted of a first offense DUI, Lapka could face up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine. Lapka should know all about the value of a dollar; after all, he’s the vice chair of the Senate Committee on Appropriations.

It’s odd that there aren’t any miscreant Democrats out there getting into mischief. Maybe that’s just a numbers game. With only eight Democrats in a 105-member Legislature, it stands to reason that if someone in the Legislature is going to get arrested, the odds say there’s a much greater chance it will be a Republican. 

In the world of politics, it stands to reason that if Republicans are in trouble, it’s the Democrats who should benefit. Not in South Dakota. Ismay and Lapka ran unopposed. Pischke withdrew from the election in his district, where another Republican was appointed to replace him and won.

If the Democratic Party’s candidate recruiting efforts had been a little more robust, there may have been someone on the ballot to take advantage of these Republican woes. As it stands now, even if Ismay and Lapka feel shamed enough to resign from the Legislature, all Democrats can do is sit on the sidelines and watch while the governor appoints Republican replacements. 

The unsung heroes in all this are the law enforcement officers and prosecutors who didn’t look the other way when lawmakers were accused of being the ones breaking the law. There may be some perks that go with being a legislator, but it’s nice to know that a “get out of jail free card” isn’t one of them. 

The next time Republicans in the Legislature get all worked up about law and order, they should remember their colleagues facing charges. The next time they claim the need for greater election security, they should remember that the election apparatus worked just fine when one of their own allegedly tried to game the system.