[philled]

South Dakota seems to prefer Republicans for POTUS and its governor (I can't remember the last Dem governor and I don't believe McGovern carried his home state in '72). If you look at the 2004 election map of the state it is basically all red with the (generalized) exceptions being college towns and Indian reservations.

The congressional and senators seem to be a bit more fluid- but Daschle and Johnson are very familiar faces. The state's agricultural history seems to allow some traction for Dems to both produce and bring home pork. I believe Johnson will face re-election in 2008 and will (likely) face a formidable challenger in Governor Mike Rounds. Johnson narrowly defeated John Thune (524 votes) to keep his seat. Of course, Thune went on to defeat Daschle two years later. Barring the fatal traffic accident that he was responsible for, Bill Janklow (R) would undoubtedly be the state's rep instead of Stephanie Herseth (D).

I could just be missing it (I try to avoid the main daily) but there just doesn't seem to be much info put out on Johnson. As far as appointing a replacement- I don't know disabled he actually is and it would be bad form for Governor Rounds to pick a replacement and then (likely) run for the seat himself a year later.

[John Jorsett]

I could just be missing it (I try to avoid the main daily) but there just doesn't seem to be much info put out on Johnson. As far as appointing a replacement- I don't know disabled he actually is and it would be bad form for Governor Rounds to pick a replacement and then (likely) run for the seat himself a year later.

Assuming that Johnson vacated the seat or, God forbid, died, what choice would Rounds have other than to appoint a successor? Is there any mechanism he could defer to in order to avoid accusations of choosing his opponent?