Two Running For SD Senate

Incumbent Republican Michael Rohl of rural Brown County and Independent challenger Susan Wismer of Britton are vying for the District 1 Senate seat in the South Dakota Legislature in the general election on Tuesday, November 8. Two years ago, Rohl defeated Wismer for the seat.

District1includesMarshall, Day, and Roberts Counties and a portion of Brown County.

The Marshall County Journal sent a questionnaire to both candidates and their unedited responses follow.

For more information on the November 8 election and the questionnaire responses for the District 1 House candidates, check back in next week’s Journal.

Please describe your personal background (family, occupation, etc.): Michael Rohl: I was born and raised in Brown County. I grew up working in an entrepreneurial family. This gave me an amazing background in multiple industries starting at a young age. I obtained my Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in Accounting, Entrepreneurial Management, and Marketing from Drake University in 2013. I live in rural Brown County with my three dogs: Howard, Jack-Jack, and Teddy. I’ve spent the last six years running our family-owned businesses, and the last two years serving in the State Senate. I was appointed and served on the Midwest Council of State Governments Criminal Justice &PublicSafetyCommittee,the 2021 South Dakota Cannabis Legislative Taskforce, and the 2022 South Dakota Regional Jail Taskforce. I also serve on 2 of the top 3 most powerful committees in the state (Senate State Affairs and Senate Judiciary) which is usually reserved for Senate leadership and extremely rare for a freshman legislator. This has given our district a true voice in Pierre instead of just a vote. I recently won an award for being one of the top 20 bipartisan leaders under 40 in the United States, which was based on my record of standing up for my constituents and my ability to get them results by building strong bipartisan coalitions.

What would be your strongest attribute as a District 1 Senator?

My strongest attributes are my work ethic, education, and ability to build strong coalitions. I spend countless hours doing my homework and building strong relationships with other legislators. I know how to get tangible results in Pierre. I work on legislation to responsibly solve problems and enhance freedoms in our district. I also research the bills others introduce, and effectively lobbying my legislative colleagues to only support smart, well-crafted policy. I don’t: judge a bill by its title, trust special interests spin on a bill, or let lobbyist / other branches of government bully me. I judge a bill by its contents and the ramifications for our district. A legislator must be able to identify, solve, and convince most of their colleagues that their solution is the correct one. I’m able to do that at a high level, and you don’t have to take my word for it: my record proves I’m extremely effective. Most legislators introduce 2-3 bills in a session.

This year alone, as a freshman legislator, seven of my legislative bills were signed into law – all seven had the support of both Kristi Noem and Jamie Smith. I have the ability to bring people of different beliefs together, a skill we desperately need right now. My legislative colleagues on both sides of the isle know that I do my own homework and can’t be intimidated, which gives me great influence and trust (which is why I give us a stronger, more effective voice). Susan’s record shows she isn’t even able to build coalitions in Pierre within her own party to get something done, let alone coalitions with a super majority GOP legislature like we will have. I can, I do, and I promise to continue to be a bipartisan legislator that gets results for you by picking people over politics.

If re-elected, what would be your number one priority and how would you address it?

I’ve learned if you have a number one legislative priority, you’ll do a disservice to the other 549 topics that will be discussed. My number one overall priority is making sure our district has as much influence as possible on every bill that comes before us. I successfully accomplish that by having strong relationships with both GOP and Democrat legislators in Pierre. The biggest immediate problems we are facing is a workforce shortage and runaway inflation. It’s the largest problem across our state in almost every industry. Our education system is severely understaffed, skilled labor is in high demand, and small businesses are struggling to survive with the cost of inflation and the lack of workforce availability.

Problems this large aren’t solved by one bill and need to be attacked on multiple fronts with careful government intervention. We have already taken big steps to help start this process including: $200 million to partner with municipalities for physical housing infrastructure (water, gas, electrical, sewage), spending $50 million to create a $200 million needsbased education scholarship for SD kids that stay and work in South Dakota, $600 million for new water infrastructure (including WEB & BDM), and $60 million for water/sewer projects. I’ve also successfully passed SB 101 this year into law, which deregulated government to help our momand-pop gas stations, grocery stores, restaurants, and community centers hire the workers they need. I will continue to create, support, and deliver results for pro-education and pro-small business policies.

What would be your number two concern and what action do you think should be taken?

Property Tax Relief: The pressures of inflation are squeezing families to the point where we need to better our property tax system. Landowners shouldn’t carry the burden alone. I advocated for the summer study this summer to do just that, and we learned last week they have agreed on a plan for reducing owner occupied property taxes this coming session. In addition, there is also a strong consensus that if the voters pass IM27, we should be setting up a county-based tax on cannabis. This will directly help with school funding, law enforcement expenses, and county road funding, while also reducing the county’s reliance on constantly increasing your property taxes. I successfully organized the Senate’s defense of the voter approved medical cannabis program in 2021 and have since become the leading voice and influencer on cannabis policy in the Senate. If approved (again), I think it’s important to get this money to the actual counties of our state, and not the state coffers. I’m one of the few people in the state to have the political muscle necessary to get this done, and I will.

Meth and Mental Health: This is a passion project for me. I have seen too many times what meth and opioid addictions have done to people, families, and communities. It is a major problem in rural SD that is rarely addressed with meaningful legislation. I have worked these last two years to support emergency crisis centers, enhance dealer penalties, funding teen court options, and rehabilitation programs, but more needs to be done. I will continue to fiercely work on this problem. We need to get our friends, family, and neighbors out of the illegal markets where they are exposed to these life changing drugs. Users of these drugs are far more likely to commit other crimes to pay for their addiction. A frequent target of drug addicts is SD’s video lottery system because it is all cash based. I successfully passed legislation this year to revise our video lottery program that was written in the 1980’s with updated language to allow retailers to use modern technology to decrease their cash on hand, lowering the risk for robbery and the amount of money that could be taken into the illegal market, while improving our accounting processes on the state level. I will continue to work every angle I can to make our communities have less meth, addictive opioids, and untreated mental health conditions.

What do you think is District One’s biggest asset and how can it be used to our advantage?

Our people. I’ve briefly lived in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Colorado. I’ve been across our state, to almost every other state, and even multiple countries, and you don’t find real people like you do here. Our family values, community values, and work ethic far exceed that of our counterparts. It takes a village to raise our kids, and we have that village in NE SD. This is easily our greatest asset, as work ethic and character can overcome anything. We use this to our advantage every day in life and business. When we have bad luck, bad storms, or our frequent floods it’s your friends, family, and neighbors that are running to your rescue. We understand we are stronger and safer together. That doesn’t happen everywhere. In fact, many places can’t even understand it, and we don’t even think twice about it.

I would be remiss not to also mention our physical geographical assets and advantages. Having elite hunting, fishing, and farming soil isn’t something you find everywhere. We do a great job of taking advantage of these assets by having a booming agriculture and tourism industry in District 1. We need to continue to support better physical infrastructure for our industries and take seriously problems like aquatic invasive species (Zebra Mussels) while we can. We are also seeing a decline in population, which puts an even bigger emphasis on having a Senator that understands economic development and one that can actually rally other Senators to support bills that affect NE SD.

Please describe your personal background (family, occupation, etc.)

Susan Wismer: Background - I was raised on the Jones/ Penrhos farm south of Britton. My sister and I have run a tax and bookkeeping practice for over 30 years in Britton. My three children were blessed to grow up next to both sets of grandparents here. I am active at First Presbyterian Church at the local and state level, local Hospice group, and the Britton Development Corp. I was first elected to the House in 2008. I ran for Governor in 2014, and was elected to the Senate in 2018. I have served on Appropriations, Government and Audit Operations, Judiciary, Taxation, Redistricting, and Local Government committees during my time in Pierre.

What would be your strongest attribute as a District 1 Senator?

Strongest attribute as District 1 Senator- As the only Democrat in the legislative committee room, I am the only one who can speak truth to power without fear of backlash from GOP party bosses or the Governor. If I’m not in that room, the other side of the story on any particular issue isn’t told. In what has become dangerously close to a one-party system, it’s important that we in northeast South Dakota send a rural voice not bound to party bosses to Pierre.

My life is and always has been in District One, while my opponent lives nearly 60 miles from Britton and 120 miles from eastern parts of our district. His life is in Aberdeen, not District 1, and Aberdeen has its own legislators.

It’s not fun to talk about corruption, trust laws for the rich and powerful, small school funding shortfalls, meth/fentanyl poisoning our youth, our endangered nursing homes, or how rural electrics are unfairly losing territory, but it’s what’s important to my rural district.

Because of my presence in the State Senate, corruption was brought to light. Public education and healthcare, including addiction treatment services, and road funding were increased. My bill calling attention to dangerously neglected water dams across the state, resulted in the first special appropriation for maintenance in over 10 years. Those are accomplishments of which I’m extremely proud.

If elected, what would be your number one priority and how would you address it?

Respect for public education and health care funding will continue to be my top priorities. These are the major functions of government. Reducing education discussions to the made-up issue of “critical race theory” is petty and wrong. It is a betrayal of the stewardship responsibilities public servants have sworn to protect. I will call it out for what it is every day. Why did we have over 500 unfilled teacher openings in our schools this fall? THAT is the important issue on which the legislature should be spending time! The failure of South Dakota to accept billions of federal Medicaid money since 2012 to allow 42,000 working South Dakotans basic healthcare is a continuing disgrace for our state. It cripples that portion of the workforce with medical bad debt and untreated health issues that affect their ability to hold a job. I am an advocate of Amendment D, Medicaid expansion.

What is your number two concern and what action do you think should be taken?

The legislature is not conducting their business in open meetings, as they require all local governments to do. GOP legislators meet in closed caucus, where arms can be twisted, favors traded, threats made, and floor and committee action scripted. Does that seem hard to believe? Come out to Pierre during legislative session and see for yourself! That is no way to run a state; it needs to change. Every time Pierre brags about “this wellrun state” that “lives within its means” we are bragging about our closed nursing homes, our bumpy roads and dangerous bridges, our lack of addiction treatment services, our failure to offer competitive salaries for teachers, the difficult and dangerous working conditions in understaffed state institutions like Redfield, Yankton, Springfield, and community homes for the handicapped. The way to change that is to have MORE partisan balance, i.e. more Democrats, not less, in Pierre.

As a Democrat, I can speak against wasting precious legislative time with bills telling school boards which bathrooms their students may use, or telling doctors how to treat LGBTQ patients or provide reproductive healthcare. Life and our democracy are too precious to choose legislators who won’t deal with the major issues our state faces.

What do you think is District One’s biggest asset and how can it be used to our advantage?

Our small rural communities are our biggest assets: Our homegrown businesses and their employees and our farmers. Our communities have for the most part all of the essential services people need and want in a home town. That and our geography: lakes, hills, farmland, and wetlands, all make northeastern South Dakota uniquely productive and beautiful. Our people value stewardship of those resources: protecting land from erosion, clean lakes, well-educated children and future workforce, and eldercare close to home. Our ability to work together to make our communities even better is an asset not always recognized, but we are the better for it.

I have been honored by your support in the past, and hope I have earned your vote this November.