Rural verse Urban

David Kranz does a puff piece on Stephanie Herseth in today’s Argus Leader. Herseth does make a good point:

"What I have found is that, for the most part, these issues aren't partisan. They're regional," Herseth said Friday in her first report to the Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce's regular Inside Washington program since taking office June 2.

"While the divisions between Democrats and Republicans dominate the press, the more relevant divisions are between rural states like South Dakota and urban areas like New York City and Los Angeles."

Given the battle between rural verse urban, should South Dakota pick the farmer from South Dakota or the carpet bagging east-coast lawyer?

As we have found out with Tim Johnson and Tom Daschle, sometimes the conservative rural interests are compromised in exchange for the pork. As a Democrat Herseth will be asked to change her conservative vote if she wants continued Democrat support of South Dakota funding. The advantage that Diedrich (and also John Thune) have is they can continue to vote conservative on social issues without the Republicans threatening to remove support for South Dakota funding.

The people of South Dakota should realize that Dasche’s trying to have it both ways is not good for South Dakota. If we want a conservative to represent South Dakota, we should be sending a person whose party will allow them to be conservative.