A secretive pledge is dividing S.D. Republicans and keeping politics behind closed doors

Dana Ferguson | Argus Leader

South Dakota Republicans are looking to solidify a long-unspoken rule: what happens in daily caucus meetings stays there.

And, naturally, they're not sharing details about it.

Republican leaders last month invited prospective GOP lawmakers to join House of Representatives and Senate Republican majority caucuses. But unlike in prior years, leaders asked them to sign an agreement to keep meetings confidential, disavow other factions and respect one another.

Those who violated the terms wouldn't be allowed into daily GOP caucus meetings, the letter says.

READ: Here's the pledge GOP leaders asked lawmakers and candidates to sign

Now, a week after the deadline to join, legislative leaders refused to release information about who signed the agreements.

“That’s private information. I’m not going to be releasing that," House Majority Leader Lee Qualm, R-Platte, said. “That was the decision that I made that it would be confidential, that we were not going to put it out to anybody."

And frustrated by a lack of answers, the pair of rebellious Republicans who inspired Republican leaders to pen the more formal caucus decorum rules said they'd push back.

After taunts, leaders draw the line

The effort to set more formal terms for joining the daily caucus meetings came after Rep. Liz May and Sen. Stace Nelson announced they'd form a separate, so-called "Conservative Republican" caucus.

In Pierre, lawmakers traditionally meet with members of their political party each day before House and Senate floor sessions. Republicans, who hold the supermajority in the Statehouse, keep the meetings closed to the public.

In these secretive meetings, lawmakers discuss legislation set to come up for a vote, and hear arguments for and against bills.

And when Republican leaders learned that May and Nelson, who'd referred to them publicly as "RINOs" — Republicans in name only — were planning to break off, they hatched a plan to make them choose.

Republican House and Senate majority leaders penned letters to dozens of lawmakers and legislative candidates inviting them to caucus with the Republican Majority if elected.

"We consider the House and Senate Republican Majority Caucuses to be a family of Republicans working together to ensure that conservative Republican principles are protected and preserved in South Dakota," Qualm said at the time. "We also believe that members of caucuses, whether a majority or a minority caucus, should be committed and dedicated to their caucus."

And the invite came with a set of terms.

It asked that members treat other members with respect, keep what's said in the meetings confidential and disavow other caucuses, including May and Nelson's group.

If they signed and returned the letters, legislative hopefuls would be welcome to caucus with the Republicans as long as they followed the rules. If they refused or violated the terms, they'd be subject to expulsion.

For many, the request was an easy one to sign.

But for a handful, including the pair that inspired the agreement, it posed a real problem.

Are you in or out?

Seven Republicans told the Argus Leader that they'd refused to sign the agreement.

Of those, five said they had serious concerns about the letter constituting a loyalty pledge or what could be perceived as a bribe. The other two said they wanted to wait either until they learned more about it or until they were elected before opting to sign.

“I believe the substance of the letter could be considered a bribe and a violation of my oath of office,” Rep. Julie Frye-Mueller, R-Rapid City, said. "That letter never should’ve been sent, and I think that leadership should rescind it."

It's unclear how many Republican lawmakers and candidates signed on to the terms as leaders refused to say how many signed letters or didn't respond to requests for that information.

More: Constitution Party candidate accuses Republicans of sabotaging party

That raised concerns among skeptics, who questioned whether caucus leaders should take their posts if they refused to prove they signed their own agreements.

"If this is allowed to stand, and they’re allowed to put the teeth in it that they want, you’ll see more of a closed South Dakota Legislature than you've ever seen before," Nelson, a Fulton Republican, said. "What they’re asking is unethical, and I believe it is illegal so I’m opposed to the whole thing."

Gubernatorial hopeful and U.S. Rep. Kristi Noem said that if elected she wouldn't tell lawmakers what to do, but she had concerns about the agreement.

“I would hope that we wouldn’t have to do things like this,” Noem told members of the South Dakota Newspaper Association this week. “I’m grateful that we never had this situation when I was in the Legislature."

Her running mate, Rep. Larry Rhoden, R-Union Center, told board members that the memo was aimed at laying out a set of expectations for lawmakers, not requiring them to do anything. Descriptions to the contrary were mischaracterizations, he said.

But for some who got the letter, the expectations descriptor didn't fit.

"The expectation is you're going to be expelled if you don't sign," May, a Kyle Republican, said. “That pledge is just too much for me. I can’t do it."

'I think this is ridiculous'

What happens next will have a lot to do with who is elected in November and how Republican leaders decide to implement the memo.

The letter said those who failed to sign and submit the memo would fall under Republican leaders' consideration for membership.

But some have said the Republican Party Platform and Robert's Rules of Order guarantee their right to join caucus meetings, whether or not they agree to its rules.

“I think this is ridiculous," Sen. Phil Jensen, R-Rapid City, said. “As a registered Republican, I have every right to attend a meeting."

More: Democrats again nominate candidates at do-over convention in Sioux Falls

It's not immediately clear whether the move to ask prospective legislators to agree to the caucus rules will affect business as usual in the Capitol.

At present, one GOP Senate candidate has a surefire path to his seat as he is running unopposed. Former Rep. Lee Schoenbeck, who is set to take District 5's Senate seat, declined to say whether he'd signed the memo.

May said she'd refused to sign the letter because she had concerns about the agreement inhibiting her ability to work with her constituents.

She maintained that assuming she won and the Republicans maintained their majority in November, she would be part of the Majority Party caucus meetings.

“It is my caucus and I will attend," May said. “I’m going to caucus.”

Follow Dana Ferguson on Twitter @bydanaferguson, call 605-370-2493 or email dferguson@argusleader.com.

If you cannot see the memo below, read the full transcript here.