Hickey had been introducing reform bills every legislative session since he had been in the legislature. “I’ve been here five years and I’ve offered something every year, but it has never gone anywhere, but I know from polls that voters want to vote these guys off the island,” Hickey told me. At one point, payday-lending lobbyists told him they would be interested in working on legislation. They flew to South Dakota to prepare a 12-page bill. But when the bill reached the legislative committee, industry lobbyists opposed it. “They lobbied against the very bill that they wrote,” Hildenbrand told me, describing the industry as “full of bullies and lies and cheats.” Payday lending companies hired “the most powerful lobbyists walking the halls,” which “really instilled fears in the eyes of these legislators,” he said. “There’s been efforts for several years now, and you can’t even get a bill out of committee.”

The payday-lending industry tells the story a little differently. Jamie Fulmer, the Senior Vice President of Public Affairs at Advance America, which has 11 locations in South Dakota, said that while his company opposes the specific bill, “we had hoped to work for a compromise,” and that “our hope remains.” He specifically cited the bill’s stricter disclosure requirements and a “safety valve,” which offers an extended payment plan. If the proposal to cap payday lending at 36 percent passed, there is “no way any market-based lender would remain,” he said. Fulmer calculated that a 36 percent annualized rate offers lenders just $1.38 for every $100 they lend, before accounting for overhead.

With efforts at legislative reform stymied, Hildebrand and Hickey decided to take their case directly to the voters. Inspired by a similar effort in Montana, they launched a push for a ballot initiative to cap interest rates on payday loans. Shortly after they announced their plan, Republican State Senator Corey Brown put forward a bill that would double the number of signatures required to place an initiative on the ballot. Reynold F. Nesiba, the treasurer of South Dakotans for Responsible Lending, suspects that the move was an effort to keep the payday lending initiative off the ballot. “It might have been a coincidence,” he said, “but the timing sure looks suspicious.”

Other opposition was more theatrical. Chuck Brennan, a payday mogul based in Las Vegas, threatened to cancel a summer rock-and-roll festival he hosts in the state. (It was later cancelled anyway after Brennan failed to line up performers.) Cory Allen Heidelberger, the author of the Dakota Free Press political blog, suggested that Brennan had been less than sincere. “That threat was just pure propaganda,” said Heidelberger. “He was trying to turn his failure into political leverage. It was political theater.” Though Brown’s bill was eventually withdrawn, it may be the first salvo in a longer battle. “The industry is pretty profitable, and South Dakota’s a heck of a place to profit from it.” Heidelberger said. “You might see a fight here that you haven’t seen in other states.”