No Clear Favorite In S.D. Senate Race

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AllPolitics, Nov. 4) -- Larry Pressler is ending the election season just where he started, as the most vulnerable Republican senator seeking re- election. Despite having spent upwards of $4 million on the campaign so far, his own poll numbers show him below the 50 percent mark against his top-shelf Democratic challenger, Rep. Tim Johnson.

Their race could end up even closer than Pressler's 1990 contest, which he won with 52 percent of the vote. Pressler and Johnson have been swapping leads in their own polls all year.

The two candidates have also been swapping charges. Pressler says that Johnson is too liberal for the state, while Johnson contends that Pressler is beholden to the out-of-state interests that have fattened his campaign coffers.

Seeking a fourth term, Pressler is noting his seniority; his close ties to his longtime Senate colleague, Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole; and, most emphatically, the power he yields as the chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

Yet the massive changes in telecommunications law that he shepherded through the Senate since becoming chairman last year have proved to be a mixed blessing politically for Pressler.

Political action committees related to industries affected by the legislation have been generous donors to his campaign, and Pressler assures South Dakota voters that, over the long run, the bill will lower prices and provide jobs. But both telephone and cable television rates have gone up in South Dakota this year, leading Pressler to pull an ad stating that phone rates were going down.

Despite this apparently negative short-term effect, Pressler said that Johnson's votes against the "telecom" bill, along with his opposition to the GOP's seven-year balanced-budget plan and changes in farm policy, prove Johnson votes differently than his moderate rhetoric suggests.

"You say one thing in South Dakota and vote liberal all the time in Washington," intones an announcer in a Pressler TV ad. In another ad, which Pressler calls "the essence of my campaign," the senator himself calls Johnson a liberal.

Johnson counters that Pressler's vote for the deficit- reducing budget-reconciliation package was a blow against the interests of farmers and seniors, two groups that helped fuel Pressler's victories in the past. Johnson also warns that farmers will be more vulnerable in years of poor yield under the new farm law. The so-called Freedom to Farm law has received mixed reviews from major agriculture groups in the state.

University of South Dakota political scientist Alan Clem said that Johnson's "instincts are liberal, but he has worked away from that, has had enough votes that he can claim that he is fiscally responsible."

Johnson's cautious demeanor and advocacy for the state in the House may be enough, coupled with his support for targeted tax cuts and the GOP-crafted welfare overhaul bill, to undermine Pressler's portrayal of him as too liberal for the North Dakota voters' tastes. And Johnson's margins of victories in his statewide races as South Dakota's only House member have recently been higher than those achieved by Pressler in his Senate races.

Pressler also has his hands full with image problems stemming from his portrayal in the national press. TIME magazine recently described Pressler as "occasionally clueless." And Alexander Cockburn, co-author of the gossipy book "Washington Babylon," caused a stir Sept. 19 when he came to Sioux Falls to personally denounce Pressler, leading Pressler to air ads complaining about "character assassination."

Newspapers and TV news reports have separately raised questions about Pressler's use of campaign funds for meals and travel.

Congressional Quarterly contributed to this report.

No Clear Favorite In S.D. Senate Race

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