After a successful "smoke out" procedure for HJR 5001 (Convention of States), senators bowed to political games and failed to "calendar" a floor debate on the resolution.
Senator David Johnson of Rapid City, threatened to hijack the senate floor with theatre if his fellow senators voted in favor of moving HJR 5001 to the final stage of consideration. Despite the resolution already being adopted by the full House of Representatives, and having a packed room of South Dakotans at the senate committee last week demanding adoption, the senate punted on even discussing the issue in open debate.
Johnson's actions follow the actions of Senate Pro Tem - Lee Schoenbeck's attempt at killing the resolution last week in committee. Senator Schoenbeck has been very clear on his stance on the idea of joining the Convention of States effort. His actions in committee led to the "smoke out" of the resolution which then faced an additional hurdle of a "calendaring vote". That vote failed, and the senate decided a debate was not worthy of floor time on HJR 5001.
The vote was 16-19 "nay". Here is how everyone voted:
Here is how the South Dakota House voted earlier in the session:
WE ARE NOT DONE!
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Here is the Legislative Scorecard for all current legislators
More:
Senator Schoenbeck insults you for supporting Convention of States:
Here is Mark Levin's response to Lee Schoenbeck:
Former U.S. Senator, Rick Santorum in Pierre:
Listen to Rep. Mills from the debate from the house debate:
