From left: South Dakota state legislators Sen. Tom Pischke, Dell Rapids (District 25), Rep. Jessica Bahmuller, Alexandria (District 19), and Rep. James D (“J.D.”) Wangsness, Miller (District 23), attended the Convention of States Simulation in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, on July 31–Aug. 4, 2023.
Trio of S.D. Lawmakers Attend the 2nd COS Simulation
The trio of South Dakota state lawmakers who attended a Convention of States simulation this summer were impressed with how organized an actual amending convention might be.
Sen. Tom Pischke, R-Dell Rapids, Rep. James Wangsness, R-Miller and Rep. Jessica Bahmuller, R-Alexandria, traveled to Colonial Williamsburg for the event July 31–Aug. 4, 2023, as delegates from South Dakota.
All three state lawmakers have been supporters of Article V for some time, though this is the first time the three delegates got to see how an Article V Amending Convention would actually work in real time.
The convention itself had three committees where all of the nation’s delegates were assigned, and these were the Fiscal Restraints, Term Limits and Jurisdiction committees.
For Sen.Pischke, though he’s supported Article V his entire legislative career since being elected in 2016, the actual event itself was an eye opener. Pischke served on the Fiscal Restraints Committee.
“I’ll just say that before I went to it, I was always a proponent of Convention of States. I’ve studied it over the last seven years, and I’ve fallen on the [side of the] fence that says that it’s a good thing,”
Sen. Pischke said. “We’ve never had one called, and so there was some doubt in going into this simulation. But, actually, once we actually had this simulation, the intelligence level and the quality of the delegates from each of the states was amazing. It was a good overall impression.”
When asked if it was actually orderly, Pischke responded “Yeah, it felt very orderly. I know that some of the fears is that there’ll be this craziness and runaway convention if we have this, but that wasn’t the experience at all. Everyone knew what we were accomplishing, what we were voting on. Mind you, we only had a couple of days, and a real one would be longer (would take weeks), and there’d be plenty of vigorous debate on the amendments we have at hand.”
For Rep. Wangsness, going was the culmination of his support over the years since first elected to the S.D. House in 2020.
“I was really excited to go and participate in this event, to be able to learn more about the process, and how it works,” he said. “You know, generally the opposition says, ‘Oh, it’s going to be a ‘runaway’ convention,’ and this and that. Well, that’s their main argument against it. And I don’t see that happening. You know, even if the delegates showed up, and came up with just the most ridiculous amendments, they’d still have to be ratified by the states.”
Far from being disorderly, Rep. Wangsness said, an amending convention has the potential to restore order. “The direction where our country is going right now, you want to talk about something going out of control, it’s our federal government. And that’s certainly how I will speak to the Convention of States and stuff like that,” he said.
In terms of what he learned, Rep. Wangsness said “In terms of what I learned from the Convention, it’s not going to be easy. So we get 34 states to sign on, the states that don’t sign on, they’re not going to stay absent; they’ll send delegates. And it’s not going to be easy to pass amendments.”
He added, “What struck me with this go around is, you have a lot of like-minded people there, and they still couldn’t agree on stuff. And I was really happy to see people there tamping it down and saying ‘Hey, let’s do something that’s logical, that makes sense, that’s passable,’ and that kind of stuff, not this really wild idea stuff.”
Rep. Wangsness served on the Jurisdiction Committee, which dealt with a broad array of topics, such as the Commerce Clause, and narrowing that back down to just deal with trade, and also returning federal lands to the states, which he said was quite daunting as to how to go about it.
“That one can get to be pretty sticky,” Wangsness said, “when you start talking about tribes, state and federal parks, etc.” He added “I think most people can agree that states and private can manage our forests and stuff much better than the federal government but it’s, it’s a tricky one.”
Rep. Wangsness summed it up: “It was really fun, you know, to get the viewpoints from all over the country, really.”
For Rep. Bahmuller, a freshman legislator from District 19, the COS Simulation was incredible. “It truly was an amazing experience. A speaker that was an actor (Patrick Henry) and did a simulation. Also George Washington came in. Both of them gave their speeches word for word,” she said. “And Patrick Henry, with no notes, spoke for an hour-and-a-half, and I felt like I was in the 1770s. I was honored to represent my state! I was just in awe!”
Until a year and a half ago, Bahmuller said, she didn’t know much about Article V, even though she’d been politically active since she was in sixth grade. She learned about Convention of States at a reception during her campaign.
Rep. Bahmuller served on the Term Limits Committee, which was a major focus of the Convention Simulation and the most hotly debated one at the event.
As to the amendment process and the oft-cited “runaway convention” charge: “I wish it could’ve been a little bit longer so we could have gotten more amendments passed. We worked extremely hard there to get things passed. When we finally get a Convention of States, and we don’t have as many like-minded bunch of people, you’re NOT going to have a “runaway” Convention of States, that’d be my biggest takeaway. That’s what I kept thinking.
We debated for hours and hours. We went into committee at 9AM, with a working lunch, and supposed to be done by 5, and, well, we weren’t done by 5, and so we didn’t pass our amendment!”
Rep. Bahmuller had great things to say about Convention of States Action and the organizers: “The people who put it on did a phenomenal job. Every detail was to a ‘T.’ We, right off the bat, we elected a President. And then we just went and voted right away! And the people in charge just said you guys (legislators) run it.”
Summing it up, Rep. Bahmuller said: “I felt truly honored to be there and just to know that there is a solution out there! There is an option out there!”
Click HERE to watch video of the last day of the simulation. HOME | COS Simulation 2023
