South Dakota
New list rates the most bipartisan members of Congress—and the least • South Dakota Searchlight
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WASHINGTON — Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins and Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick were the most bipartisan members of Congress last year, according to a newly released analysis from the Lugar Center and the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University.
The least bipartisan House lawmaker was Ohio Republican Jim Jordan, while Alabama’s Katie Britt, a Republican freshman, placed last among senators.
No member of South Dakota’s all-Republican, three-member congressional delegation ranked in the top 10 of either chamber, but all three were in the top half of the rankings. Sen. Mike Rounds ranked 20th in the 100-member Senate, and Sen. John Thune ranked 42nd. Rep. Dusty Johnson ranked 106th in the 435-member House.
The latest ranking of the most bipartisan lawmakers comes amid one of the least productive Congresses in the nation’s history and just months before nearly all House lawmakers and about one-third of the Senate face voters at the polls in November.
Maria Cancian, dean of the McCourt School of Public Policy, wrote in a statement announcing the new rankings that “while there is much room for improvement, I am encouraged to see some progress on cross-party collaboration.”
“In these deeply divided times, and with an increasing amount of misleading information online, we need tools like the Bipartisan Index more than ever — an evidence-based and nonpartisan approach for measuring how well policymakers work across the aisle to get things done,” Cancian wrote.
Lugar Center Policy Director Dan Diller wrote that it was “especially disheartening that all eight new Senators who took office in January 2023 ranked in the bottom 30 percent of Senate scores.”
“Bipartisan cooperation on legislation in 2023 was deficient by historical standards, though there were some marginal improvements in scores from the previous Congress,” Diller wrote.
The website with the rankings states that the “Bipartisan Index is intended to fill a hole in the information available to the public about the performance of Members of Congress.”
The Lugar Center, founded by the late U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, a Republican from Indiana, “is a platform for informed debate and analysis of global issues, including nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction, global food security, foreign assistance effectiveness and global development, energy security, and enhancing bipartisan governance,” according to its website.
The rankings take into consideration “the frequency with which a member of Congress sponsors bills that are co-sponsored by at least one member of the opposing party” and “the frequency with which a member co-sponsors bills introduced by members of the opposite Party.”
Who is the most bipartisan?
The top 10 senators were:
- Collins
- Michigan Democrat Gary Peters
- New Hampshire Democrat Maggie Hassan
- West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin
- Texas Republican John Cornyn
- Nevada Democrat Jacky Rosen
- Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski
- Kansas Republican Jerry Moran
- Indiana Republican Todd Young
- Montana Democrat Jon Tester
The top 10 House lawmakers were:
- Fitzpatrick
- New York Republican Marcus Molinaro
- New Hampshire Democrat Chris Pappas
- New York Republican Mike Lawler
- North Carolina Democrat Don Davis
- Puerto Rico Republican Delegate Jenniffer González-Colón
- Nevada Democrat Susie Lee
- Nebraska Republican Don Bacon
- New Jersey Democrat Josh Gottheimer
- Iowa Republican Zach Nunn
The Lugar Center and the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University wrote on their website that their “aim in publishing this Index is not to promote a specific legislative agenda, as is the case for many indexes, but solely the promotion of a bipartisan approach to governance.”
“The credibility of the Index is derived from the objectivity of its methodology; Index scores are computed formulaically from publically available data,” it states. “The Index requires no subjective assessment of specific legislative items.”
The least bipartisan House lawmakers following Jordan were New York Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Missouri Democrat Cori Bush, New York Democrat Jamaal Bowman and Missouri Republican Eric Burlison.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, ranked 423, but will likely be excluded from future scores since he has now occupied one of the top two leadership posts for at least six months.
The least bipartisan senators following Britt were Missouri Republican Eric Schmitt, Washington state Democrat Patty Murray, Wisconsin Republican Ron Johnson and Arkansas Republican Tom Cotton.
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South Dakota
South Dakota State clinches Summit League title
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KANSAS CITY — South Dakota State clinched yet another women’s Summit League basketball title on Saturday, as the Jackrabbits’ 80-60 win over Kansas City upped their conference record to 14-0 on the season (24-3 overall) and out of reach of the rest of the league’s members.
It was the 61st consecutive win in Summit League regular season play for SDSU, and clinched them the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament.
It’s the Jacks’ fifth consecutive regular season league title and 11th since 2008.
The win over the Kangaroos followed a somewhat familiar pattern, as SDSU struggled to gain separation early but pulled away late for a comfortable victory.
UMKC outscored the Jacks 21-16 in the second quarter to go into the half down just three to SDSU at 39-36, but the Jacks stretched the lead to nine by the end of the third and then pulled away in the fourth.
Brooklyn Meyer had a monster game for SDSU, scoring a career-high 34 points in her first game after getting held to four in last weekend’s win over USD. The junior post was 13-of-16 from the floor and 8-of-14 at the line to do her offensive damage.
Haleigh Timmer had 16 points, hitting four of her team’s six 3-pointers, while Paige Meyer had 11 points, seven assists and five rebounds. The Jacks had assists on 22 of their 30 made field goals and committed just six turnovers. Paige Meyer moved into fifth place all-time in school history in assists, including No. 1 all-time in the Division I era.
Alanya Contreras had 24 points for UMKC (11-18, 7-7), while Emani Bennett added 14.
The Jacks wrap up the regular season at home, hosting Denver on Thursday and St. Thomas on Saturday.
Matt Zimmer is a Sioux Falls native and longtime sports writer. He graduated from Washington High School where he played football, legion baseball and developed his lifelong love of the Minnesota Twins and Vikings. After graduating from St. Cloud State University, he returned to Sioux Falls, and began a long career in amateur baseball and sports reporting. Email Matt at mzimmer@siouxfallslive.com.
South Dakota
Obituary for Mary Langner at Miller Funeral Home & On-Site Crematory
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