The Black Hills Pioneer from Spearfish, South Dakota • A6

315 Seaton Circle, SD 57783 7 South Main, Lead, SD 57754 Phone 605-642-2761 Fax 605-642-9060 E-mail: PUBLISHER, Letitia Lister MANAGING EDITOR, Mark Watson AD MANAGER Dru Thomas PRODUCTION MANAGER, Scott Lister CIRCULATION DIRECTOR, Deena Piekkola ACCOUNTING, Ardith Richards SPEARFISH, BELLE FOURCHE, WHITEWOOD NEWS: 315 Seaton Circle, PO Box 7, SD 57783 Toll Free 1-800-676-2761 or 605-642-2761 Fax 605-642-9060 Hours: 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday-Friday Closed Saturday, Sunday national holidays LEAD-DEADWOOD NEWS: 7 South Main, PO Box 876, Lead, SD 57754 Phone 605-584-2303 Fax 605-584-2333 Hours: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday Closed Saturday, Sunday national holidays SUBSCRIPTIONS: Rates as low as $10 a month Call for rates in your area Mail rates Quarterly $40.50 Opinion Pg 6 Saturday, November 19, 2016 The Black Hills Pioneer is the newspaper of Central City, City of Deadwood, City of Lead, Lead-Deadwood School District, City of School District, Lawrence County, St.

Onge, Whitewood, and the legal newspaper for publication of notices. COPYRIGHT 2016, Black Hills Pioneer. All rights reserved. Nothing may be reprinted, photocopied, or in any way reproduced from this publication, in whole or in part, without written permission from the publisher. "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and H.L.

Mencken My most recent one-to-one conversation with Hillary Clinton took place in October 1991, and I've been laughing at myself ever since. It was an epochal day in Arkansas life. Only that morning, the Arkansas Gazette the oldest newspaper west of the Mississippi, and one of the best had ceased publication. Many friends had lost their livelihoods. We ran into the Clintons at a barbecue outside War Memorial Stadium before the last Arkansas-Texas football game in the Southwest Conference.

For Razorback fans, i.e. almost everybody, that too was unsettling. Hating Texas on game day was an indispensable part of being an Arkansan. Would anything be the same again? Days before, Gov. Clinton had announced his presidential candidacy and set off on a ludicrous "listening tour" of the state seeking voters' permission.

He'd promised to serve out his term, but President Bush no longer looked invulnerable. Calculations had changed. Breaking the GOP hold on the South could change everything. Diane had been an aide to our host, former governor and then-Sen. David Pryor a loyal Democrat, but no Clintonite.

An Arkansas patriot, she gave the big lug a hug and said, "Go for it!" I turned to Hillary, and, just to be a smart aleck, asked, "Have y'all lost your minds? You'll never have a private life again." See, in my sexist way, I'd simply assumed that the woman was the saner of the two Clintons, and was in thrall to Bill's mad ambition. That's certainly true at our house. I was writing a book, but had never covered Arkansas politics. I'd have called the Clintons friendly acquaintances, no more. I teased Hillary about her well- known role brown-nosing a notoriously erratic, but influential local columnist for the victorious Arkansas Democrat.

She was known to phone him regularly for advice. "The problem," I remember her saying, "is that there's just no end to it. You've got to feed his ego every single day." We had a spirited talk about the vagaries of the press. Our mutual assumption was that the national media would be different. And so it turned out to be except worse.

Voters decide they would rather watch Trump on TV Gene Lyons VOTERS Pg 8 Federal election laws provide protections so that people who ar- whites have a fair chance to be treated squarely when they cast their votes. But if the people who get the special considerations vote, it might not matter. That is what happened in District 27, which covers the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The district had 3,475 Republicans, 7,571 Democrats and 2,566 independents and others registered for the Nov. 8 general election.

It is a place designed so American Indians who run as Democrats have a high chance of winning. Yet Democrats Jim Bradford of Pine Ridge and Red Dawn Foster of Pine Ridge lost in their bids for seats in the state House of Representatives. Instead, Republicans Liz May of Kyle and Steve Livermont of Martin finished first and second in a five-candidate contest and won the two seats. They finished far ahead in Bennett, Haakon, Jackson and Pennington counties. Turnout in the fifth county, Oglala Lakota, was 36.7 percent.

That was far below turnouts in the other four counties and far below the statewide average of 69.6 percent. Oglala Lakota County has a predominance of Democrats. The other counties are either strongly Republican or slightly skewed to Republican or Democrat. Foster and Livermont were running for the first time. May was seeking a third term and got it.

Bradford, now 83, wanted a ninth term and get it. had 16 good Bradford said a few days after the election. Bradford said there were 4,000 votes cast in the election for tribal chairman and 1,900 from the reservation for the legislative seats. turn out for the state he said. He said Republicans sent many postcards to voters throughout the district that said positive things about the Republican candidates.

The House Republican campaign committee shipped $5,000 apiece to May and Livermont. May placed first with 2,903 votes. Livermont took second with 2,846. Next came Foster with 2,604 and Bradford with 2,467. Independent Everette McKinley rounded out the field with 351 votes.

Another tactic Republicans have attempted at least three times in the past four elections is running an independent financially backed by Republicans. This has been taking place in a Sioux Falls district that is strongly Democratic in registration. Rep. Karen Soli, a Democrat, placed first with 2,621 votes this year. Second was Democrat Jamie Smith at 2,414.

Independent Mike Myers placed third with 1,784. Independent Eric Leggett drew 1,719. Leggett received nearly all of his campaign money from 13 Republican legislators current or past. In 2010, an independent ran for a House seat in what then was a Republicans keep ways to win legislative seats where they APITOL OTEBOOK Bob Mercer REPUBLICANS Pg 8.