Argus Leader - Candidate Profile: Kristi Noem Identifies with Ordinary S. Dakotans

News Article

Unlikely rise has perched farm girl as GOP answer to Herseth Sandlin

By Jonathan Ellis

Kristi Noem is in familiar territory as she mingles with a crowd at Watertown High School's homecoming parade - a spectacle of students jumping in battered vans with the roofs removed.

Noem grew up 15 miles from here. Twelve hours earlier, at about 2 a.m., she got home from a campaign trip to Rapid City. She admits to being tired. Such is the life of a statewide political candidate in South Dakota.

Noem overcame two other Republican candidates - one with more money, the other with greater name recognition - to win the right to challenge Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin in November.

In 2006 and 2008, Herseth Sandlin dispatched her two Republican opponents with ease, but the climate is different now, and for Herseth Sandlin it's all hands on deck as she fights for another term in Congress.

Noem, a farm girl who grew up hunting and is known for her skill at field dressing a downed pheasant, is a much different candidate than Herseth Sandlin has faced. In the past, Republicans hesitated to become aggressive with Herseth Sandlin. They feared they might be perceived as men picking on a woman. Noem doesn't have that problem. She immediately came out of her June primary win with the theme that Herseth Sandlin is a creature of Washington.

Noem said she represents ordinary South Dakotans.

"I'm just like them," she said. "I ran because I felt like we needed somebody in Washington, D.C., to represent us who knows what happens when you pass legislation - how it impacts families and small businesses back here in South Dakota."

Noem's challenge is to persuade South Dakotans wary of federal spending that she is a credible fiscal conservative, even while supporting some programs from which she has benefited.
Personal tragedy a transforming event

Some people can look back on their lives and point to a distinct moment that forever altered their destinies. For Noem, that moment occurred March 10, 1994. Her father, Ron Arnold, was sucked into a 50,000-bushel grain bin. Noem's younger brother and a farm worker desperately tried to free him - even using a payloader to try to dismantle the bin. Phone calls went out for help, and area farmers arrived on the scene.

Ron Arnold's body was recovered deep in the bin.

"He was the kind of guy who could do anything," Noem recalled. "He was indestructible. We had spent our lives watching him do crazy stuff, and have all kinds of crazy stories about him. So you just never thought he could ever get hurt or anything could ever happen to him."

Noem was 22 at the time - she was married at 20 - and almost eight months pregnant with her first child. The event brought the family together. An older brother and sister moved back to South Dakota. Noem dropped out of college at Northern State University, and the family took over the farm and ranch operation.

Noem and her father had started a cattle business. Had he lived, she speculates she would not have gone into politics. Her childhood was about business and faith. Sundays were for church. Family vacations often centered on hunting trips.

Noem's dive into the family operation led to posts agricultural boards - her first steps into politics. She served on the South Dakota Soybean Association board. In 1997, then-Sen. Tom Daschle nominated her to serve on the state board of the Farm Service Agency. That led to an appointment to the board from President Clinton.

Noem also attended one of Daschle's leadership camps, which were intended to groom up-and-coming Democrats to compete for local and state offices. Noem said she attended when the camps were open to Republicans because she wanted to learn more about campaigning.

Noem isn't sure how her name got to Daschle for the FSA appointment. It came when the board was being expanded from three members to five. Regardless, Noem was a Republican serving among Democrats.

"I don't know why or how she got on that board," said Mike O'Connor, a former Democratic lawmaker who served as the executive director of the state FSA.

Doris Miner, another former Democratic lawmaker who served on the board, said Noem made no attempt to hide her politics. "It was obvious she was a Republican," Miner said.
Supporter, beneficiary of farm subsidies

Even so, Noem didn't depart from her Democratic colleagues when it came to policy regarding farm subsidies.

"I don't think she was all that conservative when it came to farm program issues," O'Connor said. "If you're really a conservative, you don't have to take those subsidies."

Indeed, Noem's family operation benefited from subsidies, getting $3 million from 1995 to 2008. Noem had a 16.9 percent ownership interest in the operation until last year. Noem has defended subsidies because she said they support an industry that is vital to the nation's security and because they hold down food prices for consumers.

O'Connor agrees with that.

"I think food is a national security issue," he said.

Still, it's a position that conflicts with other conservatives and environmentalists who argue subsidies distort the market.

By 2006, Noem, now a mother of three children, sat down with her husband, Bryon, and talked about running for an open state House seat. They decided to give it a shot.

"We gave it a whirl and thought that if I get elected, we'd try it," she said. "If it doesn't work for our family after two years, then maybe we won't do it again."

Miner wasn't surprised.

"It was obvious she was looking ahead," she said. "The things she'd say, I knew she was interested in running for the Legislature."

Noem's first term was marked by efforts to reform wind energy and the state's property tax structure, in which there wasn't parity in how some agricultural properties were valued. She sponsored another bill to set a statewide minimum teacher salary - it failed - and she signed on to bills to limit abortion.

In 2008, she was picked by fellow lawmakers as one of three most popular legislators among both parties.

After winning re-election that year, Noem was picked by her Republican colleagues as the assistant majority leader. House Speaker Tim Rave said Noem's brightness, knowledge and business experience helped win her the leadership post.

"All that stuff put together, and she just shines through," Rave said.

Rave declined to say whether anyone ran against her - party rules forbid that. But leadership races are "competitive," he said.

The past few years have been tough for all lawmakers. The national recession brought a collapse in state revenues, and lawmakers have faced massive shortfalls. The federal government came to the rescue with a stimulus bill last year. One of the three elements of that bill - which Herseth Sandlin voted for - included money for state and local governments.

Voted to take federal stimulus money for S.D.

Noem voted for budgets that included federal aid to backfill the state's deficits, which has put her in a tight position. She has criticized federal spending and the stimulus bill in particular for adding to the national debt. Herseth Sandlin has pointed out this contradiction in debates.

Noem said she would have opposed the spending bill had she been in Congress. But once the states were in line to get the money, there was no point in not taking it because the federal government would have spent it on something else.

Her budget votes didn't harm her with conservatives. During the primary, she won the enthusiastic support of some tea party members with calls to cut taxes and federal spending. She participated in some tea party events, but said she has resisted being labeled a tea party candidate, a label that has been embraced in other national races.

"I'm pretty clear that I'm just Kristi, and I welcome their support if they agree with me and if we can find common ground on where we stand," she said.

Back in Watertown, Noem takes a break from the parade and goes inside Past Times, a coffee shop and restaurant that her mother once owned. Noem helped manage the business, and she's greeted warmly by several people - hugs, handshakes and lots of conversation.

She chats with Sam West, 24, a National Guard soldier just back from a deployment in Afghanistan. West explains that his unit cleared IEDs from roads.

"We found a good many of them," he said.

"So now what will you do?" she asks.

"Nothing," West replies, looking eager for down time.

These are Noem's people, she said later. She'll have to convince enough of them throughout South Dakota that she's a better option than Herseth Sandlin.

"They have an opportunity to vote for me. I'm not perfect, but I'm a hard worker, and I'm tough."

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