Noem Gives No Message on Agriculture; Varilek Issues Position Paper

Last updated on 2012.07.30

South Dakota Democrats are coordinating an attack on what ought to be Rep. Kristi Noem's major strength: her farm cred.

First party chief Ben Nesselhuf holds his nose to take a look at Noem's campaign website and finds Ag Committee member Noem has no statement on agriculture. South Dakota Senate minority leader Jason Frerichs found the same absence of ag policy statements on Noem's campaign website two years ago. As I said then, given Noem's eagerness to run as the cutest little farm girl this side of the Missouri, her inability to articulate clear agricultural policy is particularly egregious.

Meanwhile, challenger Matt Varilek, who doesn't look half as cute putting on a checked shirt and throwing his leg over a horse, wallops the web with a new, detailed position paper on agriculture. He reminds us of Noem's failure to speak up for South Dakota on House Ag, as well as "her hypocrisy in her desire to cut so many programs that affect other South Dakotans, such as Medicare for seniors and Pell Grants for college students, but not the ones she has personally benefited from" [links mine, not Matt's].

Rep. Noem crusades against fairy-tale dust regulations, but she's allergic to the nitty gritty of agriculture policy. Varilek says more on ag policy in one webpage than Noem has put on the record in a year and a half in Washington. Among Varilek's policy points:

• Target the farm safety net to "family-scale farms" and cap subsidies for operations making big money.
• Stop weakening country-of-origin labeling rules.
• Ban packer ownership of livestock.
• Implement the GIPSA rule.
• Fully fund conservation programs (CRP, CSP, EQIP) to check market pressures to cultivate every acre.
• Restore funding for rural development programs like the Value Added Producer Grants Program, Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program, and the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (which Noem voted to cut last year).
• Defend SNAP/food stamps from the drastic Ryan budget cuts. Varilek doesn't say no cuts; he just says not the block-grant-conversion madness that Noem supports because the boss tells her to.

Vote for Noem, and you get a nice lady who flies home every weekend to ride her horsies. Vote for Varilek, and you get a Congressman who makes South Dakota's policy priorities clear.