By Heather Garlich
Congressional Quarterly

Electoral votes: 3

Delegates: 22

Co-chairman: Steve Hildebrand

Hotel: Courtyard by Marriott (Beverly Hills) (310) 556-2777

1996 Election:
Dole – 47%
Clinton – 43%
Perot – 10%

Used to being overlooked at their party's national convention and outvoted in presidential elections, South Dakota's 22-member Democratic delegation would seem to have less reason for optimism than most of their peers at the party gathering in Los Angeles.

A remote and mainly rural state with a strong strain of Western conservatism, South Dakota has voted Democratic for president only three times since it became a state in 1889: in Franklin D. Roosevelt's Depression-era victories in 1932 and 1936, and Lyndon B. Johnson's 1964 landslide. Even home-state Sen. George S. McGovern was trounced as the 1972 Democratic nominee against President Richard M. Nixon.

However, there is a degree of prairie populism that, while not as strong as in neighboring North Dakota, can put South Dakota Democrats in the running from time to time. Both of the state's U.S. senators - Minority Leader Tom Daschle and Tim Johnson - are Democrats.

And Democrats are not quite as besieged as their overall win-loss record in the state appears to indicate. Though President Clinton lost the state in 1992 and 1996, the contests were fairly close. Incumbent George Bush defeated him by 41 percent to 37 percent in 1992, and 1996 challenger Bob Dole edged him by 47 percent to 43 percent.

One prominent member of this year's 22-delegate South Dakota contingent vouches that the convention can get her troops fired up for their uphill battle in the fall.

State Democratic National Committeewoman Sharon Stroschein, who also is Sen. Johnson's director for the northeast region of the state, said she has attended four conventions, and recalls how upbeat she was after the 1988 convention in Atlanta that nominated Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis for president.

"That convention just revived us, and we really went home temporarily enthused," she said, noting that she was dismayed when Dukakis faded and lost to then-Vice President Bush.

Her state's delegation this year is solidly behind the party's presidential candidate, Vice President Al Gore, who easily won the state's primary June 6 - nearly three months after he essentially clinched the nomination.

Stroschein said she wants to "get on a soapbox and declare Al Gore's stance on issues," though she said there is a charisma gap between Gore and the man he wants to succeed.

"He has more of a problem exciting people, but it's just a difference in style. I feel sorry for anyone who has to follow Bill Clinton," she said. "Gore just seems a little more rehearsed."

Don Cook, a seed farmer and a vice chairman of the South Dakota delegation's platform committee, said he is concerned about Social Security, Medicare and education along with agriculture issues. Cook, an 80-year-old and originally from Missouri, has been involved in politics since the days of Harry S Truman and voiced his admiration for another Missourian, House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt.

Heading the South Dakota delegation is Steve Hildebrand, who served as director of Gore's campaign for the crucial Jan. 24 Iowa presidential caucuses that kicked off the presidential nominating process.

SOUTH DAKOTA NOTABLES: Gore campaign aide Steve Hildebrand, the delegation chairman; state Sen. Rebecca Dunn; state Rep. Dan Sutton; state Democratic National Committeewoman Sharon Stroschein; state Democratic National Committeeman Nick Nemec, a former state representative; Elaine Roberts, president of the South Dakota Education Association.