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CNN Sunday Morning

A Look at Senate Race in South Dakota

Aired November 03, 2002 - 09:02   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Even first lady Laura Bush is out on the campaign trail this weekend. Yesterday, she was rallying support for Republican Norm Coleman in the Minnesota Senate race. He is up against former Vice President Walter Mondale. Today, Mrs. Bush will be in South Dakota to campaign for Republican Senate candidate John Thune.
So we have CNN's Jonathan Karl there. He's live from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, with more on that race. Hi, Jonathan.

JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Heidi. This is an amazing race here. The first lady got here last night, and there have been so many top ranking administration officials in this state that some at the state house would like to declare this the Western White House.

Consider this. President Bush has been here four times. He'll be here a fifth time today. The vice president was here just yesterday. We've also had a number of top administration officials, the vice president's wife, Lynn Cheney was here a week ago.

And not only that, not only the presidential visits, but top ranking Republicans from around the country, including, believe it or not, yesterday we caught up with the Republican candidate John Thune and Rudy Giuliani, of course, the former mayor of New York was here in South Dakota, the tiny town of Branford, South Dakota, coming and campaigning with Congressman Thune, the Republican candidate here, the Republican challenger. The Republican who President Bush chose to run in this race, because this race has such high stakes, high stakes not only because the battle for the control of the Senate is at stake here, but also because the senior senator from South Dakota is President Bush's most powerful political enemy, Tom Daschle, which raises the question: Who has more clout in this state, Tom Daschle or President Bush?

I posed that question yesterday to Congressman Thune.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN THUNE (R), SOUTH DAKOTA: We have a lot of firepower. We have a lot of people, I think, who -- people in South Dakota respond favorably to. They responded to the president's leadership. They like the vice president, obviously, someone who comes from this part of the country. You know, Mayor Giuliani is someone who has demonstrated great leadership. And I think the message that all those leaders who come in here are delivering is that we want to see people in the United States Senate, some leaders, who will work with our president, work with the leaders that we have, the great leaders we have in this country to get things done.

And right now, there's a lot of gridlock in the Senate. Things aren't getting done, and we need to change that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KARL: On the Democratic side, you have the incumbent senator, Tim Johnson, who went around the state with his counterpart, Tom Daschle. Tom Daschle is currently on a bus tour with Tim Johnson, a bus tour, a three-day bus tour that's taking them all across South Dakota. What they're actually doing aboard that bus is going from town to town, getting off the bus, and then doing campaigning really the old-fashioned way. If you can imagine this, we joined them on that bus in the town of Brookings, South Dakota, yesterday.

When they got off, they went and split block to block, each candidate, Tim Johnson and Tom Daschle, going door to door, knocking on doors and asking people to vote, as if you were a college student out canvassing, volunteering. An interesting way to campaign. But you have to remember, South Dakota is such a small state that it will be at most about 400,000 voters, which means that door-to-door campaigning can actually make a difference. Something I talked about yesterday with Tim Johnson.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KARL: Door-to-door campaigning, I mean, is this for show or is this real? I mean, is this...

SEN. TIM JOHNSON (D), SOUTH DAKOTA: No, this is real. Obviously you can't hit every door in every town. But we can cover a lot of doors. We know who are undecided voters; occasionally we just stop and say hi to a voter. So we are doing that. It gives us an opportunity to be in the town and show the flag.

And it really does matter. This is a small state, and this kind of politics still counts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KARL: So the race goes into the final stretch here. Really, in a dead heat. There have been a number of polls. Some polls have shown the Republican in the lead; others have shown the Democrat in the lead. And both sides at this point agree it really is too close to call. It's an amazing race with a lot of firepower, and we'll be here until the end -- Heidi.

COLLINS: All right, very good, Jonathan Karl from a beautiful Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Thanks a lot.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired November 3, 2002 - 09:02   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Even first lady Laura Bush is out on the campaign trail this weekend. Yesterday, she was rallying support for Republican Norm Coleman in the Minnesota Senate race. He is up against former Vice President Walter Mondale. Today, Mrs. Bush will be in South Dakota to campaign for Republican Senate candidate John Thune.
So we have CNN's Jonathan Karl there. He's live from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, with more on that race. Hi, Jonathan.

JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Heidi. This is an amazing race here. The first lady got here last night, and there have been so many top ranking administration officials in this state that some at the state house would like to declare this the Western White House.

Consider this. President Bush has been here four times. He'll be here a fifth time today. The vice president was here just yesterday. We've also had a number of top administration officials, the vice president's wife, Lynn Cheney was here a week ago.

And not only that, not only the presidential visits, but top ranking Republicans from around the country, including, believe it or not, yesterday we caught up with the Republican candidate John Thune and Rudy Giuliani, of course, the former mayor of New York was here in South Dakota, the tiny town of Branford, South Dakota, coming and campaigning with Congressman Thune, the Republican candidate here, the Republican challenger. The Republican who President Bush chose to run in this race, because this race has such high stakes, high stakes not only because the battle for the control of the Senate is at stake here, but also because the senior senator from South Dakota is President Bush's most powerful political enemy, Tom Daschle, which raises the question: Who has more clout in this state, Tom Daschle or President Bush?

I posed that question yesterday to Congressman Thune.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN THUNE (R), SOUTH DAKOTA: We have a lot of firepower. We have a lot of people, I think, who -- people in South Dakota respond favorably to. They responded to the president's leadership. They like the vice president, obviously, someone who comes from this part of the country. You know, Mayor Giuliani is someone who has demonstrated great leadership. And I think the message that all those leaders who come in here are delivering is that we want to see people in the United States Senate, some leaders, who will work with our president, work with the leaders that we have, the great leaders we have in this country to get things done.

And right now, there's a lot of gridlock in the Senate. Things aren't getting done, and we need to change that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KARL: On the Democratic side, you have the incumbent senator, Tim Johnson, who went around the state with his counterpart, Tom Daschle. Tom Daschle is currently on a bus tour with Tim Johnson, a bus tour, a three-day bus tour that's taking them all across South Dakota. What they're actually doing aboard that bus is going from town to town, getting off the bus, and then doing campaigning really the old-fashioned way. If you can imagine this, we joined them on that bus in the town of Brookings, South Dakota, yesterday.

When they got off, they went and split block to block, each candidate, Tim Johnson and Tom Daschle, going door to door, knocking on doors and asking people to vote, as if you were a college student out canvassing, volunteering. An interesting way to campaign. But you have to remember, South Dakota is such a small state that it will be at most about 400,000 voters, which means that door-to-door campaigning can actually make a difference. Something I talked about yesterday with Tim Johnson.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KARL: Door-to-door campaigning, I mean, is this for show or is this real? I mean, is this...

SEN. TIM JOHNSON (D), SOUTH DAKOTA: No, this is real. Obviously you can't hit every door in every town. But we can cover a lot of doors. We know who are undecided voters; occasionally we just stop and say hi to a voter. So we are doing that. It gives us an opportunity to be in the town and show the flag.

And it really does matter. This is a small state, and this kind of politics still counts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KARL: So the race goes into the final stretch here. Really, in a dead heat. There have been a number of polls. Some polls have shown the Republican in the lead; others have shown the Democrat in the lead. And both sides at this point agree it really is too close to call. It's an amazing race with a lot of firepower, and we'll be here until the end -- Heidi.

COLLINS: All right, very good, Jonathan Karl from a beautiful Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Thanks a lot.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com