Governor of South Dakota

South Dakota Governor
General information
Office Type:	Partisan
Office website:	Official Link
2013 FY Budget:	$48,426,683
Term limits:	Two consecutive terms
Structure
Length of term:	4 years
Authority:	South Dakota Constitution, Article IV, Section I
Selection Method:	Elected
Current Officeholder
Name:	Dennis Daugaard
Officeholder Party:	Republican
Assumed office:	January 8, 2011
Compensation:	$98,031
Elections
Next election:	November 4, 2014
Last election:	November 2, 2010
Other South Dakota Executive Offices
Governor • Lieutenant Governor • Secretary of State • Attorney General • Treasurer • Auditor • Superintendent of Education • Agriculture Commissioner • Insurance Commissioner • Natural Resources Commissioner • Labor Commissioner • Public Service Commission

The Governor of the State of South Dakota is an elected Constitutional officer, the head of the Executive branch, and the highest state office in South Dakota. The Governor is popularly elected every four years by a plurality and is limited to two consecutive terms.

As of May 2013, South Dakota is one of 24 Republican state government trifectas.

Current officeholder

The 32nd and current governor is Dennis Daugaard, a Republican elected in 2010.

Authority

The state Constitution addresses the office of the governor in Article IV, the Executive Department.

Under Article IV, Section I:

The executive power of the state is vested in the Governor.

Qualifications

Governors
Current Governors
Gubernatorial Elections
2013 • 2012 • 2011 • 2010 Lists of candidates
Current Lt. Governors
Lt. Governor Elections
2013 • 2012 • 2011 • 2010
Breaking news

A candidate for the office of the governor must be:

• a citizen of the United States
• at least 21 years old
• a resident of South Dakota for at least two years as of the election

Elections

South Dakota elects governors in the midterm elections, that is, even years that are not Presidential election years. For South Dakota, 2006, 2010, 2014, and 2018 are all gubernatorial election years. Legally, the gubernatorial inauguration is always set for the first Tuesday after the first Monday in the January following an election. Thus, January 4, 2011 and January 6, 2015 are inaugural days.

Term limits

See also: States with gubernatorial term limits

South Dakota governors are restricted to two consecutive terms in office, after which they must wait one term before being eligible to run again.

South Dakota Constitution, Article IV, Section 2

Commencing with the 1974 general election, no person shall be elected to more than two consecutive terms as Governor...

Partisan composition

The chart below shows the partisan breakdown of South Dakota State Governors from 1992-2013.

Vacancies

See also: How gubernatorial vacancies are filled

Details of vacancy appointments are addressed under Article IV, Section 6.

Any time the Governor dies, resigns, is removed or convicted, the Lieutenant Governor succeeds to office with the full powers and duties of the Governor.

If the Governor is absent or unable to discharge the office, the Lieutenant Governor serves as Governor until the disability is removed or for the residue of the term.

In matters of determining that the Governor is continuously absent or unable to discharge for the office, the Supreme Court of South Dakota shall have "original and exclusive jurisdiction."

Duties

The governor serves as a spokesman for the state, oversees the executive branch, appoints the members of his cabinet, is the commander-in-chief of the South Dakota National Guard, and may grant pardons to those convicted of criminal offenses under state law, except in cases of treason and impeachment (§ 3).

He is also actively involved in the legislative process. He may introduce legislation and has the power to veto bills passed by the legislature (§ 4).

Other duties and privileges of the office include:

• Commissioning all offices of the state (§ 3)

• Requiring written information from any state officer on any aspect of her office and duties (§ 3)

• Addressing the General Assembly at the beginning of each regular session and at other times she deems necessary on the state of the state and making recommendations for legislation (§ 3)

• Convening special sessions of the legislature or of either chamber alone (§ 3)

• Making changes in the organization of "offices, boards, commissions, agencies and instrumentalities, and in allocation of their functions, powers and duties, as he considers necessary for efficient administration" (§ 8)

• Acting as supervisor of each principle department in the executive branch and appointing the executive to each department (§ 9)

• Appointing all offices not otherwise provided for, with the advice and consent of the Senate, and making interim appointments when the Senate is in recess (§ 9)

Click here to view a large-scale image of the South Dakota Governor's office organizational chart, as of April 2013.

State budget

The budget for the Governor's Office in Fiscal Year 2013 was $ 48,426,683.

Compensation

See also: Comparison of gubernatorial salaries

The governor's salary is legally fixed and may not be raised or decreased effective during the current term.

As of 2010, the Governor of South Dakota is paid $115,331 a year, the 33rd highest gubernatorial salary in America.

Historical officeholders

There have been 32 governors of South Dakota since 1889. Of the 32 officeholders, 26 were Republican, 5 were Democratic, and 1 was People's Party/Fusion Party.

List of Former Officeholders from 1889-Present
#	Name	Tenure	Party
1	Arthur Calvin Mellette	1889 - 1893	Republican
2	Charles Henry Sheldon	1893 - 1897	Republican
3	Andrew Ericson Lee	1897 - 1901	People's Party/Fusion Party
4	Charles N. Herreid	1901 - 1905	Republican
5	Samuel Harrison Elrod	1905 - 1907	Republican
6	Coe Isaac Crawford	1907 - 1909	Republican
7	Robert Scadden Vessey	1909 - 1913	Republican
8	Frank M. Byrne	1913 - 1917	Republican
9	Peter Norbeck	1917 - 1921	Republican
10	William Henry McMaster	1921 - 1925	Republican
11	Carl Gunderson	1925 - 1927	Republican
12	William John Bulow	1927 - 1931	Democratic
13	Warren Everett Green	1931 - 1933	Republican
14	Thomas Matthew Berry	1933 - 1937	Democratic
15	Leslie Jensen	1937 - 1939	Republican
16	Harlan John Bushfield	1939 - 1943	Republican
17	Merrell Quentin Sharpe	1943 - 1947	Republican
18	George T. Mickelson	1947 - 1951	Republican
19	Sigurd Anderson	1951 - 1955	Republican
20	Joseph Jacob Foss	1955 - 1959	Republican
21	Ralph E. Herseth	1959 - 1961	Democratic
22	Archie Gubbrud	1961 - 1965	Republican
23	Nils Andreas Boe	1965 - 1969	Republican
24	Frank Leroy Farrar	1969 - 1971	Republican
25	Richard Francis Kneip	1971 - 1978	Democratic
26	Harvey Wollman	1978 - 1979	Democratic
27	William J. Janklow	1978 - 1987	Republican
28	George S. Mickelson	1987 - 1993	Republican
29	Walter D. Miller	1993 - 1995	Republican
30	William J. Janklow	1995 – 2003	Republican
31	Mike Rounds	2003 - 2011	Republican
32	Dennis Daugaard	2011 – present	Republican

History

Partisan balance 1992-2013

See also: Ballotpedia:Who Runs the States and Ballotpedia:Who Runs the States, South Dakota’’

Partisan breakdown of the South Dakota governorship from 1992-2013

During every year from 1992-2013 there were Republican governors in office for South Dakota. South Dakota is one of eight states that were run by a Republican governor for more than 80 percent of the years between 1992-2013. South Dakota was under Republican trifectas for the final 19 years of the study.

Across the country, there were 493 years of Democratic governors (44.82%) and 586 years of Republican governors (53.27%) from 1992-2013.

Over the course of the 22-year study, state governments became increasingly more partisan. At the outset of the study period (1992), 18 of the 49 states with partisan legislatures had single-party trifectas and 31 states had divided governments. In 2013, only 13 states have divided governments, while single-party trifectas held sway in 36 states, the most in the 22 years studied.

The chart below shows the partisan composition of the Office of the Governor of South Dakota, the South Dakota State Senate and the South Dakota House of Representatives from 1992-2013.

Contact information

Office of the Governor
500 E. Capitol Ave.
Pierre, SD 57501
Phone:605.773.3212

See also

• South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard
• Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota
• Lieutenant Governor Matthew Michels
• South Dakota Attorney General
• South Dakota Secretary of State

External links

Suggest a link

• Office of the South Dakota Governor