James Abdnor

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Abdnor had previously represented South Dakota's 2nd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives and served as the 30th Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota and a member of the South Dakota Senate.

Early life and educationEdit

Abdnor was born in Kennebec, South Dakota, on February 13, 1923,<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref> the son of Mary (née Wehby) and Samuel J. Abdnor.<ref name=nytobit/> Abdnor served in the United States Army during World War II and then graduated from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in 1945 where he became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity.<ref name= "SDSHS">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

CareerEdit

From 1946 to 1948, James Abdnor worked as a teacher and coach.<ref name="nytobit" /> Abdnor was chief clerk of the South Dakota Legislature in the early-1950s.<ref name="nytobit">Template:Cite news</ref>

He was a member of the South Dakota Senate from 1957 to 1969. A common, decent,<ref>Eulogy for Senator Jim Abdnor, Senator John Thune, May 19, 2012</ref> plain spoken man,<ref>Plain Old Jim: A Tribute to Jim Abdnor, Herb Sundall, May 19, 2012</ref> he was affectionately known as "the people's Senator."<ref>Jim Abdnor and his people, Kevin Woster, Rapid City Journal, May 21, 2010.</ref> He was also described as a "nice-guy public servant" with a "down-home, warm and fuzzy way.<ref>Even at 80, former Sen. Jim Abdnor retains voting bloc, David Kranz, Sioux Falls Argus Leader, February 23, 2003.</ref> His staff considered him to be a friend as well as an honorable mentor and public servant.<ref>Farewell to a Public Servant and a Friend, Bruce Knight, Agri-Pulse.</ref> Like his South Dakota congressional colleague James Abourezk, he was a second-generation Lebanese American and second U.S. Senator of Lebanese descent after Abourezk, as well.<ref name="SDSHS" />

Abdnor was the 30th Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota from 1969 to 1971, and unsuccessfully sought the nomination for the House of Representatives in 1970.<ref name="SDSHS" />

Tenure in CongressEdit

In 1972, he was elected to the House of Representatives as a Republican.<ref name=":0" />

Abdnor ran in the 1980 election against three-term incumbent and 1972 Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern for the United States Senate. Abdnor claimed McGovern was out of touch with the state<ref name=":0" /> and unseated him by a large margin. During his term as a senator, Abdnor served on the Appropriations Committee and Environment and Public Works Committee, and chaired three subcommittees, including the Environment and Public Works Water Resources Subcommittee.<ref name=":0" />

In 1986, after winning by a wide margin a bruising re-election primary campaign against then Governor Bill Janklow, Abdnor narrowly lost his Senate seat to then-Representative Tom Daschle. He served as the administrator of the Small Business Administration from 1987 to 1989, and served in an advisory capacity for John Thune's successful campaign against Daschle in 2004.<ref name=":0" />

LegislationEdit

Abdnor's accomplishments included authorization of the Grassropes irrigation project and the Walworth, Edmunds, Brown (WEB) rural water system,<ref>Abdnor's role in authorizing the WEB rural water system is highlighted in Uphill Against Water: The Great Water War, by Peter Carrels</ref> reauthorization of the Belle Fourche irrigation project, and the inclusion of oats (of which South Dakota is a major producer) in the farm program.<ref>A complete listing of the bills, resolutions, and amendments sponsored and co-sponsored by Abdnor in the Senate is available in the Government Printing Office's (GPO) online Congressional Record Index (CRI)</ref><ref>Bills sponsored and co-sponsored by Abdnor in the U.S. House of Representatives from the 93rd Template:Webarchive through the 96th Template:Webarchive Congress (1973 - 1982) can be discovered using the Library of Congress' (LOC) Thomas system</ref>

As a fiscal conservative, on April 2, 1984, he introduced S. 2516, the Deficit Reduction Act, a forerunner to the Gramm–Rudman–Hollings Balanced Budget Act. As chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Water Resources, he exerted leadership in passage of legislation requiring cost-sharing for Federal water development projects.<ref>President Reagan's remarks Template:Webarchive in support of Senator Abdnor's reelection, September 29, 1986</ref><ref>Water Resources Development Act of 1986</ref><ref>Sharing the Burden Template:Dead link Template:Cbignore, United States Army Corps of Engineers publication</ref> His interest in chairing the subcommittee was spawned by the importance of water to South Dakota's primary industry, agriculture, and the fact the state had been promised irrigation development in trade for inundation of its Missouri River bottom land behind massive dams in order to provide flood control and navigation benefits to downstream states.<ref>Oahe irrigation potential remains untapped Template:Webarchive, The Daily Republic, September 29, 2012</ref><ref>Pick–Sloan Missouri Basin Program</ref>

Notable Abdnor staffersEdit

United States Senator John Thune had been a member of Senator Abdnor's staff.<ref>John Thune#Early life, education, and early political career</ref>

Other notable members of Abdnor's staff who went on to fill important public service roles include:John Hamre, Undersecretary of Defense; Jeff Trandahl, Clerk of the House; Bruce Knight, Undersecretary, Marketing and Regulatory Programs, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA); Larry Parkinson, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Law Enforcement and Security, U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and Director, Office of Enforcement, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC); Phil Hogen, Chairman of the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC); Vern Larson, South Dakota State Treasurer and Auditor; South Dakota State Senators Walter Conahan, Mike Vehle, Lee Schoenbeck and Scott Heidepriem; South Dakota State Representative Sean O'Brien; Charlotte Fischer, South Dakota Public Utilities Commissioner; Roland Dolly, Commissioner of Economic Development for the State Of South Dakota; and Stephen Censky, Administrator of the Foreign Agricultural Service, CEO of the American Soybean Association, and United States Deputy Secretary of Agriculture.