GOP Attacking Herseth Sandlin Early Before Possible Election Run

Democratic Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin has not yet announced her plans for the 2010 election, but Republicans on the national and state levels have already started to attack South Dakota’s lone member of the U.S. House.

Herseth Sandlin has long portrayed herself as a moderate who wants to cut the federal deficit, and she is co-chair of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of moderate to conservative Democrats in the House.

The South Dakota Republican Party and the National Republican Congressional Committee, the House GOP campaign organization, have criticized Herseth Sandlin for voting for the $787 billion stimulus package, President Obama’s budget and other measures. They label her as a staunch supporter of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“Herseth Sandlin’s Blue Dog rhetoric has South Dakotans red-faced as she continues to say one thing in South Dakota and to do the exact opposite in Washington,” South Dakota Republican Party Executive Director Lucas Lentsch said after the House passed a budget outline. “Instead of being fiscally responsible, the purported Blue Dog Herseth Sandlin is paddling in a river of red ink.”…

The NRCC criticized Herseth Sandlin for voting for the stimulus measure. The radio ad focused on money that went to a rural Pennsylvania airport that gets little traffic. The issue appears to have got little attention in Pennsylvania.

The South Dakota Republican Party has blasted Herseth Sandlin for supporting organized labor, an energy bill and the stimulus measure.

“Back home, Herseth Sandlin claims to be a fiscal conservative, but when in Washington her votes prove she is not,” Lentsch said after the stimulus measure was passed…

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