Dusty Johnson says he is doing a swell job in Congress — and he’s using your tax dollars to try to convince you of that

In the waning days of 2023, you probably received a piece of mail from Congressman Dusty Johnson. It's a glitzy and glossy piece, and it opens with a banner headline: “Dusty Johnson Named Most Effective Republican on Agriculture.”

An organization called the Center for Effective Lawmaking thinks pretty highly of Dusty, rating him the 14th most effective House Republican overall, and giving him high ratings for his work on transportation, public lands, and Native American issues.

Beside the article is a color photo of Dusty conversing with a South Dakota farm couple, and he modestly acknowledges the praise: “I’m proud to be named the top House Republican in Agriculture policy and will continue to work hard for South Dakota.”

If you bothered to open this mailing, you found more laudatory headlines. You learned that Johnson “(secured a) win for South Dakota airports,” that he has introduced legislation to allow states to prohibit state funds from bankrolling the Chinese Communist Party, and also to protect farmland from being bought up for foreign interests, and that he is leading the fight to impose a work requirement on food stamp (SNAP) recipients.

Above all, Dusty wants you to know that he received the Democracy Award for outstanding constituent service from the Congressional Management Foundation.

This mailing (seen above in a photo provided by John Tsitrian), which has everything but the word “re-elect,” would be entirely appropriate if it contained a disclaimer in fine print: “Paid for by Dusty Johnson for Congress.” Unfortunately, it has nothing of the sort. When you look for the bulk mail postage insignia in the upper right-hand corner, you will find instead the familiar signature (Dusty Johnson’s) that indicates that this was a franked mailing, and there is a small notice that it is a “Public Document — Official Business.”

Yes, a piece of political self-promotion that looks a lot like a campaign brochure was mailed out to South Dakotans at taxpayer expense. 

Any congressional incumbent enjoys significant competitive advantages in his re-election campaign. No fair observer would deny that a key responsibility of senators and representatives is to keep their constituents informed. Unfortunately, this recent mailing is pretty light on informative content, and is quite heavy on the message that Dusty Johnson is doing an outstanding job as our lone representative. There is a photo of Dusty receiving the Golden Plow award from the American Farm Bureau, a Washington lobby that leans heavily Republican.

Another photo shows him presenting a South Dakota veteran with a Purple Heart, thanking him for his service. 

This is a tough time to serve in the House of Representatives. Republicans enjoy an extremely narrow majority, and their caucus is continually held hostage by its most extreme members. Folks like Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) are continually threatening to shut the place down if they don’t get their way.

Since they already succeeded in ousting one speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, just months after he won the big gavel, their threats must be taken seriously. It would be pleasant to believe that our representatives in Washington are working hard, reaching across the infamous partisan aisle, and fashioning solutions to the many problems that plague us.

However, this Congress is extremely dysfunctional. If the new right-wing speaker, Mike Johnson, gets together with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and crafts a plan to avoid a total government shutdown, we can thank our lucky stars. 

For his part, Dusty Johnson is often heard to complain about out-of-control government spending. If he has serious opposition for re-election this year, either in the Republican primary or from a Democrat, we haven’t heard about it yet.

But we know that he is more than willing to spend public funds — yes, our tax dollars — tooting his own horn and launching his campaign for a fourth term in Congress. 

Jay Davis is a retired Rapid City attorney