Argus Leader Ripped for Double Standard on Linda Daschle

A Double Standard: A Senate Wife Shares Her Story

(An open letter to the Argus Leader for publication immediately)
October 27, 2004
By Harriet Pressler

Some Democrats and the Argus Leader have recently suggested that a Senate wife’s activities should not be covered in a campaign (Argus Leader headline, “Group: Wife of Candidate Not Fair Game,” October 26, 2004.) In fact, Randall Beck, Executive Editor, recently said, “We do not cover candidates’ wives.” How strange! As the wife of a Senate candidate who was subjected to much different treatment, I feel I must respond. Readers deserve to know the whole story.

I am the wife of former Republican Senator Larry Pressler. During the 1980s and the 1990s, I was repeatedly “under investigation” by the Argus Leader and subjected to false accusations from Democratic Party sources.

You may recall some of the lengthy articles analyzing my small real estate practice. The Argus Leader demanded and I produced my client list, how much money I made, who paid me and what trips or gifts I received. I told them everything, even though it didn’t amount to much. They still ran stories suggesting a conflict of interest. (This was in spite of the fact that my husband had voluntarily contacted the Senate Ethics Committee when I first became licensed in 1988 and obtained written confirmation that my job was not a conflict of interest. This was evidently not good enough for the Argus Leader.)

In the 1990 and 1996 campaigns the Argus Leader, through their Washington based Gannett News Service, had a reporter follow me around constantly sticking a microphone and camera in my face, called my business acquaintances and wrote negative articles about me. When we complained that the Argus investigation and reporting on my modest real estate activities were unfair, the Argus Leader responded, “It is our duty to explore and investigate the financial activities of a Senate wife.”

Don’t be fooled. Larry’s Democratic opponents were behind most every story. Democratic consultant Karl Struble even bragged about it following the 1996 Pressler-Johnson race, saying in an interview that they were “systematically feeding information, piece by piece, to reporters in DC and South Dakota. The result was a series of damaging articles…We used the headlines generated as validators for our ads.” Those are his own words. He is advising Senator Daschle today.

So which is it? Is it the Argus’ duty to explore and investigate Senate wives, as was explained to me? Or, are Senate wives “not fair game” as was printed in yesterday’s paper and seems to be the standard applied to Linda Daschle? I have nothing personally against the Daschles. But without even getting into the discussion of whether or not Linda Daschle’s lobbying activities present a conflict of interest, there sure appears to be a double standard here that should be brought to the attention of Argus readers.

What was the result of all the stories the Argus ran about me? They could never find anything wrong. Just innuendo. The Senate Ethics Committee again concluded that we had no conflict of interest. Larry was defeated in his 1996 campaign, and everyone forgot all about it. Incidentally, we lost money on our DC real estate investments.

We have moved on with our lives. However, I could not sit back and let the people of South Dakota be bombarded with erroneous stories in the Argus Leader and at the same time try to tear down the values and morals of another great man, John Thune.

Harriet Pressler
Wife of former Senator Larry Pressler