Dana Hess writes for South Dakota Searchlight, an online news organization.

It was almost two years ago that this space was used to offer the idea that the South Dakota Legislature was operating under a two-and-a-half party system. The half party was Democrats, too few to make much of an impact. The other two parties both called themselves Republicans, but seemed to come from different planets.

One group was your father’s Republicans, believing in tight budgets, a small government and less regulation. The other Republicans, famously labeled “wackadoodles” by fellow Republican and Senate President Pro Tempore Lee Schoenbeck, had another agenda that was pro-gun, anti-vaccine and deeply concerned about the integrity of elections, among other things.

Now, with the passage of time and a recent election, one of those Republican parties is going to bulk up, big time. In the June primary, 14 incumbent lawmakers were shown the door. Eleven of them had the bad luck to vote for the Landowners’ Bill of Rights, which would’ve implemented new protections for landowners and counties along a proposed carbon dioxide pipeline route but also would have left open the door for the pipeline’s regulatory approval. Those incumbents’ primary opponents were only too happy to characterize their support for that Bill of Rights as a slap in the face to anyone who believes in the sanctity of property rights.

With only three Democrats in the Senate and six in the House, Republicans continue to maintain a super majority in the Legislature. However, as members of the GOP choose up sides, that super majority may be more splintered than ever.

It’s hard to quantify how many of the Republican newcomers will fall in line with the ultra-conservative group. Before we paint them all with a broad, wackadoodle brush, consider the case of Secretary of State Monae Johnson. Johnson earned her spot on the Republican ballot by claiming that the incumbent secretary of state was not working hard enough on election integrity. Once she had the nomination, she resolutely refused to say whether Joe Biden beat Donald Trump in the 2020 election.

Yet, Johnson has gone through a primary and an election acting like any other secretary of state. She has run largely error-free elections, yet a portion of her political party is turning on her.

Last month in The Dakota Scout there appeared a small advertisement calling out the “Blacklist RINOs.” RINOs, of course, stands for Republicans in Name Only. The print in the ad was small but compelling: “Hardworking South Dakota Republican taxpayers have long supported candidates claiming to represent our values, only to find that they betray their promises once in power. With recent successes against crony capitalism and globalism, we now call on the following RINOs to either renounce their past actions or resign from the Republican Party.”

In addition to Johnson, the list of alleged RINOs includes a who’s who of South Dakota Republicans: Sens. Mike Rounds and John Thune, Gov. Kristi Noem, Rep. Dusty Johnson and Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken. Also on the list were current or past officeholders and politicos including Schoenbeck, of course, as well as Mary Fitzgerald, Will Mortenson, John Wiik, David Knudson, Casey Crabtree, David Wheeler, Randy Deibert, Helene Duhamel, Brett Koenecke, Joe Kippley, Joe Kirby, Pat Powers and Walt Bones.

The advertisement was sponsored by Chris Larson, a conservative Republican activist and entrepreneur. Larson was no doubt emboldened by the success of his NO in NOvember campaign that saw the defeat of four ballot issues he opposed: changes to the primary election system, the Landowners’ Bill of Rights and the legalization of abortion and recreational marijuana.

Online the advertisement linked to a blog post by Larson that said the offending Republicans were guilty of putting economic development ahead of individual rights, having voting records that go against traditional conservative values, ignoring their constituents and showing contempt or disrespect for “Patriots (which is probably a kinder, gentler name for his group than wackadoodles).

If Republicans are paying attention to Larson, the influx of “patriots” in the next legislative session could shake things up in Pierre. Maybe instead of being one-issue wonders, these new Republicans will show that they have more on their minds than property rights and can actually care about balancing the budget and funding education and health care.

So far, their predecessors in that wing of the Republican Party have not set a very high bar, often acting as if they didn’t want to run the government so much as just mess with it. They sponsored measures to beef up gun rights in a nation that already has the protections of the Second Amendment. They complained about election security in a state where election outcomes are rarely questioned. They numbered among our “rights” the right to refuse vaccines.

Time will tell how or if these Republican factions can get along. They all need to remember that there’s more at stake in the next legislative session than ideological differences. That budget isn’t going to balance itself. Instead of name-calling, someone is going to have to do the hard work of governing.