SIOUX FALLS, S.D., Nov. 7 (UPI) -- Former South Dakota Gov. Bill Janklow, who said he had terminal brain cancer, shaped his legacy with bold ideas and a label-defying philosophy, observers said.
"Bill Janklow's politics was Bill Janklow," John Schaff, a political science professor at Northern State University in Aberdeen, told the Rapid City Journal in an interview published Sunday. "So if it meant trying to get dental care for people, he'd get them dental care. If it meant cutting deals with credit card companies, he cut deals. It meant doing whatever it took to consolidate his power and get done what he wanted to get done."
Janklow, a Republican, was a legal aid lawyer from 1966 to 1973, pushing a number of cases to the U.S. Supreme Court.
"Bill Janklow argued before the U.S. Supreme Court no fewer than eight times, and maybe more, as a legal-aid attorney," said Sioux Falls lawyer Scott Heidepriem, an ex-state legislator and unsuccessful Democratic candidate for governor in 2010. "He was there defending Native Americans on issues important to them. I don't think he gets a lot of credit for that, and he really should."
Schaff said Janklow's over-the-top personality and political successes might have contributed to a sense of entitlement, the Journal said. His career as a U.S. House member ended barely a year after it began early in 2004 after Janklow was convicted of manslaughter and stripped of his license to practice law. Janklow said he was impaired by a diabetic reaction when he drove through a rural stop sign that led to a fatal collision with motorcyclist.
While seemingly unapologetic, Janklow expressed remorse about the crash during a news conference at his law office in Sioux Falls Friday.
"I did what I felt was right," Janklow said during a news conference Friday. "If I had it to do over again, I'd do everything I did, except I'd stop at a stop sign."
"He did a great deal of good for this state. But there was also an arrogance there, that the rules didn't apply to him," Schaff said. "Sometimes powerful people can't see the truth of things. So Bill Janklow was so powerful and so seemingly bullet-proof, and this thing he was responsible for, irresponsible driving, ends up ruining his political career."
