Kristi Noem: I'm Not Sarah Palin

Jillian Bandes | October 20, 2010 10:47 AM

Republican Kristi Noem's impressive run against Stephanie Herseth Sandlin has yielded her a dead heat with the incumbent Democrat in the South Dakota House race. My interview with Noem is coming out later today, where she again distances herself from the claim that she's a Sarah Palin knock-off:

A lot of people have tried to put labels on me, but right now I'm focused on being Kristi Noem and getting my message out to South Dakotans.

Herseth Sandlin just came out with a long string of Republican endorsements, but letters like this from disgruntled South Dakotans show the underbelly of the state's political mood.

I'd rather have a real South Dakotan who has lived in this state and made her living here instead of someone with a fancy East Coast law degree any day.