Republican Representative Stace Nelson represents parts of Hanson, McCook and Minnehaha counties.
Within the last week, Nelson says he has been kicked out of the Republican House Caucus and that his ability to speak openly on the House floor during debate has been suspended.
Nelson claims this is retribution for openly questioning how state government conducts it's business.
House leadership says that is not the case...but acknowledges that Nelson is being watched because of an incident that happened on the House floor last week.
Representative Stace Nelson has a prominent seat in the South Dakota House.
Right in the front row in front of the speaker's rostrum.
It is a seat he was moved to last week, after an admitted disagreement with another house member last Tuesday. "About 5:45, I saw Representative Moser on the House floor, I approached him. I said very respectfully I would like to talk to you and see if we can't resolve this."
Representative Moser is Representative Nick Moser of Yankton. Also a Republican. Nelson says Moser had engaged him in heated debate on the House floor and Nelson wanted to make peace. "The conversation soon degraded. He was outraged, berated me a little bit, frankly I....I got a little tired of being berated about trying to handle something civilly. When I turned away, I made a...kind of a flippant comment to him which made the situation worse."
Representative Nelson didn't tell me what the comment was.
Representative Moser tells me Nelson told him quote "If you come at me like that again, I will bury you alive".
Moser declined my request to appear on camera, as did the Speaker of the House.
But House Speaker Val Rausch tells me that he has invited Representative Nelson to his office to speak about the altercation with Representative Moser. So far, Representative Nelson has not accepted that invitation. And the speaker says he is upset that he hasn't had a chance to figure out what's really going on here.
Nelson tells me at a result of his disagreement with Representative Moser, he is being targeted for retribution by house leadership. "My freedom of speech rights as a representative had been suspended by the Speaker of the House."
Untrue says House Speaker Val Rausch, who says he will call on Nelson is he rises to speak.
But after last week's disagreement, Representative Nelson now sits front and center in the house, right in front of Speaker Val Rausch.
Representative Nelson says he was removed from the House Ag Committee after alleging house leaders were breaking the rules by trying to gain access to confidential details of proposed legislation being reviewed by the Legislative Research Council.
House Speaker Val Rausch tells me Nelson was removed, in part, because of escalating disagreements with Ag Secretary Walt Bones over a proposed dairy operation in Hanson County.
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