Allow a native son this one indulgence: The Dakota Effect

The Dakota Effect
from The Monkey Cage by Lee Sigelman

by David Kranz in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader

What's the Dakota Effect? Well, it starts with the curious fact that North and South Dakota have sent many sons and daughters off to Congress, many representing other states. The 107th Congress included 15 native Dakotans - only six of whom actually represented their home states, Sigelman and Young wrote.

"If challenged to do so," they wrote, "relatively few Americans could find North and South Dakota on a map, let along correctly name, spell and pronounce the capitals of the two states."

Then it becomes even more harsh, suggesting that it would be hard to find anything interesting in the two states - except maybe Mount Rushmore. A typical Dakotan, they write, is "the fellow from Sioux Falls who loved his wife so much that he almost told her."