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A timeline of Bill Janklow's career
September 5, 2003

Some events in the life and career of U.S. Rep. and former four-term Gov. Bill Janklow of South Dakota.

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1939 - William J. Janklow is born Sept. 13 in Chicago and moves with his family to Germany, where his father is a prosecutor during the Nuremberg war crimes trials.

1950 - After the death of Janklow's father, his mother and her six children move back to her hometown of Flandreau, S.D.

1956 - Facing a charge for juvenile delinquency, Janklow drops out of high school and joins the Marines.

1960 - Janklow talks his way into the University of South Dakota without a high school diploma and works his way through college and law school.

1966-1973 - Janklow serves as a legal-aid lawyer on the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation.

1973 - Janklow is hired to lead the prosecution of cases involved alleged crimes by American Indian activists.

1974 - Janklow runs for his first statewide public office and is elected attorney general.

1975 - Janklow is among those responding with weapons when a Hayti family visiting the Capitol is held hostage in a fourth-floor committee room.

1978 - Janklow defeats Democrat Roger McKellips of Alcester to become governor at age 39.

1980 - The new governor persuades the Legislature to buy a core railroad line to counter abandonments of track by private companies. Janklow also persuades lawmakers to uncap interest rates, which brings Citibank to the state.

1981 - Janklow negotiates a deal with Energy Transportation Systems Inc. to market Missouri River water for a West River pipeline and a coal-slurry delivery system. The deal is discontinued three years later.

1982 - Janklow wins a second term against Democrat Mike O'Connor.

1984 - Janklow leads a move to close the University of South Dakota at Springfield and turn it into a coed prison.

1986 - Janklow loses to GOP Sen. Jim Abdnor in a Senate primary election, finishes his term as governor and begins a private law practice.

1994 - A year after Republican Gov. George Mickelson dies in an airplane crash, Janklow announces he'll run for governor. The decision sets up a primary battle with Gov. Walter D. Miller, Mickelson's lieutenant governor and the chief executive following the April 1993 crash. Some political analysts predict the contest will weaken the GOP the way the Janklow-Abdnor primary race did eight years earlier.

Janklow wins 54 percent of the primary vote, then takes the general election with a 55-41 percent win over Democrat Jim Beddow of Mitchell.

1995 - Janklow takes the oath of office for the third time, becoming the first South Dakotan to return to the governor's office after serving the allowable two terms and sitting out.

His key legislative proposal is a 30 percent cut in property taxes for homes and farmland. After a major fight over a Janklow proposal to tax medical services as part of the replacement revenue, the governor and legislators settle on a 20 percent reduction and a promise to finish the job in coming years. He does persuade legislators to boost the state share of video lottery income to 50 percent. Janklow cuts 755 state positions and restructures numerous departments. Janklow also persuades legislators to change state aid to a per-student funding system.

1996 - At Janklow's urging, legislators agree to give the Department of Corrections the authority to place juvenile offenders. The state-owned center for people with developmental disabilities is closed and turned into a boot camp and youth detention program for juveniles. The State Training School near Plankinton has program changes and adds a juvenile prison.

1997 - During a winter and spring of severe blizzards and floods, Janklow is on the scene at most disasters, ordering the use of adult inmates to sandbag and perform other emergency services. It's part of an ongoing Janklow initiative to use prison labor for such things as wiring schools for new technology, fighting forest fires and performing state maintenance on buildings and grounds.

1998 - Angered by federal refusals to enforce trade rules, Janklow orders inspection of grain and livestock shipped into state from Canada but lifts the order when trade talks are scheduled. In the wake of a tornado that kills six people in Spencer on a late May evening, Janklow drives through the storm and directs recovery and cleanup. After the legislative session, Janklow checks into the Mayo Clinic for surgery for diverticulitis.

1999 - Janklow begins an unprecedented fourth term as governor after a November election in which he receives 64 percent of the vote, and his closest challenger, Democrat Bernie Hunhoff of Yankton, receives 33 percent.
That summer, things appear to be unraveling in the juvenile corrections programs created during the previous Janklow term. A 14-year-old girl, Gina Score, dies after a forced run at the State Training School. Janklow blames rogue employees.

2000 - After repeatedly warning that federal forest policies have created a tinderbox in the Black Hills, Janklow rushes to the Custer area to be personally involved in efforts to stop the fast-moving Jasper fire, which burns more than 80,000 acres in the southern hills before it is contained. The experience prompts Janklow to start a more than $20 million project to upgrade radio communication and create a unified system.

2001 - As the number of juveniles being placed with the Department of Corrections drops, Janklow announces the decision to close the 113-year-old State Training School and place the remaining 57 juveniles in private programs in South Dakota and out of state. He says Medicaid will pay half of the cost if the juveniles are in private programs.

2002 - Limited for the second time in his life from serving a third consecutive term as governor, Janklow announces he'll run for the state's lone seat in Congress. He wins a five-way Republican primary, then defeats newcomer Stephanie Herseth, whose grandfather was a Democratic governor in 1959.

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