The Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce just announced its four legislative coffees for 2014:

Saturday, Feb. 1: Districts 6, 9, 12 and 14, Hilton Garden Inn Downtown

Saturday, Feb. 8: Districts 10, 11, 12 and 15, Hilton Garden Inn Downtown

Saturday, Feb. 22: Districts 6, 9, 13 and 14, Hilton Garden Inn Downtown

Friday, Feb. 28: Districts 11, 12 and 15, Holiday Inn City Centre

The newly elected leadership of the Minnehaha County Republican Party has cancelled the alternative legislative forums the group had announced earlier this month.

Under previous chair Lora Hubbel, the party's central committee voted unanimously to hold its own forums at the same time as the traditional legislative coffees sponsored by the Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce.

Supporters of the decision said the Chamber-sponsored forums saw audiences and moderation biased against conservatives.

Now those alternative forums, the first of which was scheduled for Saturday, won't happen.

"The legislative cracker barrels provide a forum for elected officials to update the public regarding legislative progress and receive constituent feedback," the county party wrote in a news release sent out early Wednesday morning. "The cracker barrels also provide an important opportunity for legislators to outline pro-growth solutions for creating jobs, keeping taxes low, and creating a brighter future for the next generation."

The release was unsigned. The new chair of the Minnehaha County Republican Party is Dave Roetman.

At the Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce's legislator breakfast this morning, Rep. Manny Steele was asked about his support for the Minnehaha County Republican Party's alternative legislative forums.

He mostly repeated the arguments he made to me yesterday, which you can read about in my full story here.

Steele did add this morning that he wishes the two forums were at different times, so he and others could attend both.

The Minnehaha County GOP scheduled its forums for the same time as the Chamber-sponsored coffees.

But the bigger news may have come afterwards, when moderator Jack Marsh asked the roughly 22 legislators present if they would attend the GOP forum.

Other than Steele, not a single one stood up.

Now, this was a Chamber breakfast, so lawmakers on the fence may have felt a little leery about declaring their opposition to the Chamber-sponsored forum. Yesterday a few said they'd consider going to the GOP forum on the weeks when their districts were not featured in the Chamber forums, though at least one later emailed me to say he'd changed his mind and would only go to the Chamber's event.

And several local legislators weren't present Thursday morning.

Here's something you don't see every day: a state party throwing its county affiliate under the bus.

I just got this email from Tony Post, executive director of the South Dakota Republican Party, responding to the decision of the Minnehaha County Republican Party to boycott legislative coffees sponsored by the Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce and set up their own, competing forums:

The South Dakota Republican Party is happy to partner with the Sioux Falls Chamber if the local party is not. A couple of rogue elements in the Minnehaha group certainly does not not speak for the party at large. 

In fact, this latest episode from Lora Hubbel speaks volumes. The chamber provides a forum for accountability and disparate views, which the SDGOP certainly supports. 

We are working with the Sioux Falls legislators and Chamber and will look forward to the regularly scheduled program. 

The vote at the Minnehaha County Republican Party central committee to set up their own legislative forum was reportedly unanimous among the people there, though not all voting members were present.

Manny Steele and Lora Hubbel have criticized the moderation of the League of Women Voters at Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce legislative coffees, saying the questions chosen to be asked to the lawmakers are overwhelmingly liberal.

"As it stands, no conservative in the audience has much of a chance of addressing their legislator," wrote Hubbel. "They will be blocked out of the process and only progressives will be allowed to badger, ridicule, eye-roll and interrogate our Republican representatives."

Is that true? You can judge for yourself, at least for last year. Anne Thompson, the president of the local League of Women Voters chapter, compiled a list of the questions asked and unasked at the 2012 legislative coffees. I've uploaded them for people to take a look.

Jan. 28 forum (Thompson only compiled the unasked questions for that event)

Feb. 4 forum (all submitted questions)

Feb. 11 forum (all submitted questions)

The Minnehaha County Republican Party is setting up its own legislative forums to compete with ones sponsored by the Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce.

(UPDATE: Read an expanded report here.)

Upset with what they see as liberal audiences and moderators at the Chamber-sponsored legislative coffees, the Minnehaha County GOP will hold four question-and-answer sessions with legislators in January and February. All of the sessions will be held at the same time as the Chamber's longstanding forums.

Rep. Manny Steele, R-Sioux Falls, said the county GOP decided to make the move after the Chamber of Commerce and the League of Women Voters weren't responsive to concerns from himself and Minnehaha County Republican Party chair Lora Hubbel.

"It's fairly obvious that (the League of Women Voters is) a very left-leaning, progressive, liberal group," said Steele. "If there are some Republicans in it, I don't even know."

He said the audiences at recent Chamber legislative coffees have been "at least four out of five liberals" and said many conservatives complain about their questions not being asked.

In an email to members of the Minnehaha County GOP, Hubbel said "no conservative in the audience has much of a chance of addressing their legislator."

"They will be blocked out of the process and only progressives will be allowed to badger, ridicule, eye-roll and interrogate our Republican representatives," Hubbel wrote.

The League is "so adamant about having control of everything, we might as well have our own," Steele said.

He said he had no qualms about scheduling the forums at the same time as the Chamber's.

"Those who feel they want to go to the other one, they're certainly free to do so," Steel said.

The central committee of the Minnehaha County Republican Party voted unanimously to hold their own forums.

Bob O'Connell, the public affairs and communications director for the Chamber, said he disagrees with the accusations from Steele and Hubbel.

"The questions aren't biased against them," O'Connell said. "For the most part, the questions are just asked and the legislators can choose to answer or not answer."

He said the Chamber agreed this year to give lawmakers 90 seconds each to talk about whatever they wanted, in case they topics they care about don't come up. That was in response to Republican Party concerns raised at planning meetings, he said.

"We do this as a public service for people, so people can address their legislators and have been doing this for many, many, many years," O'Connell said. "I hope that legislators show up for these."

The Minnehaha County Republican Party and the Siouxland Republican Women had proposed giving the Siouxland Republican Women a role in running the forums, which the other sponsors of the forum rejected.

"I would have preferred to be able to coordinate this thing and share the control of it, and have it all together," Steele said. "But this has gone on for so long, it's finally got to the point that someone is willing to step forward and do something about it."

A message left with the League of Women Voters was not immediately returned.

Darrell Solberg, the chairman of the Minnehaha County Democratic Party, dismissed Republican concerns and suggested Steele and Hubbel didn't like answering tough questions.

"If legislators are afraid to appear before their constituents and answer questions, then I ask what are they doing as legislators?" Solberg said.

Steele said he's happy to answer questions from anyone, but feels the Chamber-sponsored forums are unfair.

The Argus Leader will continue to update this story throughout today.

The Chamber's scheduled legislative coffees are:

Saturday, Jan. 26, 10 a.m.-noon, Holiday Inn City Centre International Rooms, Districts 6, 11, 12 & 15

Saturday, Feb. 2, 10-11:30 a.m., Holiday Inn City Centre Starlite Room, Districts 9, 13 & 14

Saturday, Feb. 9, 10-11:30 a.m., Holiday Inn City Centre Starlite Room, Districts 11, 12 & 15

Saturday, Feb. 23, 10 a.m.-noon, Holiday Inn City Centre International Rooms, Districts 6, 9, 13 & 14

The Minnehaha County Republican Party's scheduled legislative forums are:

Saturday, Jan. 26, 10 a.m.-noon, Ramada Hotel & Suites auditorium

Saturday, Feb. 2, 10 a.m.-noon, Ramada Hotel & Suites auditorium

Saturday, Feb. 9, 10 a.m.-noon, Ramada Hotel & Suites auditorium

This is unconfirmed by the Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce, which hasn't responded to my messages this afternoon. But Tom Cool of the Democratic Forum, who helped negotiate some of the rules for the event, told the Democratic group today the schedule for the legislative coffees is finalized. According to Cool, Sioux Falls citizens can question their legislators en masse on the following dates:

Jan. 26, 2013: Lawmakers from districts 6, 11, 12 and 15

Feb. 2: Districts 9, 13 and 14

Feb. 9: Districts 11, 12 and 15

Feb. 23: Districts 6, 9, 13 and 14

All the legislative coffees are sponsored by the Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce, start at 10 a.m. and are held at the Holiday Inn City Centre. They'll last between 90 minutes and two hours, depending on whether there's three or four districts featured.