SD-Sen: The NRSC's "heavyweight"? Hardly

Big decision this week for one South Dakota Republican:

WASHINGTON -- Former Republican Lt. Gov. Steve Kirby says he will decide within the next week whether to challenge South Dakota Sen. Tim Johnson this November.

I'm undecided but I am working feverishly on trying to come up with a decision in the next seven days," Kirby said Thursday.

The NRSC's been bragging about an imminent announcement of a "heavyweight" candidate for the race, but does Kirby really qualify? It would, at best, be a stretch.

Job Approval

Tim Johnson
Favorable: 64
Unfavorable: 18

Steve Kirby
Favorable: 14
Unfavorable: 18

Thinking about the election for U.S. Senate in November 2008, if the election for Senate were held today and the candidates were Democrat Tim Johnson and Republican Steve Kirby – for whom would you vote, Tim Johnson or Steve Kirby?

Johnson (D) 66
Kirby (R) 29

Now this might be a fun race, nonetheless. I mean, how often do Democrats get to run against a guy whose venture capital fund invested in a company that stole skin off cadavers?

Following information on the Web site of Kirby's Bluestem Venture Capital, they began investigating Collagenesis, a Massachussetts-based company backed by Bluestem to the tune of a million dollars.

Two years before, Collagenesis had been the subject of an investigative series by the Orange County (California) Register that discovered the company had obtained donated cadaver skin and processed it into a very expensive product called Dermalogen, that was widely used in cosmetic surgery. The skin from one cadaver produced $36,000 worth of Dermalogen, which was used primarily to enlarge lips and smooth out wrinkles.

The Register expose thoroughly demonstrated that the cadavers were donated to tissue banks by family members who had no idea the remains of their loved ones were being used for profit in the cosmetic surgery industry. While it is against federal law to buy or sell tissue for a profit, the law allows for "reasonable fees" to cover processing costs, without defining what is reasonable. The loophole had resulted in large amounts of donated skin being used for cosmetic surgery while thousands of severe burn victims went without desperately needed grafts.

"Companies like Collagenesis that sell to plastic surgeons can afford to pay tissue banks many times more for cadaver skin than burn centers can," the newspaper explained. The ensuing bad publicity eventually scared off the suppliers of Collagenesis and forced it into bankruptcy on December 28,2001.

The issue already helped cost Kirby his primary bid for governor, and it's not exactly the kind of story that has a shelf life. And if we're busy portraying Republicans as bottom feeders, does it get any worse than this?

But aside from that, is this really the guy on which the NRSC is pinning their South Dakota hopes?

If so, things are even bleaker in their world than previously expected.

Race tracker wiki: SD-Sen