SIOUX FALLS, SD (KELO-AM) President Obama, Hillary Clinton, Pope Francis and Cain and Abel are all being used in the high stakes debate over Initiated Measure 21 in South Dakota.
IM-21, one of 10 ballot measures this November would cap payday and title loan rates at 36 percent.
Cain killing Abel instead of being his brothers keeper was used by Sister Pegge Boehm with the Presentation Sisters on Friday to argue in favor of the rate cap.
"Just as Pope Francis reminds us that we today thousands of years later remain responsible for taking care of one another," said Sister Pegge, during a unusual press teleconference featuring both conservative and liberal religious and community leaders supporting IM-21.
A group opposed to the 36 percent rate cap, largely funded by the payday loan industry, is running TV spots that link cap supporters to President Obama and Hillary Clinton.
"Obama and Hillary. They have been lying for years. Obamacare, Benghazi, emails. Now they're allies in South Dakota are lying about Measure 21," intones the deep-voiced narrator.
But former Sioux Falls pastor and state lawmaker, Steve Hickey, said at the teleconference that there is "probably unprecedented" bi-partisan support for IM-21.
"We have the political left and the political right working closely together to cap interest rates. We have the religious left and the religious right working together." said Hickley, on the line all the way from his studies in Aberdeen, Scotland. Groups as politically opposite as South Dakota AARP and the Family Heritage Alliance support the measure.
But rate cap opponents argue that it would keep many South Dakotans from getting much needed short term loans. They are pushing a competing measure - an 18 percent cap unless the customer consents in writing to a higher rate. Critics say it's a smokescreen and amounts to no cap at all.
