Wes is a formal general, Tom is a slightly-conservative-leaning Democrat. That campaign that former railway lobbyist and US Rep John Thune ran against him was pretty noisey but I always thought it lacked substance.
Senator Tim Johnson of SD is a highly-regarded senator, and he actually beat Thune back in 2002 (by less than 600 votes, but that was during the rising Republican tide), and he has (or at least had) a son serving in the military in Iraq.
A midwestern-based Democrat will still get the base liberal vote in the Northeast and the Left Coast and turn enough midwestern and Old South votes to maybe win. The weakness is that winning the home state does not count much in the electoral college. South Dakota and North Dakota only have 3 votes each, but carrying the Dakotas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Nebraska must count for something. Maybe even Missouri.
He he he.... looking at the Survey USA page from August 2005 shows Holy Joe Lieberman at #6 with 68% approval, in October 2006 he's 72nd with only 50%...
Anyway, Tim Johnson is ranked 5th, and he's the 3rd highest ranking Democrat on the list. And his term expires in 2008.
http://www.surveyusa.com/50State2006/100USSenatorApproval061024Net.htm