The Legislature’s super-majorities of Republicans repealed IM22 three weeks ago, after voters had approved it in the Nov. 8 election.

Legislators passed the repeal with an emergency clause, meaning it would go into effect upon the governor’s signature. On Feb. 2, Gov. Dennis Daugaard made it a done deal.

Now, two weeks later, the Legislature is scrambling. Thursday is the self-imposed deadline for a piece of legislation to receive final action in the chamber where it originated.

Some of the Republicans acknowledged in recent days they could fall short of fulfilling their vows to uphold the wishes of the voters who supported IM22.

The legislation dealing with IM22 has been flowing and has been stagnant, depending on the topic and the sponsor. On Tuesday alone, the House of Representatives has five ethics and campaign finance bills on its calendar for action. The Senate has one.

A bill the House will debate seeks to tighten restrictions against self-dealing by public officials on public contracts. House Bill 1170 is a follow-up by Rep. Mark Mickelson, R-Sioux Falls, to a conflict law he sponsored last year.

There are other bills still in the pipeline awaiting completion of the first hearings in their first committees. They seem to be facing the most difficulty, in part because they deal with some of the thorniest topics.

A major rewrite of campaign laws proposed by Secretary of State Shantel Krebs is under scrutiny in the Senate State Affairs Committee.

During the initial hearing on Senate Bill 54 last week, Krebs said the most frequent question she faced from voters during the 2016 election campaigns dealt with transparency of contributions to candidates and causes.

The committee dumped Krebs’ proposal for a campaign finance regulatory panel, but her finance amendments will come back up Wednesday in the Senate committee.

The committee also has another bill from Senate Republican leader Blake Curd of Sioux Falls regarding misconduct and a separate bill from Senate Democratic leader Billie Sutton of Burke that would forbid the conversion of campaign funds to private purposes by a candidate.

One of the other legs in IM22 was a state ethics commission. The Republican legislators who sued in December to get IM22 suspended said the commission was unconstitutional because it wasn’t attached to any existing office or department.

But legislators now are running into some of the same challenges as they try to decide what a commission would cover and how much power it should have.

Currently, violations of election laws seem to need to be felonies before the attorney general's office looks at them in most cases. The only independent power Krebs has as the state’s chief elections supervisor is fining people who file their financial reports late.

The House State Affairs Committee holds its first hearing Wednesday on the state government accountability board proposed in HB1076 by a bipartisan list of lawmakers led by Rep. Karen Soli, D-Sioux Falls.

The committee also holds its first hearing Wednesday on granting the secretary of state more authority to investigate complaints and levy fines up to $500 and to refer cases to the state Division of Criminal Investigation for possible prosecution and sanctions.

The prime sponsor of HB1089 is Rep. Larry Rhoden, R-Union Center. It has only Republicans as co-sponsors.

Each chamber has already approved some legislation.

The House voted to restrict gifts from lobbyists to public officials to a $100 limit and allow food and beverage up to $75 per occasion.

The Senate wants some conflicts of interest to be felonies rather than misdemeanors, wants fiscal analysis attached to ballot measures and wants higher standards for a proposed constitutional amendment to reach the ballot.

Those changes still need approval in the next chamber, but they’re not up against the Thursday deadline.

Both chambers are considering steps to continue studying the matters.

The House will debate bipartisan legislation by Rep. David Lust, R-Rapid City, to establish a temporary commission to look at the ballot measure process.

The Senate will debate a bill sponsored by Sen. Brock Greenfield, R-Clark, with extensive bipartisan backing, to establish a broader task force on campaign finance, lobbyists and ethics.

Responsibility for the fates of all of these bills ultimately falls on Republicans. They have 29 of the 35 Senate seats and 60 of the 70 House seats.

Beyond the promise to voters, there is another reason the Thursday deadline is crucial: Legislation must pass this year if it is to take effect for the 2018 election cycle, which starts Jan. 1.