More PAC wars out in Rapid City. And I must have missed that note.

Posted by PP at the SDWC

May 30, 2007

The Rapid City Journal is reporting this morning that there’s a PAC war afoot in the mayor’s race between Doug Hamilton and Stan Adelstein as the hours tick away before the election:

Shaw reported $70,499 in two payments from the Elect Better Government PAC, which is linked to businessman Doug Hamilton. Another $250 was received from the South Dakota Realtors PAC.

and…

Alan Hanks has raised about $22,000 including about $10,000 of his own money, $8,754 in individual contributions and $3,250 in PAC contributions, primarily $3,000 from the All South Dakota PAC funded by Stan Adelstein.

and…

Sam Kooiker raised about $20,800, including $14,128 from individuals, and $6,700 from PACs including $5,650 from the Committee for Open Government, $800 from the homebuilders PAC and $250 from the Realtors PAC. Kooiker reported $18,265 in campaign-related expenses, and he has about $2,800 remaining.

and…

All South Dakota PAC, whose only contribution was Stan Adelstein’s $7,000, gave $1,000 to city council candidate Bob Hurlbut, $3,000 to mayoral candidate Alan Hanks, $1,000 to school board candidate Margie Rosario, $500 to city council candidate Deb Hadcock, and $1,000 to city council candidate Ron Kroeger.

Read the entire story here.

Hmph. You know, I seem to recall a comment under a post from Representative Hanks which stated:

Rep. Alan Hanks said…

Let me put a stop to all speculation right now.

If I win, Adelstein has already told folks including the Governors folks that he would not ask for or accept an appoint to the open House seat.

As for campaign donations from Adelstein, I have not accepted or been offered any.

If Adelstein offers to donate to my campaign, either as an individual or through any PAC, and if I accept any donation from Adelstein, I have promised PP to report it to him, even if it’s only $10, the day I receive it.

Rep. Alan Hanks

Read that comment here under this post. I think Alan (who has advertised here in the past) is a nice guy, but I know that since he made this post on April 4th, my e-mail box hasn’t said anything about him deciding that, yes, he would take PAC money from Stan Adelstein in the mayoral race.

What was the genesis of this? Alan had chided me as trying to make overt attempts to connect him to Stan because I had brought up that in the past, he had ran a PAC - the Rapid City Action Committee -

who’s sole source of income was the same Adelstein PAC which donated to him in this mayoral campaign.

I wasn’t trying to overtly make the connection, but it’s in black and white filed with the state that “his” PAC’s sole source of income was one of Stan’s network of PAC’s. So I thought it noteworthy to indicate.

Hence the assurances as posted on this website by Alan that if he was going to take PAC money from Stan, there would be full disclosure beyond what was in the financial report in the interest of being completely open and honest. And I think you all know that I would have printed it.

If a State Representative sends me something, it’s at the top of my list, and I usually take pains to be fair and let them offer their opinion. For gosh’s sakes, I even give Frank Kloucek space from time to time. I might not agree, but I do honor the office, and those guys are there, not me. And as much as I’ve chronicled Stan’s PAC activity, it’s a guarantee I would have made note of it.

Anyway, according to the Rapid City Journal this morning, yes, Alan did take campaign money from one of Stan’s PAC’s in this mayoral race. The very one that had funded his PAC in 2006.

Did he honor the promise he made to the people who read this website? All I can say is that in the past month, I haven’t seen an e-mail of that nature. Not a blurb in my in-box on him deciding to accept the same PAC money he had eschewed earlier. In fact I double checked again this morning. And checked again after that. Nope. Nothing I can see.

That would seem to bring up a cliché about campaign promises, but I’m on the other side of the state, so whether they are honored or not in this instance doesn’t matter to me. It’s up to the people who assess the candidates for office to determine who is the most fit to be considered their leader.

So, I’ll leave it up to the voters to decide. All I can provide at this point is an anecdote.

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