One down at the GOP office.
Some of what I had mentioned in passing as changes happening at the GOP office seems to filtering out. Word I’m hearing from an independent source tonight that GOP Finance Director Jewel Breard is no longer with the state party as of Friday, primarily because of the actions of her husband Lee Breard.
It’s really too bad, because I don’t think there’s anyone I know of who dislikes Jewel, including myself. I’ve always thought she was exceptionally pleasant to deal with. However… her husband’s organization, as well as the SDCAC’s scorched earth tactics this last election weighed around her neck like a massive iron anchor.
(For those of you wondering, I don’t dislike Lee either. I’ve shared a beer with him before, and I daresay I may do it again. But on the other hand, there’s no way I’m going to idly stand by while he tries to wreck the GOP and call it’s elected officials corrupt with no evidence, either.)
Having been the person who notarized the documents creating the SDCAC as a legal entity, as well as having access to the complete donor files of the South Dakota Republican Party was just too much of a security risk for many in the party to feel terribly comfortable with.
What I’m hearing was the last straw was the infamous fundraising letter that Lee sent out blistering the Governor, the Senate Majority Leader, the GOP State Senators, etc.
That set the stage, and now that the election is over, there wasn’t much of anything preventing them from doing what they thought was necessary.
I’d personally like to wish Jewel well in her future endeavors, and hopefully her husband’s political crusades won’t serve as a detraction for her employment again.
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Comments
Does it state a specific position? Good place for Max. He’ll continue to do absolutely nothing there too. Is he headed to DC?
Enough with ripping Max and the other state party staffers! it wasn’t a easy year for any of us. We ran state wide races with less than mediocrity and that is what we ended the races with. The state party needs organization. 2010 will be much different in terms of money and enthusiasm.
In 2006 Rounds was a shoe-in and Whalen had 0% chance. In ‘08 Lien had 0 percent chance and Dykstra had a 10% chance.
Max had a rough couple years but tell me if it was easy in your county to organize volunteers or expand the base. In ‘04 it was easy because people came in and volunteered for ThunevDaschle we just had to put them to work. in 06 & 08 we had to go find them and motivate them.
Thune could have helped out once in a while this year aswell! If people would have done what he did for Dykstra he wouldn’t be a Senator today!
Toad at 3:57….isn’t it the state party’s job to help statewide candidates? What the hell did they do for Chris and Joel? The state GOP is in a shambles because it got complacent. It took a wake-up call two weeks ago to finally get them thinking.
As for enthusiasm in 2010, good luck with that when the state party couldn’t get it together in a year with a presidential election.
Anon @ 6:39
What the hell did Chris and Joel do for themselves?
In a presidential year? SD always goes for the Republican and volunteers know that. To have enthusiasm you need a competitive state wide race. The 2010 Governors race will be the race.
The State wide candidates are the ones that drive the enthusiasm for local party volunteers. If you walked into a restaurant a week before election day how many people could have told you who Lien and Dykstra were? let alone think they had a shot? or why they are running?
Presidential politics has very little to do with anything in SD.
Maybe the state party didn’t do a great job but know one was going to win with Dykstra or Lien. Lien was a good candidate but didn’t create any enthusiasm and lost nearly as bad as Whalen! She looks like a rockstar because she is basically running against ghost candidates!
‘08
Herseth 67%
Lien 32% – you had the potential to keep her under 60%!
‘06
Herseth 69%
Whalen 29%
‘04
Herseth 53%
Diedrick 45.9% – these are the voters who need to be reminded why they didn’t support her originally!
The state party wasn’t a great machine for Joel or Chris but with John Thune off anywhere other than SD and Rounds off doing whatever the Governor does and Daugaard raising money for 2010.
I guess the state party staffers don’t have very good role models.
Hey Toad…I know that both Chris and Joel worked very hard. But if you think they are such “ghost” candidates…then doesn’t the state party have some responsibility for not recruiting good people to run for office???
Bout time…Karl waited a lot longer than I would have.