The Money Race for Governor – Jackley versus Noem.

After the report this past weekend noting that Gubernatorial Candidate Marty Jackley is bringing Sioux Falls Attorney and Gubernatorial scion Russ Janklow onto his campaign team and setting him to work for fundraising, it indicates that Marty isn’t letting anything to chance in the dollar race for Governor.

But how are they really doing? The Year End reports are in, and they illustrate a few interesting points about the two main Republican candidates for Governor, Attorney General Marty Jackley, and Congresswoman Kristi Noem.

Jackley for Gov 2016 Year End Report by Pat Powers on Scribd

And here are the year end reports (State and FEC) for Congresswoman Noem:

Kristi Noem 2016 Year End Reports State and FEC by Pat Powers on Scribd

What do we notice about these reports?  Here’s the tale of the tape.

Jackley: 1,012,233.42 Raised. 11,311.14 Spent. 1,000,922 Cash on Hand. And of the money raised, 2,447.11 was unitemized ($100 or under), 223,850 was itemized, 1,500 came in from unaffiliated PAC’s, and he transferred over $367,475.83 to his campaign account from a Marty Jackley PAC.

Noem: 1,834,259.49 Raised. 27,124.09 Spent. 1,807,135.40 Cash on Hand. Of the money raised, 7,997.62 was unitemized or in amount of less than $100. 211,690 was itemized. 1.6 Million was transferred from her House Account and another 14,500 was raised from Congressional House members. Noem also Filed a federal report noting $5800 Raised, 144,895 Spent, and 76,500 cash on hand for her Congressional account.

Kristi is coming into the contest with a couple of advantages. The obvious one is that she has an $800,000 advantage over team Jackley.  But looking at the reports also indicate that her “grassroots cash” is stronger – she’s posting nearly $8000 in unitemized contributions, versus Jackley’s amount just under $2,500.

Why is that? I would suggest because Kristi has had some tough contests along the way, and she’s had to work for every campaign dollar. And, she’s had to cultivate that donor base. The curse of being a Congressperson is that you’re in constant, almost never-ending campaign mode.  Herseth was arguably the best the Dems had to offer in recent years, and it was a fight. Varilek gave an effective show. Corinna Robinson… well, you know that one, but Paula Hawks showed a few signs of life.

Compare that to Marty’s races. He was appointed in 2009. In 2010 he faced… Ron Volesky. Not exactly a race to generate a need for fundraising.  Even worse, in 2014, he was for all practical purposes, unopposed. His opponent was Libertarian Chad Haber, Annette Bosworth’s husband. I’m not sure Chad had a college degree, and he certainly didn’t have a law degree. Two races, 4 years apart with nearly the worst (as in lowest quality) candidates the universe could roll the dice with.

Marty has shown he can raise money, as his overall total is quite respectable. But he’s going to need to spin up his small donor program quickly, as Noem’s is never spun down.

Another thing to notice – There is literally NO cross pollination among donors in the year end report. There was one that appeared to be husband/wife (Duane Harms 3k to Jackley – Barbara Reed Harms 1k to Noem), but that’s all I caught with a brief scan.   Marty’s list is heavy with those in the legal profession, as you might expect, but there’s a lot of familiar names on both lists.

The Jackley list boasts notable donors such as Dave Bockorny, a few Bradsky’s from Rapid City, John Calvin of Watertown, Several Lien’s in Rapid City, Karl Fischer of Ft. Pierre, Grant Houwman of Sioux Falls, Pat Prostrollo from Madison, former Governor Frank Farrar of Britton, current US Attorney Randy Seiler, and Buffalo Chip tycoon Rod Woodruff.

And several legislators/former legislators such as Jerry Apa, Blake Curd, David Lust, Liz May, Mac McCracken, John Mills, Scott Munsterman, Dave Knudson, Betty Olson, Tona Rozum, and Mike Vehle.

Who did Noem collect checks from this year? Her list includes , Dana Dykhouse, Tom Everist, Harvey Jewett IV and V, Several Kirby’s, Al Kurtenbach, Dr. Looby and wife of Sioux Falls, Several of the Moyle’s in Rapid City, Larry Pressler and wife, Bart Sugarman and his wife Mary Hart of Beverly Hills, and others.

Her legislative donor list includes Dave Billion, Kim Vanneman, and Matt McCaulley.  Larry Rhoden’s wife Sandy also sent a check.

Looking at the lists, Jackley’s itemized state donor list makes up for the deficit in unitemized contribution numbers, coming in twice as large in number than Noem’s, (roughly $125 to $250). But on a per donor basis, Noem rules the roost again posting numbers where she comes in better than a $1700 average per donor, as compared to Jackley at around $925 per donor. (I’m rounding, so don’t quibble).

Some of this may be skewed a bit, with Kristi having just come off of a Congressional election where her resources were devoted to raising money for that race, and Marty has had the field to himself.

But, if it was skewed for that reason, Noem’s already competitive donor numbers could be even stronger with the report to be filed next year at a time when they’re more evenly matched. It may also show more accurately how the two compare on a head to head basis.

Stay tuned – 2018 is around the corner, and the race is on in full force!

17 thoughts on “The Money Race for Governor – Jackley versus Noem.”

  1. Interesting analysis, but you left out the fact that most of Noem’s money came from out-of-state through her federal account. You tout her “grassroots” money, when in fact most of her money is from out-of-state. Looks like almost all of Jackley’s money came from in-state.

    1. True, if you start getting into what was transferred, but that was raised for a different type of race. I’m more concerned with what’s happened from the time of announcement on out, as that’s more of a level playing field.

      1. From an article I found while googling the subject:
        (The below appears to be written by someone who doesn’t like her)
        If Rep. Noem really doesn’t want out-of-state interests advising us on South Dakota politics, then she surely will only transfer $706K of her $1.9M campaign kitty to her new gubernatorial campaign committee, since that’s the trackable amount (72% of her itemized individual contributions, 2% of her PAC contributions, 34% of that combined $2.1M haul) that came from South Dakota donors.

        Read that again: for every dollar Noem raised from South Dakotans, she raised two dollars from the out-of-state special interest groups that she cites as enough reason to check No on your ballot.

        Point #2:

        How much did Jackley spend against Chad Haber and why? I noticed he spent at least $160k running in 2014 for reelection against a libertarian with $130k going to advertising.

        That money would help narrow the gap he has now in this election.

    2. The documents that Pat posted don’t show “most of Noem’s money” coming from out-of-state. My recollection from her previous FEC reports is that the majority of her individual donations are from in-state folks. And if you look at her year-end report for her Gov account, the vast majority of those donations are from in-state.

      1. I noticed her individual donors are from SD but the vast amounts of money raised was not from individuals. Either way I don’t know that it is an issue that will matter. Marty will make her look like she is using DC money to run for SD Governor and she will try to tie him to Pierre and it’s time for a change.

        I’m not sure that Kristi is DC enough for those attacks to work and I’m not sure that someone coming from DC saying we need a change in Pierre works either.

        Hopefully they run on their merits and who the people choose works out well for the next 4-8 yeas!

  2. For what it is worth, if you check Kristi’s FEC reports, there ends up being a lot more cross pollination of donors, as that is where she was raising most of her money during the last year.

  3. This out of state money hysteria is ridiculous. Since our paper money is engraved and printed in Washington DC and Ft Worth, and our coins are minted in Denver, Philadelphia etc. it’s ALL out of state money.
    When a candidate pays for his entire campaign with coyote pelts, bales of hay, bushels of corn, sides of beef, rashers of bacon and so on, then he can complain about everybody else’s out of state money. South Dakota doesn’t have any in-state money.

  4. Both Jackley and Noem are SD candidates…no one questions that, so i don’t care if they get their money in or out of state

    the problem with out of state money is when there is very little support in the state for the candidate OR the ballot issue…when it is out of state effort to change our state that is a problem.

    Noem is a federal office holder and Marty was president of AG Association they both will get some out of state money

    I fully expect Noem to win money race…she has broader support nationally and connections to DC and outside groups…but Marty will have enough to compete.

    Frankly I think we get to wrapped up about money….I am more interested in their ideas and they both will be able to get them out with the money they have and will raise in this state.

    right now I don’t know why either is running though…what is their reason or vision

    1. I agree with most of this. Neither of these candidates are going to get the majority of their money in this race from out of state. Their year end reports clearly show that they both have strong support in the state and neither of them will be lacking for money when it comes time to start spending.

  5. A review of the Mickelson’s contribution report discloses that there really isn’t much crossover between donors for the then three candidates. A few SF donors, Dykhouse in particular switched to Noem but the bulk of them are up for grabs. Russ Janklow’s involvement will be critical to switch those donors to Jackley. They all got their money back and it is probably burning a hole in their pockets. Watch where the 10k contributors go.

    1. Two of Mickelson’s: went to Jackley. Jewett went from Jackley to big time Noem.

      Dykhouse went to Noem. That’s interesting.

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