SDGOP fundraising chair files to run for the SD Legislature. Pardon me? No, but it appears she might have received one.

No. Seriously.

The fundraising committee chair for the South Dakota Republican Party, as noted by the screen-shot from the SDGOP’s website, has filed petitions to run for the South Dakota State Legislature.

I’m not sure that I can find descriptive words to express the depths of how poorly their fundraising has been. Abysmal? Insufficient? Dumpster-fire is reserved for Toby Doeden nowadays. But you get the drift.  The SDGOP has managed to achieve epic lows in raising money, and now the party’s fundraising committee chair wants to bring these same  accomplishments to State Government?

Werdel was in the news earlier this year about the party’s fundraising. According to DakotaNewsNow:

“I think the main thing for this is we get the people involvement. It’s not just big money coming from the big donors,” said Amber Werdel, SD GOP Fundraising Committee Chair. “We have people that are donating towards this. Yes, hopefully they will win a gun. 

Read that here.

There’s actually not a lot out there on-line about Amber Werdel to find out what qualifies her for the office. But as tends to happen I started to do some cursory digging… and very, very unexpectedly, I went down the rabbit hole.

Holy buckets. Did I ever fall down the rabbit hole. In doing some research, there were three criminal cases that popped up. The most recent was 2002, longer ago than I would normally bother mentioning.  Except it was a felony. That gets my attention. Driving under the influence – 3rd, to which a plea of guilty was entered.

The State Republican Party’s fundraising chair is a convicted felon?  Well… technically not anymore.

Why “technically not anymore?” Because according to the court record, on 9/5/2023 (entered into the system on 9/14) there was an order granting pardon on her record.

An honest to God pardon issued in 2023? Less than 3 years ago?  And now after receiving it, Amber is running for the South Dakota House of Representatives? That is not something you see every day.

First time in 20 years of writing this website that I’ve run across it. I don’t recall the last time we ever had a convicted felon – who was later pardoned – in charge of raising money for the SDGOP, much less making a run for the South Dakota House or Representatives.

I mean, it’s a free country and all.  But very similar to the D5 candidate Seth Phillips matter I ran across and broke the news on earlier this week, it’s not my place to judge whether the District wants to place someone with that record into a place of power in Pierre, as opposed to 19 thousand or more other people in that district.

But, the choice isn’t mine. If you’re a District 23 voter, the choice is yours.