Remember this e-mail from the SDGOP Chairman last year when it comes to candidates and primary elections?
About how it would “Not be appropriate for the party to influence the election process.” Remember when that came out back in 2025?
Because there are several County GOP organizations doing the complete opposite. Such as reported by the darling of election conspiracists, Heather Baxter, who is running for the office of Secretary of State:
Here’s $1000 diverted from County GOP Donors in Brule County, and $250 diverted from donors in Davison County, and sent over to the Baxter for her Secretary of State Campaign. Against incumbent Secretary of State Monae Johnson.
Anyone else might have told them no, or sent it back, because how bad it looks. But not Heather Baxter.
But she’s not the only one. The Charles Mix County GOP actually has a shell game going on, where they divert funds to their favored candidates in the primary. Here’s their scheme..
So the Charles Mix County GOP is ran by David Spier with Connie Wagner as treasurer. But Connie Wagner is also involved with another group. One deceptively named as the “Central Dakota Republican Women.” EXCEPT, it’s not a Republican Group. Not at all. It’s a Political Action Committee. A private Political Action Committee with no affiliation to the Republican Party, except in name.
Well, that, and where they got 95% of their money in the last few months.
Here you can see that according to filings with the Secretary of State that the treasurer for the Charles Mix GOP shares an e-mail – cjwagner1952@gmail.com – with the Central Dakota private political action committee:
And as money is raised through the Charles Mix County Republican group, massive chunks get sent out to the private PAC…
…where the same treasurer for the GOP group, who appears to be running the PAC, starts handing it out to the PAC’s favored candidates:
$4000 goes out from the Party into the PAC, and the PAC sends it out to their candidates, all of whom are involved in primary elections.
The problem is that big chunks of these funds are coming from the very people they’re campaigning against. The GOP groups have Lincoln Day Dinners and sell advertising in programs to the candidates, demanding $100, $250, and $500 or more for tables and program ads. And then they use their money candidates just spent to send against the very people who just wrote a check.
What do you think? When these county GOP groups have their dinners and solicit for funds, should they be telling the donors that they’re going to get involved in primary elections?
Or is it past time that the State Republican Party pass rules demanding that counties should practice what the chairman preaches?
I’m more discouraged that she filled out the report by hand and is running for a pretty high tech position. Oh, wait, we will all be carving our votes in stone if she wins.
The Tripp County Republicans meeting minutes:
The National committee praised our group for putting on an outstanding Lincoln Day Dinner.
Discussion began on making contributions: A motion made to send money to Land and Legacy PAC. Seconded by John Harter. Passed unanimously.
Land and Legacy PAC turns around and writes a check to John Harter, Marty Overweg, and Mykayla Voita.
A crooked path does not become straight just because you carry a Bible down it.
https://sdcfr.sdsos.gov/Document.aspx?DocumentID=108864&type=doc
They didn’t report it then? Even more crooked.
Why doesn’t Land & Legacy have the $2,000 dollars reported from the Tripp County Republicans? I do see they gave 10K to Hansen/Lems PAC, 10K to Chris Karr, and 5K to Voita.
Didn’t report it maybe?
Radke/Lapka deception
Interesting that their “lodging” wasn’t reported. Makes me wonder if those expenses were covered through the dark money affiliated 501(c)(4) instead.
Was it the PAC or the American Land and Legacy 501c4?
I think that’s a question for Bob Tate and the Tripp County Republicans. Donors deserve to know.
We are literally watching self labeled “grass roots” go “pocket-lining politics”. What a joke and my taxes are funding the “subsidies” that are lining these crooked politicians pockets. Another flight to DC and more photo ops.
Jim Eschenbaum should resign.
This is very deceptive and they know better. The South Dakota Federation of Republican Women are on to this deception as the so called “South Central Republican Women” are NOT affiliated with the Federation of Republican women at all. They had a club and they got out of the Federation and were to leave their money with the Federation to be held in case they decided to become part of the Federation of Republican women at a later time. They would get it back if that happened, but that’s not what happened.. They said they didn’t have any money but what they did was give it to the GOP. Then later when they formed their new club or PAC , referring to their group as Republican Women, the GOP gave the money back to them and they gave it to candidates. That is a huge no no according to the Federation‘s bylaws. They are calling themselves Republican women which is deceiving. I just hope that people understand that is not how we work and there will be consequences.
Similar activity in Brown County. The incumbants were allowed to put negative campaign material on tables at the Lincoln Day dinner. A candidate forum next week is a clear setup for the incumbants to attack challengers, with Doeden sycophant Drew Dennert serving as moderator. This is the same Drew Dennert who claimed on Facebook that unless Toby Doeden is elected South Dakota has no future and he may have to leave and whose cronies (Tabor Shabot) run radical PACs attacking other Republican candidates. Funny enough, Shabot, a Dennert buddy, runs the PAC that sent out the mailer attacking Jon Hansen for being “soft on crime.” Yet on the Secretary of State site, that PAC, as of May 16, had neither raised nor spent any money. How did they design, print, and maill out something like this with no money? Dennert puts himself out there as an objective moderator while he works behind the scenes to trash his fellow Republicans.
This cronyism has to stop. All of the candidates travel for miles to support county Lincoln Day Dinners. It takes a lot of time and money to do so, and yet, the money that is earned there is given to county favorites in a primary?? I can foresee that LDD will become less and less attended.
I smell campaign finance reform coming out of the next session, assuming the normals win.
More rules for thee, and not for me…
The far right sure is good at playing the victim from all angles.
Either they are not even trying to hide it or they are too fricking dumb to think anyone wouldn’t notice. Either way it’s dirty af.