All sort of Republican County GOP drama in the rumor mill – Secret effort to out Minnehaha chair? And possibly more.

Talking to people in Minnehaha County – there is a lot churning through the rumor mill of local level politics.

SUPPOSEDLY… the word tonight is that what people are calling the “Jennifer Foss” faction of the Minnehaha GOP, including Tom Pischke, Bridget Myers and Marsha Symens, are said to be planning an attempt to oust the current Minnehaha County GOP Chairman Korry Petterson by a secret/procedural agenda item addition to this evening’s meeting.  Hence the cryptic notation in the Minnehaha County GOP status update earlier today that “there exists no provision for the executive board to remove a county chairman – NONE.”

The special election tonight is to replace the treasurer who resigned, and I’m told the Foss faction is making things miserable enough that the Secretary may be looking at resigning as well.. possibly making it 2 officials who have left in the few months since their election where Foss was completely ousted and denied the chairmanship, despite doing her best to tell everyone the slate that had been picked.

If they think they can oust the chair, and the chair disagrees that kind of puts things in question.

But – in those questions when one group says “I’m in charge” and another group claims that same title, it’s the State GOP Chair who gets to recognize who is the real chair. And I’m told that Petterson supported Eschenbaum for chair where the other faction supported Ezra Hays for chair.

So, you can guess how that’s going to go.

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Speaking of the 32 year Democrat and Obama supporter who now chairs the SDGOP, literally at the very last possible moment on top of the 5-day deadline to do so the state GOP announced an organizational meeting for the Jones County GOP where they are organizing and electing officers (Saturday, May 17th at 11:00AM, Central time, at Covered Wagon, 507 Kennedy Ave., Murdo, SD.).

I mean,  why wait until the past possible second to announce a meeting, unless you were trying to prevent people from showing up to participate?  It used to be that notice in the paper was required, as well as there being a longer notice period in order to give all Republicans an opportunity to take part.

But not in this version of the GOP.  You’d almost think they were doing their best to make sure the fix was in.  You would almost think.

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Today I heard this anecdote after someone was commenting under another post about Dave Roetman, the week-long ND GOP Executive Director, and questioning his continued involvement with the Ripple Effect group he and Adam Broin put together in Sioux Falls to try to oust incumbents.

So, after catching that, I did a little calling, and the rumor that was passed on to me was that about the time of the Doeden thing with the Ripple chip group last week, the board of the group went to chair Adam Broin, and related that either they needed to go, or Roetman did. And the choice was for Roetman. And they were said to have all quit.

Again – this is just as has come to me through the rumor mill, so take it with a grain of salt – the next day or soon thereafter, I’m told the president changed his mind, and reversed himself. And now supposedly Roetman is out, further highlighting the instability and factionalism of the hard right in the Sioux Falls political scene.

If you think about it, the group formed to take out incumbents may have just taken out one of their own organization’s incumbents. Just a little irony there.

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And this seems like a good time to plug the Republican Roundtable organization in Sioux Falls, which hosts a monthly Sioux Falls luncheon of future-minded, solutions-focused Republicans, as opposed to the goofball antics of the Minnehaha GOP.  It’s a reminder that there are still good Republicans out there who connect with community leaders – who themselves are willing to be involved with good groups who advocate for the common good.

As opposed to goofballs who worry about jet contrails, election conspiracies and themselves and will ultimately cost us elections in the long run.

Stay tuned.