Senate Bill 12 had quite the journey today on the floor of the House of Representatives.
If you recall the little bill that could, Senator Michael Rohl’s bill to clean up a loophole in South Dakota campaign finance law which allowed nefarious characters the ability to loan PACs and campaigns unlimited funds, the last we saw of it it was in House State Affairs where the bill was amended with a poison pill amendment that jammed a second subject to cap what federal candidates could transfer to the state level.
It passed out of committee on a 12-1 vote after the amendment, opposed by Representative Brandei Schaefbauer.
Now on the floor, State Representative Tim Reisch gave an outstanding speech on why the amendment ran afoul of the single subject rule, and offered an amendment to fix the bill back to it’s original state. And he convinced enough of his colleagues to agree:
With a 1 vote margin, Representative Reisch convinced his colleagues to restore the original bill, and move the amendment off to it’s own measure.
Next up was the debate on the original bill as restored to stop unlimited loans from a George Soros type to buy elections in South Dakota. Again, Representative Reisch gave a great speech. And it came time for the opponents. (singular). And the lone vote no in committee – sycophant and $4000 donor to Dakota First Action PAC, Representative Brandei Schaefbauer came up to bat.
(For the portion of the audio with Rep. Mortenson, I did enhance it so you could hear it better when he points out the rules and decorum about Brandei attacking a member of the Senate personally.)
If you can’t tell, Brandei short circuited when it was pointed out she had to speak to the bill and not throw out accusations against the bill sponsor, and descended into a bit of gobbledygook.
After that, Representative Reisch spoke to the merits of the measure to close it out.
So what happened? When it came down to actually vote, after Rep. Schaefbauer’s word salad erupted because she could not attack her opponent, something shifted. Like a seed that was planted in fertile soil, support for the bill sprouted and grew. She lost votes.
Rep’s Bahmuller, Greenfield, Heinemann, Hughes, and Jamison, all shifted votes to support reform. Although Tony Kayser – who donated to Doeden PAC – switched to join the no votes, many of which received benefit from the Doeden PAC such as Aylward, Gosch, Hunt, Manhart, Moore, Reder, etc, the margin increased enough that the final vote was 38 in favor of campaign finance reform and only 29 who voted to let wealthy George Soros donors unfettered ability to dump cash.
From here, the restored Senate Bill 12 passed in it’s original form should go to the Governor for veto or signature.
And I would wager that it will be signed and we can consider that loophole closed.
Let me get this straight; Toby Doeden decided this bill specifically attacked Toby Doeden, so Toby Doeden sent a minion, bought and paid for by Toby Doeden through the PAC dollars Toby Doeden “loaned” Toby Doeden to fight for Toby Doeden?
But she’s unable to articulate a point unless it’s prewritten for her by Tony Doeden?
Okay. Got it. Thanks for proving the point Brandei, and Toby Doeden.
All I can see right now is this classic scene:
“ What you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.”
Name that movie!
Billy Madison….. nice pull 😎
😉
Winner! Winner!
Too funny. I literally came with the exact quote copied and ready to paste. Lol.
Wasn’t the movie “Old School”?
Brandei is unraveling as her campaign money walks out the door. How about this thought – raise money by working for the people in your district and then asking them to support you in your election. The people who are whining about Doeden’s money are lazy and don’t work on real issues. That is how you get donations, not from one man who wants to control everything.
District 3 you can do much better than this! Vote this poor (not financially) woman out so she can devote all her time to helping at the church food shelf which would be a better use of everyone’s time.
They should give Brandei a more prominent role speaking for the Odenbach agenda.
There’s a reason she is known as the dumbest legislator to ever exist.
One of the D3 Senate & House plus D1House Duds. Lord help the good people of District 1, 3 and South Dakota. 2026 cannot come soon enough.
Things are going to get worse before they get better. And 2026 will be worse. The far as you can go right (coming around left), conspiracy loving, Pollema praising, Doeden dumpster diving crew has control of the majority of the county committees. This is the group that gets to appoint who runs as a Republican for lieutenant governor, Secretary of State, state auditor, state treasurer, commissioner of school and public lands, and PUC. If we look to this groups history to predict the future, the people nominated for these positions will be largely unelectable in a state wide race. All democrats have to do is appoint someone sane and literate, and we will see some of these seats filled by Democrats.