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Hot off the press..

Good Morning,

Thanks to the generosity of our donors and sponsors, the Minnehaha County Republicans are proud to offer a limited number of complimentary tickets to our upcoming Lincoln-Reagan Day Dinner for veterans and current active-duty service members, plus one guest.

These tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis and are expected to go quickly.

This annual event brings together community leaders, elected officials, and engaged supporters for an evening of connection and inspiration. This year’s event will feature keynote remarks from former U.S. Congressman Madison Cawthorn.

Please note: valid military ID will be required at check-in.

Thank you for your service and sacrifice. We look forward to seeing you there.

Best Regards,

Minnehaha County Republicans

—-

The question I received from the person who sent it to me was “What is the type of military ID required for veterans? It’s not like vets get an id card.”  (I suggested he present his DD214. Let the desk person argue with that. )

But even bigger than that.. it seems like they’re all of a sudden announcing a bunch of free tickets to an event with a controversial speaker and word on the street is people aren’t so eager to support an event featuring a former congressman accused of sexual misconduct.

I get the impression that ticket sales could be going better when they’re starting to give them away.

If that’s the case, this summer’s SDGOP VIP convention event with the man who went on trial for accusations of drugging and raping a woman might really be in trouble.

How would you like to go from a stable legislative district where re-election is all but guaranteed into a 5-way free for all?  That would be District 24 House, including Haakon County, Hughes County, Hyde County, Stanley County & Sully County, including the communities of Pierre & Ft. Pierre, where Mike Weisgram is announcing his re-election campaign today:

During session, District 24 House looked as stable as could be with Will Mortenson and Mike Weisgram as State Representatives..  And then Will Mortenson bowed out, leaving an open seat.

Immediately, a very heavy hitter for Pierre dropped in. Laurie Gill – former Mayor, former cabinet member of 2 positions, and long-time state employee announced her race… but then the announcements didn’t stop.

Regan Bollweg, a graduating SDSU Student has thrown his name in the ring, planning to run at the same time he rejoins his family’s hunting & farming operation in Harrold.

Then, out of the blue, former long-time State Representative Tim Rounds, brother to US Senator Mike Rounds, who is also on the ballot this year decided to attempt another run at the office.

And I’m hearing of yet another candidate who has rented an apartment in Pierre – a Brian Burge from Beresford –  who was showing up going door to door with a petition in hand.

And we still have a week to go.

You and should believe that Weisgram does still have some advantage of incumbency. But in this kind of race with known names, and the vote being split at least 5 ways, it’s going to come down to who campaigns the best.

In the middle of what you might term a wild-west environment where anything goes.

Uh oh.  Word on the street it that the Minnehaha GOP Lincoln Day Dinner event this weekend is somewhat… radioactive.

I’m hearing that ads are being pulled or not placed because of the event’s association with the controversial speaker.

One candidate today was asking their consultant.. “you didn’t place an ad for the GOP dinner, have you?”  Not that people were rushing to line up for the event, but nobody wants to be seen as supporting the event featuring a former congressman accused of sexual misconduct.

I’m sure we’ll hear more about the event later.

From today in Rapid City, the only place lonelier than the Toby Doeden fan club convention, is the queue for people to get in line to sign his nominating petitions for Governor.

It sounds like this weekend was one where there were a number of Republican who weren’t getting along.

First off, in Watertown the word I’m hearing from a reliable source there was a big blowup at Friday’s Republican women meeting. Awful State Representative Garcia accused Senators Glen Vilhauer and Steph Sauder – two of the nicest people you would ever meet – of being bought and paid for.

This apparently led to a big shouting match between Dylan/Garcia vs Glenn/Sauder. This would be the same Garcia causing chaos at the Republican women’s meeting that caused chaos earlier in the year in the House Education meeting, because she didn’t like where she and Phil Jensen were being told to sit.

You never expect a Republican women’s meeting to break out into a shouting match. But, we didn’t have Garcia around before.

Speaking of Phil Jensen, Phil was busy this weekend participating in a rally being put on in Rapid City by one of the founders of Gays for Trump, Scot Presler.

Presler was in South Dakota to attack Senator Thune over working on the SAVE ACT, while Senator Thune was already remaining in Washington all weekend to working on passing the SAVE Act. (So would you call the rally redundant, or futile).

The event was led in part by Anti-Thune troll Julie Korth, whose group helped to recruit opponents like Bruce Whalen against the Senator in the last election. So this seems more like an ax to grind than anything organic.

There was also a rally of the malcontents and Thune haters in Sioux Falls as well, with a different cast attacking the Senator:

This crew had Korth’s fellow anti-Thune troll and ousted Minnehaha GOP VC Jennifer Foss..

Embattled Minnehaha County Auditor Leah Anderson was there, as well as last place gubernatorial wannabee Jon Hansen to help influencer Presler attack our senior Senator..

As was Minnesota election conspiracist Rick Weible.

Who were all there to support Presler going after our Senator..

..for Senator Thune doing what he was already doing, spending all weekend in Washington hearing the SAVE act.

What’s the quote that comes to mind for these rallies? “I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part!”.

Was there any useful result from this weekend’s rallies? No. Maybe.

After working with the founder of Gays for Trump on the rallies you might consider the possibility that Jon Hansen and Phil Jensen might be a little more friendly towards the LGBTQ+ community in the future. Since they both have been rather hostile in the past.

Maybe we can all get along.

From facebook ads last night, one legislator pointed out to me that state Democrats have a push to fill legislative seats in Pierre for the mid-term elections. Not to mention this push comes against a disastrous Republican party organization:

Just something to consider when picking Republicans in the primary. Maybe that picking a candidate with broad based support is better than a single-issue train wreck.

This wasn’t on the BINGO card of the bizarre this week. But hot off the press this afternoon former NDGOP ED for a week Dave Roetman sent out e-mails to South Dakota GOP candidates claiming to be approved by the SDGOP to work with them to offer a product called Right-Insight.

 

In case you forgot about Roetman already after my post earlier this week, where he’s signed up to run for the Minnehaha County register of deeds, Dave has managed to carve out some infamy all his own:

The newly-appointed executive director of the North Dakota Republican Party is officially on the outs early into his position after it was discovered that his X account is riddled with racist and sexist tweets.

It took only 10 days after Dave Roetman was hired on to be the state’s party executive for him to resign after those social media posts were found and reported.

It was also reported that in response to a woman’s post about relationship advice, he said, “Here’s a quarter, keep it between your knees.” He approved groping women, and in response to another X user’s post about whether an attractive woman in a photograph could make sandwiches, made a joke about making pies.

And..

“I am a man who stands by his words,” he told Rob Port.

Read that here.

That does not sound like a recipe for building a winning campaign together. As the candidate who sent me the e-mail thought as well, as she expressed her sentiments in one word: “Ugh.”

If they’re hiring Dave to rep them here, maybe they should rebrand as ‘far-right with no insight, and women can just make me a pie.”

Update: 

An attendee related to me, somewhat shocked, that “Eschenbaum announced at the Brookings LDD last night that they were rolling out a new app for candidates and Dave Roetman was in charge of it!!”

I’m sure this will go well.

It was less than a week ago when I broke the story on District 5 GOP House candidate Seth Phillips facing a DUI charge, and getting picked up for consuming marijuana while driving after that arrest.

I did notice one of the local paywalled Watertown media outlets wrote about it after me. (Not sure if they bothered with any credit since they certainly didn’t break the story.) So it’s safe to say that a huge number of District 5 residents are aware that one of the local candidates is working on adding to his rap sheet while he’s on the campaign trail.

There’s an adage referred to as the “First law of holes,” which states  “When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.” Unfortunately, Seth is not following this adage in the response he posted to his social media regarding the story:

In his response to the information about his recent DUI and smoking pot while driving charges, now Toby Doeden acolyte candidate Seth is telling everyone that he was also a meth addict and hurt people.

I’m thinking he should have stopped digging the hole after the DUI and Driving while smoking the weed charges. Now he’s telling us there are worse things in his background – but he’s rebuilding!

It’s one thing to run for office years after one puts their life back together. It’s entirely another to do so while the wreckage is fresh on the train tracks, and the flames are roaring.  As far as voters are concerned, Seth is still digging the hole, and now they will be asking about the extent of his admitted meth use ..and what does he mean about hurting people?

Did he tell police where he got the meth? Did he help put his meth traffickers and manufacturers in prison?  And what about the people he hurt? Is this more in the metaphysical sense, or did he physically assault them, and what were the consequences?  He’s just made these things issues to be brought up in his campaign.

Seth is due back in court on Monday morning here in Brookings County at 9AM.  And it also looks like he has an old 2023 case (06MAG23-000132) for driving with suspended license & speeding that is still pending becuase the ticket went to collections and does not seem to have ever been resolved, because the balance due as of 3/21/2026 is $400.00.

I’m guessing they might ask about that in court as well. Seth should also include that in his rebuilding plan before he runs for office.

South Dakota Democrats – even with depleted numbers – continue to school the SDGOP on the things a Political Party are supposed to do as they raise funds for their activities in South Dakota:

SDDP March 2026 FEC Report by Pat Powers

Starting with a reported $53,267.67, Democrats added $39,471.03 to it, against $33,661.84 spent. Leaving $59,076.86 cash on hand.  More importantly, they included 14 pages worth of donors. Which is 14 pages more than the SDGOP reported a couple of weeks ago, when they reported $21 in unitemized donations.

The SDDP is reporting nearly twice what the SDGOP has on hand for cash. What a sad state of affairs for my party.

Thune: Democrats Refuse to Support Commonsense Reforms in SAVE America Act

“Democrats – the party that, the Democrat leader said, does not object to photo ID – well, Democrats blocked it.”

Click here to watch the video.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today delivered the above remarks on the Senate floor.