Dakota Scout article about yesterday’s Central Committee motion.. Tom Pischke, R. Shawn Tornow are buffoons, and I’m “a petulant blogger.”

The article I gave a quote for yesterday about the State GOP Central Committee’s motion to stop doing business with me, because a few don’t like what I write is out.  And, it’s as ridiculous as it sounds, my phone is blowing up with people saying “You’ve been Pischke’d!”  (But, at least when they stole a photo of mine from social media, it was a good one.)

“For decades, South Dakota Republicans have had to pay an extortion fee in the form of campaign services in exchange for avoiding his dirty attacks,” said Minnehaha County State Committeeman Tom Pischke, who also serves as a lawmaker. Pischke, who has been on the receiving end of a number of Powers’ attacks, was one of the leaders of the effort to cancel his future contracts. “Saturday, the extortion ended!”

and..

“When it was outlined for myself and other GOP Chairs that payments to DWC could range between $5000 to $6000 a year, it raised some eyebrows,” said R. Shawn Tornow, Minnehaha County GOP Chair. “It appears improper that the state party would be funding and propping up such a petty and petulant blogger.”

and..

For his part, though, Pischke sees the vote as unifying.

“During my eight years of being involved in South Dakota politics, this is one of the most unifying decisions the state party has ever made,” the Dell Rapids senator said. “This is truly a great day for the South Dakota Republican Party!

Read the entire story here.

Well, first off, I don’t attack people based on whether they use my services or not. They might perceive it as such, because I generally try to avoid working with idiots, especially in the primary elections.  Stopped working with Lee Qualm after it got back to me that he was telling a group of college students during one session that vaccines cause autism, and a daughter of mine was present who immediately upbraided him. Yep. Done working with that guy.

And extortion fees?  Jeez. They don’t really price things out in the real world. I had one person complain about fees last election.. and in their rant the difference was based mainly on what they didn’t include in their figures – sales tax. So, math.

Tom Pischke had me doing work in his first election until he switched over so someone else. And they did a postcard about education where they misspelled “education” in big bold letters. So, I certainly do hope he paid less.  And don’t even get me going on the doltish R. Shawn Townow. Glad to put any concerns about my ethics against his any day of the week. A legislator who didn’t care for what I exposed about him spending on elections filed a complaint against me that the Attorney General determined was unfounded. R. Shawn? I think the Supreme Court has on-line decisions you can read about where his ethics sit.

As I noted under another post on this topic, The thing is that the boobs throwing rocks haven’t been around long enough to understand is that I have worked plenty of years within the party, and I’ve worked plenty of years outside the party.  The passing of Qualm’s motion doesn’t stop me from being a precinct person, doesn’t stop me from going to convention, and it really doesn’t stop me from helping candidates as I choose.

When I’m writing Dakotawarcollege.com, it won’t stop me from cheering on good policy and good officeholders. And if I see something stupid, offensive, or contrary to common sense, I will still point it out.

The only thing they’ve accomplished is that they stopped the party from hiring me to help fill some gaps that the party ends up with when trying to do a lot with limited funds and even more limited staff. That $5000-6000 annually? It might be that much when added up $150 – $200 at a time for projects, much of it relating to communications (like the weekly Majority Report) and the party component of helping candidates – especially new candidates – with their elections.

Someone has to be there to help them through the process, teach at the GOP campaign schools, make sure they have decent photos, design and print the materials, do the same with signs, and basically be that campaign person they might not have in their immediate circle. Several of which were in Minnehaha this last election, and I didn’t see any local county people stepping up.

Basically, it’s in lieu of the GOP hiring communications and/or legislative staff. If they can get someone to do all of that with multiple candidates across the state for less than $5000 annually, good for them.  I have more than enough on my plate working directly for candidates, and the haters can keep complaining about what I write at dakotawarcollege.com.

I can offer that anyone running against Tom Pischke or Lee Qualm (who is apparently running for the open District 21 House Seat that Rep. Rocky Blare is vacating) is going to get a pretty good discount on services, just because.  And new candidates who mention this article will also get a discount on their first order.

So, haters gonna hate. I’m just gonna shake it off and watch the Super Bowl.  (Taylor Swift reference for everyone.)