Fall River County GOP using donor funds to pay Frye-Mueller legal fees and planning to attack Republicans for acting on employee harassment complaint

@SoDakCampaigns

From my mailbox comes something pretty darned unusual for a Republican organization, as not only are they using donor funds to pay for Senator Julie Frye Mueller’s legal fees for her misconduct with an employee, they discuss spending donated funds to attack legislators for doing their job. If this doesn’t get your attention, it should:

FRC DRAFT Meeting Minutes 3-14-2023 by Pat Powers on Scribd

Treasurer: Miriam Martin, Treasurer, reported the checking account balance is $6,756.37. Checks issued include $1,000 to attorney Steve Haugaard for attorney fees for Senator Julie Frye-Mueller, as approved at a previous meeting.

and..

New Business

e.  Running Ads re: Senator Frye-Muller’s Suspension: Paul Nabholz discussed possibly running classified ads in the hometown papers of the Senate Leadership against their re-election due to the nature of Frye-Mueller’s suspension without due process as they have not paid any political price for their unethical behavior. Rather than running classified ads, Lance Russell suggested running large display ads instead and/or sending direct mail to the voters in Senate Leadership’s districts. Julie Frye-Mueller also suggested putting a flyer in the local newspaper. Sandy Wahlert suggested requesting an agenda item on the next State GOP meeting to discuss inappropriate conduct of Senate Leadership.

So, let me get this..  not only are they spending money raised from donors to pay Julie Frye-Awful’s legal bill for her harassment of a legislative employee for which she was censured by a group of her peers, but they are discussing spending donor funds to run ads and attack – actually attack – Republican Senate Leadership for bringing the action?

Because – according to them – “they have not paid any political price for their unethical behavior?”

Are they completely off their rockers?

First off, the only person who conducted themselves unethically was Frye-Mueller.  Julie Frye-Mueller had a complaint filed against her conduct by an employee, the Senate convened a committee to investigate giving both sides the opportunity to present their side of the story, and with the exception of her seat mate/sole political ally, EVERY SINGLE STATE SENATOR FOUND HER GUILTY OF CONDUCT UNBECOMING THE SENATE AND VOTED TO CENSURE HER!?!

What are they going to do, run ads attacking every Senator except Tom Pischke?

This is the point where Republicans start losing elections.  Ugh.

15 thoughts on “Fall River County GOP using donor funds to pay Frye-Mueller legal fees and planning to attack Republicans for acting on employee harassment complaint”

  1. Every single senator on the Select Committee (except Tom Pischke), that is. Nothing to be gained by exaggeration, is there?

    1. There is no exaggeration. Every single member of the Senate (minus 1) voted to censure her.

      If you read the release at the link I posted, it notes “The full Senate concurred with the Select Committee on Discipline and Expulsion’s recommendation of censure with 33 yea votes and 1 nay vote.”

      1. Thirty-three yea votes and one nay vote don’t add up to the ‘full’ senate’s vote, and saying they all concurred with the select committee seems to be an overstatement. Do we have a record of every single senator’s view on censuring JFM? If so, then I stand corrected.

  2. And oops, I see my mistake, not taking into account the number of legislative districts we have in South Dakota. Sorry for the error.

  3. This sounds like a misuse of donor funds and could be subject to a lawsuit by any of those who donated to the county party. That said, the more these outliers continue down this path, the more likely democrats will get elected. A 33-1 voter is a clear sign that JFM was wrong. Bottom line, it’s time to take your licks and move on with the business of the State and stop wasting time on stupid conspiracy theories and non-starter drivel. There’s plenty of work to be done. District 30 voters, as well as the rest of the state, have had enough.

    1. We’ve dodged a couple losses in recent years. Noem beat Sutton, Ravnsborg beat Seiler, Jackley beat Natvig.

      It’s only a matter of time until the gop screws up with a nomination or lack of party unity.

      I agree that JFM shouldn’t have been suspended. But she should have been privately reprimanded or stripped of committees if she said a baby was going to die to a staffer. I’m sure lrc staff thinks this could have been handled better. She could probably sue the legislature and win for the HR debacle and violation of her confidence.

  4. I agree with Black Hills Bob. Squeaky wheel gets the grease and these people are loud. The rest of the counties need to strengthen to over run theses whack jobs. I’m afraid that the far right has taken over. Wonder why. Time for the rest of us to stand up.

  5. “they have not paid any political price for their unethical behavior” – – – neither has jfm when it gets right down to it. what a weird thing for the fall river county group to do.

  6. Easy solution: Have them removed from the party organization for working against endorsed Republican candidates. It’s not a vote. There is no discussion. You are removed from the operating organization for your actions.

    This is pretty standard procedure in any other State. Not sure if there is anything in the bylaws to this point. If they want to screw around with supporting candidates of their choosing they can start a PAC or another organization and not use the resources of the SDGOP to advance their own agenda.

    2. Will Haugaard’s “morals and ethics” cause him to donate it back to Fall River? That would be the right thing to do..

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