Finally dawns on Dems that they cut their own throats with poorly written IM22

Pat Powers

This is golden. Apparently, a week or so after Republicans, Dems are finally shaking off the haze of their self-induced election malaise, and noticing that Initiated Measure 22 affected them as well.

As in “Oops. Maybe we shouldn’t have taken the blue pill.”

This would be damned hilarious, if it wasn’t part of a broader mess from a poorly written bill from out of state interests. Local Democrats just figured out that the goofy language of IM22 just cut them off from Political Action Committee Act Blue, which has funneled tens of thousands of dollars from across the country to South Dakota Democrats:

I raised $5,701.02 from 76 donors for my District 3 Senate campaign by using ActBlue to collect contributions online. That’s over a quarter of my campaign fund, with an average donation of about $75. Initiated Measure 22, the Anti-Corruption Act, just made raising that amount from relatively small donors on ActBlue illegal in South Dakota.

ActBlue acts as a political action committee, collecting donations through its website, then bundling those contributions into weekly checks for candidates using the system. ActBlue collects a small processing fee on each transaction, which it deducts before sending the balance to the candidate. The Secretary of State’s office directs candidates to report the total they receive in checks from ActBlue as a PAC contribution.

and..

If the goal of the Anti-Corruption Act is transparency, then we should require candidates to report the individual donors using ActBlue as a service provider. Otherwise, the Anti-Corruption Act will severely curtail the ability of South Dakota candidates to use an online fundraising tool that helps them compete against candidates enjoying big-money donations from larger corporate PACs.

Read here.

Of course, the looney left wants to have their cake and eat it too, trying to refer to ActBlue as a mere fundraising tool like paypal or as noted “a service provider.”

BUZZZZZZZ! Wrong answer.

Unfortunately, Dems don’t get to have their cake and eat it too, because ActBlue is federally registered as a PAC, no matter how much the goofy flower children of the left want to characterize their money-collective as something other than what it is:

ActBlue is a United States political action committee established in June 2004 that enables anyone to raise money on the Internet for the Democratic Party candidates of their choice. It is independent of the Democratic Party itself and does not endorse individual candidates.

Read that here.   Or if Wikipedia isn’t a good enough source, try this, as noted by Opensecrets.org:

Launched in 2004, ActBlue bills itself as “the online clearinghouse for Democratic action.” As a federally registered political action committee, it serves as a conduit for online contributions to Democratic candidates and committees.

and..

The group also maintains a 527 political organization registered with the Internal Revenue Service for non-federal political activities, and ActBlue has registered as a political committee in more than 20 states for its state-level activities. It does not lobby the federal government.

Read that here.

Or, don’t take my word for it. But you can go look at their latest FEC Report here.

Initiated Measure 22 is nothing but a big mess for anyone who participates in politics. And it’s time to send that unwanted out-of-state guest away.

15 thoughts on “Finally dawns on Dems that they cut their own throats with poorly written IM22”

  1. Attention Democrats—-All thank you cards can be sent to Rick Weiland, if you can afford it.

  2. maybe based on the 100s of 1000s of dollars he collected (allegedly) running this and other measures on the ballot he can help out

  3. Weiland could care less about this issue, or its’ implications. It was all about lining his pockets with “management fees”… Wonder if he shared any of the moola with Frankenfeld or Solberg?

  4. What did you expect? They are willing to trade a couple of legislators for a couple of Initiated Measures. They don’t realize two IM’s don’t equal watching hundreds of bills pass or die in the legislature isn’t a good trade.

    1. Hawks gets 132 thousand votes and the party leadership can’t get a dozen people to show up for a meeting, let alone fill races. Yet they still don’t think they’re the problem? They’re as delusional as Pelosi.

  7. Pat, thanks for delving into this issue as deeply as you do, and for letting us see the results. You do a great public service

  8. The medical association canceled their annual dinner for Sioux Falls area physicians and legislators.

  10. But….Pat….Its a service that ActBlue is providing. Its not coming from a PAC but individual donors that have earmarked the money to me. I mean I can show everyone that donated……

    Oh you gotta love Libs and them trying to justify skirting a law they shoved down our throats.

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHASHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  11. As you often gleefully point out, there are very few Democratic voters in this state. Are you now telling those Republican voters they’ve been duped? Why didn’t they just vote no like good Republicans? The fact is, they have real concerns about corruption in this system, and the vote clearly shows that. Why not stop whining, and do something to address that?

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