Groups start banding together to oppose Weiland-promoted taxpayer funded campaign measure

Pat Powers

Snake-oil salesman Rick Weiland can’t catch a break as he tries to wreck democracy in South Dakota, as three major groups have banded together to oppose his taxpayer-funded campaign measure being sold as “ethics reform.”

A national conservative organization is joining forces with two statewide business associations to defeat an initiated measure on November’s ballot.

Americans for Prosperity, the South Dakota Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the South Dakota Retailers Association will oppose Initiated Measure 22, which backers have dubbed as a set of good-government reforms aimed at preventing corruption in South Dakota government.

Ben Lee, the chairman of Defeat 22 and the state director for Americans for Prosperity, said the coalition planned to start an advertising blitz on Friday that included radio ads, mailers and door hangars to begin educating voters about the measure.

and..

Chamber president David Owen said his members worry publicly financed campaigns will divert millions of dollars from basic government services. If each of the more than 520,000 registered voters assigned their democracy credits, it would mean $52 million.

“Even if it’s $9 million, that’s money that’s not going to go to paving roads, schools and locking criminals up,” Owen said.

Read it all here.

15 thoughts on “Groups start banding together to oppose Weiland-promoted taxpayer funded campaign measure”

  1. Weilands idea is dumb.

    Most of these proposals have a sliver of good in them. The ethics commission part for example is a good idea for SD.

    The problem is really the Republicans and the Democrats refuse to address real problems because they are afraid that something will make them look bad in the news. After EB-5 and Gear Up after decades of our national government spending money like drunken sailors by the GOP and the Dems and no one addresses this stuff. It’s pointless.

    Then along come ideas like this and candidates like Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders who are over the top solutions to a problems and actually become bigger problems than solutions because they go to such extremes.

    Most people I talk with feel Pierre and DC are out of touch. It’s a big problem and our elected officials leaving problems to the initiated measure process only creates more problems than good. The reason the initiated measure process is going up is because some people feel like it’s the only way for their voices to be heard and ideas to be discussed.

  2. It all comes down to what are your priorities?

    Mine is not to fund elections with public money when we have so many other priorities….

    VOTE NO on 22!

    1. Regardless of if there is an excess of taxpayer money, why should any of it go to fund a specific campaign? If a candidate is any good they should be able to get support from the public to run their race-if not, too bad.

      Weiland is a case in point. I would not want one thin dime of the taxes I pay to go to fund someone who is a socialist like he is. I wouldn’t send money to his campaign, and I wouldn’t support his business, and that is my right as an American citizen of the State of South Dakota.

  5. Just curious, can someone tell me how much money “Slick Rick” and his family members are making from his ill-fated organization?

    1. You can go to secretary of state page and see what any group have to this Ill fated venture….a lot of outside money is the preview.

  7. Anonymous 4:39,

    You are such a broken record. Slick Mike/photo op Thune.

    You are not clever, pithy, intelligent, or interesting. Just juvenile. Not only will nobody follow you out of Egypt, they are more likely to take away your dope and video games.

  9. This IM is nearly as absurd as having an unelected group of people draw up new electoral legislative boundaries every 10 years. We would be in court longer than 10 years ending up with some good Judge drawing our new districts if that happened.

    1. Arizona went to that system a few years ago and, after much ballyhoo and self-congratulating the commission did . . . pretty much nothing. Tweaked a few district boundaries, re-aligned a congressional district that would have changed anyway with central Phoenix’s population growth, blah, blah, blah.

      The only good was the new district, the one I lived in at the time, turned out a bunch of good candidates on both sides.Of course, the worst hacks in both parties ended up getting the nominations, but, that’s another story.

      Colossal piece of feel-good, do-nothing legislation.

      1. That one is actually Amendment T, it needs to be defeated also.

        Voting No on T, V, 22, 23 for sure.

  10. The electoral process can certainly use some improvements, but we do not need to give lawmakers an excuse to raise the sales tax again next year.

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