The Life Defense Fund Ballot Committee’s filing for what they raised and spent in 2023 is finally posted.. almost 10 days after it was filed with the Secretary of State’s office. A bit of lag time, to be sure.
So, what did we learn about the committee from their filing? From the looks of it, when a ballot measure is being contested it looks like the true winners are the consultants, reaping nearly .57 cents of every dollar the group took in.
Life Defense Fund 2023 YE Report by Pat Powers on Scribd
Against income of $210,930.11 were expenditures of $209.294.36. And within those expenditures, the two biggest ticket items were advertising of $61,095.72 and eye-popping consulting costs of $119,741.94. YOW!
A few Legislators on the list of donors. Only two donated money out of their campaign; Sen. Al Novstrup and Rep. Carl Perry, who both donated $100 each from their campaign accounts. (Although I have to wonder if Carl may have donated because Al told him to?) State Sen. Jack Kolbeck donated $500 out of personal funds, State Rep. Fred Deutsch $500, Sen. Jim Mehlhaff $300, State Rep. John Mills was in for $200, and State Rep. Bethany Soye was the largest legislative donor as she was in for $2400, comprised of 8 donations of $300 each.
Adam Broin of the Patriot Ripple Effect donated over $5k. Marj Anderson of White, SD was another $5k donor, and it looks like Steve Perkins is down twice for $2500 each, totaling $5k.
A few Republican Women groups donated varying amounts from $500 on down. Some are listed under In-State PACs, and Codington County Republican Women and Cenkota both donated and were listed as an “entity.”
Go ahead and read it for yourself.
(In case anyone else picks up anything interesting, go ahead and post it under the comment section.)
Who are the consultants?
Well, that’s a good question for both sides of the battle. 🙂
Looks like someone needs to educate a lot of churches and well-meaning donors on the definition of a grifter! Fools and their money. Sigh.
I’d say the leaders of this committee need to come clean – are they paying themselves out of this fund?
this is actually better than a lot of “charitable” funds.
The organizers pay themselves. Look into any of them and you see nearly all of them spend most of the money they take in on “administration” and very little on whatever cause they are supporting