From my e-mail, looks like Minnehaha GOP chair Korry Petterson is done taking the guff of the rebels trying to oust him from the position he was elected to do:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Statement from Minnehaha County Republican Party Chairman, Korry Petterson.
As Chairman, I must formally address recent actions taken by two Minnehaha County GOP Executive board members — Vice Chair Marsha Symens (Mayor of Dell Rapids) and State Committeewoman Bridget Myers— who, after having held a knowingly unrecognized county meeting, attempted to remove me from and assume control over the Minnehaha County GOP bank account. These actions represent the most egregious in a long line of offenses by the aforementioned board members’ repeated attempts to undermine our county party. Upon notification from the bank, I immediately took the necessary steps to safeguard our assets.
Their attempt to overthrow a duly elected Chairman marks a rinse-and-repeat effort by this small faction, revealing a troubling pattern of disregarding both the committee’s will and the Party’s governing rules. These actions directly challenge the State Central Committee, which, during the July SCC meeting, thoroughly discussed Committeeman Tom Pischke’s (D25 Senate) bylaw amendment to limit and introduce removal procedures for board members—and overwhelmingly rejected it.
I, along with my other fellow elected and at-large board members, remain fully committed to serving you with transparency and proper governance. We ask these board members to join us in the effort to move the party forward into the upcoming election year.
Korry Petterson
Chairman
Minnehaha Republican Party
Go Korry!
Notice that the first things the crazies do after their crazy fake meeting is to try to get control of the bank account, which just so happens to contain money that KORRY raised. Not only did Pischke, Symens, and Meyers not lift a finger to help Korry, they actually tried to sabotage the last Lincoln Day Dinner as well as the golf fundraiser. Korry used his connections to raise the money in SPITE of them. But the moment they thought they could get away with claiming power, their first and only thought was the money. Unbelievable.
Are you sure they tried to get control? Are you sure of who was on the bank account at the time? Are you aware the Chair shouldn’t be on the bank account? Are you aware of who the Treasurer was, if anyone, or no one? Are you sure the sabotaging of a LDD didn’t happen the year before? If you don’t know, you don’t know. And how exactly (regardless of the how it came to be) did a majority vote oust the current chair? Something isn’t adding up. SEVEN (or 20) wrongs still don’t make a right. Look for a lawsuit out of this is my guess.
Thank you Korry! This is exactly what happened to our State GOP. These morons destroyed the SDGOP, it will NEVER recover. Nobody is going to raise money for you fools. The best thing these hard right DUNCES could do is just stay OUT OF POLITICS.
The SDGOP wasn’t raising any money regardless. Don’t use this debacle as a scapegoat.
The very first move after their fake meeting? Marsha Symens and Bridget Myers racing to seize the bank account — money Korry raised while they were busy sabotaging the Lincoln Day Dinner and golf outing. That’s all anyone needs to see.
This isn’t about bylaws or “saving the party.” It’s a small clique that can’t stand not being in charge and will burn the house down to get the furniture.
The state central committee already saw this movie last July and overwhelmingly rejected Pischke’s removal amendment for exactly these reasons.
Sad thing is, so many good people stay quiet because they don’t want to be attacked by the loonies. I’ve lost a lot of respect for Jim Stalzer for entertaining them — he used to be a respected voice. Now? Just another enabler of the circus.
I agree with you about Jim Stalzer. And learning that the last central committee meeting wasted time on Pischke’s proposed bylaws amendment, and they plan to discuss it at the next central committee meeting, while the party is losing money every month and will not have the funds to hold a convention, it seems like the state party’s leadership is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. There are way more important things the party should be doing than helping a bunch of idiots replace a county chairman. If Marsha and Bridget don’t want to work with Korry, they should resign. If Tom Pischke thinks the most important thing the state executive board has to think about is who chairs the Minnehaha County Republicans, he needs to be removed as the regional director. This is NUTS, and it needs to stop. The whole damn ship is sinking, kids.
Whoa… Do NOT blame the lack of fundraising by the SDGOP on this. To top it off, a USD Law Professor and Justin Bell seemingly came to the same conclusion no matter how much you dislike them. Lots of blanks to fill in. Who has the most to gain if the regional director position opens up?
Korry should take the regional director job. Somebody who understands that the purpose of the SDGOP is to taise money and get Republicans elected needs to be on that board.
Justin weighed in with his opinion of what they CAN do, not what they should do.
This isn’t about who likes anybody else. The in-fighting is interfering with any of them doing the jobs they were elected to do.
‘should TAKE’? That’s a problem right there (take). We should listen to those who know. Still think even if a special meeting was held and a majority vote ousted the Chair, there must’ve been/is an issue.
I am not an attorney or legal expert by any means, but it seems Bridget over troubled waters and Marshy Marsha potentially committed a crime. I hope the DA is looking into it and I hope they both seek mental health treatment.
Marsha and Bridgette should be getting some kind of deal in writing where they trade in their resignations for a promise not to be prosecuted for any potential crimes arising from the bank fiasco… If they were smart… Since they’re not, they’re going to show up to another State meeting and waste a ton of time complaining about Korry.
Depending on the paperwork they handed into the bank, there could be other people dragged into it. And the bank could be liable, too. I would think law enforcement would drag their feet on this. If Korry were to sue the bank then he could get all the evidence he needs via subpoenas and discovery, texts, emails, security footage…where he could lay out each element of any potential alleged crimes. And then he would get to call those actors on the stand, where they would have to testify to their involvement or plead the 5th.
Two things to remember: you can’t plead the 5th in regards to witnessing something; a jury in a civil case can infer the answer would be to the witnesses detriment if they plead the 5th.
I HIGHLY doubt the bank acted without proper documentation (minutes from the meeting removing the chair, etc.). As I understand it, the bank account was requested to be frozen not ‘taken over’. This is seemingly a she said/he said scenario. This announcement claiming ‘they’ tried to ‘assume control’ (if truly just requested to be frozen) could open them up to a libel law suit. The ‘release’ was not a good idea. This entire debacle will take years to recover.