Doing another drive-by for an update on the car accident that’s the South Dakota Republican Party, since the new group took over on February 22nd.
What has the new leadership of the South Dakota Republican Party accomplished in the two weeks they’ve been in charge?
- Announced they’re doing an audit for less than $2k. (Experts tell me that’s not what a real audit costs).
- They’ve lobbied against the Gov’s office to fix the Lt. Gov election situation.
- They spent the bulk of their time on HB 1052, lobbying for it, promoting a resolution for it, and making it the bulk of almost all their social media.
- They got facebook running after about a week and a half. (No twitter yet.)
What else have they accomplished? Well…..
** It appears the SDGOP has managed to violate SDCL 12-5-15 which states pretty directly “The name and mailing address of the state party chairperson shall be certified to the secretary of state immediately following the election or appointment of the state party chairperson.”
What do we see on the Secretary of State’s website in this screen grab from 1pm this afternoon?
Why, this says John Wiik is the current South Dakota Republican Party chair, and Brett Koenecke is the current Treasurer. Wouldn’t you agree, that would not appear to have been updated with the Secretary of State “immediately” after Feb 22 that Jim Eschenbaum is Chair and Tina Mulally is Treasurer? There’s no filing with the SOS at all. Because, why would there be?
Was new chair Eschenbaum out of the area? Well, no. In fact:
Despite the new chair Jim Eschenbaum himself physically being in the State Capitol Building on March 3rd – this past Monday – and posting about being in the Capitol, and testifying in committee just 2 floors above the Secretary of State’s office, he couldn’t be bothered to take care of the Party business he was elected to do when he was in the building?
Last I checked, immediately does not mean 2 weeks after the fact. New Treasurer Tina Mulally is also State Representative Mulally – and has been in the Capitol constantly for the last 2 weeks, one floor up from the Secretary of State.
Yet, neither got the job done.
** It also appears that the South Dakota Republican Party has managed to run afoul of the Federal Elections Commission’s guidelines at this point, because they also haven’t reported the party leadership changes to the FEC.
If information disclosed on the Statement of Organization ever changes, the committee must report that change within 10 days. Do this by filing an amended Statement of Organization. If the party committee isn’t an electronic filer, update the Statement of Organization by letter.
Here’s what the FEC’s information currently notes for the Republican party:
Yes, the SDGOP is an electronic filer. And no, there’s no records of them filing within 10 days, given that we’re now 13-14 days after the fact. Failure #2.
Under new chair Jim Eschenbaum, the leadership of the Republican party has only been all about pipeline posturing since his taking office. But he’s failing miserably in his first test of competency to actually run the South Dakota Republican Party.
Which is reporting to State and Federal Election authorities that he’s (supposed to be) the one in charge.
It’s going to be a long election season.
(But on the bright side, it will give us a lot to write about.)
Just another example of the far righters using the party to further their personal views.
Thirteen sensible legislators were kicked to the curb while whack jobs infiltrated in.
And they’re gaining ground and being validated by the governor. They are getting crazy bills through and having a pretty good session all in all. We are in real trouble of ever getting the sanity back into state government
Your definition and my definition of a good session must be different.
That’s what 17% turnout gets.
Not a bright future for the SDGOP or the state.
Eschenbaum is a moron.
The party has left me and many other actual conservative republicans. Where does one go to get their party back?
It’s going to be an interesting couple of years.
Take your toys and play somewhere else. Start a new party, or a new regional GOP thing that circumvents and supersedes the state usurpers. The money will follow the trusted ones in every case.
Who gets to define who and what is and is not a conservative?
When did party platforms have such narrow, specific, or weaponized scopes?
And where within the bylaws or platform of the Republican party does it outline that anyone who does not agree with every word-for-word point should be kicked out of the party and relabeled “RINO” or the like?
Our forefathers never intended for everyone to agree on everything; that’s why they left England. They embarked on this journey called Democracy, where different viewpoints could rightfully exist under the same beliefs of the individual’s party of choice.
The Republican Party was founded as the big tent party – not the checks credentials you make up as you go, party!
The far right needs to wake up and realize that vilifying, outcasting, and fear-mongering are supposed to be the tactics they condemn, not condone, and gleefully utilize. They’re more liberal than the far left, with the audacity to claim conservative superiority when they don’t even know the principles on which the party was founded.
I would tell them to get a history lesson, but they would just make it up to be what they wanted it to be, anyway.
The MAGA group lives in their own world totally immune to facts, relying instead on what Trump calls “alternative facts”