For those of you watching the GOP Chairmanship race, the State Republican Party sent this note out today from Governor Daugaard, Congresswoman Noem, and Senators Rounds and Thune.
72 thoughts on “Note from GOP Leaders on Pam Roberts running for GOP Chair.”
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Nice. So when are they going to send out the announcement for Lederman?
Daugaard thinks he can dictate who runs the senate, house, us congress, SDGOP and presidency.
I’m fed up with his involvement in every race. Stay out. This is a democracy.
I don’t think I’d characterize a race for State Party Chair as a “democracy”
Voters in each precinct vote for precinct captains, those captains elect a county central committee chair, vice chair, committeeman and woman, then they go to the state central committee meeting and elect a state party chairman, that state party chair and two committeeman and woman then vote for a national party chair… It is a democracy of sorts.
If anyone else asks to send a letter about their running for chair, the staff better send it out. Egregious overstep to request staff to send out campaign materials on party letterhead. Should have been sent by one of the four listed to their lists.
I wonder if they even realize that the election will be contested?
Probably not.
Noem should not have gotten into this fight with her run for governor coming up. People will remember her meddling where Jackley (and/others) remained neutral.
The Congressional delegation has gotten involved in every other pick for Chair
Why wouldn’t they ask Jackley?
Why is Noem more important than Jackley when he goes to every central committee meeting and Noem has never been to one?
Someone needs to go back and look at the posts from all of the other Chair races. Fairly certain this letter has been standard procedure (i.e. has nothing to do with the Gov. primary)
This is precisely the point. Lederman is a friend of Jackley. Noem is keeping him out of power and gaining points with Pam that she can cash-in later.
Vote for a new chair and ED that actually serves the committee and voters not a lame duck governor endorsing in primaries.
I think it wholly appropriate for the party to communicate as a conduit on behalf of our US Senators, US Congresswoman, and Governor. Its about the endorsement by these four. I wouldn’t get hung up on the conduit.
It is wholly inappropriate. Imagine the party sending out a letter like this in a primary. It would never happen. Pam and Co. are using their positions to use the SDGOP, OUR party, as her campaign arm for SDGOP Chair. I feel bad for Budmayr who has to serve under anyone who is elected chair. If Pam doesn’t win reelection, he should be very, very worried about his position.
Inappropriate. Budmayr should be careful not to take sides.
A “conduit?” Do you mean a “conduit” like the Keystone Pipeline?
Well that just about does it then, right?
Unless an “alternative fact” to all of this emerges…..
Anonymous 4:25,
If I were Ryan, I’d send out anything signed by the “Big Four” on a political matter and improper to be sent on official stationary.
Personally, I think this race speaks to our abundance of top notch people and both would capably do the job for our party. I think this is a distraction from what is important.
Yes, he should send those things out so long as it doesn’t appear that the party is interjecting itself in races that the party shouldn’t be a part of.
Thought excercise:
Congressperson X is running for governor in a heated party primary. Congressperson X endorses himself or herself, naturally. Congressperson X also receives the endorsement of Governor Y, Senator A and Senator B prior to the primary.
Senator A and Governor Y ask South Dakota Republican Party staff or chairperson to send an endorsement letter signed by all four mentioned above asking the party faithful to support Congressperson X in the primary.
The South Dakota Republican Party has remained neutral in our hypothetical race, as they have in previous hypothetical races. Because the request is coming from the “big four” should the party staff or chairperson send out the endorsement letter?
With the penchant of our governor raising taxes and going liberal, I will not support his choice. Especially after she declared she was not running and when the governor twisted her arm, she decided otherwise.
GO DAN.
The governor twisted her arm? Really?
Daugaard and Venhuizen knew no one else would have challenged Lederman. No one really wants the job. Including Pam.
Lederman is the best choice because he actually wants it.
Tired of placeholders that don’t do anything.
Yeah, hard to blame staff on this deal. Thune et al say jump, the ED’s job is to ask how high.
I would agree. Budmayr would be creating more problems if he didn’t act.
Thune et al needs a lesson in the proper role of the party. If Thune says “I’m endorsing Jackley. Pam and Ryan send that out on party letterhead!” they’d be wrong to do so. I don’t care how senior of a government official you are. It is improper to do this. Incompetence isn’t an excuse. We’ve had enough that in this state.
I have no problem with the endorsement. Just the way it was sent. Thune, Noem, Rounds, Daugaard AND Pam all have the email address of Pat Powers and the contact information for the central committee members. This easily could have been sent out on their letterhead. Easily.
They’ve put Ryan in a very difficult spot. On one hand he should do what’s right (not sending this out from the party) on the other hand it’s hard to say no to top leadership in your party. Very difficult position for Ryan to be in.
A contested state chair race will hopefully wake them all up and to what is the proper way to do things and what’s improper. I’m confident that if Thune, Noem and Rounds knew this was happening like this they would have said stop. Daugaard doesn’t know any better so it probably came from him Tony Venhuizen who also doesn’t know what the proper role of the party in this situation is.
My understanding is that the Congressional delegation is generally deferential to the Governor in picking the Chair. My guess is he said “Pam is going to do it again” and they said “sounds good”.
That would be my guess, as well.
I personally don’t think we should compare an endorsement in the Chair race to an endorsement in the Governor or House race. Apples and Oranges in my mind.
Frankly, I doubt the central committee members want to be (or be seen as) a rubber stamp for the governor’s office (any governor).
Why bother to try and organize county parties and activities if they’re not representing the grassroots of the party?
If the the position isn’t actually selected by a meaningful vote of the Republican State Central Committee, why bother to have a State Central Committee?
So much has changed in the last 180 days. Nothing which was certain will ever be allowed to go unchallenged again.
And this will be good thing for the General Public.
I Hope!
My question is: Do we actually know that this race is going to be contested? Pat reported that Lederman is looking at running but I haven’t seen anything that says he actually is.
Like Pat said in his previous post, we haven’t had a contested race for Chair in years. My guess is the “Big 4” don’t have any reason to believe this won’t go as it normally has (i.e. The Gov picks someone the delegation approves of).
So if Lederman now decides to run, he’s basically saying Daugaard, Thune, Rounds, and Noem are all wrong. You might be able to convince folks on Daugaard (since he’s become a liberal in his 2nd term) but it’s a bigger task to go against all 4 of them.
Yes, Lederman is running, knew that 10 days ago. He called me Monday asking for my support. Told him yes.
As far as I’m concerned, the race wasn’t being contested until Pam announced she was running today.
Good to know. Ignore my previous post then.
Yes in the good Old days if the governor picked someone the central committee approved the choice.
Also, In the good old days the Governor supported the party’s presidential nominee.
And In the good old days if the governor claimed national convention delegate slots for himself and his family, and was elected as the chairman of that delegation, he actually showed up.
I’m afraid the governor has used up all his chits. Nobody cares what he wants anymore. The candidates for the chairmanship will have to stand alone.
Looks like Daugaard’s endorsement for congress and chair carry a lot of weight.
Thune and Daugaard dumped Trump in the final hour. Shame on them.
Noem has never been to a central committee meeting (Daugaard does go to everyone). Rounds has been to one or two in 12 years.
That letter just gave me 5 very good reasons to vote for Lederman, namely Thune, Rounds, Noem, Budmyer, and Daugaard !
Would you like to see all 5 of them thrown out of the party?
These four people are the elected leaders of our state and therefore are the actual leaders of our party. They are the ones who have won primaries and earned votes from actual voters. They are the ones who do most of the fundraising and bring in the money that the party can then spend helping other candidates. They have every right to pick the state party chair.
The state party chair is not a representative position. The chair does not make public policy decisions or set the ideological direction of the party. That is the job of our elected officials. The party chair’s job is to work with the elected officials to advance the state party through organization and fundraising. To be effective at that requires having the support of our top four elected officials. I hope the central committee won’t reject their choice just to spite Daugaard or because of some anti-establishment sentiment. That will only hurt the party.
I hope that the “establishment” won’t reject the choice of the people/delegates just for spite.
It takes communication and coordination between party leadership and the grassroots of the party to be effective. Strong parties are built from the ground up.
Our elected officials hold respected positions in the party, but at the end of the day are elected to represent the people, not the other way around.
If the SDGOP is to be representative of its membership, then it has to be more than just another PAC.
Otherwise, why bother having a platform, bylaws, resolutions, etc.
As mentioned above, I’ve known Dan was running for almost 2 weeks, yet the first I heard from Pam was today, despite having spent time with her last week.
Why such a lack of communication between party “leadership” and the central committee members responsible for electing them?
Was this supposed to be a surprise?
I’m not voting for Dan because of “spite or antiestablishment feelings,” I’m voting for him because the party needs leadership and a party builder.
Dan stepped up to the challenge and asked for my support. He has it.
Daugaard will only lose more support after he strongarms the central committee with a speech that scolds the central committee on the 11th.
Before the vote he will get up and advocate for Roberts.
Maybe if Daugaard writes a letter saying he was wrong to denounce Trump?
How about the picture of Budmayer and Daugaard at the inauguration….posing like they were big supporters…..I didn’t like it at all.
When this first broke, I thought abundance of riches and it would be a hard decision choosing by two very capable people with different valuable skills and attributes.
One of the 20 anonymous posters on this thread asked me to go on a thought exercise which made me realize at their core some people think the party exists for something other than electing Republicans and serving those elected. That is the mindset which turned the SDDP into something irrelevant.
1). This is not a primary. It is Central Committee business. If the elected leaders of our party want to communicate with the Central Committee members, the Chairman or Executive Director are not censors and Central Committee members aren’t idiots.
2). The method of the communication is not going to sway anyone and the suggestion is insulting and condescending.
3). As the challenger, Ledermans job is to communicate a vision on why we should change leadership. And deal with this endorsement of the incumbent. If he and his supporters have anything to do with this whining, it makes Lederman look really small and petty
4). If Lederman and his supporters think the party shouldn’t forward communications from our US Senators, Congresswoman and Governor, he has just disqualified himself in my eyes.
I will go back to neutral if Dan says he doesnt see the chairman or Executive Director as a censor of what these our major elected officials want to communicate. Otherwise, I will assume he is on a path to replicate the SDDP.
I disagree that Ledermanis the challenger, he has been in for weeks and Pam said herself she was NOT running…now she switches making for the awkward position. She should drop back out
That is funny.
Definition of incumbent: One who currently holds an office or title.
Definition of challenger: One who competes against the incumbent.
But if you want to quibble about words and go through some mental gymnastics which makes you call Pam the challenger, I don’t care. The Central Committee’s choice is between Dan and Pam, both of who are good capable people.
I also don’t care whether Pam or Dan went through a process of decision which gets us in this position. I just want the best person to be at the head of our party.
I think part of the problem is that it came from Budmayr and made it look like he was telling people to support Pam and taking sides, the ED should be neutral.
“part of the problem”: Budmayr is the ED of the party. He clearly pointed out he was FORWARDING this letter signed by the Governor, both US Senators and Congresswoman.
“made it look”: Central Committee members aren’t idiots. They understand the concept of “forwarding” and they are smart enough to focus on the content of what is forwarded.
Here is my bottom-line the more I think about it:
Whether I agree or disagree with ANYTHING a Republican US Senator, Governor, or Congresswoman wants to say to the Central Committee, I do not want a Chair or ED who even remotely thinks it is their job to censor that communication.
If in doing their job in distributing such communication they feel it appropriate to make it is a communication of these four elected Republican leaders, they should make the proper qualification. AND, saying they are forwarding it is more than enough because and ED who thinks Central Committee members don’t understand the “concept of forwarding” has insufficient respect for the Central Committee.
In this particular situation, Ryan did what he thought was right. The Big Four misused the party. The only way for him and the party to save face is to afford anyone else who is seeking the position of chair (currently or in the future) the same luxury of having him send out campaign material on the SDGOP letterhead to the central committee and blogs, regardless of who signs it or requests it. This was an overstep on their part, not Ryan’s. I just feel bad that Daugaard, Thune, Rounds, Noem and Roberts put him in this awkward position.
Further, Daugaard, Thune, Rounds and Noem all could have requested the emails of the central committee members and sent out the email from anyone of their campaign accounts. Roberts could have done the same.
Laziness and incompetence and an attitude of that’s how it’s always done is not an excuse for abusing the state party like this. Surprising that Thune even cares about this. He has no need for the party.
P.S. Because the poster or posters who are raising this issue are “anonymous”, I sometimes consider they might be actually using reverse psychology (similar to how I sometimes think Jaa Dee is actually a conservative because nobody makes liberals look stupider) and these poster(s) might actually support Pam because they are making Dan look foolish.
Troy,
You can call me a lot of things Troy, but anonymous ain’t one of them – lol
I would like to empathize that I like Pam and respect her, and her service to the party as our chair.
She personally informed me that she was unaware Dan was actively seeking the post when she accepted the governor’s request to serve another term.
This controversy was entirely avoidable, had there been better communication between leadership and committee members.
The fact we now HAVE a “controversy” is reason enough for me to vote for a change in leadership.
I agree …Pam caused this problem…she announced she was not running —-so did Ryan
My guess is Pam really didnt want another term but nobody good wanted it either. Wanting to avoid a vacuum and have all sorts of loonies run, she was convinced to stay. Dan has his fans and his haters which is a hard starting point. I for one dont like elected (previous or current) officials running the party. I’ve seen too much trouble with personalities. The Republican Party organization in SD has withered dramatically in terms of fundraising and help for candidates in lieu of pacs and private fundraisers. With Dan having a strong PAC, it might be interesting to see how he can join up the two. I think a contest of ideas can only help our party as the organization is struggling to adapt to the new ways to run campaigns along with what still works.
As dominant as this party is in this state, it’s not democrats that we are battling, it’s the infighting between far right and moderates. Someone needs to have credibility on both sides and be able to actively keep the peace.
Guys, support who you want, but no need to beat up on people, especially Ryan. The ED is an employee who does his best just trying to navigate requests from multiple people.
I’ve been there long ago when I was in Pennington County. It’s not always easy.
Very true.
Thanks for pointing that out, Pat.
Can we have a discussion about the CONTENT of the letter? Having $275,000 in the bank heading into an off-year is actually quite impressive. That is a marked difference from the financial situation under some of the previous leadership. I also think the point about her having developed a relationship with Priebus (and Romney McDaniel) is also not something to ignore. She should get get kudos for those 2 facts. It seems like those who want to vote her out are just upset with Daugaard for his move to the left (which I understand) but Pam should be judged on her performance as Chair and I haven’t seen anyone making a case that she hasn’t performed well.
well if she ever visits any of the the counties maybe we could discuss it with her?
You realize that any chair (and committeeman and committeewoman) would develop a relationship, right?
Also, if Roberts had a great relationship with Reince we wouldn’t have had to scramble to re-write our rules for national delegates. She could have a dispensation – like a number of other chairs across the country probably did instead of rewriting rules at the last minute.
There you go: an argument about something she did wrong. That’s the point: let’s have an argument whether she should or shouldn’t continue as Chair based on her qualifications and performance, not this endorsement and how it was sent out.
William,
I respect you and know you’ll make what you discern to be the best decision for the party on what you think is the best rationale.
Just know, I don’t think this is a real “controversy” but a mountain out of a molehill. But, I think I’m now repeating myself.
I think we both are – lol
Just a shame, the lack of communication that triggered this post to begin with.
Perhaps, Wikileaks will release emails from a Russian hacking involving this matter to get to the bottom of this controversy.
In the meantime, it is best to see Lederman as “Bernie” and Roberts as “Hillary.” But my only questions are, who is the real Debbie Wasserman Schultz in this matter and will the emails really be the smoking gun?
Simple.the DWS in this will be Stace Nelson. No love lost between Nelson and Lederman. Who’s bringing the popcorn?
Stace Nelson gets blamed for everything. I heard a rumor that he was behind the recent Badlands Pawn, I mean Badlands NP tweets…… Get real….
But who is Comey in this controversy?
And should we call all of this “Stationerygate?”
House Leadership will always be Comey thanks to the inaction of past sessions on certain activities…but that has nothing to do with a chairman race.
So you are saying that they too have an inferiority complex wrapped around a need for attention with visions of grandeur, huh?
Nelson is too much of a climber to buck the establishment no matter how much he pretends.
climber-3rd place Stace???? he has no chance of being elected state wide and how does he CLIMB higher than state senate???
The ED was forwarding party communication. Nothing wrong with that. Just be fair to everyone and it will all work out.