Above are two of several postcards sent out by the South Dakota Gun Owners operation in this years’ primary election campaigns. You know those guys, don’t you? If not, SDGO bills itself as..

South Dakota Gun Owners is an un-incorporated not-for-profit association allied with, and similar to, Gun Owners of America allied with the National Association for Gun Rights. Combined, SDGO and NAGR have over 12,000 members in South Dakota. An Executive Director is responsible for the day-to-day operations and is accountable to the Board of Directors.

Read it here.

Which might be fine and dandy as far as their non-profit status is concerned with the IRS. But as I was glancing at these cards today, I noticed something very curious.

Obviously, I do a lot of mail for political candidates and organizations, and this mailing permit hit me like a slap across the face.

The mailing comes out not from the SD Gun Owners themselves (which they’ve declared as a non-profit), but from South Dakota Gun Owners PAC, a political action committee.  A political organization is sending the mailing, yet, the mailing permit is such that they’re mailing out at non-profit rates reserved for charities and political parties.

Is it improper to do so? Well, the US Post Office is pretty specific on what political organizations can access non-profit rates:

2-2.2 Qualified Political Committees

The following political committees may be authorized to mail at the nonprofit rates without regard to their nonprofit status:

• National committee of a political party (the organization responsible for the party’s day-to-day operation at the national level).
• State committee of a political party (the organization responsible for the party’s day-to-day operation at the state level).
• The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
• The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
• The National Republican Congressional Committee.
• The National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Read that here.

There are allowances for “Educational Groups,” but somehow I think the SDGO would be hard pressed to make the case that a mailing for the PAC is coming from a non-profit educational group.

Sources tell me that mailing permit #7539 appears to be registered to Preferred Printing in Sioux Falls, which was noted to me as mainly handling Democrat mail, which they thought was curious as well, coming from these alleged staunch-ultra conservatives.

I’m doing some more digging on this, as it appears that SDGO might have found a way to game the system of non-profit mailings to let a PAC unaffiliated with a political party send bulk mail at a greatly reduced price.

And if so, I’d like to be able to figure out that method and exploit it as well. Or, they haven’t. Which in that case, I won’t be able to either.

But at least, the playing field will be leveled.

Did you receive this mailer?  I’m looking for a clearer copy of this side of it, specifically.

Feel free to redact the address, but only the address. And send a copy to me by clicking here.

Happy June 1st!

Aside from it being my little sister Adrienne’s birthday, it’s also the day when we turn our cash registers ahead 1/2 a penny!

Today is the day that the South Dakota state sales tax goes up one half cent towards education, an issue that could prove to be one of the more prominent in next Tuesday’s Republican primary.

At least in one primary race, the issue is said to be crushing for the incumbent. In District 30, conventional wisdom says state senator Bruce Rampelberg may find himself out of office in part for his support of the measure.

District 30 was one of the unusual areas where most of their school districts ended up on the wrong side of the adjusted formula which put more money into teacher salaries, causing each district allegedly to have to fire teachers while giving only minimal raises.

Coupled with the Senator’s sponsorship with Democrats on measures in 2015 and 2016 to create a corporate income tax, many observers are saying that he is basically toast.

The issue has come up in other races, but it does not seem to have the impact it has had in D30.

The Say No website sponsored by the Foundation for Government Accountability is advertising with us for a bit, and looking for people to join them in working to stop the expansion of Obamacare in South Dakota.

As they note on their website:

Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion in South Dakota will put taxpayers on the hook for MILLIONS in cost overruns, just like in other states.

The ObamaCare Medicaid expansion scheme is:

Unaffordable
Unpredictable
Unfair
Unpopular

This latest Medicaid expansion scheme will push adults out of private insurance and add more than 50,000 able-bodied adults onto taxpayer-funded welfare.

South Dakotans can’t afford another entitlement class!

Send a message directly to your legislator today and help stop Medicaid expansion in South Dakota!

Read, and sign the petition here.

I’m not sure if these numbers were intentionally typed, or if they were just random numbers thrown on the page, and the Secretary of State’s office just threw up their hands in futility and accepted it:

The Stace Nelson Campaign Finance mess report.

2016 Stace Nelson Pre-primary Report Campaign Filing

If you note on page 2, there’s $3220 in unitemized contributions, as well as $800 PAC money totaling $4020 on page 5. And expenses were $3136.26. So how does the cash on hand becomes $7,782.02?

There was a supplemental page provided with 6903.28 in contributions not reflected in the report….. and it appears to add up, if we assume those are itemized contributions not reflected in the report.  Not that the report appears to be properly filed or anything.

(Update: Nelson sends a note and blames the SOS for the confusing document, noting “The SOS office rejected my submission as there were a couple donors on the optimized lost that were listed by their mailing address.  Unusually enough, I resubmitted the addendum list, which they accepted, but then THEY changed my initial submission and posted it online.)

One thing did pique my interest in the itemized report:

The same Stan Adelstein who just paid thousands to roast Stace’s compatriot Phil Jensen over the coals saw fit to become Stace’s new buddy, and send him $250.00.

The same Stan Adelstein who tried to establish & bankrolled the Mainstream Moderates, who was a major supporter of Tom Daschle, who put about $80,000 into electing Democrats to office one cycle, received an award for his activism in protecting abortion, etcetera, and so forth, saw a kindred spirit in Stace, and became one of his campaign’s largest donors?

Dang, that’s kind of funny.

Great time at the Minnehaha County Lincoln Day Dinner!  Huge Kudos to Dave Roetman! And to everyone who helped and made it happen.

Here’s what I had a chance to snap in-between chatting.

Sorry about the photo Don. (It’s my thing, I take photos at events!)

Senator Thune talks about Democrats, and how they used to roam freely. (Now their numbers have dwindled through over hunting, but no one wants to call the season off.)

Blake Curd introduces Chris Paranto, as Curd was a major reason we were able to get him to the dinner. Great speech. Not often you hear about turtle heads at Lincoln Day dinners. (and it was funny)

Mike Rounds talks about his work, and his appreciation for the Republicans who put him in office, as well as why we need to return Senator Thune to the US Senate.

Congresswoman Kristi Noem addresses the upbeat and excited crowd!

I was towards the middle, and you can see how big the crowd was from my vantage point:

I am on my way to the Minnehaha County Lincoln Day dinner, with a couple stops on the way for business.

Along the way, Dave Roetman informed me that they have sold 650 tickets to the event. If you’re trying to compare considerate just shy of two Hillary Clinton South Dakota events, with an estimated 300 to 350 attendees.

And this is just a small Republican county “get together.”

It goes without saying that next weeks’ elections are going to have some effect on the make up of the State Senate, which has been an area more friendly to the Governor’s proposals over the past two sessions than the House of Representatives might have been.

And how much more friendly it is after next Tuesday may determine if there’s a special session for Medicaid expansion… or not.

If conservatives take a great number of the seats in play, this summer might be the most hospitable time for the Governor to attempt to pass some sort of Medicaid reform package. If it ends up being a general wash… then he might let it ride, and save the fistfight until next session.

The problem is, the concept of providing coverage to able-bodied adults isn’t overwhelmingly popular among the Republican rank and file, and already might be a nigh-impossible sell. Imagine it being tried in a far less hospitable political climate?

Not exactly odds you want to play. You might be damned if you do, damned if you don’t, anyway.

To Special Session, or not to Special Session. That’s the question.

Bob Mercer is reporting today on how the group calling itself the South Dakota Gun Owners (which is directed by a Colorado man) is pumping out-of-state dollars into several state legislative primary campaigns:

The Rapid City-based organization known as South Dakota Gun Owners, which is not the National Rifle Association, has put a total of $5,500 into eight primary contests for Republican nominations to seats in the South Dakota Legislature.

The group’s political action committee report filed May 27 shows $1,000 contributions to Sen. Phil Jensen, R-Rapid City; Rep. Lance Russell, R-Hot Springs; and House candidate Travis Lasseter, R-New Underwood.

The PAC also gave $500 apiece to Rep. Dan Kaiser, R-Aberdeen; House candidate Drew Dennert, R-Aberdeen; former Rep. Stace Nelson, R-Fulton, who is a state Senate candidate; House candidate Taffy Howard, R-Rapid City; and Senate candidate Tina Mulally, R-Rapid City.

The PAC run by Ray Lautenschlager of Rapid City has also spent nearly $3,200 for printing and postage. The report doesn’t identify whose legislative districts’ residents have been receiving the mailing.

Lautenschlager doesn’t identify the source of $10,000 his organization gave his PAC. He reports $8,000 from a Windsor, Colorado-based group, National Association for Gun Rights. He also reports that $6,000 is owed to a business known as Front Range Consulting but no other information is shown for that business.

Read it here.

This report comes at the same time that Mercer reports that Governor Daugaard has donated to candidates in several races, with candidates who didn’t get any money from him trying to complain about it in some instances, as noted by challenger Janet McIntyre on facebook:

Someone explain why exactly a straightforward donation from the Governor to a candidate he supports is bad, yet donations coming from out of state dollars, and via out of state mailings are good?