Hopefully, this should be the last dumpster-fire Doeden post today, as he got his tail handed to him in committee, and his year-end campaign finance filing came out.

But like an angry two-year-old who just got spanked, he seems to be lashing out today and decided to take it out on the Governor, our new Lt. Governor, and even swipes at Navy veteran & former Lieutenant Governor Matt Michels as part of his tantrum:

You can listen to the rant attacking the Gov and Lt govs here, but only if you are so inclined.

In a surprising development, there is actually news from the third candidate for SDOGP Chair, Jim Eschenbaum, who has largely sat mute since a forum that was held for the three candidates running a couple of months back. From an e-mail that went out:

So, apparently Janet Jensen of Pennington County is noted to be his vice chair.  Does that mean that part of their platform will be to make sure all central committee meetings will be recorded?

IYKYK.

Stay tuned.

From SD Searchlight:

Public school districts in South Dakota would be required to set policies to allow chaplains to serve within school buildings under legislation approved in committee Monday.

Lawmakers in several other states are introducing similar bills this year, said Rep. Al Novstrup, R-Aberdeen, the bill’s primary sponsor.

A chaplain is a certified member of a religious body, such as a Christian denomination, who provides spiritual care for people outside of a religious organization. Chaplains serve in prisons, hospitals, and the military. Novstrup told lawmakers school board policies would spell out the definition of “chaplain,” since neither state law nor the bill define the role.

Read that here.

And from Iowa, where a similar measure was introduced, here’s what they’re hearing in that state from their friends in the Satanic Temple:

Dressed in all black with the exception of his red-tinted sunglasses and red tie, Satanic Temple Minister Mortimer Adramelech said he and his organization would welcome the opportunity to participate in Iowa’s public school chaplain program.

“I personally oppose HF 2073 because I believe in the separation of church and state, but if the bill does pass, I’m excited for the opportunities it presents for the Satanic Temple to support services and programs to school children in our state,” Adramelech said.

and..

“Iowa has several ordained ministers of Satan and we would be happy to engage children,” Adramelech said. “Hail, Satan; hail, Iowa, and thank you for your time.”

Read that here.

South Dakota legislators should be careful what they wish for. They might just get it.

Senate Committee Approves Attorney General Jackley’s Government Accountability Internal Control Bill

 PIERRE, S.D. – Senate Bill 61, which would modify and strengthen the state Board of Internal Control, and which was introduced by Attorney General Marty Jackley and supported by State Auditor Rich Sattgast and Governor Larry Rhoden’s Office, was unanimously approved Monday by the Senate State Affairs Committee.

“This bill will help ensure state government agencies are held more accountable when using taxpayer dollars,” said Attorney General Jackley. “We appreciate the support of State Auditor Sattgast, the Governor, and the Legislature.”

Senate Bill 61, as amended in committee, now goes to the Senate floor for final Senate consideration.

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Gov. Rhoden Announces Josie Harms as Press Secretary 

PIERRE, S.D. – Today, Governor Larry Rhoden announced that Josie Harms will serve as Press Secretary in the Governor’s Office. Her first day in the office will be February 6, 2025. 

“Josie will bring a service mentality and a friendly demeanor to the Governor’s Office,” said Governor Rhoden. “She is a talented professional with a bright future.  I trust that she will fulfill my commitment to treat the press with openness and responsiveness.” 

Josie graduated from Bethel University with a Bachelor of Arts in Finance and is working on a Master of Business Administration from Bethel University. She interned in the South Dakota Governor’s Office for two summers. During that time, she excelled in writing projects and provided excellent constituent services. She served as a Resident Assistant and Teaching Assistant at Bethel. She served as Communications Chair for “The 25,” a program for women in leadership.

“Thank you to Governor Rhoden for trusting me with this responsibility. I am incredibly honored to serve alongside a team of dedicated individuals who are committed to keeping South Dakota strong, safe, and free,” said Josie Harms. “As Press Secretary, my goal is to ensure our administration remains transparent, accessible, and responsive to the needs of every South Dakotan.”

Josie was the team captain of the cross country and track & field team at Bethel University and holds the school record in the steeplechase event.

A photo of Josie Harms can be found here.

Based on the last two Dakota First Action PAC Campaign finance reports, I was curious to see in the aggregate how much individual legislators benefitted, so we can compare things to how they vote on the Doeden PAC issues.   I downloaded the last two campaign finance reports, did some adding, so we know exactly how beholding these elected officials are going to be beholding to an outside PAC as opposed to the voters in their districts.  And I made a chart.

Here’s the top ten list of how much current legislators owe their seat to a third party Political Action Committee:

All of this information is filed with the Secretary of State’s office, BTW.

Wow! No wonder Carl Perry does exactly as Toby Doeden/Dakota First Action PAC wants – he was the number two recipient of spending in the 2024 election cycle at almost $13,250.  And John “California” Carley was not far behind at nearly $10,000.

Of course, the Number 1 position of being bought and paid for by the PAC belongs to State Senator Tom Pischke at $13,442.88.

Here’s Tom with Doeden PAC’s lackey Brian Lewis.

Of course Pischke voted against SB 12.

Just as commanded.

This weekend Toby Doeden doubled down on showing what a questionable player he is, as his Political Action Committee, Dakota First Action, filed their year end report showing that Doeden, South Dakota’s version of George Soros, donated loaned his Political Action Committee another $115,000, on top of the $105,000 reported in the previous 2 reports:

TobyDoedenPAC_sdcfdisclosure by Pat Powers on Scribd

That brings the total to around $220,000 that he’s dumped into his PAC to try to buy South Dakota elections.

Another item that caught my attention was all the expenses that he incurred on this report.. that don’t seem that they should be on this report. Why? Look at the dates:

Why is $5,668.28 in mail that he claims to have spent on Lee Qualm’s primary race on 5/22/2024 or $4,131.25 that he used to mail Carl Perry‘s race on 6/3/24 showing up on the year end report over 6 months after the fact, when it should have at least been reported in the pre-general report for the Political Action Committee?  There’s even a $1200 donation of text messaging (MMS) for Tom Pischke on 5/7 that should have been reported on the pre-primary report!?!   The thing is, most businesses are cash up front for political business. So, it’s not like they didn’t know about them.

Not that anyone is policing these things in South Dakota, but clearly, no one is policing these things in South Dakota.

I’m not sure why we have rules that the rest have to follow when this kind of thing is allowed to slide.

But that goes to show you how the bad guys like to play it.  Rules for thee, but not for me.

Looks like some politicians don’t want you to vote, if you’re part of a group that at times approaches 30% of those voting.

Because as led by Senators Blanc (prime), California Carley, and sleepy Carl Perry and joined by brain trust Representatives Mulally, Baxter, Ismay, and Jensen (Phil), they want to take away your right to vote at anytime in the 45 days leading up to the election.

Senator Blanc wants to limit the Right to vote SB188 by Pat Powers on Scribd

Early Absentee Voting (a.k.a., early voting) for a number of years has allowed people to visit the auditor’s office as they are available, in addition to voting absentee by mail and in some counties, the numbers have been well in access of 20% and has approached 30%.

But, as led by these anti-democracy Senators, some people want to make it tougher to vote, unless you are sick, disabled, or it has something to do with Jesus.

Ugh. Why are these people going to Pierre and thinking they have a mandate to make it tougher to vote, and to drive down voter turnout?

In-person absentee has worked just fine for a number of years, and I really doubt that they can point to a group of people in their legislative district who are demanding less access to the ability to vote.

Reach out to your Representatives and Senators, and tell them to quit trying to make it tougher to vote in South Dakota, and to vote NO on Senate Bill 188.

Gov. Rhoden Invites President Trump to Mount Rushmore Fireworks 

PIERRE, S.D. – Today, Governor Larry Rhoden invited President Donald J. Trump “to come to Mount Rushmore for Independence Day in 2026 to celebrate our nation’s 250th birthday with fireworks.” He made this invitation in a letter to the President, which you can find here. 

“We are ready to throw the biggest birthday party ever for the United States of America. And there is no better place to do it than Mount Rushmore,” said Governor Larry Rhoden. “I trust that you will work closely with us to make it happen, and we cannot wait to see you there.” 

Governor Rhoden pointed to President Trump’s recent announcement of the White House Task Force on Celebrating America’s 250th Birthday (Task Force 250) and the confirmation of former North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum as Secretary of the Interior as positive developments that will help make this event happen.

“We relish the opportunity to work with both Secretary Burgum and Task Force 250 to plan a celebration that will draw the attention of the entire nation and the world,” continued Governor Rhoden.

In 2020, former-Governor Kristi Noem and President Trump restored the Mount Rushmore Fireworks Celebration for the first time in more than a decade. The Biden Administration rejected any requests to hold the event in subsequent years.

Governor Rhoden looks forward to working with the Trump Administration once again to restore this fantastic celebration. 

###

Senate Bill 12 took an interesting turn this morning.

House State Affairs was discussing the bill to ban million dollar loans to state campaigns from people like South Dakota’s Soros, Toby Doeden, who had to change his $100k donation to a loan after it was pointed out that you can’t do that just because you have money.

The bill had Sponsor Michael Rohl testify in favor, and Brian Lewis was sent from Dakota Action PAC (Toby Doeden’s PAC) to do his master’s bidding.

Unexpectedly, an amendment was brought forward came up from Rep. Spencer Gosch, which requested that legislators do the following:

A candidate with a federally authorized committee, as defined in 52 U.S.C. § 14 30101, et seq., (January 1, 2025), may not transfer more than ten thousand dollars per year, to any political committee organized pursuant to this chapter.

They added the amendment without much discussion, and sent it to the House floor on a 12-1 vote. The one vote against the bill – after putting her hands on her head because thinking is hard – was State Rep. Brandei Schaefbauer. She is apparently too far in Toby Doeden’s pocket to extricate herself, so she did what Toby wanted.

So, on a 12-1 vote, the measure is passed.  It remains to go to the floor and back to the Senate in concurrence. But do they really know what they did?  Here’s where we can see the chaos they just wrought.

• The poison pill measure seems to go after Congressman Dusty Johnson transferring money to a state committee (adding a second subject on to the bill).  But it goes after not just Dusty, Gosch’s amendment swipes at Senator Thune, Senator Rounds, and KristiPAC.
• The bill would shut down donations from Senators Thune or Rounds to the State GOP in amounts over $10k annually. So, SDGOP ready to collapse financially?  Sorry. You’re capped.   SDDP taking $15-20k or more monthly from National Dem Party candidates from time to time?  Well, that’s going to take attorneys to figure out whether they can take it, and if so, whether they could send any to their state account.
• Remember Governor Kristi Noem’s KRISTIPAC $35k donation to the No on G Committee? That will definitely be “No Go” for any future support, past the 10k cap.
• Presidential candidates rolling cash through, and allowing state party organizations to take some off the top for their trouble? That’s over.

I’m kind of wondering whether they really thought things through.  But given that it came from our taxpayer-funded Hawaiian cliff-diving Representative.. I tend not to think so.