The Pro-Life Movement Marches Forward
By Sen. John Thune

Every January, tens of thousands of Americans come to Washington, D.C., to participate in the March for Life. They come from every background and every corner of our country to testify to the truth that every human being – no matter how small or vulnerable – has infinite value, is created in the image and likeness of God, and is endowed with the right to life.

The March for Life is an occasion for hope and a powerful reminder that babies in the womb have many defenders. Of course, the march is just one small facet – one day – of the pro-life movement’s extensive work providing help and hope to moms in need. As an example, in 2024, pregnancy resource centers provided $452 million in medical care and support for moms and babies. And we can’t begin to quantify the value of pro-life Americans who take steps big and small every day to protect life and support moms.

We also have a role to play in Congress, and I am proud that last year we passed the first pro-life law in decades. Thanks to Republicans’ Working Families Tax Cuts legislation, this year some of the nation’s largest abortion providers – including Planned Parenthood – are prohibited from receiving federal Medicaid funding. Organizations that have turned the killing of babies into a business are cut off, and it’s already having an impact.

Recently, Republicans brought up another pro-life bill: the Pregnant Students’ Rights Act. No student should have to feel she has to choose between keeping her baby and completing her education. So this bill would help ensure that pregnant college students are aware of the support available to them in their local communities and on their campuses both while they are pregnant and after giving birth. Sadly, even this bill to support moms and babies was too much for pro-abortion Democrats who blocked the bill.

For many years, pro-life Americans have persevered through an uphill battle. Our strength – our hope – is that we have the truth on our side. We know the science, we have ultrasounds and sonograms, we can see a baby in the womb waving her hands and sucking her thumb. At the core of our being, every one of us knows that an unborn baby is a human being, and every human being deserves to be protected. Abortion requires us to suppress our natural instincts and ignore our eyes. But sooner or later, the truth will win, and life will prevail.

I’m proud to be a defender of life, and I will continue working to protect the unborn, support moms and babies, and create a culture of life in our country. I’m grateful to the South Dakotans who, over the years, have joined the March for Life and who have been both witnesses and instruments in defense of the dignity of the unborn. We have the truth on our side, and I have every confidence that this truth will march on.

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HB 1103: Higher Property Taxes, Worse Water Protection
by Garth Wadsworth, Public Policy Director, Elevate Rapid City

When Rep. Scott Odenbach introduces legislation to restrict water rights, he doesn’t mention the impact on your property tax bill. But make no mistake—HB 1103 will have a direct and lasting impact on housing affordability that will drive up property taxes for current Black Hills residents, while doing nothing to protect water sources.

Here’s how it works: By artificially constraining water supply, you restrict housing construction. Less housing supply = increasing home assessments. Higher assessments = higher property taxes for everyone.

Last year, Rep. Odenbach sponsored legislation to investigate Black Hills development. His intention was to restrict all development.  Fortunately, this effort was defeated.  HB 1103 is another attempt for restricting all development: eliminate an obscure geologic exemption that gives the Black Hills some flexibility when accessing deep aquifers. We can’t build houses without water permits.

This is about pulling up the ladder. Odenbach has his property. He’s established. Now he wants to shut the door on everyone else trying to build a life in the Black Hills. But here’s the problem: this is a free country. We can’t stop people from moving to South Dakota. They’re coming whether Odenbach likes it or not.

So what happens when people keep arriving but we’ve strangled the ability to build housing? Either they bid up prices on existing homes (inflating your property taxes), or they resort to scattered development on individual exempt wells—exactly the outcome that’s worst for aquifer protection, water quality, and community planning.

HB 1103 does the opposite of what it claims. The bill says it protects water, but it will actually increase contamination risks. By making it more expensive and difficult to for regulated water systems to get permits, we push development toward smaller, dispersed clusters of private wells. These private wells are not subject to the same regulation and oversight. Water distribution systems serving 15 or more households must go through rigorous permitting and monitoring. Individual private wells don’t. By pricing regulated systems out of the market, HB 1103 pushes new development toward these unregulated wells—which is exactly the worst outcome for protecting our aquifers.

Current Black Hills residents should be furious. This isn’t about responsible water management—DANR already handles that effectively. This is about one legislator’s anti-growth agenda, not environmental protection; the end result will cost us all in higher property taxes and greater risk to ground water.

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As Elevate Rapid City’s Senior Public Policy Director, Garth Wadsworth works with community stakeholders to plan for strategic growth and quality of life in the region.

South Dakota’s Drunk Driving Crisis: Why We Need the Two-Hour Presumption Now
by Dan Nelson, Brookings County State’s Attorney

Most people assume that if you have a .08 blood alcohol sample in a DUI case, you will be found guilty. Unfortunately, this is not true in South Dakota where drunk driving remains a serious public safety issue. FBI data shows South Dakota is among the nation’s worst states for drunk driving, with more than 30,000 DUI arrests from January 2021 through December 2025 – giving it the highest per-capita rate in the United States. How did we get here and what should we do about it? We can remain passive and hope the problem improves on its own, or the legislature can take proactive steps to reverse this ugly trend. I, along with the State’s Attorneys Association, Sheriffs Association, Police Chiefs Association, and Attorney Generals Office, think its time for meaningful change. Reversing the drunk driving trend and making South Dakota roads safer does not require more Highway Patrol Troopers or Sheriff Deputies. The solution is to enact a law that allows common sense DUI enforcement. In this article, I explore South Dakota’s current law, explain why it falls short, and propose a more effective approach that is currently used by numerous rural, Midwestern states.

South Dakota law provides for a presumption of intoxication at .08 blood alcohol content (BAC) and requires the State to prove the driver had a .08 or more blood alcohol content (BAC) level at the time of driving or being in physical control of a vehicle. If the State proves that .08 level at the time of driving, the jury can presume that someone is intoxicated. It is a straightforward process until you insert the realities of roadside enforcement. No BAC test is ever conducted while driving; therefore, thousands of drunk drivers escape accountability by exploiting a flawed process.

In rural states, many DUI arrests happen far from facilities where blood can be drawn. First, law enforcement conducts the initial roadside DUI investigation, and then must transport the arrested person to have their blood drawn, often traveling a significant distance.This time delay rewards the drunk driver by allowing him to reduce his BAC before a nurse can withdraw a blood sample. Roadside PBT (breath test) and field sobriety tests do not test for BAC; therefore, every alcohol DUI case relies on a blood sample taken well after the driving occurred. This raises the central question in every DUI case: how can you accurately measure the person’s BAC at the time of driving when the blood sample is collected so long after?

In South Dakota, chemists engage in retrograde extrapolation – a fancy word used to determine a BAC at the time of driving when the sample was collected well after the driving occurred. Chemists testify in every DUI trial that this extrapolation is not an exact science. In fact, it depends on a host of factors, many of which law enforcement cannot collect in most DUI investigations. Common factors that impact extrapolation include knowing when the person started and stopped drinking that night, how much alcohol they consumed, and whether they had anything to eat during that time. Most drivers make misleading statements or simply refuse to answer questions about these factors. Bottom line, most DUI cases lack the evidence needed for accurate BAC extrapolation. This forces chemists to speculate, leaving judges and juries to guess a driver’s BAC at the time of the offense. For this reason, thousands of DUIs are reduced to lesser charges, resulting in less accountability for drunk drivers. Accountability is foundational to deterrence, which is why a change in the law is necessary. It’s a broken process that demands reform.

To solve this problem, our bordering states have enacted a common sense solution. Those states acknowledged that a vast majority of DUI blood samples are collected within a two hour time frame – the same two hour time frame that chemists would use the uncertain and inexact extrapolation process to attempt to determine the driver’s BAC.

The states fixed this by extending the presumption of intoxication to within two hours of driving the vehicle. Simply stated, if a driver has a BAC of .08 or greater within two hours of driving, they are presumed to have been intoxicated while driving. By keeping the .08 BAC level, but expanding the presumption window to two hours, it removes the need to perform the extrapolation process. It is a simple and straightforward approach that eliminates the ambiguity present in most DUI investigations and results in less speculation by the jury and judges

The public policy of this rule is rooted in common sense. If you have a blood alcohol result of .08 or greater within two hours of driving, you should be presumed to be intoxicated.

The laws surrounding DUIs must be fair while acknowledging the realities of roadside enforcement. Public safety and law enforcement should not be compromised or rendered ineffective because of time delays caused by location of arrest or the inexact science of extrapolation. It is time for South Dakota to embrace a new approach to DUI enforcement. If you believe we should work to reverse the ugly trend of increasing DUIs on South Dakota roads, please help us by encouraging your legislator to vote yes on HB 1120.

I’ve been spending some time today re-arranging my wall of campaign ribbons to accommodate my recent acquisitions and alleviate some crowding..

Definitely not done, as my Harper’s Weekly centerfold of the Republican Primary candidates for 1860 is still on the floor, along with my other 1936 broadside from the SDGOP against Governors Berry and Bulow.

I was scanning eBay for items for my collection, just in case there was something that could fill that space off to the upper right of the photo – and I did find an ancient SD campaign piece that I hadn’t known to exist (more on that later) – but I also came across a more recent item I’d never seen before.  A Scyller Borglum for US Senate Challenge coin:

Photo credit to the listing – (If you want to buy it, you can find it here on eBay).

I’m not clear as to whether this was an actual campaign piece from Scyller’s campaign, or a vendor piece that someone made to try to capitalize on the race in South Dakota at the time.  But this might represent one of the only pieces of memorabilia in that contest, as I don’t recall any Dan Ahlers swag, either.  Which is interesting to me, as Senator Mike Rounds is up again, and is once again running against an underdog candidate in the primary, and we’ll see what happens in the general. Which means we may not be seeing any memorabilia from any US Senate race this year.

The challenge coin is currently listed at $99 on eBay, and without knowing it’s provenance, I’m taking a pass on adding it to my collection.

I did find a campaign item from 1899 that I’ve never seen before. I had to pay more than I wanted to, but a little less for it than what the seller is asking for the Scyller piece. It’s pretty unique. I’ll cross my fingers and see if it gets here with our terrible mail service, and show it off then.

In South Dakota, there are campaign finance limits set in state law which limit donors to a maximum $4000 donation from an individual.  But campaign finance can be less about rules, and more about how artfully those limits can be driven around. One mechanism is through a Federal PAC where limits are not so stringent.

Of course Dusty Johnson has a Federal Leadership PAC which he’s used as a member of Congress for several years. Rounds and Thune have one as well to help raise funds. Especially Majority Leader Thune, which he uses to help many Senate Races across the country.

In the race for Governor though, Governor Rhoden has set one up as well. Not because he wants to run for federal office, but because you don’t have to deal with those pesky state limits on what’s donated to campaigns when you’re in the Federal sphere:

Larry Rhoden Free American Fund by Pat Powers

Rhoden’s Free American Fund – as mentioned in an earlier post – sent the Rhoden for Governor campaign $85,500 this past year to help him with his gubernatorial efforts. Where did these funds come from? According to the PAC filing made recently..

• State Senator Arch Beal (Via Beal Distributing) donated $10,000 on 12/24/25.
• James Brown of Highlands Ranch, Colorado (nice place, I have a brother lives there), a partner with Charter Financial Resources was a $30,000 donor on 12/30.25
• On 12/8/25, T. Denny Sanford of Sioux Falls made a whopping $50,000 donation to the Free American Fund. Which may make T. Denny the largest single donor to the Rhoden Campaign.

Out of the $90,000 donated, $85,500 found it’s way to Rhoden for Governor, with the rest ($9890 total remaining the account) I’m assuming will remain with the party that holds the funds and for allowing his group to be used as a pass through.

Watch for the “Free American Fund” to continue to be a factor in the Governor’s campaign, and where the very, very big donors go to avoid those things like state campaign finance limits.

As part of looking at what’s going on while we all wait to see how many people haven’t donated to Toby Doeden, I was checking Political Action Committee reports, and had almost forgotten about the political action committee that the Hansen Campaign started the season with, the People First PAC.

I should have checked this report first, as it foreshadowed what we found on Hansen’s campaign committee report. They raised a bit, spent most all of it, and there’s not much left.

HansenPAC Report by Pat Powers

In the PAC attached to the Hansen campaign, the group reported actually raising $123,183.05. But then they spent the bejeezus out of it with $110,402 in expenses, including $25k which ended up in the Hansen for Governor campaign’s totals.

Now, there’s only $12,780.35 left.

Since the campaign camper is kind of expensive to pull, and neither of Hansen’s campaign accounts has much money, are they going to have to downsize?

Just asking.

I think we know who will be dropping out of the race for Governor first.

State Representative Jon Hansen just posted a report that might be encouraging when you’re a candidate for the State Legislature, but whoof.

This tells you where his campaign is at:

Jon Hansen 2025 EOY Report by Pat Powers

Hansen was able to pull in $188,771 from his allies and the Pizza Ranch circuit.. but check out this burn rate – He’s spent $134,878.01 already. He should have skipped wrapping the camper, because all he has to go into 2026 with is $53,893.97. Who on earth thinks this is sustainable? Jim Eschenbaum?

Just think about it – he’s walking into the next several months with 1/10th of what Governor Rhoden is reporting. One-tenth.

This isn’t a political campaign. This is a campaign headed to the trauma unit, because it’s bleeding out.

Maybe he has cash coming from a dark money PAC or something? But from the looks of it, this poor showing would send most people home.

Governor Larry Rhoden filed his campaign finance report for 2025 this afternoon, showing his cards on the campaign effort he’s been able to run to date in his pursuit to keep the job he’s doing now.  It’s an interesting mix of funding, and well worth the time to go through the report:

Larry Rhoden 2025 EOY Report by Pat Powers

The Governor reports having 1/2 a million in his Gubernatorial campaign account; showing $491,285.87 in income against $70,593.75 in expenses, leaving him an ending balance of $511,815.93. But something caught my eye on this report. It is showing income from Rhoden’s other committees transferred in to increase what his main committee has in it’s account.

In this report, they pulled in and used the $142,500 that the Strong, Safe & Free PAC raised,

AND $85,500 that his super PAC Raised..

..totalling $229,000.

so the main Rhoden for Governor committee actually only raised $282,815.93, and these separate arms of the campaign raised the rest.

Nothing shabby, but to get the true picture of what the Governor has to invest in campaign 2026, we need to review those other reports and see if they have any remaining funds.

In comparison to Safe, Strong & Free, Congressman Dusty’s PAC has $1 million on hand. And to Rhoden’s Gubernatorial report, Dusty for Governor has 1 million on hand (with some moved from Congressional campaign), Plus everything in his federal accounts, which with his state fundraising has him running at about $8 million all in, with a long runway to raise more.

Governor Rhoden has a reasonable start with this seed money, but he’s going to have to invest this to build his kitty much further.

It seems that the hard right is pulling out all the stops this year, and is at the point where they’re going to throw everything against the wall.
State Representative Tony Randolph is joined by some of his fellow freedumb caucus members, as they attempt to remove any compassion from South Dakota’s laws on abortion, and to throw women who have one in jail:

Republican Rep. Tony Randolph introduced House Bill 1212, which seeks to remove the section in South Dakota Codified Law that states “A female who undergoes an unlawful abortion, … may not be held criminally liable for the abortion.”

and..

Women are currently not held criminally liable for receiving an abortion, only the medical provider who performs or induces the abortion is liable.

This bill would change that and could make women liable and subject to felony charges in order to “strengthen protections for unborn children,” the bill says.

Read the entire story here.

Who are the legislators who want to throw women in jail?

Rep. Tony Randolph might be the prime sponsor, but he’s joined and supported by Rep. Aylward, Rep. Josephine Garcia, Rep. Phil Jensen, Rep. Dylan Jordan, Rep. Logan Manhart, Rep. Brandei Schaefbauer, Senator Tom Pischke, as well as Senate Prime Sponsor John “California” Carley.

Is this where we are in the South Dakota legislature? We finally pass a law to update our prison system, and we have goofball legislators who spend their time rabidly trying to come up with proposals to fill them?

In 2023, House Bill 1220, a measure was brought to clarify that a pregnant woman who receives an “unlawful abortion” will not be held criminally liable.  In fact, South Dakota Right to Life signed off on the measure acting with compassion towards women.

All the proponents, from Sen Jessica Castleberry, R-Rapid City who sponsored HB 1220, to the Governor’s Office and Attorney General’s Office, and South Dakota Right for Life, agreed women who seek abortions are victims themselves.

“We can continue to create policy to protect unborn children, but we can also create policy to not further harm abortion vulnerable women,” Castleberry said.

and..

Sen. Erin Tobin, R-Winner, questioned Dale Bartscher, the executive director for South Dakota Right to Life, during the hearing, pointing to a letter he had handed out with a highlighted section, addressing the psychological and physical harm a pregnant woman may suffer after she has an abortion.

“Do you think that there’s a place in the future to look at the health of the mother, because that would also affect physical and psychological damage to that mother?” Tobin said. “Is that something that Right to Life would be willing to work on?”

“Right to Life definitely will continue to collaborate with anyone on issues of the protection of the mother and the baby in the mother’s womb,” Bartscher said.

Read the entire story here.

Many of the legislators who were there as sponsors for the legislation in 2023, are still in the legislature, and some newer members intersect with others:

John “California” Carley was a campaign opponent to one of HB 1220’s legislative sponsors Rep. Chaffee in the last election. Rep. Dylan Jordan who is a sponsor of the new legislation trying to put women in jail is being opposed in the upcoming election by another 2023 HB 1220 sponsor, former State Rep. Fred Deutsch.

Fred, in regarding one of Jordan’s other proposals once referred to Rep. Dylan Jordan as “kooky, wrong and dangerous.”  I think with this bill, he can add lacking compassion to the list of Jordan’s many shortcomings.

Interestingly when the vote for 1220 was held back in 2023, for the legislators who have been hanging out since then and are now seeking to put women in jail, Tom Pischke was out of the chamber and excused.  Other sponsors did cast a ballot.  Randolph, Aylward, and Phil Jensen all voted against compassion and consideration at the time.

Also at the time, Rep. Schaefbauer was part of the group that voted to pass HB1220 against criminalizing women who seek an abortion. Yet 3 years later, Brandei has joined the hard-right group who want to put women in jail and tattoo them with a scarlet letter and a jail sentence.

How times change.

“..people are funding candidates now instead of just throwing all the money to the state or state party. And I am perfectly OK with that. We don’t need any more money thrown to the state GOP than what we need to operate.”  – Jim Eschenbaum, SDGOP Chair, SD Searchlight, April 13, 2025

The South Dakota Republican Party had their 2025 year end report posted today, and within there are some interesting points to bring up in context to the overall collapse of the organization, and how when you put in charge a former 32-year Democrat who claimed from the onset that they don’t need money, they’re not going to have an easy time raising it.

First, read the report(s) for yourself:

SDGOP2025EOYReport by Pat Powers

SDGOP 2025 EOY Report Supplement by Pat Powers

There are some red flags and danger signs to take away from this report.

 

A high burn rate and no ability to do fundraising

First, after subtracting total expenses from their total income – their net – what was left over – was $34,247.72.  They had literally an 80% burn rate for their cash. But what’s one primary difference between Eschenbaum and his predecessors?  Go back to Eschenbaum’s inaugural interview:

And we’ve already taken $77,000 out of the annual operating costs of the state GOP. Reggie Rhoden, Governor Rhoden’s son, was executive director and he was being paid $5,400 a month. He resigned at the meeting on February 22, when we did the elections. And we have decided thus far that we don’t need an executive director. Nobody knows that he was doing much.  Jim Eschenbaum, SDGOP Chair, SD Searchlight, April 13, 2025

When prior chairs raised and spent money to promote the Republican party, they had a much higher level of activity and involvement. They kept the trains running on time, and generated activity for the Republican organization. And they most often did it by hiring professional political staff.

Eschenbaum claimed to the public, in the media that they didn’t need money, and was an insulting ass about the notion of the party having staff.  Now, they have a high burn rate, and an organization in free fall.

Secondly – the GOP’s big fundraiser that they thought would save their bacon? How has that been performing?

If we’re to take “Accounting by Tina Mulally” on it’s face for the information provided on the report their absolute reliance on this fundraiser is to their detriment.

They’re saying they raised nearly 69k from their raffle? Okay.. but what did they sink into it?

So, it cost them at least $51,477 to raise $68,889? So, if they’re lucky, they cleared $17k by the end of the year for their big state-wide fundraiser?  I’ve worked on quick projects for the party in the past which have raised this amount or more, and for this one, they’re still on the hook for advertising and promoting?  This is at the level of what some counties have raised through their Lincoln Day Dinners.  $17k isn’t bad for one event – but it tied up a TON of cash to raise that small amount.

And more importantly.. that was one event. Where are the others, not counting the silly Miller Golf event. When it comes to fundraising you need to put a dozen more together, doing it again, and again, and again. Yet the SDGOP remains paralyzed by this one concept as if they are now bereft of ideas.

 

Where else isn’t the money coming from?

If you look at the supplemental report showing the sources of intra-committee transfers, the SDGOP seems to be on life support as much as the Democrats have ever been.

$18,782.00 donated from county party organizations. $5,000 from Heartland Values PAC, which Treasurer Tina misreported, because it’s a Federal Political Action Committee, another $6165 from Candidate Committees.  There are minor amounts from the elected statewide officials, but they’ve largely been hands-off since the party spends as much time attacking them in social media as they do anything else.  And here we get into a big thing..

Do you know who is NOT as being a contributor in this report? The person who has traditionally been looked to as the figurehead and leader of the Republican Party organization in South Dakota – Governor Larry Rhoden – is COMPLETELY absent from being noted as contributing or supporting the goofs currently in charge of the South Dakota Republican Party organization.

Don’t take that as a complaint. Larry is a good guy. You won’t find my name on that report either. But his is a very important one for them when he decides to stay out of it.

I seem to remember the excerpt from the article from Jim Eschenbaum’s interview earlier this year:

“Reggie Rhoden, Governor Rhoden’s son, was executive director and he was being paid $5,400 a month… Nobody knows that he was doing much.”

Jim Eschenbaum, SDGOP Chair, SD Searchlight, April 13, 2025.

You know, if the former 32-year Democrat pretending to be the Republican Party Chairman wanted to help the relationship between the Republican Party and the Governor, I don’t think this was the way to break the ice.

I also seem to remember another incident from August..

After selling ballots in their faux straw poll in August… once again they didn’t really do the titular head of the party any favors by declaring he has no support in their fake straw poll.  And he’s not the only one the Eschenbaum party machine has lobbed bombs at. But you get my point.

The SDGOP has literally what are referred to as “the big 4”  – Our 2 US Senators, Congress and the Governor. Period.   They are the public face of the party.  In the general public NOBODY gives a flying-f*rt about who the party chairman is.  They recognize the big 4, so it’s a symbiotic relationship, if not a slightly parasitic one from the party’s end.

The organization needs them to be part of promoting the Republican party, and encouraging people to support it.  But now, for one of the first times in this generation, we have a Republican Party organization that at times is openly hostile to the big 4.   And it shows.

Can you blame them if they have little interest in contributing to the success of an organization? One that desperately needs them at the same time they insult them, lob bombs at them, and then come to them with their hand out?  And I talk to people. I know they are coming in to beg with hat in hand.

 

I’ll just stop here, because I can nitpick the problems to death. At the risk of going on too long, loyal carriers of water for the elephant should take a long look at the SDGOP’s state 2025 EOY report. It represents a problem with the Republican party’s continued dominance in this state.

The populist inmates are in charge of the asylum. They can’t raise money, and spend their time insulting the people who have traditionally helped them do it. Clearly, they care nothing for the continuation of a long and proud tradition of Republican success in this state.