Monae Johnson for Secretary of State has filed her report, showing that while her fundraising is ahead of her opponent, with his 50k loan to himself, Johnson us is not that far ahead.

Monae Johnson Pre General by Pat Powers on Scribd

Johnson shows $61,282.49 raised against $54,832.26 spend, leaving her $6,854.00 to roll into the final 2 weeks.

With her natural, built in advantage as a Republican, Johnson should be able to cruise into the winner’s circle.. but she shouldn’t stop working, because being within $5k of her opponent, a last minute blitz could prove to be a headache.

PSDKs raises $427,186.03 to defeat IM 27

Protecting South Dakota Kids has raised $427,186.03 to help defeat IM 27, the recreational marijuana initiative. Our grass-root movement has more than 400 volunteers and donors statewide.

“We are republicans, libertarians, and democrats across the state who have come together on a united front to fight against the legalization of destructive drugs that destroy the lives of children and families in states that have legalized recreational marijuana,” said Jim Kinyon, PSDK Chairman. “South Dakota moms, dads, grandparents, great grandparents, law enforcement agencies, religious groups, business leaders, and medical professionals across the state have donated to prevent recreational marijuana from destroying their towns, communities, and way of life. We are humbled by the $5 donations and the $20,000 donations. In all cases, we pledged to spend each dollar wisely.

“While we have a key working group of coalition volunteers, we have so many residents across the state who have stepped up to host and speak at public events, bring cookies, gummie bears, lollipops, print flyers and posters, pay for yard signs and billboards, write OpEds and letters to the editors, engage their family, friends and neighbors in constructive and informative debate,” said Kinyon.

Here are just a few of the groups that are voting NO on IM 27:

The South Dakota State Medical Association, South Dakota Academy of Family Physicians, South Dakota Chamber of Commerce, South Dakota Police Chiefs Association and 63 of the 65 Sheriffs across our state.

Wow. Just wow.  Governor Kristi Noem has put up some tremendous fundraising numbers in the final campaign finance report before the election, showing her complete domination of her opponent, who failed to muster half than his preceding democrat candidate by this time.

Kristi for Governor Pre-General by Pat Powers on Scribd

Governor Noem is a fundraising powerhouse, and after starting with $7,762,901.57 cash, she put another $3,118,900.79 on top of it. Against this, she spent $4,713,540.41, leaving her over $6 Million to spend in the push of the final two weeks of the election.

In comparison, this is double of what she had raised in the prior election, plus leaving her over 10x more cash going into the final two weeks than she had in 2018. Oh.. and this is just one committee. I’m not even digging into joint fundraising with the GOP and others.

The Governor has shown why she is at the top of the food chain in South Dakota politics. This shows a high degree of organization and a broad based campaign that made it happen.

Get ready for the last two weeks. Because Kristi has all the resources she needs to bring home a win.

Jamie Smith for Governor has filed his pre-general election report.

Jamie Smith Report by Pat Powers on Scribd

As noted by the Governor, he’s missing some addresses from the report.

He’s raised a reasonable amount for a Democrat. But, I don’t think he’s sufficiently moved non-democrats.  ‘

By this time in 2018, Billie Sutton had raised $1,390,717, plus another $878k he had raised previously. Compare that to Smith who has only managed less than half of Sutton against a Governor who is not new, but 1 term in.

I don’t think Smith has any chance of catching the wind at this point.

Kristi for Governor Calls for Immediate Investigation into Jamie Smith’s Campaign Finance Violations

PIERRE, SOUTH DAKOTA – Today, at the campaign finance deadline, Jamie Smith’s gubernatorial campaign violated campaign finance disclosure laws. The “Smith for Governor” campaign failed to follow of SDCL 12-27-24.

“Jamie Smith committed 33 pages of campaign finance violations today,” said Ian Fury, Communications Director at Kristi for Governor. “There is not a single itemized contribution in his filing that complies with the most basic requirements of the law. How can we trust him to follow the laws of our state and faithfully execute the duties of Governor? We are calling for an immediate investigation into these violations.”

Smith violated SDCL 12-27-24 (12) by failing to include the “mailing address, city, and state of each person making a contribution of more than one hundred dollars.” Smith’s campaign did not provide the address of a single such contributor. In doing so, Smith made at least 1,500 itemized violations.

If the information required by statute is not provided, the donations cannot be deposited. SDCL 12-27-24(12) says “If any information required by the section is unknown to the political committee, the political committee may not deposit the contribution.”

“It seems that Jamie Smith’s campaign illegally deposited more than half-a-million dollars in contributions,” continued Fury.

Kristi for Governor outraised Jamie Smith’s campaign by a margin of three to one.

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What does a candidate who sees the handwriting on the wall of an impending loss spend his weekend doing?    Instead of going out and earning votes, Brian Bengs, gets on twitter and poses a question whether Senator Thune changes his own oil and cleans his gutters..

 

Er.. yeah. I’m sure John has done those things, as well as many more. But considering the fact that 2 1/2 weeks before an election where Bengs is way down in the polls and has no cash left,  and should be out knocking on doors and campaigning, instead he decides to do household chores, and make it a weird tweet.

When I said last week “we can call this race over and done with..”  apparently Bengs has taken it to heart.

From my mailbox, you can find out more at SALUTETOVETERANSDINNER.EVENTBRITE.COM

Dem Secretary of State candidate Tom Cool has filed his campaign finance report. And it seems as if he is running the same level of campaign that he always has.

After collecting about $19k in donations from various sources, Cool finds himself gambling on himself with a $50,000 loan.

Considering his past track record of 4 or 5 losses, 50k is a pretty big wager to make when it hasn’t gone his way so much.

Read the entire report here.

 Services in Memory of Former Governor Harvey Wollman Scheduled for Sunday and Monday, Oct. 23-24

PIERRE, S.D. – The family of former Governor Harvey Wollman has planned for services in honor of Governor Wollman for Sunday, Oct. 23, and Monday, Oct. 24, 2022. These services are set for Huron and Doland, as the family has declined a state memorial. More information about the plans can be found here.

Pursuant to Governor Noem’s previous flag order, flags statewide will remain at half-staff in honor of Governor Wollman through sundown on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022.

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“The key to getting a handle on drug crime is securing our southern border. The drugs might be coming across the southern border, but they’re coming to a community near you,” Pennington County Sheriff-Elect Brian Mueller said. These drugs are connected to violent crime at very high rates—and almost all of it is coming from the border.

We could hope that being over 1,000 miles away from where these drugs are coming from would keep us safer—our small towns are typically safe havens. A place where families can be carefree and not always worrying their kid will be in danger or get into serious trouble themselves.

But over the past couple years we have seen increases in crime rates across the country, specifically violent crime, and almost all of it is connected to drugs like meth and fentanyl that is crossing our southern border. Even though there is 1,000 miles to cover between the border and South Dakota, Sheriff-Elect Mueller said almost all drug dealers arrested in Rapid City have connections to the Mexican cartel. The “Defund the Police” movement and the Biden Administration’s open border policy are enabling increased crime and drug smuggling. This is unacceptable—the Biden Administration and Congress must work towards improving public safety.

Law enforcement in small, rural, and tribal communities are sounding the alarm of the risks of low staff, slow emergency response times, lack of resources, and higher crime rates. To support these communities, I voted in favor of the Invest to Protect Act that recently passed the House and I introduced the Tribal Capital for Operations Promoting Safety (COPS) Act. Both bills will provide resources to law enforcement agencies to make our communities safer.

And it’s not just causing an increase in violent crime, but we are seeing an increase of drug overdose deaths, especially in teens. In 2021, fentanyl overdoses killed over 71,000 people—that is more than 175 per day. In addition to joining House Republicans’ efforts to secure the border, I cosponsored the Protecting Kids from Fentanyl Act to help prevent fentanyl overdoses by allowing schools to use unused COVID relief dollars to purchase overdose prevention drugs and provide life-saving training to faculty, staff, and students.

We all hope our communities remain safe havens for our families. To do so, we need to secure our southern border and invest in local law enforcement agencies. House Republicans and I are committed to protecting the public safety of our nation for generations to come.