Fitzgerald Pre Primary by Pat Powers on Scribd

AG Candidate John Fitzgerald has his campaign finance report in, and as we roll into the primary in 2 weeks, he’s showing he’s raised $25k (Including a $10,000 loan to himself) and spent about half.

Kristi Noem is going to the last two weeks of the election with plenty of cash on hand.

Noem PrePrimary by Pat Powers on Scribd

With a starting balance of $2.1 Million, Noem added $619,372 to that total, spending $1.73 million.

And now goes into the last two weeks of the election with $1,015,447.07 Cash on hand.

That might buy a couple of commercials.

Questions Raised about Jackley’s Stalling of Court-Ordered Payment to Victim

While Marty Jackley was delivering remarks at a press conference about how victims “deserve better protections and better rights,” he was simultaneously stalling a $1.5 million court-ordered payment to a woman who was retaliated against for reporting sexual harassment at the Department of Criminal Investigation (DCI), which he oversees.

After numerous instances of sexual harassment, former state DCI agent Laura Kaiser followed the normal grievance process. The grievance was denied by Attorney General Marty Jackley. In 2015, Kaiser then sued the DCI Director and a former DCI agent for the retaliation. In 2017, a jury sided with Kaiser and awarded her $1.2 million in damages, plus legal fees that bring the total to more than $1.5 million.

The payment for those damages were due on April 15, 2018, but according to a court order on May 18, 2018, the damages were yet to be paid by Marty Jackley’s DCI and a proposal was offered to instead make the payment “in early June.” A judge is now ordering the DCI Director to appear in court as a result of the proposed delay.

“At the very least, Marty Jackley’s delay shows a blatant disregard for the needs of victims,” said Justin Brasell, Kristi for Governor Campaign Manager. “At the most, it shows he’s willing to manipulate victims and the criminal justice system for his own political purposes. There are questions this revelation draws, and they need to be answered.”

Jackley Finishes First in SD Fundraising Race

PIERRE, SD: The Jackley for Governor campaign announced today that it has outraised the Noem for Governor campaign in the race for South Dakota contributions.

“This is a campaign by South Dakotans for South Dakotans, and the numbers prove it,” said Jackley for Governor campaign manager Jason Glodt. “During the pre-primary season, 97 percent of our contributions came from right here in South Dakota, while Congresswoman Noem received more than $100,000 from out-of-state PACs and individuals who won’t be voting in the primary.”

Final campaign finance reports in the Republican primary reveal Attorney General Marty Jackley has outraised Congresswoman Noem by over $163,000 since she announced her candidacy in November 2016.

“In the past five months people in Florida gave more money to the Congresswoman than 11 of the largest counties in South Dakota,” Glodt said. “Marty’s focus is winning support in South Dakota, not Miami.”

Despite the Congresswoman’s transfer of nearly $1.2 million from out-of-state PACs to her campaign for governor, Jackley’s strong grassroots support has significantly closed the cash-on-hand gap. He outraised Noem in all but three of the largest counties in the state.

“This is a story of two very different campaigns,” Glodt said. “Team Jackley is beholden to no one except South Dakota voters, and we’re grateful to all the supporters who launched Marty into first place when it comes to South Dakota fundraising.”

Speaking of the American Liberty Network, which is operating out of a UPS store mailbox, apparently they’re also using another state political action committee besides Chip Campbell’s to try to influence elections:

The group has filed papers in the state:

Sd Liberty network PAC by Pat Powers on Scribd

…where it appears they’re also putting money into the Russell AG Campaign.

Given the fluorescent postcard MO, I would not find myself shocked if they were affiliated with the SD Gun Owners group.

I received a text this morning:

I just received a slickly produced campaign piece soliciting my vote for (my committeeman opponent). It was paid for by Republican Direction PAC!  Since when does GOP get involved in primaries?

I verified, and had to let my correspondent know it’s not a Republican PAC.  And I’m sure the confusion is only starting.  Outgoing Republican State Representative Chip Campbell has apparently formed a political action committee and has called it the deceptively named “Republican Direction PAC” which has jumped into the GOP’s State Committeeman and Committeewoman races:

CHIP_PAC by Pat Powers on Scribd

Campbell’s group has jumped into over 50 delegate, precinct committeeman & committeewoman elections, and according to the campaign finance disclosure is sending out postcards, such as this one with Campbell endorsing a candidate:

(I might dispute the slickly produced comment. But it takes an even more bizarre turn from here.

Apparently, at least one of the people on the list being supported (last two pages of the pdf, btw) received the card endorsing them, and had never had any communication with the group.  And whomever produced a misspelled mail piece & took the person’s photo off of their Facebook page without permission!

Noticing that at least one of the photos on the piece is a SD Tourism photo being used without the required SD Tourism photo credit, I’m not surprised.

But getting back to Campbell’s group that’s trying to appropriate the Republican name.. where did Campbell get the money to blast mail out to 50+ precinct races?  According to the PAC filing, he’s raked in $10,000 for his purposes from a Washington DC group, similar to how Rick Weiland’s organization pulls in money for ballot measures:

The American Liberty Network seems to be a recently formed organization that claims non-profit status for itself.  In case you’d like to visit the American Liberty Network office building at 611 Pennsylvania Ave SE…

Yep. The Washington DC non-profit that sent Chip $10,000 to take over South Dakota precinct people positions? The donor operates out of a mailbox at the UPS Store in DC.

In fact, if you try to do a search for this group which claims non-profit status at the Guidestar website.. you come up with a big goose egg.   I suspect it’s simply new enough that they haven’t filed with the IRS. But, it still leaves us with more questions than answers in terms of campaign finance disclosure.

What don’t we know? Who is actually behind the curtain of the “American Liberty Network” and feels so strongly in Washington DC that they’ve kicked in $10,000 to providing the funding behind the bizarre election effort for South Dakota precinct committee people that some of them probably didn’t ask for in the first place.

Stay tuned for more.

Noem Supports Trump’s Efforts to Defund Planned Parenthood 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Kristi Noem yesterday spoke on the House Floor in support of President Trump’s proposal to end family planning funding for abortion providers, like Planned Parenthood, and redirect those resources into health centers that do not promote or perform abortions.

“There is nothing more fundamental to our society than our kids,” said Noem. “Our founding documents speak on behalf of ‘us and our posterity.’ The American Dream itself rests on the idea that our children will have more opportunity than we do. That is how America works. And no matter how small they are, whether born or unborn, we should never stop passionately arguing for their life and their liberty.”

President Trump’s announcement builds on Noem’s work earlier this Congress to overturn an Obama-era rule that forced states to give Title X family planning dollars to organizations that commit abortions. Noem helped lead the House in passing H.J.Res.43, which President Trump signed into law, to overturn President Obama’s rule and give states more flexibility to defund Planned Parenthood.

The Lance Russell for Attorney General campaign has filed a pre-primary campaign finance report:

Russell for Attorney General Pre-Primary Report by Pat Powers on Scribd

After starting with $13.6K in the bank, they supplemented it with an additional $10.5K, spent $16k, and are sitting on another $8.1K going into the month before the GOP State Convention.

As before, the Gun Owners group is all-in for the Russell campaign with an additional $3,000 from the National Gun Owners group, and a $200 donation from Dudley Brown, who is president of the affiliated group, National Association for Gun Rights. Russell also received donations from former Senator Betty Olson & Senator Brock Greenfield, as well as an in-kind donation from Senator Stace Nelson.

And we’re starting to see what candidates have been spending in pursuit of the big char of State Government. The Marty Jackley for Governor campaign has their pre-primary Campaign finance report filed with the Secretary of State:

Jackley_PrePrimary Campaign Finance Report by Pat Powers on Scribd

After starting with $1,552,944, since the last report, the Jackley for Governor campaign has raised an additional $530,984. They’ve also spent $1,513,600.84, leaving them with $570,328.03 to take them through the last 2 weeks.

Check out the report above, which you can scroll through in it’s entirety, and let us know what you think!

 

I should have brought this to you yesterday, but I’m just trying to keep my tail out of the alligators, because with 2 weeks to go until election day, it is definitely crunch time.

Anyway, Attorney Jackley Marty Jackley in his pursuit of Governor has a new postcard in mailboxes as of yesterday talking about his views on abortion:

Pet peeve time. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems this year that the candidate logos are too damn small. Aren’t they spending all that money to advertise the candidate?

And it’s absolutely not just Marty, many of them are guilty of it this year. There was a Dusty piece that was out a while back that didn’t even have his logo on it, just his name. Candidates – if all the time you get with a voter is that 5 or 10 seconds between the mail and the trash, you need to make it loud, proud and recognizable.  Get that branding in their face!   (okay, I’m off my soapbox now).