Out-of-State, Dark Money Group Drafted Amendment V
Fort Pierre, SD – October 11, 2016 — Amendment V, the constitutional amendment that would hide party labels from South Dakota voters, was drafted by big money interests from out-of-state.
Rick Weiland, Chairman of Yes on V Ballot Committee and longtime Democratic Party Boss, admitted in a recent interview that his “national partners” wrote parts of the ballot measures he is pushing.
“Not only are outside, dark money groups trying to buy South Dakota elections, but Mr. Weiland has invited them in to re-write our Constitution,” said Will Mortenson, Chair of South Dakotans Against V.
In a recent Rapid City Journal interview with reporter Seth Tupper, Mr. Weiland remarked that not only did out-of-state groups pay for the petition drives to get the measures on the ballot, but they lent the “expertise to help write what we ended up submitting.”
The out-of-state group affiliated with Amendment V is Open Primaries, a dark money organization headquartered in New York, NY. Open Primaries accounts for more than 70% of the total contributions to Yes on V and was recently caught violating a campaign finance law by using Amendment V to raise money. Open Primaries has since taken down the website used in the violation.
“South Dakotans should be governing South Dakota. Amendment V was drafted by out-of-staters, funded by out-of-staters, and puts California’s election system in our constitution. Let’s vote No and send this bad idea back out of our state,” Mortenson added.
Yes on V has raised 76% of its funds from out-of-state and 92% of its funds come from dark money organizations that do not disclose their donors.
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Why am I not surprised?! Everything about this law stinks, out of state money, written by out of state people, removes party labels, limits choice and they burnt he American flag to boot.
not only no BUT HELL NO on V!
All of the same is true of IM 22: it was written by a group in MA, that group paid the people to collect the signatures, and it is paying for the radio advertisements to promote it.
Serious question: why does South Dakota make it so easy for out-of-state interests to mess with our constitution?
Why doesn’t Weiland move to one of the socialist states instead of trying to ruin South Dakota? Why foist your (im)morality on South Dakota when there are already states that don’t give a crap about the constitution, morals, and freedom? Why, Ricky, oh why?
Just a tip, don’t vote for Jim Sanden against Blake Curd. Mr. Sanden is a socialist who moved from Minnesota after he started getting his teacher’s retirement pension. He is a carpet-bagger and not worthy of South Dakota votes and certainly shouldn’t be making laws for South Dakotans.
Amendment V is a horrible thing, but everyone needs to stop attacking what they call “dark money”. As the Supreme Court has correctly ruled, financial donations to advocacy groups are a form of protected speech, and there is justifiably a long history of anonymous speech in this country that dates back to our Founding Fathers because people should be protected from harassment, intimidation, and violence because of their political beliefs.