In case you haven’t seen the latest stupid idea coming out of Pierre..
As noted in the Dakota Scout in an article posted a few minutes ago:
Dell Rapids Republican Sen. Tom Pischke thinks their money should stay in federal races. Federal candidates have a broader base to raise money, giving them a fundraising advantage.
and..
While he also supported the measure, Senate Majority Leader Jim Mehlhaff, R-Pierre, questioned whether the bill would affect the state Republican and Democratic parties. Both receive funding from their national parties. Pischke said he didn’t think it did, but he wasn’t sure.
When asked if it would affect the state’s political parties, Tom’s response was literally uuuuhhhhh… I dunno. I’m guessing he didn’t bother to read his bill? Because a lot of this is basic campaign finance.
The bill proposes that committees organized under 12-27 may not accept federal contributions as defined in 52 U.S.C. § 30101. 12-27 is the entire campaign finance chapter, which includes PAC’s, legislative candidates, political parties, etc. The Federal code also includes the local chapters of national political parties (like SDGOP…SDDP)
This bill seems to be poorly written (of course, because it’s a stupid Tom Pischke idea), but if it’s being applied to candidate committees on this basis, it’s applying to political parties.
Guess what? Political parties operate with both State and Federal Accounts. They do this because some expenses are federal, and some are state. Some are mixed. Look at the FEC filing I just posted, and go page 12. In effect Tom’s idiotic bill would ban the state Republican and Democrat parties from moving money between their state and federal accounts to pay bills.
And it doesn’t stop there. Have you ever heard of a joint fundraising committee as governed by the FEC? South Dakota has them and uses them with the State Republican Party and both state and federal officeholders… and I would almost guarantee this measure would cause problems with how funds are allocated. And it would be useless, since Tom’s bill would prevent the funds raised with a nationally filed committee from being used via the state account.
Oh! Don’t forget this wouldn’t just affect Dusty Johnson or Mike Rounds if they ran for State Office. It affects legislative candidates just like this poor sap:
Unlike Tom Pischke of 2025 who says “In essence, it’s my opinion money raised at the federal level should be spent on federal races, and money raised in the state should be spent on state races,” The Tom Pischke of 2022 was happy to take Federal PAC money. But if his legislation moves forward, new Tom would be barred from taking the dirty tainted federal money that old Tom happily accepted from National Shooting Sports group.
(I’m adding this, as I was noting it to a legislator – this part is also big) It doesn’t just stop there. It also prevents national fundraising platforms from being used. For example, if someone wants to donate to a campaign through ACTBlue (dems) or Winred (GOP), the entity that takes that money is a federal FEC filing entity. They would normally cut a check from there to the legislative recipient. SB201 would ban that money being transferred to the South Dakota legislative candidate, because SB201 shuts down those transfers.
To summarize, If Tom’s bill would pass, he’s going to shut down both political parties (at least until someone sues), and ban legislators like himself from accepting donations from federally filed PACs.
The next time Tom Pischke tries to bring legislation, he might bother trying to actually read what the bill is going to do first.
I’ll never understand why a complete ban is what they want.
The problem:
Kristi: $1.6 million transferred from federal to state
Dusty: could transfer over $5 million to a gov race
Unless someone is independently wealthy they can’t raise that kind of money to run for governor.
All candidates should be able to give up to $50 or $100k to someone.
No one will win a governors race with a $100k transfer.
They should also be able to transfer unlimited funds to the political parties. This would allow parties to get involved in competitive general elections.
SD hasn’t always been a red state. There used to be competitive general elections.
Kristi and Billie were very close. She could have lost in 2018 if federal funds weren’t able to go through the parties.
I support the idea of a complete direct transfer of funds from federal to state candidates.
But they should still be able to donate limited funds and unlimited to a party which is typically neutral in primaries.
*I don’t
This is Pischke doing Doeden’s bidding. They want to hamstring Dusty.
It won’t impact Dusty. He can transfer before July 1
And that’s correct. It isn’t going to matter a bit to Dusty. But it will utterly nuke the Republican Party.
Tom Pishske. He does not care what he destroys in his unintended consequences. I have seen him refuse to offer rebuttal and sometimes refuse to introduce a bill in committee, because he knows so little about the legislation he constructs, or legislation that he offers to carry.
If he had his way this session, he would have defunded, decommissioned, de-vehicled, and de-moted our State National Guard. Those words are straight from our General’s mouth. Tom Pischke is “using our SD National guard as a pawn.”
He doesn’t care if he ruins the Republican Party. He is a child playing in the sandbox of South Dakotan’s lives. But again, when people don’t show up to vote they get what they ask for.
It would be hilarious to pass one of his crap bills and let him actually suffer the consequences. Because he knows the adults will clean up his mess or the Governor will veto.
Campaign finance is already a minefield of arcane regulations.
People always say they are just trying to get big money out of politics but the measures don’t succeed and they just make things worse for the volunteers who try to navigate the rules.
I do not believe the South Dakota Democratic Party was trying to violate FEC regulations in 2016, but they were fined $40,000 anyway.
I am trying to remember what year it was, but some county Republican party treasurers were saying they had received notices that if they didn’t get their reports in on time, they would be personally fined $500.
The only thing more regulations will do is discourage people from getting involved.