SD Constitution Party Chairmanship continues to be a moving target. Website claims that C Party is now under the “Gunn”

Pat Powers

The Dueling Constitution Party Conventions are scheduled to be held this week in Pierre, with both the Lori Stacey faction and the Lora Hubbel faction meeting a few doors down from each other in the Capital City.

In the hours before Tuesday’s meeting, the Constitution Party’s Chair and Robot Bee Lady, Lori Stacey has made an announcement that “due to health,” she is no longer in the leadership of the South Dakota Constitutional Party:

By some mechanism Lori Stacey has appointed Micheal Gunn of Sioux Falls as the new chairman of the Constitutional Party. If you remember Gunn, he was a candidate in the last Sioux Falls Mayoral race, and finished with 1% of the vote.

While it was posted to the Constitution Party website on August 10th, the date at the top of the post naming Gunn as chair is back-dated to August 4th, which comes a day after the Judge granted the SDGOP’s request for a writ of prohibition.

This move seems even more bizarre considering that one of the reasons the writ of prohibition was brought was because there was no clear indication that Lori Stacey had any authority to call a convention because her status of being Chair of the South Dakota Constitution Party wasn’t exactly clear.

Read that here.

I don’t think Lori resigning and appointing someone else to the position is going to help clarify matters any in the run up tp the hearing scheduled for later this week.

Just remember, when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.  And it’s a lot of drama for a party with fewer than 500 registered members in the state.

Stay tuned.

13 thoughts on “SD Constitution Party Chairmanship continues to be a moving target. Website claims that C Party is now under the “Gunn””

  1. Lori hasn’t had a real residence in South Dakota for years. She was probably afraid of looking ridiculous in court on the 16th, but rather than just admitting the bylaws made former vice-chair Joel Bergan the state chair when Lora Hubbel resigned, Lori is now playing dog in the manger out of pure spite.

    She doesn’t care that her actions could undo years of other people’s work for the Constitution Party and for ballot access in general. She only cares about her own hyperinflated ego.

  3. This is not going to sit well in grudznick’s craw, as I was planning on being appointed to several positions in the Constitution Party by sheer force of statement and as the sanest of their candidates available. I do, however, wish a “smoothe” transition to Mr. Gunn, as he seems a swell enough fellow to go down with the ship.

    1. Lar is in the Libertarian Party and Grudznick in the Constitutional Party on loan to help whip it into shape.

        1. At this point it doesn’t matter who shows up. Candidates wearing paper bags on their heads will be nominated.

        2. Everyone at Tally’s in Rapid knows who Grudz is. He is a regular there and a few other well known join him and a few others trying to stay one step ahead of the law are there for breakfast too at his table.

  4. So Lora Hubbel wing says:

    Lora Chair right? and nominee for Gov
    Who else are they nominating?

    Lori Stacey now says Mike Gunn is in charge as Chair

    Which faction does Janette McIntyre plan on going with? and anyone else being nominated?

    1. There was never a “Lora Hubbel wing” per se. Last month during a brief period of uncertainty about who was the legal chair, Hubbel agreed to file the central committee’s August 14 convention notice as chair pro tem, then voluntarily stepped aside and agreed to serve as state secretary. It turns out the legal chair at the time was probably former vice-chair Joel Bergan, who fully supported Hubbel’s notice.

      Bergan has since resigned from the central committee and supports the following current officers: Gordon Howie as chair, Matt Johnson as vice-chair, Lora Hubbel as secretary, and Janette McIntrye as treasurer. Hubbel is the only candidate for governor who hasn’t withdrawn. A new candidate may step forward at the convention.

      I’d look for McIntyre to run for the state senate and Johnson to run for the U.S. House, and I really hope others step forward for the downballot statewide races without Libertarian candidates.

      The only candidate left in the Gunn-Bialota “faction” (unilaterally created by Lori Stacey) is Rick Gortmaker for lieutenant governor. I don’t know whether they have a candidate for governor lined up to replace Terry LaFleur.

  5. Can we get a schematic showing the different factions and who the candidates are for each faction.

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