Former 32-year Democrat Jim Eschenbaum’s Republican Party today sent out an appeal to try to get county organizations to raise money to help fund their activities at state convention, including the hosting of a VIP that 99.99% of South Dakota Republicans have never heard of.
And when you do go look up “Cliff Maloney,” in case you thought of sponsoring tickets for this VIP event, you should note that having your name attached to a sponsorship might not be the best idea in the world.
In fact, if you have daughters, you might want to demand they find a different VIP.
From FOX News:
The president of Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) has been placed on leave as the conservative group investigates sexual assault allegations against him and other leaders in the nonprofit.
YAL’s board released a statement saying it was investigating the matter and calling on anyone who had evidence regarding the claims to come forward to report it.
The organization, which works to elect conservative and libertarian leaders across the country, said that President Cliff Maloney and vice president of grassroots, Justin Greiss, had been placed on leave until the investigation was complete.
And that apparently was not all. Among other accusations..
Cambria Co., PA (WJAC) — After nearly ten hours of deliberations, which began Wednesday afternoon, spanned into the night and continued Thursday morning, a jury has reached a verdict in the trial of political commentator Cliff Maloney Jr., who is accused of drugging and raping a woman at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown in 2013.
The jury found Maloney not guilty on four of the six charges he faced, which included rape of an impaired person, rape of an unconscious victim, aggravated indecent assault of an impaired person and aggravated indecent assault of an unconscious person.
However, the jury could not reach a verdict on the two other charges of aggravated indecent assault without consent and sexual assault.
Since his removal from YAL leadership over accusations of sexual assault and being hauled into court over rape accusations, Maloney has rebranded himself as a conservative activist and gone on the political speaking circuit.
Which according to the SDGOP, will include a stop at the Republican Party’s State Convention.
When I attended my first Republican state party convention way back in 1988, the feature VIP speaker was Arizona Senator John McCain, former POW and war hero, who a number of years later was our presidential nominee.
Clearly for 2026, there has been a lack of quality control in determining what we should consider as a VIP.
Between the Minnehaha County GOP’s Lincoln Day Dinner featuring Madison Cawthorne, and now Eschenbaum’s version of the SDGOP featuring an ex-leader of a Libertarian group who found himself accused of rape as our next state convention’s big VIP, I think the GOP’s donor class should keep their sponsorships to candidates only, and not party groups who have taken leave of their senses.
Are you friggin kidding me?!?
former friends dropped me because I warned them about shad Olson and I wasn’t a fan of YAL and showed them why (hello… the chaos and upheaval they sowed in the grassroots and outright lying to people to sow division…?!) And now we have this guy who used to be president of YAL and seems to be just another conservative grifting scumbag who also allegedly abuses and assaults women being the vip guest speaker?! Is it because of the connections some people I know have to him who used me to climb the ladder of relevance in the gop to where now they’re controlling it behind the scenes? I wasn’t a fan of McCain yet even then I think someone like him would be a step up from this guy.
Katie, we might disagree at times but you’re spot on. This is disgusting. I will be boycotting an event keynoted by a rapist, I hope others join.
Accused.. just for accuracy’s sake, please.
Dumb hills to die on like this have done nothing but enable these morally unqualified yahoos PP.
Beyond frustrated right now. Watch them now grab a screenshot of this comment of mine and share it among themselves…
Amanda Radke, the GOP governor nominee,Marty Jackley congress, the Lt, Josh Haeder Auditor, Brock Greenfield publilands, puc, AG, Odenbach…
Thats enough for me. What a good year to bring everyone in and a prime time lineup.
The irony is that Katie pledges allegiance to Odenbach and doesn’t see how guys like him contributed to this mess with their destabilization of the party for their own power grabs. Just look at how Odenbach propped up Ismay, who Katie also aligns with. Literally called him a good legislator. Just walk the capitol halls for an afternoon. That’s not what anyone calls him. The words worst and dumbest get thrown around a lot though. Until Katie breaks ranks with that group (self promoting grifter Radke, too) I’m not buying any of her newfound common sense.
I wouldn’t expect any less from any GOP entity in this state.
And the hits keep coming.
I just sent another donation straight to Dusty.
As did I.
I don’t even know what to say. Sometimes, there just are no words.
Good Job Jim!!! If you keep at it, you’ll burn the entire SDGOP to the ground. After the fire purifies it the adults/ real republicans can rebuild it.
The most important question here is why. Why choose him. They know there is a large effort going on right now to seat new, common sense delegates. Eschenbaum and co. are concerned their grip is loosening. What is one way to try and keep common sense republicans away from the convention? Associate a name like this to the convention in order to give the impression that if you go, you’re in support of him. This is a ploy to keep normal people away from the convention.
If they waited a little longer Ghislaine Maxwell may have been available to be their featured speaker after the President pardons her.
Joel Koskan could MC.
GOP lost all respect after last convention when they informed the Yankton group they would be excluded for cause and then let them bring it to a vote knowing they brought enough delegates to vote themselves back in
If we had all the constitutional offices on the primary ballot, we would not be faced with this horror show. The insane clown posse could gather any place they want, adopt resolutions nobody pays attention to, add ridiculous planks to the platform about vaccines and chem trails, and nobody would care.
Schoenbeck tried. But no one listened.
Exactly. Primary ballot is where it should be. I never thought that until two conventions ago. Now it’s plain as day.
Exactly. The only reasons to have a convention were to tweak the platform, write some resolutions, train the precinct committeemen and women and rally their enthusiasm, sell tickets for some fundraising events (at least one breakfast and one big dinner) and nominate candidates for constitutional offices.
But 99% of the population never reads the platform or the resolutions, the precinct committee people refuse to do the job, and the new generation of delegates doesn’t want to pay for meals so they won’t go to the fundraisers. That leaves the nominations of candidates for constitutional offices, jobs that do not work as platforms for anybody’s ideology.
Maybe this will be the year it becomes obvious to everyone that we need to select those nominees in the primary, and skip the flying circus
YAL isn’t even a Republican group. And yet the current leadership calls everyone else RINOs
I am not as active in the Republican Party as I used to be. I am horrified this caliber of person is being featured at the State Convention. I agree with the person who listed several of our SD GOP leaders, ie: Jackley, Greenfield, Haeder, Sattgast. I understand there is a Central Committee meeting this Saturday. REPUBLICANS STAND UP FOR WHAT IS RIGHT!! My husband and I have many fond memories of past conventions many of which featured contentious races. However, one of the highlights was the outstanding speakers featured at the event. Scripture says, “a house divided against itself cannot stand” and our party is so divided. Our state and our country cannot afford this. Please join me in praying for our state and country and for common sense to rule in our party. This speaker does not even come close to making any sense.
Miss you Gail!
It has been a long time!
“when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. … Grab ’em by the”
they aren’t stars
But they’re complacent with the statement from the head of the party.
BUT BUT BUT…go get your TDS checked. I know a therapist who can help sort those thoughts out.