From South Dakota Public Broadcasting, the current chairman of the South Dakota Republican Party is telling people that they need to raise money for next years’ state convention. Because they want to provide state convention goers free meals at the convention?
Filings show a $9,000 transfer from the SDGOP’s state account in December and $4,800 in October. The party has transferred nearly $20,000 this year. That has some GOP supporters worried.
Jim Eschenbaum is chair of the SD GOP. In an interview with SDPB, he said his biggest concern is looking ahead to the coming summer and the 2026 election.
“The biggest question with the convention committee is whether the convention attendees are going to have to pay for their own meals or not,” Eschenbaum said. “If we pay for their meals, we need about $130-150,000 to make convention happen. If we make them pay for their own meals at convention, we can do convention for about $50,000 or $60,000.”
and..
“Fundraising is tough. I was in Miami in May for spring training, RNC spring training, and I stood up in front of that assembly all 50 states and I says, ‘Hey what do you guys do to raise money for your state party?”
and..
SDPB reached out to SD GOP Treasurer Rep. Tina Mulally repeatedly about the funds, when they will be reflected on FEC filings, if donations are being made to the state account and other questions. Mullally’s only response via text message was “Our fundraising efforts will continue.”
Read the entire tale of woe here.
Sure… it’s all about providing a free lunch. I know I’ve been going to the state convention since long before the 32-year former Democrat posing as the chairman changed parties. Show of hands – how many long-time convention-going Republicans reading have ever been provided a feee lunch at convention?
I’ve talked to the people who have signed the contracts for many conventions, including this one, which had already been signed before the chairman walked in the door. He’s claiming that it may cost $50-60k? HA! The facilities are very strict about mandatory meal purchases, and they charge for EVERYTHING, right down to the cable connecting the microphone. I was told by party insiders that people should anticipate this convention will cost $125k or more.
I seem to keep recalling what Eschenbaum said when he first became chair; how “We don’t need any more money thrown to the state GOP than what we need to operate.”
According to public broadcasting, it sounds like Chairman Eschenbaum is in the process of figuring out that the job might not exactly be what he expected.
In 2022 the barbarians led by Taffy Howard complained that they should not have to pay to attend the state convention, one loudly complained about having to pay for her own hotel room, and they wanted a refund of their convention fees. Somebody else should pay for it, Taffy said.
This is the bunch which has taken over the party and now they have to put on a convention.
The meals used to be fundraisers..They weren’t just sack lunches. They had keynote speakers and we bought tickets. We paid for our meals. We paid to attend the convention, too.
Taffy said the candidates should pay for the convention.
Why would candidates pay for a convention at which the delegates might publicly withdraw their support for them?. Did Taffy think about that??
I believe it would be illegal to require the candidates to pay for the convention.
the delegates to the 2022 convention thought it was illegal to make them “pay to vote.”
That was how they perceived it, that by forcing them to pay to attend the convention the party was making them pay to vote.
My feeling about it all is, if a candidate for constitutional office recruited you to be a precinct committee person, but didn’t tell you it was going to cost you money, complain to him.
It’s not the party’s fault you didn’t know what you were signing up for..
If you think your county party should pay for you to attend the convention, bring it up at a county party meeting. Don’t be surprised if the county party expects you to show up for the rest of the job description in exchange.
This is exactly how Monea got elected.
The State Convention should ALWAYS have a fee associated with it. Plain and simple. Operating expenses are true, more now than ever because the current SDGOP does NOTHING to fundraise and the cost of event venues is SKY HIGH.
I do give credit where credit is due, the SDDP fundraises…and they do it damn well. We on the other hand….well….suck. Frankly because of the current SDGOP Chair and “leadership”.
If you cant pay your way to the convention, then you shouldn’t be a delegate, simple. The current SDGOP cries and moans “no free ANYTHING” and then when it comes to our own state convention they cry “pay for me! i dont want to pay for this!” You can’t have it both ways. This is why the party is in such deep disarray.
Conventions cost money, and when you don’t fundraise to have those funds available to hold a convention, yeah; you’re gonna have to pay to be part of the convention. It’s really not hard logic, but apparently to members and “leadership” it is 🙂
Oh and also, it’s high time that the Chair, Vice Chair, and frankly the entire Executive Committee of the SDGOP resign…immediately, for the good of the Party.
Definitely agree that this group of leadership can’t get out of there fast enough. The only problem is the same group that voted them in would be voting in new leadership. If we want the party to be successful into the future, that change has to start from the ground up. Which means convincing good people to run for committeemen/women. Which is like talking someone into taking the helm of a ship half way across the ocean that has no rudder and is on fire.
we need saner heads in the state legislature to take the nominations of all statewide candidates away from the convention and put them on the primary ballot. Allowing these candidates to be nominated by party elites and not the grassroots primary voters is unacceptable. Let the people choose.
Once upon a time I didn’t agree with this but after watching this new leadership fail I think it’s time the legislature revisits the topic.
The legislature will never make this change. It needs to be done by petition and a vote by the public. And it’s an unbelievably easy sell. Do you think it’s ok that less than 0.1% of South Dakotas population chooses the top officeholders in our State outside of gov and Lt Gov?
I completely agree with Anon 9:54
If the insiders who signed the contracts for the convention say it will cost at least $125,000, and Eschenbaum thinks it will be only $50,000-$60,000, and the party is burning through cash so fast they will probably be down to $25,000 by June, are any of these people talking to each other? It doesn’t sound like it.
Is Taffy Howard going to raise the money? She was the one who declared the delegates shouldn’t have to pay. How will she do it? Is she going to promise the candidates she won’t move to reject a resolution endorsing the victors of the primaries as she did in 2022? How about Region 1 Director Tom Pischke, who stood up with her to oppose the party’s support? Will he promise he won’t do that again? The people with the war chests, Thune, Rounds, Johnson, Noem, all have good reason to not give the party any money after that stunt.
Doeden thinks he is a really BIG wheel. Let him pay for it all.
It’s an interesting thought. If he actually wins the primary, why would he want to pay for the convention? And if he doesn’t win the primary, why would he want to pay for the convention?
The convention used to be a good launch for the candidates who had just won their primary, and their appearances at the breakfasts and dinners helped sell tickets.
But what’s the point now?
State party is run by a 30 yr dem. National party is led by a 40 yr dem. Trump goons all the way down.
Look at the board of directors. What a bunch of goombas. Doug Post?!?!
All Eschenbaum has to do to cut costs is move the convention to another city.
Rapid City is by far the most expensive place to hold an event in tourist season.
Have it in Pierre to cut costs and save people travel expense or Chamberlain.
This would be the best thing they could do.
If they cancel the Rapid City convention, they’ll have to pay a significant fee to get out of the contracts that the SDGOP signed with The Monument and whatever other venues / vendors. They’d also have to pay for the cost of the new convention. I suspect, though, that you’re right — the total cost would be cheaper if they move the convention than if they keep it in Rapid.
It seems like a decades ago, when the state central committee met to vote on whether to hold the ’22 convention in Rapid City, as originally planned, or have it in Watertown, where we were supposed to have the ’20 convention but it went virtual because of Covid.
The decision to have the ’22 convention in Watertown and the ’24 convention in Rapid was arrived at because ’22 was Governor Noem’s year and Watertown is considered her hometown, (although Beth was on hand to convey Kristi’s neutrality in the matter) and ’24 was a Presidential election year and Rapid is the City of Presidents. We did not know Trump would be the nominee, but we did know that by June of ’24 the primaries would be over and whoever won them would be the presumptive nominee, and might be encouraged to make an appearance, if not at the convention, perhaps at Mt Rushmore, to celebrate his own campaign. The fundraising opportunities were terrific.
But then the site selection committee met at the ’22 convention and changed the date of the Rapid City convention to ’26.
Nobody of interest is likely to keynote an event to pay for it. It was disappointing.
It is not Eschenbaum’s fault the whole ’22 convention went off the rails, it was Taffy Howard’s. Let’s put the blame where it belongs. In ’20 she successively led the motion to defeat the resolution honoring the Emancipation Act and the Republican Party’s origins in the abolitionist movement. She and her fans don’t like that aspect of Republican Party history. ( As soon as the votes were counted, and the resolution was rejected, the torrent of profanity that came out of Chairman Dan Lederman was absolutely epic!)
Eschenbaum, being a lifelong Democrat, is the perfect Chairman for the new Pro-Slavery South Dakota Republican Party, founded by Taffy Howard.
“..we did not know Trump would be the nominee..”
The actual sentence here is “we did not know if jail time would inconvenience his inauguration.”
Blaming candidates for raising money and taking it away from Eschenbama….talking points you would expect from a democrat.
No Free Lunch for Mr. Eschenbaum or Ms. Taffy.
Ms. Taffy, grudznick knows you read this blogging place and people are coming for you for your free lunch for Taffy but no free lunch for others stance. No Free Lunch, Ms. Taffy. No Free Lunch. Not for you, no matter how short your skirt, and not for the kids with deadbeat parents. Pay for your own damn lunch, and parents pay for the progeny you progenerated.
PS: Build the fancy destination party district with breakfasting restaurants, but keep the roller coasters out.
Whoever you are grudznick; you have been entertaining me for years! lol
Merry Christmas!
The best line:
“Fundraising is tough. I was in Miami in May for spring training, RNC spring training, and I stood up in front of that assembly all 50 states and I says, ‘Hey what do you guys do to raise money for your state party?”
Who says something that stupid and then tells about it in an interview? If Eschenbaum did not know how to raise money then maybe he should not not have ran for the job of chairman.
My thoughts exactly.
They need our *money* for a *free* meal. If Jimmy were a real conservative, he’d catch my drift.
State party leadership should be larded up and down the line with MONEY people, not with YOU BETTER ACT ON MY GRIEVANCE people with no money. Up until the mad folk stormed a convention and threw the business people out on their keesters, we had that thing here. The aggrieved squatters need to be shoved out once and for all, before their “I Are Businessing Too” cosplay destroys every bit of the party.