Here in Brookings, my home for about 20 years now, the local Boys and Girls Club has had a community raffle for a long time where they raffle off a new truck, at $100 a ticket such as this one they did in 2024. As described in the local paper..
This year’s grand prize is a 2024 Dodge RAM 1500 Classic Warlock Quad Cab 4×4, or the winner’s choice of $25,000 in cash or $25,000 credit toward a vehicle at Einspahr Auto Plaza.
and..
In addition to the grand prize options, the truck, the cash, or the vehicle credit, two runner-up winners will each receive $1,000 in cash. Only 1,200 tickets will be sold, and each ticket purchased early is automatically entered into weekly Friday drawings for early bird prizes.
Each ticket is for a 1/1200 chance for a 25k prize, plus a couple of minor, but reasonable second prizes.
I bring this up, as the SDGOP is at it again for their fundraising attempts to make up for only bringing in $85 in June, which they didn’t want to tell anyone about. This time in fundraising efforts, we have their current version of the SDGOP and their own $100 raffle ticket:
How many tickets do they intend to sell?
According to e-mails sent out to County GOP groups today, Their plans are to sell “only 2000 tickets.” What does your $100 raffle ticket earn you a .05% or 1/2000 chance to win? Well, here’s the list and the values filed with the Secretary of State:
You could win a $250 12 gauge… or a $320 .keltec 22lr pistol, which you can pick up at Cabela’s $100 cheaper than the GOP can apparently buy it for. And there’s a Arken SH4J scope which is marked up by $200 over Amazon. Is it me, or does this kind of seems out of proportion for a $100 raffle ticket? They do have a $5000 custom gun with a carbon fiber stock from a Miller, SD gun dealer which is the big prize, but the lesser prizes drop off quickly.
None of them really make me want to rush out and buy a ticket like a $25,000 car would. And, unlike the car which I believe is somewhat sponsored, I don’t know if any of these guns are donated. I can’t help but wonder which gun dealer they’re going through on this, because it seems like they are the big winner, as someone who is buddies with the chairman is getting an opportunity to clear out some stock at healthy prices courtesy of the SDGOP, which might otherwise be gathering some dust. Unless there’s a run on .22lr keltec pistols I don’t know about.
According to the party’s own website on the raffle, what do you get if you win? First off, aside from showing up on fundraising reports, if it’s one of the guns, you also win a $25 fee on top of your gun, because “Winner is responsible for the FFL transfer fee of $25 per firearm.” They might win a $225 .22 pistol, and have to pay a $25 fee to get it? Hold me back.
As noted in their fundraising wish list from the last central committee meeting, the SDGOP claims they’ll raise $25k with this raffle in 2025, and 50k through next year.
I can’t imagine how this raffle is going to pay off with what seems to be with whatever the chairman was sold by his local gun dealer. I guess we’ll see.
As tends to be the case with the SDGOP nowadays, good luck with that.
Eschenbama is stealing every fundraising idea from the local golf course in Miller. Mr Original🤦♂️
Just sent my $100 straight to Dusty. I like those odds better.
Whoa whoa whoa, there, Ms. Anonymous. You should hold off until you know all the horses in the race.
I am hearing from Doedites and Lemmings that Toby Doeden promised 2 million dollars to the SDGOP. Can that be confirmed? If true, was it promised over a period of years, an election cycle or 1 year? Could it be another used car sales claim or come with conditions like supporting his campaign?
https://sdsos.gov/elections-voting/campaign-finance/contribution-limits.aspx
I suppose he could dump 2 million into his candidate account, and transfer from the candidate account to the party.
But then what are they going to do with it? And why would a person put that kind of money into an organization that you don’t have control over?
Whatever arrangement or promises made I’d make darn sure that check clears before solidifying plans and purchases.
If that were true, then why would they bother with lame attempts at fundraising?
He’s pledging that to legislative races this cycle.
Ive seen that floating around and its probably bunk. I find it far more likely Doeden is setting that aside to support specific legislative races rather than dump into the hands of the waterheads at the SDGOP
Agreed. I’m sure he’s going to pour money into legislative races — not the SDGOP.
Wait till ya see the pheasant hunt…
Betting odds… I’ll take the over on the pheasants.
Remember, you can only sell raffle tickets for 30 days in South Dakota. They’re going to have to sell a lot of tickets in a short period of time just to break even!
If that’s correct, please cite the law or the rule. The only thing I could note on it was 22-25-52. Maximum duration of lottery, which appears to set it as 18 months.
Yep, the Annette Bosworth rule.
I don’t think that’s right. Every single year one of the Post teams in Rapid City spends 3+ months selling tickets for their gun raffle.
This is not correct. Certain organizations are required to give a 30 day notice before beginning a raffle. But they can last up to 18 months.
The SDGOP is giving away FIFTY-THREE GUNS in a raffle? And nothing else?
I have always been a supporter of the 2nd Amendment but this is just… weird.
There’s some ammo, scopes, certificates for silencers.. but yes. And going through the list, nothing caught my eye that was a “wow” factor.
The only wow is how inflated the prices are.
This is the kind of fundraiser that a small or local organization puts on. If you follow South Dakota Big Bucks, he’s got several of these types of raffles going on at the same time. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very much in the camp that you can never have too many guns, but for a state wide, what used to be well funded, political organization to be putting in something like this, is a complete joke.
It will be entertaining, in October, to watch the list of the winners of this stuff. If there are lists made public. Or, perhaps they’ll just text Mr. Eidenschnager or Etsendbaum, grudznick cannot read the name on the form with these old eyes, and tell him, Mr. E, that he has won something. I am sure the GOP executive committee will have an audit of this process. A forensic audit. Or the General Attorney will be investigating for the fraud, I am sure.