(Editors note – Huge hat tip to KB for the photo!)
Caught wind of this ‘big fundraiser’ from a recording of this last week’s SDGOP exec board meeting that was sent my way. But as bad as it sounded at the meeting, this event looks much worse in execution as they advertise it in the Miller, SD newspaper:
The SDGOP’s golf tournament:
‘This is going to be the SDGOP’s big fundraiser? That they’re splitting with the Miller American Legion? Must just be me missing the disclaimer required by law.. or the logo for branding the whole thing as GOP related?
Oddly, I’m also missing the raffle being noted and registered on the statewide raffle list as well.
After this, maybe GOP Leadership should start panhandling on the corners around Sioux Falls. There’s a good corner by WalMart on Louise.
I would wager that would be more lucrative than this.
I’m sure the Miller Golf Course is nice. But you drive to Miller to shoot pheasants, not to golf.
At least they’re trying, bless their hearts! I predict a take of nearly $1,000!
The state Democrats have got to be saying, “And we’re losing to these guys?”
The Miller Golf Course is just dandy but not much of a destination joint for the kid of fellows who like to whack the little white balls around. grudznick is sure it’s not real busy so is able to handle the crowds required for a tournament of this sort. Frosty beverages, all around, provided by the Hand County GOP!
They have a Pheasent hunt planned too…. Should bring 10-15 people together to raise 2? maybe 3k? I’m looking forward to bringing my lawn chair to convention next year when all they can afford to rent is the public space at Memorial Park.
The convention should be moved from Rapid City. No way people will want to pay $300-$400 a night for rooms.
Rapid has always been a bad location for a convention.
Many years ago the state gop had state dinners there. Those were worthwhile because most people could donate and drive home that night.
Everydelegate will be dropping $1000-1500. They could just hold it in Chamberlain and save half the state 6 hours or driving and a lot of money.
Tourist season. Its why Lederman moved it years ago to Watertown. Too expensive and too far.
The District Numbered 30 is the right place for this convention, but if the crowds are not as big, then the Dew Drop Inn in Miller is as good as any joint. The head poobah of the SDGOP knows what he is doing.
Lederman didn’t move it to Watertown in 2022; the central committee did because it was the “Governor’s convention,” it was her home town, and the vision for 2024 was to have the convention in the “city of Presidents” and possibly get Trump out there for a big blast fundraiser in the shadow of Mt Rushmore. It was already looking like Trump would be the presumed nominee by June 2024.
But the 2022 convention went off the rails and the site selection committee decided against having the convention in Rapid City, because there were not many Constitutional office nominations coming up in 2024.
What this demonstrates is that the practice of nominating candidates for constitutional offices at state conventions is having a negative effect on fundraising as well as packing the conventions with disruptive delegates.
There would be a lot of money made in Presidential election years at conventions in Rapid City. By the time the state convention is held in late June, the primaries are over, we know who the presidential nominee will be, and having that person be the keynote speaker in the City of Presidents could bring quite a crowd. It’s unfortunate that the people who have taken over the party don’t see it that way.
In 2022 Taffy Howard did make the observation that the candidates (for constitutional offices) should pay for the conventions, not the delegates.
The candidates recruit the delegates who then complain that they have to pay to be there.
It does cost a lot of money for the delegates to go, and the party has bent over backwards, with site selections and party bylaws, to keep that half-dozen candidates happy. “we’ll get blowback” was the oft-repeated objection to any change in the bylaws which would have eliminated the precinct committee people and delegates at-large, which would have reduced the size of the conventions, and made them more affordable and manageable.
Since the votes are weighted, only one delegate from each county needs to attend to cast all the votes from their county. It would be a simple solution: limit the county delegations to the Chair, Vice Chair, State Committeeman and Committeewoman, the Secretary and Treasurer. Those six people could cast all their county’s votes.
If the candidates for Constitutional office have to pay for the conventions, maybe they would like to change some things. These enormous conventions, organized to keep half a dozen candidates happy, cost the party a fortune. It’s time to ask “why?”
You can’t ask the candidates to pay. What would you do if someone didn’t have the money? Not let ‘em run? That would be illegal.
So, since you can’t keep a free loader from running, everyone should free load. Then nobody pays and the party defaults.
Delegates all across the country have to pay their own way to attend state GOP conventions, not to mention the national convention. South Dakota is not unique in that.
Not Sioux Falls. That’s too big, too far. Can’t. They’ll be on the corner of Nowhere and Out There in Miller, Clark, Highmore, or maybe even Faith. Biggest money donors and support there.
I also hear everyone is dying to play the high-end, ultra-exclusive Miller golf course…
Will Jimmy wear his signature jeans and white shirt uniform, which he considers formal business attire?
shirt and jeans? The SDGOP is doomed. One thing I have learned about fundraisers: you’ll get more money out of 50 people in tuxedoes and evening gowns than out of 500 in t-shirts and jeans. I have seen this particularly play out in pie/dessert auctions:,people in formal wear will drop $5,000 on a cheesecake, but people in casual attire don’t want to pay for dessert at all.
Once you lower the tone of an annual fundraising event, the money dries up.
White shirt and jeans? No, No, No…cut offs and no sleeves will be the preferred attire for this esteemed event.
Nobody from Faith is dropping a dime on the SDGOP. That’s Rhoden country.
Hilarious. I assume a couple of months later Jim will be selling sweet corn on the side of the road to help the party’s ends not meet.
When is the bake sale?
Tupperware party or maybe a corn hole tournament 🤔
Boy! Sure glad Jim has weeded out all the Rino’s.
https://southdakotasearchlight.com/2025/04/13/qa-south-dakotas-new-republican-party-chairman-wants-to-weed-out-fake-republicans/
Can’t wait for all his real Republicans to swoop in and fund the party.
Yep. The same REAL Republicans who bitched about having to pay for a hotel room the first time they ever showed up to a convention in 2022, questioning why they couldn’t get a hand out for being “so important.”
SDGOP lemonade stand & rummage sale with hand made signs are next.
Another sign will say we don’t believe in the jab.
If Democrats were even slightly competent, Republicans might be doomed. WTH is going on over there?
Well, isn’t their marketing person Deb Elliot? What is anyone expecting from this group? The whole group is scraped from the bottom of the shoes of the republicans who carried the water for so many years.
Deb Elliott is not a nice lady. She’s very unfriendly and has a chip on her shoulder.
I suppose they could charge for a measles or some type of other Unvaxxed infectious party so what they believe as building up their immune systems.
Help us celebrate going off the rails!
We don’t need the Rinos and their big money!
Hahaha, keep up that attitude, Karla—way to go. Read the room and the writing on the wall, and whirl, you’re at it!
Karla: You are a special kind of stupid aren’t you.
This is so sad
See? There it is again. Toby’s people telling the traditional Republicans that you aren’t Republican anymore.
This party is run by amateurs and need to be removed from their positions.
Worse than “amateurs”. The Party is run by the guy who pukes out stuff like this…
“HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY TO ALL, INCLUDING THE SCUM THAT SPENT THE LAST FOUR YEARS TRYING TO DESTROY OUR COUNTRY…”
Another holiday. Another crazed rant. Maybe this will let him move on from yesterday’s headlines about “trophy wives”.
He is not well.
When is the Radke book, clothing and meat fundraiser?
You win the comment section! LOL!
The people in South Dakota are driven to vote by many things of course. Understandably, the people that are most politically active, are SD business people. Business people such as farmers, bankers, big business, and the small businesses that are located up and down rural mainstreet.
If business people (and others) are “RINO’s” then the the only true Republicans are few and far between. If business people are RINO’s…. then who is the Republican Party? This campaign by the chair of the GOP is complete and utter nonsense. It is divisive and it will hurt the party without reason.
I don’t want the SDGOP to go down this RINO rabbit hole, because they will find themselves alone at the bottom of a dark hole. What is the point? What is the platform?
We need leaders who understand people, history, reality, and all the things that make businesses and states successful. Because at the end of the day….that is what keeps money in the pockets of every day South Dakotans. That is what make SD special.
Democracy is about having differing opinions. If a party only accepts a few opinions, they are denying the democratic republic that we became when our founder’s were trying to escape authoritarian thought.
RINO Purge engaged.
You are SO spot on in your writing. Sadly, they are all already in a dark hole and alone. The problem is, they think they are RIGHT and they think they are the majority. They don’t have the aptitude to realize they are very much a small, small minority in a little echo chamber. It’s pretty sad to watch. By the time they actually realize how small of a minority they actually are, they will have destroyed the party. The real water carriers must be terribly disappointed to see this incompetence.
Isn’t Eschenbambam from the Miller area?
Is he a member of the Miller Country Club?
Hmmmm. Sounds like he may be pumping some money into a golf course near him. !
Possible conflict of interest.
Mrs Tereschelle EschenBAMA is quite a golfer. No way they’re not connected. Lining your own interests pockets is exactly the thing EschenBAMA would call RINOdiculous
And it looks like Eschenbama’s favorite gun shop and American Legion post are making a few bucks too. Nice of him to spread GOP contributions to his buddies. How much will be left over to help win Republican races? My guess is, not so much. But oh well, the party did something so they can check that box and move on to their next fight against data centers.