Some sour grapes for your Thanksgiving from the malcontents in the Minnehaha Republican Party

@SoDakCampaigns

The malcontents in the Minnehaha County GOP who were overruled by the State Republican Party in their attempt to oust the Minnehaha GOP chairman have a Thanksgiving message for Republican voters in that county.

Unfortunately, it is as sour and bitter as their repudiation was. In part:

From: Minnehaha County GOP Executive Board <[email protected]>
Date: November 26, 2025 at 10:57:58 PM CST
Subject: Update from your elected board officers

We would like to address several inaccuracies, omissions, and misunderstandings contained in recent public statements regarding events in Minnehaha County concerning the Country Republican Party through November 2025. Our goal is accuracy, transparency, and ensuring the public has a full and factual picture of what has occurred.

And..

Contrary to statements in the recent press release:

· The October 27 meeting was valid, properly noticed, and met quorum requirements.

· The state board only reinstated the county chair, pending a proposed bylaws change by the state central committee and informed the bank of its action.

· Other actions taken at that meeting remain valid and in force.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. No. That’s just a plain fabrication. They didn’t “reinstate” the chair. Because the party declared the attempted coup INVALID:

The South Dakota Republican Party said Minnehaha County GOP Chairman Korry Petterson will remain in office.

A vote to remove him on Monday was ruled invalid by the state’s executive board.

Read that here.

But getting back to the e-mail message…

State Executive Board Involvement

For months, the state chairman stated that Minnehaha County issues must be resolved locally and that the state lacked authority to intervene. We were told to solve the problems within our county. When the county followed that guidance of the state chair and acted within its rules, those actions were subsequently overturned by the state chair and the state GOP board—an abrupt departure from prior direction.

During the mandated state board meeting regarding Minnehaha County, the state chair interrupted my allotted five-minute statement despite his own rules prohibiting interruptions. When I attempted to explain, the exchange escalated and became highly unprofessional with profanity and shouting by the state chair directed to me. Upon request, the meeting’s audio file was provided but was corrupted and unusable.

On November 3, 2025, the state executive board met with a legal expert present. The board voted to hold an investigative committee meeting on November 12 in Sioux Falls and to keep the county bank account frozen pending review.

Following that meeting, communications about Minnehaha County matters were being distributed by Londa Grottng. We have serious reservations as to the legitimacy of her election.

All documentation requested by the state inquiry has been submitted by us. To our knowledge, the county chair submitted only one affidavit, which has not been shared with us from the chair or state chair. Nor has the requested financial reports been shared.

On November 10, 2025, the state executive board met again. The legal expert was told he was no longer needed and was not permitted to join the call. The board voted to reinstate Chairman Petterson based on internal review and AI-generated analysis rather than legal counsel. Notification was not provided to us directly; the decision was instead announced on Facebook. The press release erroneously implied the vote was unanimous, which it was not.

And..

We encourage all members to attend upcoming meetings, stay engaged, and help ensure accountability. It will take all of us working together to restore trust and move the Minnehaha County Party forward.

Sincerely,
Marsha Symens Vice Chair
Bridget Myers, Committeewoman

The e-mailed sour grapes Thanksgiving message is evidence of one clear thing; That until the Minnehaha GOP gets their communications locked down, they are going to continue to look like a clown show.

Are there any other counties where the vice-chair and committeewoman are running roughshod over the chair and organization and declaring themselves “in charge?”  No.

Time to change the e-mail password to send mass e-mails, tell them to knock off the power trip, and to work to elect Republicans. Instead of driving people away.

19 thoughts on “Some sour grapes for your Thanksgiving from the malcontents in the Minnehaha Republican Party”

  1. Unbelievable. Note: even though Tom Pischke is behind this, he’s have the women do his dirty work for him so he doesn’t have to sign the email. What a great guy. *sarcasm*

  2. Maybe instead of squabbling over who is “in charge” they should just focus on retaining our new seat in D10 and picking off Eric Muckey in D15, who only won by like 9 votes last time. These have become winnable seats and yet they don’t seem too interested in winning them

    1. What are you ‘publicans going to do after your gerrymander/out spend the Demos and there are none left in the Senate or House

      1. since when is redistricting happening in South Dakota? Where’s the gerrymandering? maybe if the dems were a viable party, relevant to the people of South Dakota, maybe they’d win.

  3. Over the past three years, certain canvassers have worked to undermine the MRCC. This shift appears to have intensified after Tornow ceased representing the canvassers in several legal matters and returned their retainer. These same individuals have also hindered various candidates by discouraging them from pursuing effective campaign strategies and instead promoting approaches that are either unproductive or ineffective for those who do not align closely with the canvassers’ preferences.
    If the canvassers genuinely desire unity within the organization, the most straightforward path forward would be for them to resign their positions, cease attending meetings, and fully disengage from all county-level activities. However, they are unlikely to take these steps voluntarily and may only do so if compelled by future legal proceedings. So they won’t.

  4. Tom Pischke, as Region 1 director, is 100% responsible for this. When the state central committee finally gets around to amending the bylaws to allow for the removal of a county officer, they should also provide for the removal of a member of the state executive board.
    At the very least the executive board should vote to censure him.

    1. You’re absolutely right that Pischke is behind this.

      Point of clarification: as the bylaws stand already, in order to be eligible to serve as a regional director, that person must be a member of the state central committee. If Pischke loses his position as state committeeman for Minnehaha, he will automatically lose his position as regional director. We just need to get him out of the Minnehaha exec board, and he’ll automatically be gone as regional director.

      1. Removing him from the central committee will require action by the same malcontents who elected him to serve as Minnehaha’s state committtee man. I don’t see a way forward on that.
        The lack of leadership in Minnehaha County is the problem. I expected more from Jim Stalzer, for one. There used to be good people in the Minnehaha County party who knew the difference between what is legal and what is right. Where did they all go?
        .

        1. Jim and all the others that actually knew how to function as an organization were “cancelled” by the know nothings currently in office.

          1. 100% agree.

            Also, one might wonder if someone has an ulterior motive for getting Pischke out as Regional Director. One guys as to who else wants it. Badly. No, not Jim S.

  5. At this point, it’s obvious: the only way for the Minnehaha County GOP to heal is if the people causing the chaos step down. Period.
    You can’t claim ‘unity’ while pushing out misinformation, ghost-writing dramatic emails under someone else’s name, refusing to attend meetings, and then crying foul because you’re out of the loop. That’s not leadership — that’s sabotage.

    We’ve now watched the same handful of people:
    – Misrepresent an 11–12 vote as ‘unanimous’
    – Speculate wildly about Londa’s election while refusing to participate in the process
    – Demand accountability they don’t practice themselves
    – Hide behind Marsha’s title while Bridget and Dr. Foss pump out political fanfiction in her voice
    – Stonewall documentation while accusing everyone else of hiding things

    This isn’t stewardship — it’s a power grab disguised as victimhood.
    And the county party is exhausted.

    If you truly cared about Republicans winning, about unity, about transparency, you would stop being the center of every controversy.
    If you truly loved this party more than your factional drama, you’d step aside and let competent, engaged people rebuild what your behavior has wrecked.

    You can’t heal a party while the arsonists are still holding the matches.
    The only path back to trust — and to sanity — is for you to resign and let Minnehaha move forward without the constant manufactured crisis

  6. I just want to thank the Minnehaha republicans for their help, support, and exemplary display of trumpism.

    SD Democrat

  7. I winter in Arizona and watched the same kind of clown show take over the AZ state GOP. The level of idiocy, culminating in the great multi-million election audit scam, (we hand counted!) has turned the once reddest state in America into purple, leaning blue. Never in a million years would a Democrat Socialist like Gallego been able to carry an AZ Senate election before the self-declared “real conservatives” took power.

    1. Arizona was decently red before they voted for Obama 2x for President. For anyone who has lived or visited there, a lot of blue staters retire there. So it is not surprising to me Arizona went blue. It is disconcerting how all the attention given to election integrity, especially in Maricopa County, has made the situation worse. Not better. That is something I agree with you, SD should take more seriously…

  8. Calling the Minnehaha GOP a dumpster fire would be offensive to both dumpsters and fires.

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