Remember this past week when SDGOP Chairman Eschenbaum had alluded to some prior affinity for Democrats, as he told SD News Watch in an interview that he had voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012:
Eschenbaum voted for Barack Obama in 2008 because he thought electing the first Black president would help address racial tensions. He was ready to vote Republican in 2012, upset with runaway spending following the Great Recession but was unimpressed with GOP candidate Mitt Romney’s campaign and supported Obama again.
A number of Republicans I spoke with were surprised to see their new chair declaring he was an Obama voter. Twice. Well, it seems that’s not the entire story. Because the chairman of the South Dakota Republican Party appears to have done more than just voting for Obama.
I’d heard rumors about this in the past, but I finally gotten my hands on something people told me I should chase down. Jim Eschenbaum’s voter registration. And At least from the documentation at hand, he’s done more than just vote for Obama. It appears that according to voter registration records, SDGOP Chairman Jim Eschenbaum was registered as a Democrat from 1984 – 2016. A span of 32 years:
That’s quite a stretch to be registered as a Democrat for 32 years, and then come in to run for South Dakota Republican Party Chairman 8 years later and to declare yourself capable to be chairman of the SDGOP.
Of course, his leadership of the SDGOP has already given us such gems as releasing a scorecard about the performance of state legislators – as part of a left-leaning organization where he serves in the same capacities in parallel with the SDGOP. And where they declared that half of the Republican State Senators somehow failed or were darn close:
Literally, the new South Dakota Republican Party Chairman just attacked half of the Republicans in the Senate, and gave ammunition to their opponents for the next election, including attacking the Senate Majority Leader.
Eschenbaum, just handed ouf F’s to Arch Beal, Casey Crabtree, Sydney Davis, Randy Diebert, Helene Duhamel, Steve Kolbeck, Senate Republican Majority Leader Jim Mehlhaff, Paul Miskimins, Tim Reed, Steph Sauder, Kyle Schoenfish and Glen Vilhauer. (Senators) Mike Rohl and Larry Zikmund were given D’s.
Are we now finding out that Jim Eschenbaum might be the Manchurian Republican Party Chairman, sent to destroy the party from within? I doubt it’s anything quite that dramatic, but it does lead me to ask whether it’s too soon for a vote of no confidence in his ability to get Republicans elected next fall?
Because so far, I’m kind of having my doubts.
Looks like Eschenbama fits the name that he throws around, RINO. Just another opportunist. Can we get some real Republicans to step up?
What is a “real” Republican?
Not someone who’s been a registered democrat for 32 years…
Like Trump?
The democrats scored well on the chair of the gop scorecard. Eischenbama is still a democrat he despises the gop.
What a bad joke this has GOP story has become.
After door knocking as a volunteer for a state senate candidate nearly an entire rural senate district I will say many Democrats jumped on the Trump Train in 2016. Plenty of them took their time to share and vent about how both political parties let them down. A number of them wanted to throw a grenade in the room and that is what they did.
That entire destructive mindset across a whole demographic was carefully built over nearly three decades. Thank Rush Limbaugh and Fox News for their constant hard work to wreck centrist bipartisanship. It now can’t really be salvaged and we will pay a heavy price for that. Gee kind of like a vast right wing conspiracy, except it wasn’t vast, it was quite well concealed until the tea parties and Trump.
The obvious upshot is that for the rest of Donald Trump’s life, the GOP won’t develop any leaders or leadership independent of Trump himself. It thus has ceased to be a party in the sense that people other than Trump are part of the power. They’re not.
Are these completed voter registration forms publicly accessible?
Yes
Voter registration forms are public documents. Always have been.
It’s so disappointing to see Dascle Democrats subverting first the Freedom Caucus and now the Republican Party. Sad!
The Democrats delivered for SD, back in the day.
THIS. IS. THE. BEST. STORY. EVER.
Please tell all your friends.
The SDGOP is sooooo hosed! 😆
Is this guy related to Ty Eschenbaum with A1 Development?
Yep, probably doesn’t want to admit it.