Top Political Stories of 2019: #2 – The collapse of the South Dakota Democrat Party
The handwriting might have been on the wall in November 2018 when Democrat scion and former Sioux Falls City Council Candidate Nick Weiland opined “With the Democratic Party in South Dakota in decline, it might be time for something different….. Not sure how we can change all the old D’s here.” Because the words were very prescient, and a lot of old D’s were changed with the events of 2019, and how those events affected the Democrat party.
The year started off with chair Ann Tornberg asking for another term of office at the helm of the Democrat party after a closer than expected Gubernatorial election, but yet all other state offices were swept, and flat election results in the state legislature, where Republicans maintained historic numbers. Several others decided to run, including Paula Hawks who had earlier attempted a coup of the office after her own disastrous campaign for Congress in 2016, saying “I think that what we’ve seen in the last year is that what we’re doing isn’t working…We do need a shake-up.”
While Paula Hawks was not met with universal appeal, she did manage to capture 73% of the vote after a runoff between her and Tornberg in a vote in the March election. While Hawks waited until May to take office, Tornberg remained in charge for a bit.
And then State Democrats started posting unusually lopsided FEC reports, noting $16,363.17 raised against $34,956.32 spent – better than a 2x burn rate – leaving them $22,742 in the bank. And shortly thereafter, the FEC chided them for not filing a year end report. And then the next report was worse.
In the next report, as Tornberg departed, they started with that $22,742.60, to which they added $26,509.17 in receipts, but spent $32,627.39, leaving them with only $16,624,38 Cash on Hand. And we got the first glimpse of a notation of debts of $46,863.72. And then this report with the debt load was amended away only days later. Another report came out a month later, draining them down to only 3k cash on hand.
And then the dam broke loose. In August, the Federal Elections Commission released the results of an audit they conducted of the South Dakota Democrat Party. And it was bad, with the FEC noting that “The Audit staff recommends that the Commission find that SDDP received impermissible contributions totaling $23,827.” But that was just the start.
While the Argus Leader’s political reporter Lisa Kazcke was busy downplaying the story and saying inconsistencies with Democrat’s FEC reports were not “newsworthy,” Seth Tupper at the Rapid City Journal wrote a damning story about the violations noting “ the South Dakota Democratic Party understated disbursements by $2.5 million, received $67,182 worth of contributions from unregistered organizations and failed to disclose $46,097 worth of debts and obligations.”
Shortly thereafter, the South Dakota Democrat Party started to unravel.
Paula Hawks wasted no time in blame-shifting, criticizing the prior “lack of oversight in the financial management of SDDP,” despite having the same treasurer that had been at the party for more than a decade.
The mysterious disappearing debt began to reappear in a series of new FEC filings, and Democrats started trimming staff, while denying they were doing so. And two days later, the South Dakota Democrat Party shuttered their doors, with an announcement:
In reviewing our budget, the biggest operating expenses are attributed to the office rent in Sioux Falls and Rapid City. Therefore, we have made the necessary decision to close both offices within the next month and staff will begin work remotely. We anticipate this being temporary until we are in a better financial position.
As if it could get worse.. it did. Just a month or so into Chairman Paula Hawks’ stint as chairwoman, Democrats reported starting with $3180 in cash, raised $17,539 in receipts in their federal account and had $30,580.49 in expenditures. Leaving them $9860.26 of deficit spending. Added to that was the $46,863.73 in debts and obligations already owed by the committee to a number of vendors.
Within a day, the Democrat Party treasurer was out after just short of 2 decades. But that didn’t stop the bleeding, and things remained in free fall. More reports of deficit spending continued, and Democrats began to circle the wagons, with one Democrat insider noting “Things are going on in the South Dakota Democratic Party, but our new Chairman wants much of it to be held in confidence. So, to not risk violating her wish and admonition, I dare not discuss anything here. Maybe next time. Sorry.”
And suddenly in late October, Team Paula couldn’t take it anymore, and both Paula Hawks and Stacey Burnette abruptly resigned, declaring “Frankly our skills and services aren’t required for an organization whose sole focus can only be on fundraising to rectify past mistakes.”
Democrat Vice-Chair Randy Seiler, who in March declared that he ran an ‘independent campaign’ for AG “ as of October was now in charge of the Democrat Party.
Maybe. He was not sure at that point.
As things moved forward, a long-time Dem Party insider, South Dakota Democrat National Committeewoman Deb Knecht spoke to a group of Huron Democrats, claiming that Democrats may face a $5000 fine.
Seiler agreed to accept leadership of the Democrat party, and in an article appearing in the Capitol Journal, the new Democrat Vice Chair and Treasurer noted that they’re attempting to manage their finances by taking out a 3 year loan of $25,000 to repay past due accounts. This was illustrated by the FEC Report filed December 20th which noted the same troubling spending trends that caused the collapse of the prior leadership team.
Which brings us to now.
The FEC is waiting for a new member to be voted in to finally move forward with the penalties yet to be assessed against the South Dakota Democrat party, which will include repayment of impermissible donations, as well as whatever fines are assessed. That would be on top of their now $71,863 of existing debts and obligations as reported to the FEC.
Dems do have 2 US Senate Candidates, and 2 Congressional candidates for a primary, but none of them are considered able to post a competitive challenge to the incumbents in those races.
State Democrats are attempting to regroup, and are looking for a new Executive Director who is “reliable, honest, loyal, and discreet” with a closing date of January 31, which means that hiring for that office is likely to come in the middle of the early campaign season.
At the same time, South Dakota Republicans are fairly organized and energized, coming off of hosting campaign schools in Rapid City and Sioux Falls for 40-50 candidates in each location.
It remains to be seen whether Democrats can be competitive in South Dakota in 2020 as they attempt to rebuild after their total collapse in 2019.
But no matter what, it was entertaining to watch over the course of the last year.
Happy we out of state name callers could do our part in contributing to the SDDP collapse.
Feeling the Bern!
Feeling the Bern? So you hate America. Good to know.
I feel like Soros is going to cut the tail off the dog and try to found a third party. This was indeed an interesting story. They’ll keep the SDDP on life support, ready to revive if it make sense.
Last cycle I’d have said yes. In 2018 they had good candidates for AG and Gov.
I guess in my opinion they lit an ember that still burns. It very easily could catch fire depending on what happens between now and 2022.
Yes they lost but they put up one heck of a fight and are very dangerous at the top.
What evidence do you have that Seiler was a good candidate?
He sponsored a gay pride parade in pierre, drag queen contest, then whined like baby for not getting to introduce some dog’s at the state fair, got his clock cleaned in the debate and then lost in a landslide…..how was he a good candidate?
What’s #1, Mr. PP? Only you, Mr. H, a handful of Mr. H’s out-of-state name-callers, and grudznick are not out having a bang-up evening, so blog it out there so Mr. H can do his attacks and grudznick can go to bed.
The party didn’t get started until around 9ish. We had a fantastical evening .. wow, 2020 already. Hard to imagine being at this point way back in 1993 (the year of my graduation from high school).
The SDDP is a dumpster fire. I believe Seiler will be a good chair.
It’s highly unlikely that young Mr. Ahlers, he who used to run a mildly successful video movie store, will now catapult the libbies to stardom. They’d be better off putting up that pretty Ms. Hawks gal again.