Recall a couple weeks back when I pointed out how the Political Action Committee affiliated with Toby Doeden intruded into in the Brookings Municipal and School Board races without being invited?
Both Al Austreim running for Brookings City Council and Kelsey Bowman running for Brookings School Board are registered Republicans, and had been putting forth a respectable effort in running with signs, mailers and the such going out in what had been a sleepy contest.
And then this text message hit this morning:
Toby Doeden’s, Dakota First Action had fired off a text message in support of local Brookings candidates Kelsey Bowman and Al Austreim in the April 8 election, It was surprising, considering the PAC had shown no interest to date in the race. The problem with Doeden getting involved in this race for these two candidates is that Doeden and his PAC are not just a little radioactive:
These two decent Republican candidates found their campaigns unfortunately “Doedened” as they were endorsed by the most toxic person in South Dakota politics today. And it had an effect.
With both races a three-way race for 2 seats, after the Doeden anchor was tied around them, they found themselves falling short on election day in both cases by 150 votes or less, as the polarizing PAC tried to make them their own with continued text blasts in Kelsey’s race. Without the Doeden Fire-Dumpster attached to them, they would have had a broader base in the community. But being anchored to his PAC? Doeden declared that they were hard-right conservatives in a town that does not elect hard-right conservatives.
I’m sure today they’re saying thanks for nothing, jerk. Because no one asked for the toxic kiss of death to be thrown in what was once a nice homegrown, grassroots effort.
He also endorsed a candidate in the Dell Rapids City Council election. It was close, but she lost. Lots of text messages about it leading up to the election.