No more breaking kids piggy banks for campaign donations

Looks like the kiddos can only donate to candidates with there parent’s limits (if Noem signs it);

A bill to close a “loophole” in South Dakota’s campaign finance laws is headed to Gov. Kristi Noem’s desk.

Sioux Falls’ last mayoral election caught the attention of state lawmakers when a local business owner wrote a series of checks on behalf of his school-age children as gifts to then-candidate Paul TenHaken.

Docutap founder and owner Eric McDonald and his five children — ages 6 to 15 at the time — are each listed as contributors to TenHaken’s 2018 campaign, all six giving the maximum $1,000 donation.

That spurred action by the South Dakota Legislature, which overwhelmingly approved legislation this week that will require donations to political candidates from minors go toward their parents’ giving limits.

That means if a child gives, say, $100 to a candidate pursuing a municipal office, their parent would only be allowed to give $900 to the same campaign. For statewide races, the cap is $4,000.

“It seemed like a giant loophole in our campaign finance law that could be very easily fixed,” said Sen. Reynold Nesiba (D-Sioux Falls), the prime sponsor of Senate Bill 114.

Nesiba said he didn’t want to ban children under a certain age from participating in South Dakota elections as is the case in some other states. So he wrote SB 114 as a compromise.

If signed by the governor, South Dakota will join 19 other states that prohibit or restrict minor donations, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

TenHaken said the Nesiba and co-sponsor Rep. Kelly Sullivan (D-Sioux Falls) alerted him of their intentions with SB 114 prior to introducing it.

A story I broke on DaCola. I always thought it was a little ‘sneaky’ to take donations from kids. I just joked the other day that maybe the reason PTH hosts kids in his home when their parents are having trouble is so he can ask for campaign donations.