A South Dacola Foot Soldier sent me this today;

I just got a call from a polling firm based out of N Sioux City SD (based on my caller ID).  It asked if I would support Noem or one of the following Dem opponents, either Sutton, Huether, or Seiler.

I had heard about a week ago that there was going to be polling out there in an effort to push Sutton into the race. But what I find interesting is they would include someone who I thought was now a registered Indy (MMM) and someone who lost to Rumblestrips. While they were at it, why didn’t they also mention Michelle Erpenbach 🙁

What do you get when a hospital lawyer, an ad agency exec, a banker, a developer, an angel fund investor and a guy who does business out of a UPS Store PO Box join forces? One heck of a political action committee. (PAC)

We all knew that there would be more money funneled into Jensen’s campaign chest after the last finance report before the election. He received an additional $13K coming from the Buffalo PAC. Curiously he didn’t spend it all, in fact he only spent about $3K on the campaign in it’s waning days (Full report). Curiously he spent around $8,500 on legal fees ($1,000 donated). I’m assuming that was for the recount. What I find ironic is that with all the money and power swirling around the SD GOP who helped get Alex elected that not one single lawyer took him on pro-bono for the recount. Stehly’s (a Republican) attorney, the Chair of the SD Democratic Party, Randy Seiler offered his services for free to Theresa. So basically the donors to the Buffalo PAC and ultimately Jensen funneled money to a Republican Law Firm (Redstone). I know, mind boggling.

Curiously the PAC is registered to a Sioux Falls residential address, a home owned by a SF hospital attorney (not the green one) and an ad agency executive (the big one in town). Both of them also have a connection (still trying to figure out) to a Sioux Falls city director that TenHaken appointed. Strangely they were only used as conduit because none of them donated to the PAC.

So who did? Well the usual suspects, with two of them pouring thousands of dollars towards Alex through various PACs, family members and individual donations. I’m surprised they didn’t find a way to get dead relatives to give since it is against the law now to use your toddler children.

BUFFALO PAC DONORS:

Matthew Paulson – $5,000.00 (Jensen’s campaign treasurer and suspected manager)

Dana Dykhouse – $5,000.00

Crescent Venture Capital (Kevin Tupy ) – $2,000.00

Daniel Costello – $1,000.00

Yes, I know, not surprising since most of these characters already had been throwing money at Jensen’s campaign. I wonder if they knew he gave half of their donation to a law firm?

I got this email on Friday;

The South Dakota Democratic Party (SDDP) under the leadership of its Vice-Chair, Randy Seiler, held an emergency Executive Board meeting last Saturday following the abrupt resignation of its Chair, Paula Hawks, and its Executive Director, Stacey Burnette. The meeting was held in Ft. Pierre but yours truly and several other Democrats attended the meeting by phone. I can report that the SDDP is in good hands with Randy Seiler. He handled the meeting professionally and patiently, allowed everyone to voice their concerns and ask questions without criticism and he provided answers when he had them without requesting confidentiality. He led the group in calling a SDDP Central Committee meeting on December 7th in Mitchell to elect a new Chair and said he would step aside as Vice-Chair if the gender balance requirement of the SDDP required it. He also said he respected Paula and Stacey’s decision and requested that the Democratic Party look forward and not involve itself in finger-pointing or recrimination. Then, rather than try to do everything himself, he showed his Executive experience and appointed various Democrats, both from the E-board and outside it, to head various Task Forces to address the financial, operational, and reporting issues now facing the SDDP and report back expeditiously. Since the meeting he has followed up vigorously with those who accepted the various areas of responsibility.

With all of this, Randy has steadied the SDDP ship and set it on a course which should revitalize it going into the 2020 campaign season. I hope Randy remains in a leadership position in the SDDP.

And for those who wonder about the financial position of the SDDP, it is not nearly as dire as some would have you believe. Yes, it has a small amount of debt, less than $30,000.00, which is not unusual for a political party following a hard fought gubernatorial election. But, its monthly revenue should exceed its now pared down monthly expenses by several thousand dollars even without the additional contributions it normally receives and which it has every reason to believe will continue. Those in the South Dakota Republican Party gleefully writing the SDDP’s obituary may soon be forced to eat some proverbial political crow.

Jason skipped another debate he was invited to. First it was SF Rotary now the USD debate.

Jason, what are you so scared of? That someone with a 1,000x more experience would school you about what the inside of a courtroom looks like?

Jason Ravnsborg is turning out to be a real fraud. Haven’t we had enough corruption and fakes in the Attorney General’s office?

VOTE SEILER!