This comes as no surprise, Huether spent 2.4x more then Staggers. As I have said all along, this election was bought and paid for;
In total, Huether spent more than $240,000 for his campaign. Pat Costello followed with $166,000. Kermit Staggers spending more than $100,000, according to campaign finance disclosure statements.
While these numbers are not surprising, this one is;
Huether, a newcomer to the political arena, had more than $97,000 in in-kind contributions, according to city of Sioux Falls campaign finance disclosure statements. It was a hefty amount compared with Costello’s $15,000 and Staggers’ $1,750.
It shows the only real person financially supporting Mike was Mike. Of course he puts his best spin on it;
Huether, who spent $128,000 of his own money on his campaign, said contributing a fair amount of his own money was done in the “spirit of stewardship.”
That’s the biggest line of bullshit I have heard from him in a long time. Allowing you to be our mayor is hardly ‘stewardship’. You hate losing, so you spent as much as possible so that would not happen. It just goes to show how money has destroyed politics.
And this number is a little fuzzy also;
In total, Huether spent more than $37,000 for consulting during his campaign.
That’s interesting, because when I add up all the ‘consulting fees’ it comes close to $74,000. But who knows. Things are often listed twice on the financial reports. Heck, he could have paid Hildebrand a cool $100,000 and we would never know.
Bought and paid for like John Thune in 2004?
At least Huether spent his own money and didn’t bring in party funding.
Huether was the best candidate and the only one who wouldn’t have been an embarrassment to Sioux Falls.
Time for Staggers to fade away now that he has somehow been found “innocent” AND censured for two ethics violations. Somebody should have made a complaint for the “gay agenda” phone call campaign as well.
Like I said during the campaign, Staggers made zero effort to go to the business community for donations, nor did he make any effort to actually speak to their concerns. He went into lecture mode. No surprise that he couldn’t raise money. Sure he spent some of his own, but he obviously wasn’t going to outspend Huether even if he had the money to do so.
Since he’s also shown he’s in line with Gordon Howie politically, I think we all owe Mike a big thank you for busting out his piggy bank.
Conservative is one thing, but like all things it’s enjoyed best in moderation.
“Conservative is one thing, but like all things it’s enjoyed best in moderation.”
Maybe you should start practicing it.
BTW, Kermit received many donations from businessmen; Dave Billion, Marion Sullivan and Steve Kirby to name a few.
Justin-
Mike isn’t embarassing? Have you watched the city council meetings? The guy makes a political speech between each vote. He has no clue what legislating is all about. The meetings are almost 3 hours long! This is a ludicrous amount of time to approve a couple of malt beverage licenses and a zoning permit. In fact it borders on blatant stupidity.
BTW, read the briefs I posted about the ethics complaints. Kermit didn’t do anything wrong. This was an attempt to distract Kermit from the campaign, nothing else. And like all the other underhanded bullshit the Huether campaign pulled during election, it worked. The only thing Mike has is Pasture DooHickey’s gay agenda propaganda that no sane person gives a shit about.
It’s over. Let’s see what Huether can do to fix Munson mess. A good start and a chance to get reelected is REPEAL HOME RULE.
For 2014, let them spend away. Vote for Janoct to teach them a lesson and stop this ‘buy your office’ Blagobitch nonsense.
He certainly proved there is a pricetag on just about anything. I find it hard to believe he will repeal home rule, he has too much power under it. It will be up to citizens to dismantle that POS.
What’s the best way to win a mayoral race? A little dirty tricks doesn’t hurt!
It seems real fishy and with a smell to match that a frivolous ethics complaint was filed against candidate Staggers by two police union flunkies, David Dunteman and Michael J. Olson, five days before the election.
You wonder how pervasive the political corruption is in the city of Sioux Falls and how high up it goes.
I3Wis I don’t give a crap about the procedure of the meetings. I thought he wasn’t asking for enough support from the city council, I’d think you ‘d be arguint they should be longer.
I’ve met both men, one is bright and articulate, and the other is Kermit.
Did Huether do something more underhanded than calling people on election day and telling them the other candidate had a “gay agenda”?
Seriously if you are going to make accusations of underhanded dealing I’d have to hear at least one to consider you credible.
You sound to me like a developer with a delayed project.
also, if Kermit didn’t do anything wrong, why was he cited with TWO REPRIMANDS
the only way one could conclude he didn’t do anything wrong was to read Jon Ellis’ article in the AL and stop when Ellis says Kermit is innocent. He then goes on to explain the two violations.
Ellis is a freaking joke and so are you.
Once again, read the attorneys brief, it explains it all.
I read Haugard’s memo, thanks for posting the stuff.
I don’t think it was a horrible enough reprimand to be worried about, but they did find wrong doing.
I wonder how the ethics board would feel about their private reprimand with a gag order leaked to a blogger who then posts it publicly on the argus leader website as well as his own blog?
So much for thinking Staggers might have actually learned a lesson.
I was at the council commission thing yesterday. Staggers made a good presentation. There seemed no validity to the ethics complaint. Even the city clerk chimed in with lack of proper paperwork and notice procedure. Council members seemed more concerned about this happening to them. They only make $17K per year. If they have to hire a lawyer for this, I’d say ‘been nice but seeya’.
I especially enjoyed Vernon Brown and Ehrbach plastering Tornow with tomatoes. I’ve never said something good about Brown but (after yesterday) he’s come up 2 points.
Tornow is on the ethics committee. No one can make complaints against him. He also represents the city in litigation. Ethically, he should step aside for these cases. He’s the policy maker and should delineate from assistant city attorney into witness status. Talk about holding 2 offices.
Justin, I disagree with your comments. They’re valuable here as an opposing argument, just as valuable as Tornow is to the city attorney’s office.
So plaintiff you think Staggers learned a lesson about skirting ethics guidelines?
How would his leaking of the private reprimand mesh with that?
Tornow didn’t file the complaint.
And SOMEBODY should have filed a complaint for the “gay agenda” phone campaign.
Kermit is dirty. No doubt he has some supporters, but clearly not enough.
Well, I guess the Local 120 is right, Sioux Falls has become a Teamsters city now.
http://www.teamsterslocal120.org/index.cfm?zone=/unionactive/view_article.cfm&homeID=164048
gee, ignorant reference to a union and link with no original thought of your own.
I wonder who you voted for in the election?
Justin, that was the whole purpose of yesterday’s testimony, the reprimand cannot be ‘confidential’ according to state law. And secondly they had no business reprimanding Kermit in the first place, considering the original complaint was about mailing addresses not his association with the Republican party.
“I’ve met both men, one is bright and articulate, and the other is Kermit.”
Boy, you truly have the two men mixed up. If talking in circles makes you articulate, then Mike’s your man.
Justin,
Well, the ignorant comment came from an official Teamsters press release, so I guess I can’t argue that with you.
Did you read the link? Did you see where the article is posted (union website)? Did you see who made the complaints against Staggers (union “leaders”)? Did you happen to see all of the Minnesota residents (union members) that were out roaming the city in support of Huether? Did you happen to see that one of the selling points for merging with Teamsters Local 120 and bringing them to Sioux Falls was their political machinary?
I don’t live in Sioux Falls, but I do a considerasble amount of business there. If I were a Sioux Falls resident I would have voted for Dr. Staggars and not Mr. Huether.
I do find it humorous that someone blindly defending a union throws out the “no original thought of your own” to try and discredit someone merely pointing out where the nearly $100K of in-kind contributions came from.
Just had another look at the finance sheets. How can Huether give himself in-kind contributions for “consulting fees”, “salaries”, “event costs”, “mailing”, “advertising”.
Maybe I just don’t understand anything about in-kind contributions, but this is the way I have always understood it:
“An in-kind contribution is a non-cash input which can be given a cash value.”
Seems as if Huether paid for things out of his own pocket and reported it as “in-kind” contributions instead of making a personal contribution to his campaign and then listing the spending as expenditures.
That doesn’t seem to be appropriate. I can understand using existing consumable property for events and reporting those usages as in-kind contributions, but I don’t see how you can write a personal check for $5,300 for consulting fees and call that in-kind.
Lwiess.. How much did Dave and steve give Kermit? I love your blog but you sound as delusional as the munsterman people. Kermit partnered up with Howie who is legally insane. Did you see the ad he filmed in a church in which he rapidly declared a holy war?scary stuff…
First off, let’s clear some things up before people start jumping to conclusions.
DDC – Inkind contributions are a crock, but legal according to campaign rules. Like I said above, the only real person supporting Mike, was Mike.
I want everyone to know that I support unions and equality for gays, so repeatdley bringing this shit up doesn’t affect what I have to say. I just find it ‘fishy’ that union leaders (who gave money to Huether) would file a complaint a few days before an election. I never have said they were working for the Huether campaign, but one could make the assumption, especially when a prominent Democrat who supported Huether comes on here and goes ballistic about Staggers and the ‘gay agenda’. Why are you so defensive, please fill us in.
As for Howie, I have said all along that I didn’t like Howie and did not support Kermit running with him, but there is a difference between State and City politics, and I still think Kermit is the better man.
HM- Howie is a whackjob. Duh. But we all knew he wasn’t going to win the nomination. I almost feel Kermit felt sorry for the guy or something.
So let’s get back to the original topic. Money destroys a fair race in politics. And not only did Kermit get shafted, but Brown and Costello did to.
Overall…the only way to win an “honest” race according to what I read here is by not having any money or backing of money. Mike won…not only by getting his name out there (being the unknown candidate) but for also pounding the pavement over and over and over. Damn those people that get ahead…save money…have a dream…put that saved money towards that dream. The bottom line is Mike wanted this MORE than anyone else. Not to say others didn’t want it…they just didn’t want it as much.
Daizi – You should write political poetry.
“The bottom line is Mike wanted this MORE than anyone else.”
I will agree with you on that, spending 2.4x more then his opponent proved that. Kermit wanted it to, but Kermit is also a modest person, too modest sometimes.
Thanks for using my most-hated sports cliche, Daizi.
You are missing my point…if Kermit had wanted it as bad as Mike…and didn’t have the funds to compete…he would have found OTHER ways to compete with Mike..and won. While money does play a large factor in things..the ULTIMATE factor is the person doing more…more face time, more door to door, more volunteers, things that don’t require money…but require people to gather together…
Yeah, how dare Kermit work his full-time job and run his own campaign while also serving on the city council. What was he thinking? He should of just quit all that stuff while running for office, because ‘winning’ is all that should have mattered.
So the person who works the hardest wins every single election? Tell that to the unemployed vet in South Carolina who did absolutely nothing but somehow nabbed the Democratic nomination.
Mike spent a lot of money, hired a fantastic strategist, and had people like Darrin Smith and some Union flunkies to do his dirty work for him.
It happened, get over it. Money and dirty tricks (Staggers ethics complaint) wins.
What should be important now is that Huether become a ‘One Hit Wonder’. That’s possible with an early 2014 strategy. Negative publicity and economic downturn are a healthy start. Voting down a convention center is major. Campaign reform could also help.
Here’s the killer, focus on tyranny from Home Rule Charter that denys citizens their constitutional rights. Sioux Falls can be featured nationally as the worst example. ‘I have a dream’, mayor in a Nuremburg styled 60 minutes interview.