Funny, the only mayoral candidate that won’t talk to me besides law breaking Hartford resident Selberg is Smith, but I find myself commending Smith today on his campaign.
It appears he has taken NO PAC money. BRAVO! That doesn’t mean he won’t in the future, but it appears at this point he is only taking donations from individuals and he has raised A LOT!
So why is PAC money bad? First off, it was illegal until the SCOTUS decided that money was free speech (worst decision they have ever made since it has turned every election into a bidding war instead of a discussion about the issues, it is F’ing disgusting). You also don’t know who is funding the PACS. It basically is rich folks buying an election.
If I was Jamie, in the age of populism I would encourage him to put out a press release celebrating you took NO PAC money and in the same release explain to folks why PAC money is bad. Two of the other leading candidates took almost entirely PAC money, BAD look. Jamison did not file a report because he didn’t collect donations in 2025, and after his performance in Pierre today on sales taxes and data centers I am a bit nervous about his candidacy (and he should be too).
Did any of you see this news story about how much money the Republican gubernatorial candidates have raised for their candidacies? Well, apparently, to the USD professor, everything “makes sense” with very little elaboration.
Maybe the real story here is the incumbent, Rhoden, is in third place in fundraising, which is historically odd, and that one of the candidates, Doeden, is self-funding at a whopping $2 million, which is a dollar amount that most candidates, and South Dakotans, can’t relate to, or how about the fact that the average amount the four major Republican candidates have on hand to spend currently for their campaigns is merely 40% of what Doeden has on hand.
No wonder the Burger Battle is fun to cover, because with that story, you are always assured to get to the meat of the issue, huh?
https://www.keloland.com/news/local-news/comparing-finances-doeden-hansen-johnson-and-rhoden/