Doug Kronaizl of Represent South Dakota says over 50,000 of you have signed the petition his group will submit in Pierre tomorrow to place the Voter Protection and Anti-Corruption Act on the 2018 ballot:
Represent South Dakota will hand-deliver more than 50,000 petitions signed by South Dakotans to qualify the amendment for the 2018 ballot. Amendment co-sponsors, Mitch Richter and Darrell Solberg—former Republican and Democratic legislators, respectively—will meet with supporters at the State Capitol before submitting the signatures to the Secretary of State [Doug Kronaizl, Represent SD, press release, 2017.10.16].
50,000-plus signatures is a remarkable haul and plenty of cushion beyond the 27,741 signatures required to put a constitutional amendment to a vote. Of four initiated amendments submitted in 2015, only two—S for Henry T. Nicholas’s crime victims bill of rights and U for the payday lenders’ decoy amendment, both backed almost exclusively by obscene amounts of big out-of-state money—gathered more than 50,000 signatures.
Come take a look at the petition sheets yourself: Represent SD invites the public—and especially voters irate over the repeal of Initiated Measure 22, which this amendment would partially restore—to join the petition submission party at 11 a.m. Central on the Capitol steps.
I see Lederman’s ‘Don’t Sign’ campaign is working real well. LOL.
Speaking of “obscene amounts of big out-of-state money,” will Represent SD have any in-state contributions during this election cycle?
From an NPQ article I wrote in 2015:
“USA Today reports that the battle lines are drawn between proponents Massachusetts-based Represent.Us and Koch brothers–backed Americans for Prosperity in opposition. According to the South Dakotans for Ethics Reform state campaign finance report, Represent.Us provided 100 percent of the cash in 2015 funds to draft and organize the ballot petition as well as additional in-kind support. Funding for the 501(c)(4) Represent.Us social welfare organization comes almost exclusively from the related Represent.Us Education Fund, a 501(c)(3) public charity that receives significant support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (see here and here) and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.”
See: “Prairie Playground for Special Interests to Test Campaign Finance Initiative” – https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2016/08/18/prairie-playground-for-special-interests-to-test-campaign-finance-initiative/
No doubt, Michael, Represent SD is made possible by out-of-state interests. I look forward to reviewing their 2017 year-end campaign finance report.
I would suggest one difference: Represent SD is able to find vocal locals to support their petition drive. They only locals speaking up for Marsy’s Law and the 18% fake rate cap during the petition process were paid dupes.
South DaCola, I’d love to be able to measure whether Lederman’s anti-petition campaign had any effect. Maybe Represent SD would have gotten 60K signatures if the SDGOP hadn’t launched this campaign?
But that’s a hypothetical. The fact is one ballot question committee is submitting 50K signatures three weeks before the deadline, earlier than either of the 50K-exceeders in 2015 did.