Sure, Initiated Measure 22, the Anti-Corruption Act, comes from Democrat Rick Weiland’s efforts to reform South Dakota politics via ballot measure. But Weiland has assembled a remarkable team of cross-partisan campaigners to promote his package of campaign finance reforms, small-donor public campaign financing, and a statewide ethics commission. According to a press release popped into my inbox this morning, IM22 co-chairs Don Frankenfeld (a Rapid City Republican) and Darrell Solberg (a Sioux Falls Democrat) will be touring the state with a Tea Party guy, a Bush II official, and a national anti-corruption campaigner:
On Monday, September 19 through Wednesday, September 21st, conservative thought leaders John Pudner, Richard Painter and Dan Krassner will be touring the state with IM22 spokespersons and co-chairs, Don Frankenfeld and Darrell Solberg in support of Initiated Measure 22.
- John Pudner, founder of conservative anti-corruption group Take Back Our Republic and former political consultant who helped Tea Party candidate Dave Brat unseat House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the 2014 Republican primary election.
- Richard Painter, former chief ethics czar for President George W. Bush. Author of Getting the Government America Deserves: How Ethics Reform Can Make a Difference.
- Dan Krassner, political director at Represent.Us and former chief strategy and communications officer of Florida Chamber of Commerce [Take It Back press release, 2016.09.09].
It’s good to see that, even amidst the Trump-polarization of political discourse, we can find agreement across party lines that our campaign finance system has problems. Now if we can just forge consensus on some real action.
So glad to hear this! We need some unity, some agreement on how our democracy can and should work and how to preserve it for our children and grandchildren! Hoping and praying that SD voters agree!
clcjm, indeed—maybe we should have a “unity” criterion for ballot measures: the more diverse groups we find backing a measure, they more we should incline to support them?