If you want to stop payday lenders from charging loan-shark rates, you want to vote Yes on 21, No on U.
AP’s James Nord reports that the payday lenders are hitting the airwaves in addition to our mailboxes to confuse voters and save payday lending profits:
Federal Communications Commission records show that Give Us Credit South Dakota is airing more than 120 ad spots across KELO-TV, KSFY-TV and KDLT-TV. The committee has also sponsored mail advertising attacking the rate cap as a liberal-backed assault on freedom [James Nord, “Supporters of Payday Rate Cap Campaign Fear Voter Confusion,” AP via Huron (MI) Daily Tribune, 2016.11.02].
Luckily, since I don’t have cable, I won’t see Rod Aycox’s ads. I’d recommend turning off the television and listening to public radio for the rest of the election (including election night, when it’s easier to listen to the national coverage while checking the election results yourself on the Secretary of State’s website and Twitter!).
But if you catch their clips online, please forward the links, and we’ll dissect the predatory lenders’ propaganda here on Dakota Free Press… which is part of the liberal/conservative, secular/Christian plot to fight usury by voting Yes on 21 and No on U!
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Hey, what’s that Nord said about FCC records? Ah! The FCC requires TV stations to file political ad buys online! Rod Aycox’s ballot question committee has bought 33 spots on KDLT for $7,465.00, 57 on KSFY for $18,228.25, and 34 spots on KELO for $35,410 (gross, minus $5,311.50 agency commission, so $30,098.50 net). Aycox/GUC does not appear to have bought TV time in the Rapid City market yet.
Buying the ads for the payday lenders is Republican-leaning, Swift-Boating Maryland political agency Mentzer Media.
Bonus Local Buys! The FCC files also tell us that Rep. Al Novstrup (R-3/Aberdeen) has paid KELO and LIN Digital of Austin, Texas, $1,750 to target online ads at Brown County residents. District 12 Republican House candidate Greg Jamison is spending $2,240 on 13 30-second newstime spots on KELO this week. District 25 Democratic House candidate Dan Ahlers has bought 84 15-second weekday spots on KSFY for $630.
What a lot of money to waste. Well his customers waste their money as well. So this is justice.
Anyone who waits until less than a week before the election to run ads, and then only in half the state, deserves to loose. I’m almost insulted by how little effort Aycox is putting into the campaign stage of this fight.
Not that I mind that they didn’t try harder, but the Koch Brothers at least had the sense to hit early on IM 22 and keep up the pressure throughout. The payday lenders could have hit us much harder. It will be interesting to compare the results on 21 and 22.