Hey, Dakota Access protestors! If you heed Standing Rock Sioux Chairman Dave Archmbault’s advice and come home from the Oceti Sakowin camp (estimates of how many “water protectors” remain at the Missouri–Cannonball confluence range from 300 to 2,000, but clearly thousands of protestors have left camp) and are looking for a new target for your awakened activist energy, might I recommend the numerous politicians that Dakota Access builder Energy Transfer Partners is funding and lobbying? Energy Transfer Partners CEO Kelcy Warren spent $6 million trying to make Rick Perry President (they’ll have to settle for making him Energy Secretary… which is great for a paid ETP board member!).
Energy Transfer Partners also runs Energy Transfer PAC, which has been plowing money into state legislative candidates. Here in South Dakota, as of the end of October, 22 Legislative candidates reported receiving ETP donations of $250:
| Legislator (links to campaign finance reports) | party | chamber | notes |
| Julie Bartling | D | H | Asst Minority Leader |
| Arch Beal | R | H | Majority Whip |
| Gary Cammack | R | S | Chair, Ag &Nat. Resources |
| Brock Greenfield | R | S | unopposed; Pres. Pro-Tem; Chair, Leg. Proc. |
| Don Haggar | R | H | Majority Leader; Chair, Taxation |
| Spencer Hawley | D | H | Minority Leader |
| Kris Langer | R | S | Majority Whip; Chair, Local Gov’t |
| G. Mark Mickelson | R | H | Speaker |
| Al Novstrup | R | S | Majority Whip |
| Ernie Otten | R | S | Chair, Transportation |
| Deb Peters | R | S | Chair, Gov’t Ops. & Audit |
| Tim Rounds | R | H | Chair, Commerce & Energy |
| Tona Rozum | R | H | unopposed |
| Deb Soholt | R | S | Chair, Health & Human Serv. |
| Alan Solano | R | S | |
| Mike Stevens | R | H | Chair, Judiciary |
| Billie Sutton | D | S | unopposed; Minority Leader |
| Larry Tidemann | R | S | Chair, Approps. |
| Craig Tieszen | R | H | 250 |
| Jim White | R | S | Chair, Retirement Laws |
| John Wiik | R | S | 250 |
| Mathew Wollmann | R | H | 250 |
Every South Dakota legislative candidate Energy Transfer PAC supported won a seat in the 2017 Legislature. Three ran unopposed. Eight occupy leadership positions, including Senate Pro-Tem, Speaker of the House, House Speaker Pro-Tem, three Majority Whips, both Minority Leaders, and House Assistnat Minority Leader. Eleven chair committees, including Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources, House Taxation, Senate Transportation, and House Commerce and Energy.
Energy Transfer PAC supported 19% of the incoming Democratic caucus and 21% of the incoming Republican caucus.
Energy Transfer Partners is far from the biggest player in South Dakota campaign finance. Montana-Dakota Utilities, NextERA Energy, BNSF, COTEL (the South Dakota telecommunications PAC), the South Dakota Retailers, and others gave more money to more legislative candidates.
But Energy Transfer PAC spent $5,500 on 22 legislators in a state where the Dakota Access pipeline is already complete. That money appears to be an investment in protecting ETP’s interests from any onerous pipeline taxes, clean-up funds, or other efforts South Dakotans might make to hold our Texas friends responsible for any messes they might make here.
So, South Dakota water protectors, once you thaw out your frozen fingers, start tapping those phones and keyboards (look up legislator phones and e-mails here) and make sure those 22 legislators hear your voice in favor of water right alongside Energy Transfer PAC’s voice in favor of oil.
p.s.: Energy Transfer PAC gave Congresswoman and current gubernatorial candidate Kristi Noem $2,500 in 2014.
My oh my, look at all of that out of state money trying to influence our laws. Just guessing that the GOP and the governor will want to look into this and craft a bill that limits this sort of thing…like with our initiated measures.
FYI –
NextERA is a wind farm developer.
Any RR improvements are a better idea to fossil fuel burning trucks.
If COTEL lobbying spurs more development of rural broadband – I’m for that.
As Former President Jimmy Carter stated in this great article http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/videos/jimmy-carter-u-s-is-an-oligarchy-with-unlimited-political-bribery-20150731
Russia and the United States are now joined at the hip. Russia has directly decided who will govern the United States for their needs and it looks like who will govern the states to supply the goods needed for their economy. We have met the enemy and it is us. So where do we go from here? When all the wealth is siphoned off, who will buy the oil and what will they use it for? Russia may decide that it is in their best interests to leave the oil and gas in the ground here so they can continue to monopolize the European markets to get what they really want, their empire back.
We can scan the campaign finance forms for possible Russia connections. But for now, let’s focus on directing the energy of the Oceti Sakowin campers to the next battlefield, the state legislatures, and get them to occupy Energy Transfer PAC’s beneficiaries inboxes with some calls and letters.
Lobbyist rightly have to wear a badge that identifies them and their lobbying sponsor. But citizens have no way to immediately identify their legislators’ main funders. How about the “NASCAR solution” for Legislators. Make these folks wear patches for their top five special interest donations.
Dem leadership: Bartling, Hawley and Sutton? Who would have thunk? This is a prime example of why Dems can’t win in South Dakota. They don’t know how to differentiate themselves from the GOP. Either clean up this mess, or there is going to be a new party in South Dakota or a heck of a lot of Independents running in 2018!
Love those labels, Donald!
Leo, I welcome Independents to gear up and run serious campaigns. I agree that candidates who distinguish themselves from the Republicans should fare better at the polls… but do Sutton, Bartling, and Hawley represent counterexamples to that claim? They did win last month.
Label as a scarlet letter? No.
Five pieces of flair or an assortment of NASCAR patches or convention buttons/pins…fine.
Mr. Sutton won because he is smart.
Mr. Hawley won because he is smart, plays on people’s ignorance, and pretends to be a (R) in most situations.
Ms. Bartling won because she seems to be a pleasant lady, sociable, and is a very pretty woman. That doesn’t hurt her.
I just posted a link to this article on the private Facebook page of the Cheyenne River Sioux tribal members group (they let non-tribal members like me in if they know and trust us) and suggested that they contact all of these legislators and demand that all of these “donations” be returned. Believe me, there’s a lot of anger over this among those who know, so those legislators will be getting an earful.
And may I say how incredibly disappointing it is to see Bartling and Sutton’s names on this list? I really, really, really would have thought a lot better of them than this.
Thanks, Laurisa! I think it would do all 22 of these legislators some good to hear from tribal members on their feelings about Energy Transfer Partners.
Oh, I agree, Cory, and I’m hoping it will also bring more of them over here to DFP now that they’ve heard of it.
Cory, I do not know how these candidates represented themselves in this last election that they won, but the real evidence will be whether they can ever win again…as Democrats. SDDP posted a Water is Life picture on their website on December 8th. First statement that I heard the state party make – too little too late.
Holy! How corrupt have our Republican polititians, and a couple Democrats also, become? Then what chance do our common citizens have to hold these mega billion $ corporations accountable for polluting our lands, our rivers, our air, and even the giant Oglala Aquifer the serves 4 or more states?