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Johnson Campaign Misstates Fundraising Record, Ignores Curd 2010 Bid

While I was out doing original reporting, the SDGOP spin blog was printing  anonymous memy bunk and its sponsorspress releases. Boring… and, in the case of the Dusty Johnson campaign finance blurb, false:

“Dusty’s fundraising has been extraordinary,” said Campaign Manager Erin Schoenbeck.  “No one in the history of our state has garnered sustained support like Dusty – meeting or exceeding $100,000.00 for three quarters in a row.  With a year to go, Dusty is already close to raising more money than any congressional challenger or open seat candidate in South Dakota history.”

Dusty Johnson, R. Blake Curd
R Blake to Dusty: I’m a doctor, not a historian, but I’m pretty sure ‘history’ means more than six years.

Paging Dr. Curd… Sioux Falls physician and state legislator R. Blake Curd ran for House in 2010. He placed third behind winner Kristi Noem and runner-up Chris Nelson. Curd launched his campaign on October 1, 2009.

  1. In 2009 Q4, the Curd campaign raised $176,581.50 (not including his own cash).
  2. In 2010 Q1, Team Curd raised $139,776.05.
  3. In 2010 Q2, Team Curd raised $100,361 (see pre-primary + post-primary reports).

Curd exceeded $100,000.00 for three quarters in a row. Team Johnson’s claim that Dusty is the only person in the history of our state to garner over $100,000 in campaign contributions in three consecutive quarters is false.

Press releases are like picnicking: you’ve got to watch what you’re eating. Otherwise, you don’t notice the bird poop on the potato salad.

17 Comments

  1. David Hubbard 2017-07-14 14:35

    Curd, another Legislator serving in direct violation of Article 3; Section 12 of our State Constitution, and appointed by a Governor who should know the laws of his own state.

  2. mike from iowa 2017-07-14 16:05

    As long as Curd is a subject, anyone know if he was fined for vicious dogs and/or sued for injuries. I have seen nothing on the internet about this.

  3. D-Mac 2017-07-14 16:07

    Nice catch Mr. H!
    Now we know why Sarah Huckabee is running the WH briefings; Spicey is busy writing Dusty Johnson’s releases.

  4. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2017-07-14 17:07

    All sorts of good blog posts to write on Curd himself. But Team Johnson screwed up this press release.

  5. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2017-07-14 17:32

    Moving from the White House to the Johnson campaign would be a relief for poor Sean. Stay tuned: with a primary coming, Team Dusty won’t let a simple, obvious error like this go uncorrected.

  6. Adam 2017-07-14 23:37

    Bird poop. Potatoe salad. Outstanding.

    Something about Dusty’s gross exaggeration: it looks pretty Trumpy… like Dusty is the greatest fundraiser in the history of this state, he’s record breaking, precedent setting, likable from every angle, and can leap tall buildings in a single bound. Haven’t you heard? Dusty Johnson is over 8 feet tall, can drink a gallon of whiskey and walk away unphased. He can even rewire a 4 horse trailer in 45 minutes flat. The man is a super hero, and he will fix Washington D.C. once and for all – so that it never needs fixin’ again.

    He might even be the single most interesting man in the world.

    ROFL copter

  7. Adam 2017-07-14 23:40

    Anybody catch the hidden Dan Quayle joke?!

  8. grudznick 2017-07-14 23:45

    Words matter, Mr. H. Just like when that young Mr. Leroy Jarvarius Ralph LaPlante fellow who said there were no people of color who ran for statewide office, and he was wrong. Wrong.

    I think this young woman (is she a friend of your hunting buddy Mr. S?) was saying nobody for the US House of Representatives.

    Did not Mr. Curd, he of the very impressive coif, run for the Senate? Mr. H, you have made many a “fax pass” or however you spell it in your king’s french, so get ready to be nit picked apart by Mr. PP who blasted a Homer off of Ms. Krebs and a ground-ruled double (grudznick ruled, ruling upheld) off of you.

    Mr. PP will nit pick you and the handful of libbie candidates apart, and he’s only a part-time English teacher from what I am told.

    I find Mr. Sibby a better grammarian than us both. We should take shame in that together. Shame.

  9. Adam 2017-07-14 23:54

    Yeah, Mr. H, all that king’s french you’ve been throwing around – all the time – like it’s nothing. It’s just reckless!

    LOL

  10. grudznick 2017-07-15 00:23

    The king of french would not say “LOL” like a teenage girl. He would just laugh at you, in french, not use poor English to mock you. Because he’s the king. Of french.

  11. Adam 2017-07-15 00:37

    It takes an insecure old white guy to take a versatile widely used relatively modern Internet acronym and associate it only with youngness and femininity.

  12. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2017-07-15 07:54

    Adam, I appreciate the superfluous e. I happen to think Dusty is smarter than Dan Quayle, which makes the incorrect exaggeration of his fundraising performance that much more surprising.

    Grudz, you keep getting JR LaPlante’s and PP’s words wrong. And now you try to spackle a whole new level of interpretation onto Dusty’s campaign manager’s plain words? Why is it so hard for people to look at the actual words placed on the record, in that case and here in Dusty’s case and acknowledge the Republican errors?

  13. Roger Corenlius 2017-07-15 09:46

    The difference between Pat Powers and Cory is that when Cory makes mistakes he acknowledges them, corrects them, and apologies for them.
    Powers makes mistakes daily and never corrects them or apologizes for them.

  14. D-mac 2017-07-16 13:57

    Looks like Dusty’s press release also leaves out an important stat. He self-funded his campaign with $7k of in-kind contributions which drops his actual total even lower. And no Erin/Spicey, it’s not even close to a record amount of self funding in a GOP primary. That record probably still goes to Curd. #dustoricnothistoric

  15. Lora Hubbel 2017-07-16 15:17

    Dave mentioned SD Constitution Article 3 section 12….didn’t Russ Olson jump from the senate to state appointed CEO of “Heartland power” in a matter of seconds (not waiting anywhere close to the year waiting period) ….and what IS Heartland Power anyway?

  16. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2017-07-16 15:38

    And if Curd holds the record, he lost! Does no one learn the lesson: raising the most money doesn’t guarantee the win!

    (Lora, Russ was free to go work for Heartland, as long as he didn’t lobby for them.)

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