Once again, Representative Larry Rhoden breaks the law and faces no apparent risk of punishment.
Seth Tupper reports that Larry Rhoden waited over two months after Kristi Noem picked him to be her hunky ticket honey to file his organizing papers for his lieutenant governor campaign committee. State law (SDCL 12-27-3) and the letter Secretary of State Shantel Krebs sent Rhoden just two days after his nomination—a letter just like the one Rhoden and every other then-declared Legislative candidate received back in spring—say Rhoden had to file that statement of organization no later than fifteen days after he became a candidate. That due date would have been July 9.
Rhoden filed his statement of organization on August 29.
This violation of state campaign finance law doesn’t invalidate Rhoden’s candidacy. It does carry a maximum $500 fine and 30 days in county jail.
Lock him up!
Kristi Noem didn’t do anything wrong here, but neither did Hillary Clinton, and Kristi just looks great next Larry in outfit, so lock her up, too!
But we can’t count on the state to enforce the law on Rhoden for his campaign finance gaffe any more than we could count on the police to bust Rhoden’s chops for pulling a false alarm in the Capitol last year. Rhoden has undeniably broken the law, but no one’s going to arrest him:
Krebs said her office has no authority to file a criminal complaint, but she said a citizen or the state’s attorney of Hughes County — which is home to the capital city of Pierre — could do so.
Hughes County State’s Attorney Roxanne Hammond said she generally does not file complaints herself without an investigation by law enforcement. She said any citizen could file a complaint with a law enforcement agency such as the Pierre Police Department or Hughes County Sheriff’s Office, which could then investigate and send a report for her consideration [Seth Tupper, “Noem’s Running Mate Violated Campaign Finance Law,” Rapid City Journal, 2018.08.31].
This big galoot keeps breaking the law, but hey, he’s an important Republican, so no cuffin’ or stuffin’.
But as a man of conscience, Rhoden could make this up to all of us. When he joins Noem for their special Trumpa-palooza in Sioux Falls next Friday, he could open the event to the public and pay for the first 50 photos with the Kristi-Don! That’s only a quarter-million; Kristi’s PAC could spot him that cash!
Or Larry could just agree to open every campaign event with his Johnny Cash impression.
Pulling a fire alarm? Forgetting important jobs? Might be early onset. A voluntary disclosure of medical records and a statement from a non partisan physician could be in order.
I thought this was a real story, but after reading it, I realize it is some far left writers attempt at propaganda in the style of the Daily Mail. Please hire some real journalists!
Cory writes:
But the entire Constitution Party of South Dakota can be obliterated because Joel Bergan mistakenly had Lora Hubbel file its convention notice rather than filing it himself.
If the Libertarian candidate for lieutenant governor had committed Rhoden’s oversight, Republican state chair and notorious legal bully Dan Lederman would have seen to it that his absolute minimum penalty was getting pounded into the ground with attorney fees.
lock them up, lock them up, lock them up, lock them up, lock them up, lock them up, lock them up, lock them up, lock them up, lock them up, lock them up, lock them up,lock them up, lock them up, lock them up, lock them up, lock them up, lock them up, lock them up, lock them up, lock them up, lock them up, lock them up, lock them up,
So, how do you file a complaint?
Or he could pay the $500 fine.
Cannot fix stupid and hopefully, not a lot will vote for stupidity
Larry and Lederman apparently have Russpublican immunity in SoDak. Pootie takes care of his boys. (But not his girls, Buttina)
I’m sorry, Rhonda. Please point out which statements I made that are false, and I will correct them.
$500 fine? Not good enough, Anne. A campaign that can get $5,000 for one measly picture won’t feel that punishment. A few days in jail, taking the candidate off the campaign trail, would be felt much more keenly and make clear that South Dakota takes campaign finance seriously.
South Dakota takes campaign finance law seriously—now there’s some propaganda fitting Rhonda’s fake-news bill!
[Oh, darn: too bad “Rhonda” included a fake e-mail address with “her” comment. “She” must not have wanted to stick around and engage in an honest conversation. “She” just wanted to drop in a drive-by “fake-news” allegation near the top of the thread to sow disagreement and undermined public trust in factual reporting… a standard tactic, it seems, of the Trump/Putin trolls.
“Rhonda” won’t do it, but I invite anyone else here to point to any statement in the original post that is inaccurate.
Russian/republican bots go to great lengths to bring chaos to accurate reporting. Seth Tupper at the Rapid City Journal had a great piece on this as you do Cory. Putin hates Democracy while he lines his pockets from it.
They scoffed when we said South Dakota is full of Russian influencers. Who’s laughing now, Dusty Johnson?
Republicans seems to think that laws don’t apply to them. Due dates don’t matter. That talking the talk, and walking the walk —- is just a theory.
If this is how they perform on the minor things, then we are getting a preview of how they will behave on other things.
This is a pattern of behavior. Corruption continuing in Pierre because they aren’t held accountable. Because this state is one party rule and people haven’t held those folks accountable, is the reason this type of behavior continues. South Dakotans can make a change in this cycle of corruption, and stop the hamster wheel from rotating.
Did all the decent Republicans capable of admiration of adherence to principle die with John McCain? I used to think we had some in this state of SD that had backbone to do the ‘right thing’ not ‘party thing’ and had a quest for truth and fair play–but I am not seeing any now! Rhoden needs to be locked up; full 29 days (i day off good behavior) to get their attention…
Jake, I’m afraid they did. If you want decency in government, this year, you vote Democratic.
Rhonda, this is commentary on a story that received a straight-reporting treatment: https://rapidcityjournal.com/news/local/noem-s-running-mate-violated-campaign-finance-law/article_d4f95b8b-3485-5ae8-bf9a-f77a6b5c6213.html.
Jerry, anyone can file a complaint! Here’s how, straight from the SDSoS: https://sdsos.gov/elections-voting/campaign-finance/campaign-finance-complaint-procedure.aspx
It seems silly to me that a Lt. Gov. candidate has to file organizing papers separate from the Gov. candidate. The #2 person doesn’t run separately or independently from the top of the ticket. There’s one law that maybe should be changed to put the onus on the Governor candidate’s campaign to file whatever paperwork is necessary for his/her running mate.
This post could use a copy editor, but the content itself is great:
http://theconstantcommoner.blogspot.com/2018/09/are-south-dakota-republicans-hypocrites.html
how did russell get back on the ballot ?shame on sd.
Ror makes a reasonable point. LG is not a separate campaign from the Big G. All this campaign finance quirk does is allow gubernatorial campaigns to effectively double the caps on contributions to a gubernatorial campaign. Donors who’ve already given Kristi to $4K max this year can now dump another $4K max on Larry, even though Kristi’s campaign and Larry’s campaign are one and the same.
But I’m curious, Ror: how would we write that concept into statute? Rhoden is a candidate for a separate office. Would we have to write an exception, saying that other CF statutes don’t apply to nominees for LG and that contributions to an LG candidate count toward the Big G’s caps? Would we need any special language to govern independent communications attacking an LG candidate?
Kurt, that’s a really good point about SDGOP Chairman Dan Lederman’s statement that “laws matter.” You should remind voters of that statement at every campaign stop you make.
Another one hundred reasons we need to vote for Amendment “W” in November. We need an Independent Ethics Commission; we need campaign reform; we need Government to be more open and transparent; we need State Government that is by the people, for the people, and of the people. I AM GETTING TIRED OF THE PERPETRATOR’S INVESTIGATING (I mean protecting themselves & those perpetrators) themselves and sweeping all of their illegal actions under the rug. POWER CORRUPTS AND ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY. It is hard to believe the people of S.D. stand idly by to these questionable actions. LOOK WHAT THE MAJORITY PARTY DID TO ANNETTE BOSWORTH, which pales their own actions.
We can make the case for passing Amendment W without minimizing Annette Bosworth’s felonies, lies, and Trumpism.