My Republican neighbors Russell Olson and Aaron Lorenzen have a PAC, Leading South Dakota. They report collecting $3,000 over the last five months and spending over $6,400 to help Republican candidates. Olson and Lorenzen spend some money locally: Olson’s District 8 GOP pals Senator Jordan Youngberg, Rep. Marli Wiese, and House candidate Randy Gross get some money (rookie Senator Youngberg gets $2,000, while the Housers get $500 each), while Lorenzen himself takes $250 out for his own Faulk County Commission campaign. Russ sends another $250 to his old Madison friend Deb Peters’s PAC. They also grease their statewide candidates: $1,000 for Kristi Noem (to make up for how stingy Russ and his fellow Madison movers and shakers were toward her during the primary), $500 for Dusty Johnson, and $250 for the incompetent Jason Ravnsborg (Russ, I thought you were smarter than that).
But my Republican neighbors may have missed a few details. Another PAC, the Oscar Anderson South Dakota Freedom Fund, reports giving Leading South Dakota PAC $3,000 during the pre-general reporting period. Russ and Aaron report no income from Oscar ASDFF. And Russ’s friend Deb doesn’t mention getting any money from Leading South Dakota PAC.
I don’t want to be too hard on Russ and Aaron or Oscar and Deb. Campaign finance is complicated; heck, even I missed a line on my spreadsheet and had to file an amendment. But it seems worth remembering that, back in 2012, Russ Olson called people who violated one tiny provision of campaign finance law “terrorists” and made sure at least one such “terrorist” paid in court for that violation.
Russ, Aaron, I don’t think you are terrorists. You just need to get together with Deb and Oscar (Or, well, I guess the Oscar thing is run by Jill Bockorny in Sioux Falls), check your check stubs, and file an amendment. SDCL 12-27-27 gives you plenty of time.
“Russ Olson called people who violated one tiny provision of campaign finance law “terrorists” and made sure at least one such “terrorist” paid in court for that violation.”
Oh, I’m sure they’re not terrorists because they’ve clearly committed the criminal act of violating the law regarding campaign financing and I’ll bet they all lay claim to being Law & Order types. Most of all, it’s not a problem because they are part of the uber corrupt SDGOP and the Rule of Law is for the peons. In the USA and definitely in SD, IOKIYAR.
Pootiepublicans* are apparently dirty by nature. This one is running for Congress in Minnesota’s District 8, far northeast Minn. He cheated by using his county commissioner email for political campaign purposes.
The Clean Democratic opponent is Joe Radinovich.
*Not all repubs are Pootiepublicans, but most are.
Oh, Debbo, don’t you want to be generous and give them seven days to file their amendment, now that I’ve so helpfully pointed out the discrepancies?
I want them to be hoisted by their own petards… all the way to the top.