Every candidate loves free publicity. A Rounds staffer running for Legislature in Sioux Falls gets First National Bank to pay for his free publicity the week before the election.
Tyler Tordsen directs Senator M. Michael Rounds’s southeast office and handles tribal affairs. The Republican is also running for District 14 House in southeastern Sioux Falls (East 18th Street on the north, South Veterans Parkway on the east, East 57th Street on the south, and the BIg Sioux River on the west) with Republican incumbent Rep. Taylor Rehfeldt and against Democratic challengers Mike Huber and Wendy Mamer.
First National Bank features Tyler and his wife Erika on the October episode of its money management podcast Common Cents in the Middle™. First National Bank considers the Tordsens’ tale of tight family budgets so compelling that they splash the candidate and his wife on the bank homepage:
…and pays Jodi Schwan to post the video and transcript of the Tordsens’ interview on Sioux Falls Business.
Tordsen does not list this free publicity from First National Bank as an in-kind donation on his pre-general campaign finance report. However, he does list FNBSF CEO Christopher Eckstrum has one of his $250 donors on his pre-primary report.
Candidate Tordsen says families need “a lot of communication, a lot of transparency” and should pay off their car loans and mortgage.
I really do not like the trend of turning nouns into verbs for cutesy points. How we money? Blech.
Thanks for the additional coverage Corey! :) As I’m sure you realize, I joined this respected podcast alongside my wife in our personal capacities and not as a candidate or as a congressional staffer. Hopefully you gave it a listen and learned something too.
In the spirit of “transparency and good communication,” we have good candidates in D14 who have good things going on in their careers and personal lives too. I bet, in fact I know, that all four of us house candidates have been included in podcasts, radio programs, television stories, and magazines for our thoughts and efforts in spaces outside of just being candidates. I know my three friendly competitors didn’t list every feature on their CFR either because they don’t need to.
First, Adolf Hitler. Then, Eric Trump, Richard Spencer, Aaron Aylward, and now Tyler Tordsen all sporting the same haircut. Isn’t it awkward for a grown man in America to ask his barber to fix him up with ‘the Hitler youth’? Or perhaps they just request ‘the fashy’. I am so proud and thankful my grandpa, aka the original Antifa, annihilated that haircut in WWII.
Can’t wait to wake up on Nov. 9th, hop on DFP, skim through the election victories, and send my grandpa a reassuring, “Whooped ‘em again, Josey”.
Don’t forget the free pub that candidate Greg Jamison is getting for the Medicaid expansion ads.
Scott, I’d put Jamison’s free publicity in the Medicaid expansion ads in a separate category. I’ve always said candidates should take advantage of ballot measures to educate the public about important policy issues, to drive conversations toward policy rather than personality and partisanship, and to promote voter turnout. If Jamison’s effort on Amendment D also gets his name and face in front of voters, well, that’s earned gravy. Jamison is actually taking a risk that he might turn off some of the Republican base in District 12: those anti-Obamacare folks may not vote for Democrats Erin Royer and Kristin Hayward, but they may leave Jamison’s oval blank and cost him votes.
Tordsen’s free publicity isn’t coming from taking a brave stand on a policy issue. Tordsen is getting free fluff from a corporate interest that is buying space for his name and face in a local news outlet.
Going back a few years, SDN had Vernon Brown doing voiceovers for their commercials while he was running for city office.
Extreme Mr. Smith is getting a lot of free air time courtesy of Governor Noem. I wonder if he has to list those items.