At its regular noon meeting today in Sioux Falls, loyal DFP sponsor Minnehaha Democratic Forum is hosting a report on and discussion of activity within the state Democratic Party, which includes the resignation of SDDP executive director Dan Ahlers and the push by Democratic legislators to oust party chair Jennifer Slaight-Hansen.
Yes, after just two months on the job, which new SDDP chair Jennifer Slaight-Hansen said he’d be able to do really well with all the relationships he’s developed across the state, former legislator Ahlers apparently failed to build a good working relationship with the boss:
“For whatever reason, Dan and I did not develop a good working relationship,” Slaight-Hansen said.
She said it seemed like he resented her ideas for the party. She lives in Aberdeen, and was only in the Sioux Falls office a few times, but said they just didn’t click [Tom Lawrence, “SDDP Once Again in Chaos, as Executive Director Quits, Accuses Party Chair of Bad Behavior, Potential Violations,” South Dakota Standard, 2023.08.03].
In a July 28 letter sent to the party’s State Central Committee members and leaked to the press this week, Ahlers accuses Slaight-Hansen of (in ascending order of importance)—
- cussing,
- being grouchy and bossy,
- proposing actions that would violate Federal Election Commission rules,
- firing staff and saddling Ahlers with more work,
- violating the party constitution, and
- standing in the way of meaningful change.
Slaight-Hansen says Ahlers is “a wonderful person” and she wanted him to stay. She downplays the cussing and the FEC-violation allegations (note that both she and Ahlers say she floated a fundraising idea but backed off when it became clear the plan would violate the law; had she actually done it, I’d place that right behind blocking change in importance). The chair admits hiring two interns without executive board approval, a violation of the party constitution.
Ahlers wasn’t the first party member unhappy with Slaight-Hansen’s leadership. The leakage of his July 28 resignation appears to have prompted the leakage of a July 22 letter from House Minority Leader Oren Lesmeister and Senate Minority leader Reynold Nesiba calling for Slaight-Hansen’s resignation. Lesmeister and Neisba light into Slaight-Hansen for the unauthorized hiring as well as for meddling in personnel decisions that are the proper purview of the executive director. They also criticize the chair for failing to communicate with Legislative Democrats:
Lesmeister and Nesiba demanded Slaight-Hansen’s resignation by July 31. Slaight-Hansen did not resign. So did the Minnehaha and Lincoln county party leaders in a July 24 letter to Slaight-Hansen:
“Given the lost confidence of our statewide legislative caucuses — the only currently elected Democratic leaders serving our state — and in additional, significant amount of concerns raised by our constituents about your behavior in both formal and informal representation of the South Dakota Democratic Party, we urge you to pay heed to the calls made by our elected officials and step down on or before July 31,” according to a letter from the Minnehaha and Lincoln county parties reviewed Tuesday by the Argus Leader [Annie Todd, “SD Democratic Party Demands Recall Election of Chairwoman After Hostile Workplace Allegations,” Sioux Falls Argus Leader, 2023.08.03].
The Legislative caucus and the Sioux Falls-metro party honchos demanded Slaight-Hansen’s resignation by Monday, July 31. Slaight-Hansen did not comply. Ahlers’s resignation was leaked to the press and made public August 2. Slaight-Hansen still will not step down, so it sounds like the party will call a recall election. Rapid City Democratic leader Annie Bachand sounds like she’s cool with that:
Annie Bachand, chair of the Pennington County Democrats, told KELOLAND News she met with Slaight-Hansen this week. Bachand said Slaight-Hansen told her she won’t resign unless she’s voted out.
In this case, “voted out” means collecting petition signatures from 50% of the party’s state central committee to call a special meeting where two-thirds of the party could vote to remove her from her position.
“This has really unified the party. The party is unified on how to move forward on this,” Bachand said [Eric Mayer, “South Dakota Democrats Working to Recall Party Chair,” KELO-TV, 2023.08.03].
Back in February, Democratic leaders elected Slaight-Hansen with 93% of the vote over Sioux Falls activist John Cunningham, who has long expressed his interest in and detailed plan for leading the Democrats out of their internal bickering and statewide impotence. Whatever leadership South Dakota Democrats decide they want now, the party needs to find a way to transfer the vigor with which it prosecutes its internal drama over who gets to sit in which chair and unify around a plan to win elections and leaders and candidates to execute that plan.
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– AI Generated
Time to pull the plug on the Democrat Poarty in SD.
Also, Mr. Ahlers seems a bit of an overly sensitive fellow. Harden up, Mr. Ahlers.
Sounds like your typical petty but toxic office place behavior. The SDDP really and I mean really needs to grow a pair if they want to survive. I would suggest invitiing DFL leaders from MN to come over for major leadership educational training. The SDDP is lost, has been for years, and in badly need of an overhaul. They have tried to do this on their own but it just isn’t working. I’m sensing the very conservative wing of the SDDP is deadly afraid of the one or two of the young progressive wing members who try to come in to address problems. The generational divide is very real in any setting you go, so don’t take this to heart, boomer conservative Dems, but there is a time when the torch needs to be passed to the young ‘uns.
Having the DFL come in to light a spark on your dying party could be just the fire your party needs. Trust me, there are compassionate DFL leaders full of creative energy that would volunteer to step in to help give advice on where to go and what to start with to build a base. I am serious about this, email or call me if any SD Dem is interested and I will get in tough with you. Cory has my email and number.
The DFL just came off one of their most successful years ever with an array of new progressive laws from paid Family Medical Leave for all MN workers, a voting rights bill, universal free school lunches, cannabis legalization, free college tuition. All of this was passed with a very slim majority in the Senate. Many moderate republicans voted on our side with these bills. Small business owners are getting behind the importance of issues like paid family leave, as they understand to get productive happy employees you need to give them time off for family matters. (trust me, I was amazed to see small business owners lobbying for paid family leave!).
The DFL needs to speak on their story of success to the dying SDDP, not to gloat but to build a glimmer of hope. :)
There were these sorts of disagreements and personality conflicts in the Democratic Party when they held almost half the seats in the Senate and had a good chunk of the House seats. And there have been times when the Democrats in South Dakota were in worse shape. Democrats are competitive in fewer districts now partly because of decades of gerrymandering, but you have to face reality that over the history of South Dakota, the Republican Party has been the dominant party. Partly that’s because they have some issues that resonate with a large population base. Partly that’s because they have been better able to paper over their dysfunction.
I was never that active in the Democratic Party. I volunteered on campaigns, but I was more issue oriented. It didn’t matter to me what letter you identified yourself by, as long as you voted right on the issues. I thought it was a mistake to have one office in Sioux Falls, but that’s about as far as my input went on Democratic Party matters.
Can’t she just be fired or impeached?
Jerry – An organized Party (even the Democrats) must function within a structure and abide by its constitution. There is a process stipulated in the constitution so no – a Chair cannot simply “be fired or impeached”.
Thanks, I guess that is why the number of Independents is on the rise.
Gosh. The state Democrat Party didn’t even give us a chance to be disgusted again with its lazy and pathetic recruitment of way, way too few legislative candidates before the party imploded. Two months. Bang! And now the circular firing squad of dimwits is being called in writing.
Too bad the party is so broke. They can’t afford the bullets for the circular firing squad.
The party rolled over and died a few cycles ago. Apparently the remaining 11 (out of 105 House and Senate seats fer goshsakes!!!) Democrat legislators have decided they’ve had too much success hiding in the weeds and not standing for anything in Pierre. They made a one-day disastrous news story turn into a two- or more-day disastrous news story. Congratulations for hitting bottom, folks!
https://dfldebrief.buzzsprout.com/
I highly recommend listening to The MN Debrief a DFL podcast that goes into behind the scenes insight and analysis on state politics. MN has been closely watched this year nationally with its progressive successful passage of new state laws. The Paid Family Leave podcast breaks down the new law and reproductive rights one year after Roe and Keith Ellison’s new book breaking the wheel on police brutality are especially informative. It might cheer depressed SD Dems up a bit that at least their beloved state next door is winning with progressive policies.
I meet a lot of South Dakotans that are registered DFL voters. They feel your pain.
That an Earth hater like grud would offer advice to the SDDP is inane in its impertinence. Dan Ahlers is a DINO at best and a mansplainer at worst. If he doesn’t know how to negotiate with a progressive he was I’ll-suited for the position anyway and should have butt out before now.
That typo actually makes sense.
Mr. Ahlers ran a nondescript even pitiful campaign in 2020 over a Republican who said he could raise $9 million but has gathered a tiny fraction of that. Embarrassing is the kindest thing to say about Dan.
So, not running someone, anyone, against Republican At-large US Representative Howdy Doody Dusty Johnson in 2020 and again in 2022 are more embarrassments for the South Dakota Democratic Party who hasn’t won a statewide race since 2008.
Johnson has never stopped raising money so the SDDP needs to hound the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for cash and start running opposition ads on every commercial radio station in South Dakota. My party can recruit some respected Democrats to record radio spots then bombard the airwaves paving the way to 2024.
Johnson needs to be held accountable for coddling a would be dictator and building a war chest on the Big Lie, for his failures to support Medicaid, for voting against marriage, for not moving on immigration reform and for his culpability in driving talent from South Dakota. But he certainly knows which side of his bread gets buttered so the extreme white wing of the Republican Party owns him lock, stock and schlock. Johnson went from being a likable moderate to becoming just another tool of the oligarchs who hoard trillions in South Dakota’s banks and trusts because, hey, that’s where the money is.
When a handful of Republicans need socialized freight rail to ship subsidized grain Howdy Doody Dusty is all aboard but when thousands need passenger rail he’s ambivalent then votes against the Earth and for the Trump agenda without remorse. He wasn’t duped by Maria Butina, he was an accomplice.
If Professor Nesiba thinks so highly of himself he should put on his best class and announce for the seat Dusty Johnson simply cuts the cheese into.
You miserable bastards.
Jerry, though either of the two parties can be seen as having sorts of dysfunction (broken parts), independents are entirely nonfunctional (no parts at all).
The addition of Dan Ahlers was an attempt to dilute the progressive message most South Dakota Democrats hope to convey and anything else is capitulation to the hate the SDGOP heaps on voters.
grdumz, remember who is righting the sinking ship after Putin’s Puppet and the GOP sacked the nation’s capitol. The cost to greater society and taxpayers, because of your ilks’ mindless drivel will continue for some time. But Dems will and are shooting the skunks out from under the Republican shed.
You don’t have a 1st amendment right to burn it all down.
The “II will not do anything that will jeopardize my integrity or that of the Democratic Party” quote from Ahlers would have landed better had he not misappropriated SDDP letterhead and the SDDP organizational list to attack and undermine the duly elected Chair. And he defamed her personally. In most organizations the discovery of that sort of swindling gets you fired and escorted from the premises. The defamation should earn Ahlers a round of civil litigation.
I am a registered Democrat in Sioux Falls District 10. II view the request of the caucus for the Chair to resign as an attempt to undermine a free and fair election conducted by the SDDP Central Committee.
Jenny mentions the generational divide. Funny—Slaight-Hansen and Ahlers appear to be from the same generation; is one more attuned to the new generation than the other?
Practically speaking, what could we do to open the door for the Minnesota DFL to come colonize our state and turn out the liberal vote? Would the DFL have anything to gain from building a new SD liberal party? Arguably, a weak SDDP serves MN DFL interests, since the perpetuation of South Dakota’s one-party regime ensures the continued migration of hundreds, maybe thousands of liberal South Dakotans to Minnesota’s voting rolls every year.
The persistence of Dan Ahlers’s picture and bio on the SDDP Staff webpage signal either (a) a soft insurrectionist declaration by staff in support of Ahlers’s return and against the rule of Slaight-Hansen or (b) the inability of the SDDP to conduct basic day-to-day business.
No, no, no Cory – that is not the way a good wholesome DFLer thinks. We want every state to be on the side of working class people. The DFL is winning in MN because we want every person to succeed, to have a shot at the ‘American Dream’. The DFL is heartbroken that SD has turned into such a deep red, anti-LGBTQ2 state that has taken away women’s right to choose.
The DFL would start with Sioux Falls from the grassroots level. It is glaringly apparent that a city with over 200,000 people and people from all walks of life has been neglected for years by the SDDP.
Rochester MN was red for decades until the early 2000s when young millenials came in and did an overhaul and now is very competitive in state races beating GOP incumbents in heavily favored seats. Rochester played an important part in flipping the Senate blue. How was it done, DFLers worked tirelessly recruiting educated and talented people to run and registering people to vote.
Sioux Falls is where you need to start and I’ve been trying to say that for years. You have the people there, go and wake them up!
“A doctor tells a woman she only has six months to live so the doc tells her to marry an economist and move to South Dakota so it will feel like an eternity.”
-Garrison Keillor
I am not seeing a generational divide. I see a split between D’s who were active in the SDDP during periods of electoral success and D’s who became active following 2010. There are older folks who are now active that didn’t vote or were not involved earlier that have no concept of the SDDP as anything other than a a super-minority. They have a vague recollection of the Daschle – Johnson – Herseth federal delegation, but no experience with a winning campaign. If you define success down – as in recruiting candidates rather than recruiting candidates who win elections, they have been successful..
I grow tired of hearing the same shpeal that the Party is dead, incapable, etc. from people I know have not been involved or understand the machinery in any way, shape, or form for some time.
It’s cool to say “the Party is inept” when you neither know the inside nor understand what is actually happening. A Party Chair has violated the bylaws of the Party time and again. The leadership within the Party acted to resurrect this within a few months rather than waiting for another cycle to deal with this.
Do you want the Party to actually succeed and build its organizational structure, or do you want to have another reason for you to be “too cool for school” and remain uninvolved?
It’s not a trick question. But it is important to remember that there is a new generation in the leadership cogs that won’t accept the same behavior or beliefs that failed to serve the Party over the past 20 years. If it makes you think it’s a circular firing squad, you’re entitled to your opinion or your feeling of how the Party has operated. Personally, I can tell you a different story: the Party is coming to agreement on what will make it successful. And it isn’t AI-generated.
That’s a sign of hope.
PS: No, this isn’t an attempt to subvert an election, Monty. The Chair decided weeks ago to violate the State Constitution multiple times over. That was the content of Sen. Nesiba and Rep. Lesmeister’s request of the Chair, as well as Minnehaha, Lincoln, and Pennington Counties.
County Leader, I don’t question the sincerity, enthusiasm, unity, or the value of hope. I do question the grasp of electoral math. Historically, because of increased R turnout in presidential election cycles, SD R’s gain seats in the legislature. That’s not a trend that’s likely to ease, so the timeliness argument about when to “resurrect” is not particularly important. Whoever is in charges of the SDDP, they’re likely to lose seats.
Any “new generation” of leaders should keep in mind that voters over 55 are most likely to vote and you have to drag younger voters to the polls. Yes, youth turnout is better than it used to be in some places, but it takes $$$ to get it done. If voters in SF under 30 turned out to vote, we might have a different Mayor. They didn’t – we don’t.
The Party doesn’t come to an “agreement” on success, registered voters determine success and registration is decidedly not Democratic.
And as for my comment on the current legislators who added their support to what I referred to as undermining an election – subvert was your choice of words – I’m not changing my registration or trying to round up a posse to go after them. I will vote for the D candidate on my ballot. Questionable judgment in picking public fights – notwithstanding.
The Democratic Party must have a mandate that its members have to pose in public pissing on their shoes.