On WNAX yesterday I heard an ad warning voters not to fall for “Dustybots”, fake conservative Legislative candidates backed by Dusty Johnson to be his yes-men and -women in Pierre when he becomes Governor. The ad didn’t name any of these Legislative candidates—a real failure of advertising—and it didn’t endorse any opposing candidates for Governor, but it did point listeners to Dustybots.org to get a list of these nefarious RINOs.
Dustybots.org forwards to NonsenseSD.org, a website paid for by Concerned Citizens of South Dakota, a group founded by anti-pot right-wingnut and current District 28B Representative Travis Ismay to oppose every ballot measure but Amendment F (Medicaid work requirement) in 2024. NonsenseSD.org lists 84 Republican Legislative “liberal-policy-lovin’ candidates” who “put South Dakotans last… and their allegiance to Dusty Johnson first.”
Of those 84, 69 received donations of $500 or $250 this year from DustyPAC, Johnson’s political action committee. That’s every Legislative candidate backed by Johnson except one, Jon Nelson for District 8 House. Through his PAC, Johnson has given $25,750 to 70 Legislative candidates, including $1,750 on five candidates who face no opponents and thus automatically take seats in the 2027 Legislature— Senators Paul Miskimins, Tim Reed, Michael Rohl, and Brandon Wipf and Representive-technically-but-not-actually-elect Terry Sabers.
Among the 14 Republicans included on the list who have not received DustyPAC money are Legislative veterans Gary Cammack, Randy Deibert, Mike Derby, Mary Fitzgerald, Jack Kolbeck, and Ryan Maher, and Tim Rounds. Maher’s inclusion is particularly noteworthy, since he just gave Concerned Citizens for South Dakota $100, helping fund their $2,000 radio ad campaign.
I reject the notion that Dusty Johnson or any candidate he’s backing is a liberal in GOP clothing. I also note that Johnson’s widespread Legislative donations are relatively small within each campaign. For example, in the hotly contested five-way District 24 House primary, DustyPAC’s $500 to former Pierre mayor and Cabinet fixture Laurie Gill is smaller than the $1,000 checks Gill has received from Dennis and Linda Daugaard, Bob and Carokyn Perry, and Kevin Schieffer, as well as donations of $1,000 from outgoing Rep. Will Mortenson’s PAC, $2,000 from the SD Realtors PAC, and $3,000 from Russ Olson’s Leading SD PAC (which, interestingly, has given $1,000 donations to four other legislators whom DustyPAC has funded in lesser amounts but has also given $2,000 to Larry Rhoden’s gubernatorial campaign, not Dusty’s). If Dusty is trying to buy bot-legislators, he getting outbid by a lot of other Republican power players.
But Dusty’s largesse is good political strategy. His campaign has taken the time to study the 168 Republicans running for Legislature and identify 70—47 in the House, 23 in the Senate—who he thinks would support his governing agenda. Johnson is thus contributing more broadly to the visibility and strength of his party. Toby Doeden is burning up cash tearing down his opponents in the gubernatorial race, but he’s not making any comparable investment in building the party or a stronger Legislature. The Rhoden-associated Strong Safe and Free PAC has put all of its cash into Rhoden’s campaign and made no contributions to any other candidates, Legislative or otherwise.
Dusty Johnson isn’t programming RINO-bots. He’s doing what a powerhouse candidate should do: use his superior fundraising power to lift lots of boats in his party. If Concerned Citizens for South Dakota were really concerned, they’d be doing the same thing, fundraising to build real campaigns for candidates they like rather than just snark-slagging fellow Republicans and one of their own donors.