In a quirk of campaign finance law, we get a few reports on contributions to candidates in the last few days before we get their reports on contributions over the past few months.
SDCL 12-27-21.1 and 12-27-22 require that candidates running for statewide office file pre-general reports detailing all the money they’ve raised and spent since the June primary “through and including twenty days prior to the election date”. Those reports of all campaign finance activity through (this year) October 14 are due today, October 19.
SDCL 12-27-28 requires that candidates file supplemental reports to make public any donations of $500 or more received less than 20 days before the election. Those supplementals have to be filed within 48 hours of receipt of those large donations.
Those laws mean that Dan Ahlers, whose Democratic gubernatorial campaign received six $500+ donations (all from South Dakotans) on October 16 had to file a supplemental report alerting us to those donations by October 18, while his report of the great gobs (right, Dan?) of money he took in all summer and the beginning of fall isn’t due until October 19. Since October 18 was a Sunday, Ahlers could have waited until today to file his supplemental, but as a cautious and well-organized Democrat, Ahlers submitted that first pre-general supp on Saturday, October 17.
The same is true for Democrat Terrence Davis, who’s still working on his full pre-general report (I can’t wait to see Monae Johnson’s personal check!) but yesterday filed a supplemental listing three $500 donations (from Custer, Fort Pierre, and St. Cloud, Minnesota) received… oh, wait: he puts “9/17/2026” as the date of those contributions. I suspect he meant 10/17, but, um, Terrence? Shouldn’t our next Secretary of State attend keenly to detail on reports squarely within the office’s bailiwick?
Republican candidate for Public Utilities Commission Don Haggar has a supp up before his pre-general report, showing three big donations over the weekend (two from other guys with the last name Haggar) totaling $3,600.
My quick scan of the Secretary of State’s list of active statewide candidate committees indicates the only folks who’ve filed full pre-general reports are Democratic candidates Frank Kloucek for PUC ($37,981.57 raised, $23,585.08 spent) and Tom Cool for Auditor ($4,350.00 raised, $3,882.82 spent). Stay tuned for the flood of filings today to see how much Rhoden, Ahlers, and everyone else running for big offices in Pierre has raised and spent and has left to burn for the general election!