Speaking of unnecessary campaign finance complication, Rhonda Milstead of Hartford is unnecessarily complicating her campaign in favor of Amendment L, her Republican friends’ latest effort to make it harder for South Dakotans to change the state constitution.
In September, Milstead organized Save Our South Dakota Constitution to raise money in support of the Legislature’s attempt to require a 60% statewide vote to pass constitutional amendments. On October 16, Milstead reported raising $47,458.80 to promote minority rule. About 5% of that income, $2,500, came from an entity called South Dakotans for a Secure Constitution. An “entity”—lengthily defined in SDCL 12-27-1 but essentially a business, non-profit, union, or other such org—has to file a ballot question contribution statement listing its owners or directors. Milstead filed such a BQCS indicating that she is the sole owner/director of South Dakotans for a Secure Constitution.
Milstead incorporated this nonprofit in June 2025, three months after the Legislature placed the 60% vote threshold on the 2026 ballot, and named herself a director along with fellow former legislator Marli Wiese of Madison and Brad Wheeler of Lemmon. The non-profit’s June 2026 annual report lists Milstead as president and Wiese as treasurer.
Other than its $2,500 contribution to Milstead’s ballot question committee, I can’t find any indication online of activity from Milstead’s South Dakotans for a Secure Constitution “entity”. If South Dakotans for a Secure Constitution exists solely to back Amendment L, why form it at all? Why not just handle all of the L-yea fundraising and spending through one checkbook, the Save Our South Dakota Constitution ballot question checkbook?
An entity separate from the ballot question committee does offer the advantage of keeping big donors anonymous, but if the entity is only providing 5% of the campaign’s pre-general funding and none of the additional $62K from Senator Thune and other prominent Republican outfits reported on supplementals since October 19, anonymizing that meager $2.5K seems hardly worth the effort. And who would want to hide that money? Throwing money behind Amendment L would only boost one’s standing in the eyes of South Dakota’s one-party regime.
On top of all that, filing papers for non-profits and other “entities” costs money. $150 to incorporate, $55 for each annual report—why throw that money away on the Secretary of State when you can organize a campaign committee and file all the pre-general and supplemental reports you want for free?! The $205 you’ve spent filing your non-profit papers with Secretary of State Monae Johnson could have bought a whole bucket of “Minority RuLe is CooL!” buttons!
Whatever shell game Milstead may be playing with her South Dakotans for a Secure Constitution, there’s not much pea under that shell.