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Libertarians Making No Money, No News in South Dakota

Libertarians and schadenfreudists gloated in August about fielding six candidates for statewide office compared to the Democrats' three. Let us catch up with those six Libertarians and their march toward zero.

The Libertarians' nominee for Public Utilities Commissioner, Ryan Gaddy, failed to register as a Libertarian in time to make the ballot. In August, Secretary of State Jason Gant enforced state law and refused to place Gaddy on the ballot. A federal judge upheld Gant's refusal. Gaddy is now relegated to shouting at other candidates from the sidewalk (which isn't a bad use of Gaddy's time and talents, but it's not building the Libertarian Party).

Libertarian candidate for Commissioner of School and Public Lands John English came out sounding pretty smart. He rejected the Libertarian Party-building suggestion from journalist Todd Epp to eliminate the Office of School and Public Lands and instead campaigned along revenue-boosting, environment-protecting lines espoused by his Republican opponent Ryan Brunner. English spent $405.87 of his own money on a website, at least one campaign shirt, and some mailing and called it quits. English terminated his campaign on September 13, the same day he submitted his late statement of organization.

Libertarian Secretary of State candidate Emmett Reistroffer's pre-general report shows no contributions. Reistroffer has spent $131.55 printing campaign materials. He probably had to spend more than that getting his car out of impound. Reistroffer's arrest for unlawful occupancy earned Libertarians their only headlines in the South Dakota press during the last two months.

Ken Santema has raised no money and spent no money on his Libertarian campaign for state treasurer. Santema is having more fun and having more impact for his conservative ideals working dollars for Republicans. He is treasurer for Aberdeen neighbor Rich Hilgemann's Prairie Country PAC, which so far has funneled $400 to Rep. Dan Kaiser's re-election campaign. There's more gravy where that came from: on Thursday, Prairie Country PAC received $3,738.40 from the Brown County GOP and $3,392.00 from the radical South Dakota Gun Owners, who make the NRA look like the PTA (read more on SDGO's rabid gun whackiness here, here, and here).

Like Santema, Libertarian state auditor candidate Kurt Evans rolls goose eggs on his pre-general report. No money in, no money out.

Chad Haber, Libertarian candidate for attorney general, the position responsible for upholding and enforcing all of South Dakota's laws, does not have a pre-general campaign finance report available online. Per state law, pre-general reports had to be received by the Secretary of State by 5 p.m. Friday, October 24. Haber has evidently run out of money to pay his media flack, who hasn't mentioned Haber on his blog for weeks and now is simply glomming onto the suddenly nationally noticed South Dakota Senate race to score more Twitter juice.

The above campaign finance reports show that none of the nominees who emerged from the SDLP's August circus/convention have made a serious effort at laying the groundwork for rebuilding the party after its impending dissolution. With no gubernatorial candidate on the ballot, the Libertarians forfeit their party status once the general election is done. Alas, most of South Dakota won't even notice that Libertarians have squandered a chance to gain a foothold for a viable third party.

15 Comments

  1. Kurt Evans 2014.10.26

    Cory Heidelberger:
    >"The above campaign finance reports show that none of the nominees who emerged from the SDLP's August circus/convention have made a serious effort at laying the groundwork for rebuilding the party after its impending dissolution."

    Several of us have made a serious effort, Cory, and it's too soon to predict the long-term results. Other than that, thanks for a mostly accurate report.

    For the record, I'm still running a no-budget campaign for Emmett, Ken and myself.

  2. Roger Cornelius 2014.10.26

    I'll be awaiting Haber's finance report, remember that he told the Libertarian Party convention that this was one of his skills.

  3. Lynn 2014.10.26

    Is Stranahan Sr. in South Dakota now or is he back in Texas? Since he is on the SDLP executive committee has he been helping the party candidates? Is Jr here in South Dakota?

    Hopefully the SDLP can clean house and rebuild credibility after the circus of 2014.

  4. caheidelberger Post author | 2014.10.26

    I honestly share Lynn's hope that Libertarians can get their poop in a group and re-form a functional third party. Libertarians could be in a philosophical position to offer conservative Republicans a principled alternative to their mainstream, power-focused GOP. But after this summer's malfunction and easy hijacking by opportunisits, the SDLP deserves dissolution.

    Kurt, can you fill us in on the groundwork you and fellow Libs have been laying for resurrecting the party post-election? Are you lining up real Libertarians to circulate petitions and regain party status in 2015? Are you lining up real Libertarians to attend the next convention and block any hijackings? Are you reaching out to disaffected Republicans (Howie voters? Stace Nelson voters?) to explain how presenting a united front beneath the Lib banner could produce a real alternative to GOP business as usual?

  5. Kurt Evans 2014.10.26

    Lynn wrote:
    >>"Is Stranahan Sr. in South Dakota now or is he back in Texas? ... Is Jr here in South Dakota?"

    They both went home to Texas. Senior came back a few days ago. I don't know where either of them is now.

    >>"Since [Senior] is on the SDLP executive committee has he been helping the party candidates?"

    Not to my knowledge.

    Cory Heidelberger wrote:
    >"But after this summer's malfunction and easy hijacking by opportunisits, the SDLP deserves dissolution."

    The Haber-Stranahan hijacking wasn't nearly as easy as you suggest, Cory.

    >"Kurt, can you fill us in on the groundwork you and fellow Libs have been laying for resurrecting the party post-election?"

    Not tonight.

    >"Are you lining up real Libertarians to circulate petitions and regain party status in 2015?"

    The national party will probably hire Emmett for that task.

    >"Are you lining up real Libertarians to attend the next convention and block any hijackings?"

    That's not likely to be a concern in a non-election year.

    >"Are you reaching out to disaffected Republicans (Howie voters? Stace Nelson voters?) to explain how presenting a united front beneath the Lib banner could produce a real alternative to GOP business as usual?"

    Yes.

  6. caheidelberger Post author | 2014.10.27

    Thank you for the point-by-point, Kurt. Perhaps you can fill me in about what part of the hijacking was not as easy as it looked. It looks to me as if anyone who can bribe 15 people to spend a couple hours at the library on a Saturday could have pulled off the hijacking. I suspect it would have taken fewer henchmen than that at past SDLP conventions. Easy, right?

  7. Roger Cornelius 2014.10.27

    The Libertarian Party has a serious image problem that needs to be overcome before they are considered a legitimate party. Most people perceive them as the pro pot and drug party.

  8. Lynn 2014.10.27

    Roger speaking of the Pro Pot Party there was a robbery in Alexandria and "The two female suspects, ages 18 and 19, are both from Minnesota. The Sheriff's department says the pair admitted they smoked marijuana about an hour before the robbery."

    Let's be thankful they just smoked pot since if it would of been alcohol it could of been far worse since pot is harmless and would never affect a person's reasoning skills. There is a good discussion in the comment section under this story at KSFY http://www.ksfy.com/home/headlines/Customers-stop-attempted-armed-robbery-in-Alexandria-280467262.html

    I'm referring to recreational pot with the THC and one of the commenters has had to deal with potheads at a work place also.

  9. Kurt Evans 2014.10.30

    Hey Cory, I have two complaints to file. The first is that, since October 1, I haven't gotten a single email notification of any comment on any Madville post to which I've subscribed.

    The second is about this:
    >"ERROR: Your comment appears to be spam. We don't really appreciate spam here. Please go back and try to say something useful."

    I've never tried to post spam here, or to say anything that wasn't useful, and the insinuation that I have is especially offensive when I've invested great deal of effort in writing a comment only to lose it forever.

    Do you have control over any of this?

  10. grudznick 2014.10.30

    Mr. C, you are right about that perception. I don't have it, but I think many do. I mostly blame my friend Bob for that.

  11. caheidelberger Post author | 2014.10.30

    [Kurt, I will go to work on both of those complaints this weekend. This summer I installed a very effective spam filter, but it appears to be getting to aggressive. I'll try to figure out why your subscriptions have stopped functioning as well.]

  12. Kurt Evans 2014.10.30

    [Thanks, Cory.] :)

  13. Kurt Evans 2014.10.31

    Cory Heidelberger wrote to me:
    >"It looks to me as if anyone who can bribe 15 people to spend a couple hours at the library on a Saturday could have pulled off the hijacking... Easy, right?"

    How easy that might be would probably depend on how much money you could afford to spend on bribes and whether you were trying to keep those bribes a secret. In any case, the Haber-Stranahan method relied on actually convincing people that Haber was the best candidate.

    >"Like [state treasurer candidate] Santema, Libertarian state auditor candidate Kurt Evans rolls goose eggs on his pre-general report. No money in, no money out."

    This is just a funny coincidence from an article published in Indiana on the same day as the post above:
    >>"John Schick, running for state auditor, and Mike Jasper, Libertarian candidate for state treasurer, have raised $0 this election, according to recently filed campaign finance reports."
    [http://www.elkharttruth.com/news/indiana/2014/10/26/Money-ideology-could-quash-Libertarians-hopes.html]

    Indiana has arguably the strongest state party organization in the U.S. after Texas, and I find it encouraging to know they're fighting the same battles there that we're fighting in South Dakota.

  14. Kurt Evans 2014.11.01

    Bob Mercer catches up with John English:
    >"One of English’s ideas was that some of the leases held by agriculture producers on state-owned land be allowed to run out and the land could be sold at auction. The cash from the sales could then be invested rather than relying on rental income from the land, he said... He is a lawyer and has experience in real estate transactions but works as a landscaper and tree trimmer."

    This coverage would have been helpful two months ago, Bob. Apparently all Libertarians have to do to get the attention of South Dakota's political journalists is stop campaigning. Read the whole story here:
    http://www.aberdeennews.com/article_84313b78-07ba-5ffc-9bbc-13951e7b3222.html

    Kudos to the Mitchell Daily Republic for at least giving voters this:
    http://www.mitchellrepublic.com/content/statewide-races-three-running-state-treasurer-0

  15. Kurt Evans 2014.11.01

    Personal thanks to Cory Heidelberger and South Dakota Magazine for giving me the "Leftist's" endorsement, even though it will probably be the kiss of death among partisan Republicans who were already voting for my opponent anyway (ha ha):
    http://www.southdakotamagazine.com/voting-guide-2014

    And extra-special thanks to Carrie Moore and the Hill City Prevailer-News for this de facto endorsement:
    >>"For state auditor, another four-year term, Kurt Evans, Libertarian, and Steve Bennett [sic], Republican, will square off ..."
    http://hillcityprevailernews.blogspot.in/2014/10/elections-to-be-held.html

    To paraphrase the legendary P.T. Barnum, "I don't care what you say about me; just spell my competition's name wrong." :)

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