Press "Enter" to skip to content

Campaign Finance Reports Show Adelstein and Olson PACking for Peters and More!

Last updated on 2012.05.29

Secretary of State Jason Gant is generally screwing things up in Pierre. But here's one thing he's doing right: the new searchable campaign finance database. With the pre-primary contribution reports due from candidates last Friday, we now have all sorts of fun data to sift through online. Among contributions of interest:

  • Moderate Senator Stanford Adelstein (R-32/Rapid City) gave $1000 this month to firefighter Tim Behlings, who would like to take one of the seats currently held by rather radically right-wing Republicans Lance Russell and Mike Verchio.
  • Senator Adelstein also plunked $5000 into his All South Dakota PAC, which then transferred $3000 of that to Senator Deb Peters (R-9/Hartford) and $2000 to Senator Tim Begalka (R-4/Clear Lake). Those two candidates face challengers from opposite ends of the GOP: Peters is fighting off right-wingnut Rep. Lora Hubbel (R-9/Sioux Falls), while Begalka stands against Establishment favorite Rep. Val Rausch (R-4/Big Stone City).
  • Senator Russell Olson's (R-8/Wentworth) little PAC is also spreading love... but unlike Adelstein, Olson snivelingly sends his money entirely to friends of the Establishment. The "Leading South Dakota PAC" (leading is such a euphemism when Russ uses it) handed over four $1000 donations last week, three to recipients of Daugaard endorsements (Peters, Tom Nelson of Lead, and Bruce Rampelberg of Rapid City), the fourth to Senator Mark Johnston (R-12/Sioux Falls), who faces a challenge from Scott Bartlett, who runs as a Republican even though he doesn't think you should vote for Republicans.
  • The biggest individual donor I find in the database so far is June Nusz. Joel Rosenthal's favorite District 6 House candidate has plowed $15,000 of her own money into her campaign against three other primary challengers.
  • Update 14:40 CDT: My morning searching found that the next biggest self-spender on file is our friend Rep. Stace Nelson (R-19/Fulton), who is spending $3000 of his own cash on his four-way primary campaign. But further review finds Rep. Val Rausch is fueling his Begalka-bashing with $9,470.92 of his own cash... likely from the $11,377.41 he had left in his 2010 House campaign war chest (Update 2012.05.29 11:15 CDT: Mercer confirms).
  • Update 14:43 CDT: Rep. Jamie Boomgarden (R-17/Chancellor) isn't running for anything. He transferred the balance of his House campaign account to his own PAC, the Turner County Republican PAC. Cash available: $10,343.79.

The pre-primary deadline was Friday 5 p.m., and a lot of primary candidates still show blanks. I suspect Secretary Gant and his cronies have some serious data entry to do when they get back to the office tomorrow. For now, search the data yourself, and see what nuggets you can find!

13 Comments

  1. larry kurtz 2012.05.28

    This cute little nugget appeared at the War Toilet:

    "Clear up a rumor Stacy. Is it true you did not advance rank your last 12 years in the military? It would not surprise any of us as you are an authority unto yourself and your peers can’t work with you that you would have a past with performance inhibiting issues and incidents related to anger and instability. >a href="http://dakotawarcollege.com/archives/25391/comment-page-1#comment-136862">This voter in your district wants to know."

  2. larry kurtz 2012.05.29

    Hubbel on full earth hater tilt:

    David Montgomery ‏@ArgusMontgomery
    Hubbel: "It's kind of a joke that there's more Democrats in the Republican caucus than in the Democratic caucus."

  3. Stace Nelson 2012.05.29

    Larry! Neat trick! You posted your rumor on here before you posted it on the Dakota War College. Too bad you couldn't have been in Delmont yesterday, I am sure the crowd would have fallen for your idiocy after my speech. It was so bad, there were many that were crying.

    Heck, leak it to the press. Will give me another chance to write another scathing editorial. :-D

  4. larry kurtz 2012.05.29

    Pleading guilty to posting somebody else's rumor apparently means it will go unanswered to those of us not in attendance at your observance of those tortured by the history of at least one illegal war.

    Same as it ever was.

  5. Steve Sibson 2012.05.30

    "Scott Bartlett, who runs as a Republican even though he doesn’t think you should vote for Republicans."

    Scott is right, we should vote for conservatives.

  6. Stace Nelson 2012.05.30

    @Larry What the heck, I'm not too busy with stupid rumors. I started as an E-1 like everyone who enlists, when I got out 13 1/2 years later I was an E-6 due to be promoted to E-7. Over those years I was turned down for commissioning beause of the documented injuries. So 5 promotions over 13 1/2 years with 8 medals (4 of which were for Good Conduct). As you can see, your rumor is idiotic. Additionally, I started out my civilian career in 1999 as a GS-11 step 1. When I retired in November 2008, I was a GS-12 step 8. You do the math, it guts the idiocy again.

  7. larry kurtz 2012.05.30

    fine: now go over to the new, improved war toilet and tell the commenter who asked the question your excuse.

  8. larry kurtz 2012.05.30

    can't post over there until the satellite comes around again.

  9. Stace Nelson 2012.05.30

    Just some troll throwing fecel matter trying to see if they can get traction. Let it, maybe a good reporter will do a story on it and get the truth out?

    :-D

  10. caheidelberger Post author | 2012.05.30

    Yet he lacks the intellectual integrity to run as an Independent? What's up with that, Sibby?

  11. Steve Sibson 2012.05.30

    "What’s up with that, Sibby?"

    Most conservatives Republicans are afraid to vote Independent because they are told by the Establishment that splitting the vote will cause a radical Democrat to win. So they vote for the radical Democrat wearing Republican clothes. So what are we disenfranchised conservatives to do?

  12. caheidelberger Post author | 2012.05.30

    Sibby, I'm going to start getting insulted if you keep calling folks like Peters, Rausch, and Daugaard Democrats. It's like trademark infringement: you're degrading my brand!

    At the very least, allow me, an actual radical Democrat, final say over who really is a radical Democrat. Trust me, you haven't shown me one yet. I'm not even convinced our two U.S. House candidates are radical Democrats.

  13. Steve Sibson 2012.05.30

    Sorry Cory, I did not want to insult the "good" Democrats. The point is that the political discourse should not be based on party. It is way more complicated than that.

Comments are closed.