We told you about some in-depth digging into the financial reports of legislative and constitutional candidates. This is getting very interesting. The GOP is having a bit of a cat fight right now labeling each group as more or less Republican than the other. And more questions are arising about how Gant is running his office;
Possibly more serious than the attacks is an effort under way to file a lawsuit to kick Gosch off the ballot.
The lawsuit threat stems from Gosch’s nominating petitions to get on the ballot. He notarized one of his own petitions, which isn’t supposed to happen.
“I’m not an attorney, but I said, it sure looks like a violation to me,†said Ed Randazzo, a Rapid City activist who is helping to raise $2,500 to pay for a lawsuit.
Gosch was unavailable for comment, but asked his fellow lawmaker, Rep. Mike Verchio, R-Hill City, to speak for him.
“He’s confident, since the secretary of state (Jason Gant) already says there’s not a problem,†Verchio said.
If you are so confident, why the possible lawsuit?
We are still looking into why each is going after the other, but in this search, we find some other things involving our intrepid SOS Mr. Gant. Why is Mr. Gant mixed up in so many of these strange connections? Who are these people financing him? What does Jason have to do for them or what is he promising to the groups giving him the money?
THE FULL DOCUMENT:Â gant 2010 campiaign finance disclosure oct 22 – 11660
We are also looking into the money received by several other candidates elected at the same time as Mr. Gant. Let’s look at Dusty Johnson’s run for the PUC. This is an office you could assume would be useful to out of state lobbyists and corporations, it has in the past why not now? So we looked…  And looked. Interesting thing, Dusty has raised a lot of money for his PUC runs, but the money he has received are primarily from the usual in-state GOP citizens we get used to seeing in state finance reports. Small in-state PACs
SEE FULL DOCUMENT:Â Johnson, Dusty campaign Finance report Oct 22, 2010 11745
Jason Gant like Marty Jackley like Chris Nelson like several state GOP legislators are getting massive funds from out of state ALEC based PACs and ALEC directed out of state contributions.
Think the division in the state Republican party is a myth? Think again, it is a reality, and it’s going to get more real as November approaches.
pitty pat – kitty cats, I wonder about other connections
Why does Roger Hunt not have any campaign finance reports on line this year?
keep going, Mr. E. keep going.
maybe because Mr. Hunt isn’t running for anything
Even if you are not running, you have to file reports on existing committees or PAC’s you may have, even if they are inactive, unless there isn’t any money in those accounts and they have been closed.
There should be ‘Termination” papers filed
Just a note – Dusty Johnson didn’t need much money because he is a superstar. Everyone likes him and acknowledges that he is a very intelligent, motivated, and energetic guy. He doesn’t seem interested in politics and he isn’t polarizing enough to draw in huge money from the far right, but then again I don’t think he needs it because he is almost guaranteed to be elected in whatever race he enters. His current gig is merely a stepping stone IMO.
I really feel you’re seeing a future member of Congress when you see Dusty… but maybe that isn’t his goal. Either way, the party sends money to the race that needs it, so they must have feared that Gant could lose. He ended up with around 55%, and a large part of that was because
HasslehoffNesselfluffNesselhuf ran out of cash and couldn’t match Gant’s TV and radio time.Dusty on the other hand – even without any real financial support – won 73% of the vote. I dare you to ask 20 South Dakota residents who can even name who ran against him.
I could be wrong, but I suspect the money issue is more about the position and the threat from the opposing party. I really don’t think it has much to do with a division within the GOP… especially when someone like Johnson is popular enough to be courted by our last two Governors.
Gant would have never gotten the nomination either if it wasn’t for the way the current laws are set up for nominating the SOS candidate.