You know what they say, follow the money.
While I have said we have good choices in central district candidates Bardon, DeBoer and Hurlbert I’m a bit wary of candidate Soehl after reading his financial report (FULL DOC:  Soehl-Finance )
It seems Mr. Soehl has a lot of big wheels behind him hoping they will get their corporate welfare rubber stamper on the city council to do their bidding.
Here’s a list of a few of his donors;
Cindy Huether (Mayor Huether’s wife)
Nathan Peterson (Sanford Health)
Lowell Hyland (Retired MD, Angel Investor)
Mark Wahlstrom (VP Business Development, First Dakota Title)
Dana Dykhouse (President of First Premier)
Scott Gullickson (VP at First Premier Bank)
Dave Sweet (Chairman of the Board, Ramkota Companies)
Nick Gustafson (Bender Commercial)
David Knutson (First Premier Bankcard)
Mike Crane (Developer)
Steve Erpenbach (Current Central District city councilor Michelle Erpenbach’s husband)
Michael Bender (Developer, Bender Commercial, chair of Jim Entenman’s mayoral campaign)
Dennis Breske (Commercial Realtor, NAI)
Craig Lloyd (Developer, Lloyd Companies)
The next financial report is due on April 5th (the Thursday before the Tuesday election). Hopefully all the candidate reports will be filed online by the end of the day Friday so voters have a chance to ‘follow the money’ before the election on Tuesday.
As we get to know all of the Council candidates over the next few months, the question we must ask ourselves, and the candidates as well, is whether these candidates will be more worried about golfers or dead construction workers if they are elected to office?
I have always liked Curt. He comes from good Democratic stock. His grandmother was a fearless leader for the pro-choice movement in this town and state in her time as well. As a former firefighter, I trust that Curt will have the workers in mind as a Councilman, but as a smart politician I am sure he knows that it takes adequate and connected funds to get elected as well.
That said, we will be looking for the Curt who knows how to go into a burning building when others are fleeing, because that is the type of City Hall leadership that we could use right now, while others prefer to golf….
Don’t think we have to wait til Apr 5 to know who owns this guy.
VSG – thanks for the insight, but I’m still worried.
michelle erpenbach also came from good democratic stock, or so she tells us. This kist of donors looks a whole lot like the list of donors erpenbach had. We all know how that turned out.
l3wis, we live in an age when once national “New Democrats” decided to give us NAFTA and thus the eventual Trump, while some state Democrats overtime decided to sainthood Janklow even in his own time. So I respect and understand your vigilance.
WP, I believe she called it being a “Daschle Democrat.”
Is this election becoming awareness of who not to vote for?
TDS, It is often a game of the “lesser of two evils”…. As you well know, I am sure….
[…] know that Curt wants to believe what his donors are telling him is the truth, but the corruption runs deep and it is real. As one other council candidate in the […]