Imagine you are running for mayor of Sioux Falls, and without asking, a national organization drops you a cool $47,000 to help you with direct mail.
That was the surprise the Jamison campaign got last week when they donated that amount.
But here is the amazing part of the donation, according to the finance report document, they gave the money without asking Jamison (DOC: National-Association-Realtors-DON)
WOW!
UPDATE: The latest mailing;
The Jamison plan is five bullet points on roads, crime and transparency? Not particularly inspiring or original.
Matt, you know it is city government? Right? Roads, Crime and Transparency should be their top priorities, everything else is fluff.
the real “tough on crime” thing has to come from the state level. a fair question to ask greg since he is in the legislature, is what did he do in pierre to fight crime? also, what was is voting record in pierre regarding transparency?
scott – I would prefer that Greg came on here and defended that himself, but I will give Greg kudos for trying to pass transparency legislation two years in a row when it comes to secret contracts and settlements. He obviously failed, but tried.
I somehow feel like if a lobbying organization from out of state dropped $50k on a lit piece for Huether, let alone a group that’s primarily focused on supporting government spending that drives up housing prices, you wouldn’t have been so charitable in your portrayal.
Interesting questions for everyone here:
1. What does this actually mean in a race like the Sioux Falls Mayoral race?
2. With this expenditure being being dropped on the candidate without his knowledge and without his control, does he have to acknowledge it? It appears he cannot even reject the help since they were already doing a mailing.
3. It would appear the group might have done some behind the scenes research and decided to back the apparent leader? Groups like this don’t just spend this kind of cash without insider polling or research.
It’s no surprise. His wife is a realtor. I suspect he had informal knowledge. The amount is high. However, the mayor’s race is always a big money campaign.
I have no issue with the gift that Jamison has received.
However, let’s be very clear.
1) He had knowledge of it
2) If other candidates received large out of state support this blog would have criticized it
The question should be: how is Jamison going to adjust the budget or raise revenue to pay for everything mentioned in the “Jamison Plan?”
If we stop borrowing money for play palaces we can start using the 2nd penny for it’s real intent, fixing infrastructure instead of paying mortgages on money pits.
I guess I could criticize it, but it was unsolicited according to documentation and he has no control how they spend the money. If it was a direct contribution, than I would be a little worried. And the organization isn’t that nefarious. We have a housing shortage in this community, and that is what they support, more housing.
Your enemies enemy is your friend. If this contribution can help to defeat “CliqueRepublican,” then I am all for it….