File this one under “Things That Won’t Make National News, But Probably Should”. The South Dakota Democrat party has all but ceased to exist as a functioning entity.
The trouble evidently started after an FEC investigation into the state party’s 2016 presidential campaign fundraising turned up under-reported campaign contributions to the tune of $2.5 million dollars. To be specific, according to the FEC, the party “… transferred $2.5 million to the DNC on the same day it received $2.5 million from the Hillary Victory Fund.
‘This is one in a series of committees that we’ve had before us that were engaged in these massive joint fundraising committees where money changed hands very quickly between one committee and another in a way that, I think, raises issues under the contribution limits,’ Weintraub said.” – Source
In any context other than politics, that would literally be classified as money laundering, and someone would be going to jail. But hey, this is politics. What’s a few million dollars among friends? Besides, everyone responsible for these decisions has resigned or retired, and new leadership promised that they definitely wouldn’t do the same thing in 2020. They even promised to repay some of the money.
Well, except, a year later, things got worse.
New chair Paula Hawks lasted less than a year in the position before resigning last week. The party closed their offices in Sioux Falls and Rapid City (the two locations in all of South Dakota most likely to find a Democrat with a pulse and deep pockets), and has managed to exhaust their entire budget and be literally bankrupt. As opposed to the moral bankruptcy that the Democrats have enjoyed for decades.
The party now says that they’ll elect a new chair in December when the committee meets. They’re currently $46,000 in debt, and employing one staffer (who’s likely working out of her parents’ basement).
To an extent, I’m a little saddened by this development. I do believe that a representative republic works best when there’s at least some loyal, organized opposition working to check the worst impulses of the ruling party. On the other hand, that loyal opposition could easily come from some new party that actually represents the interest of South Dakota citizens, rather than existing seemingly to launder money to national campaigns. So in short, good riddance. I wish this would happen to the rest of the Democrats’ state orgs as well.
Side note, I briefly worked with (now former) chairwoman Paula Hawks when I came on board at MetaBank. At the time, she was the company’s training officer. Not sure what it says about her that she left Meta to go work for the state Democrat party, but whatever. I never had any bad encounters with her personally, but I also make it a habit to avoid HR as much as I possibly can.