ABERDEEN, S.D. (South Dakota Searchlight) – Toby Doeden spent a total of about $5.3 million of his own money on his failed campaign for governor of South Dakota, according to a new campaign finance report.
The report, which was due this week, covers the Doeden campaign’s spending from May through the June 2 Republican primary election and July 28 runoff. Doeden finished first in the four-way primary but lost the top-two runoff by 42 points to Gov. Larry Rhoden.
Doeden, whose businesses include vehicle dealerships and real estate, spent $1.3 million of his own money on his campaign during the final stretch, after previously spending $4 million. His campaign also raised about $200,000 from other sources.
The money from Doeden is categorized in the reports as loans from him to his campaign committee. Even though an earlier report showed $4 million in outstanding loans from Doeden to the committee and the new report shows $1.3 million in additional loans, the new report shows an outstanding loan balance of only $3.3 million without listing any repayments to Doeden. The report also shows the campaign spent all but $454 of its money.
In response to South Dakota Searchlight messages, Doeden did not address questions about the loan-balance discrepancy or his overall spending. Instead, he sent a text message criticizing Searchlight.
“You and your ‘news’ outlet are not credible,” the message said, in part.
U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson finished third in the four-way primary, failing to advance to the runoff. His new report shows his campaign committee, Dusty for Governor, spent about $6.6 million in total throughout the campaign, but unlike Doeden, the money came through fundraising.
Johnson’s committee reported spending $2.2 million in the final stretch of the primary campaign, after previously spending $4.4 million. That committee has no money left and has been terminated.
Johnson is affiliated with other fundraising committees at the state and federal level that still have nearly a combined $2.6 million. The federal Friends of Dusty Johnson committee reports a balance of $1.4 million, the state-level Dusty PAC has about $678,000, the federal Dakota Leadership PAC has about $503,000, and the federal Dusty Johnson Victory Committee has about $17,500.
Johnson spokesperson Courtney Heitkamp said in a statement that Johnson “will continue to support conservative candidates who have a bold vision for our state and country.”
The runoff winner, Rhoden, has spent $3.7 million throughout the campaign and had $145,000 left as of this week’s report.
Since May, his committee took in over $1 million from individuals and $509,500 from in-state political action committees. Rhoden and his wife, Sandy, loaned the campaign committee $100,000, which the committee has paid back.
The state caps individual contributions to candidate committees at $4,000 per calendar year, but court decisions have allowed unlimited contributions to some federal political action committees, and those committees’ contributions to candidates’ committees are unlimited. That allows wealthy donors to route large donations through federal committees to state candidates.
Federal committees gave Rhoden’s campaign roughly $1 million since May. Of that, about $942,000 came from the Free American Fund. Two of the contributors to that federal committee donated $100,000 or more: MarketBeat founder Matt Paulson, of Sioux Falls, gave $100,000, and billionaire South Dakota philanthropist T. Denny Sanford, who has since died, gave $140,000.
Republican state Speaker of the House Jon Hansen of Dell Rapids finished fourth in the primary. His campaign spent about $630,000 in all and reported $5,300 remaining.
Democratic nominee for governor Dan Ahlers’ campaign has spent about $164,000 and has $81,000 left.
The general election is Nov. 3, and advance voting is underway.
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