Amendment V Campaign Marked by Illegal Contributions

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Dark Money Raised Illegally Mirrors Anti-Transparency of Amendment V

Fort Pierre, SD –– No on V Campaign Chair Will Mortenson has called for the Yes on V campaign to return all illegal contributions and come clean to South Dakota voters on their scheme to evade South Dakota campaign finance law. TakeItBack.Org and Open Primaries, two dark money organizations funding Yes on Amendment V, violated South Dakota law by explicitly raising funds to influence a ballot question, Constitutional Amendment V.

State law calls for organizations, including corporations like TakeItBack.org and Open Primaries, to swear under oath that no part of the contribution given to a ballot question committee was raised or collected “for the purpose of influencing the ballot question.”

TakeItBack.org issued a correspondence on October 4th (below) soliciting donations to “help us pass Amendment V,” while Open Primaries collected donations to influence Amendment V through a website called CrowdPAC.

“The supporters of Amendment V must immediately return the illegal contributions obtained from dark money corporations that have no regard for South Dakota law. Amendment V would take party identification off the ballot so it’s no surprise that it’s being pushed by illegal, dark money from out-of- state,” said Mortenson.

“Campaign finance laws exist to protect South Dakota elections from just this type of hidden, out-of-state influence. Yes on V should give back every cent it received from TakeItBack.org and Open Primaries and apologize to the people of South Dakota for its disregard of our campaign finance laws,” Mortenson added.

As of the latest campaign finance report, Yes on Amendment V garnered 76% of its contributions from out-of-state and 92% of contributions from dark money groups like TakeItBack.org and Open Primaries who do not disclose their donors. Open Primaries alone provided $246,784.00, representing 71.92% of contributions to Yes on Amendment V.

TakeItBack.org is a 501(c)(4) corporation that does not disclose its donors. TakeItBack.org is run by long-time Democratic Party Bosses Rick Weiland and Drey Samuelson. Weiland also serves as Chairman of the Yes on Amendment V ballot committee. Open Primaries is a New York City-based 501(c)(4) corporation that does not disclose its donors. Open Primaries is an activist organization, pushing plans similar to Amendment V in several states.


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