Bob Ellis gets away from his usual talk-radio karaoke and breaks some honest-to-Gaia news on Republicans getting ready to play hardball with Independent U.S. Senate candidate Gordon Howie. Unfortunately, Ellis first gets it wrong. He launches a report saying that sources (plural!) tell him that the South Dakota Republican party has bought a copy of Gordon Howie's nominating petition. The most likely reason to acquire a nominating petition is to mount a challenge.
Ellis harangues the state party and chairman Craig Lawrence for attacking a candidate who, he contends, will better defend Republican values than any Republican on the ballot. But then... oopsies!
I just received a call from Gordon Howie who told me Mr. Lawrence had returned his call. Apparently my source was wrong or passed along incomplete information, as Mr. Lawrence said it was not the South Dakota GOP but rather the Minnehaha County GOP that had purchased a copy of Howie’s petitions.
While it is still disturbing that someone in the Minnehaha GOP who calls themselves a Republican would have such animus for a conservative, it’s good to know that it wasn’t the state party after all [Bob Ellis, "SD GOP Going After Gordon Howie Petitions?" American Clarion, 2014.04.30].
The Minnehaha GOP is still no machine at which to sneeze. Their acquisition of the Howie petition signals that they view another Republican-turned-Independent on the November ballot as a significant threat to their chances of beating Rick Weiland in the fall.
But if the Minnehaha GOP is prepping a petition challenge, they'll probably fail. Gordon's signature cushion is a good 58%... and as far as I know, Gordon was not in the Philippines while circulating his petition.
Update 15:58 CDT: I've taken the question mark out of the headline, thanks to David Montgomery's confirmation that a petition challenge is afoot! He also gets Minnehaha GOP chairman Dave Roetman to go on record saying that the Minnehaha GOP wants to have some words with any Republicans who signed for Howie:
Even if the challenge comes up short, Roetman said the party has another reason to want the list of people who backed Howie's candidacy.
"These are folks we need to contact," Roetman said. "We're trying to make sure we heal the wounds within the party. If people are disaffected, we like to bring them back around" [David Montgomery, "Minnehaha GOP Backing 'Volunteer' Challenge to Howie," Political Smokeout, 2014.04.30].
Party officials knocking on your door to bring you back around—are you sure that's what you wanted to say, Chairman Roetman?