Sioux Falls, SD (KELO AM) - In the past 2 days two difference Democratic organizations have committed nearly $3 million towards the campaign of Rick Weiland in an effort to keep Tim Johnson’s senate seat blue. The Mayday PAC stuck $2 million into the race earlier this week, and Wednesday afternoon the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee announced a $1 million pledge to help Weiland. Both groups will use most of the money will be used on TV advertising. By comparison, Republican frontrunner Miker Rounds has spent about $800,000 on TV advertising to date.
South Dakota Democratic leader Bernie Hunhoff calls it a missing piece of the Weiland campaign puzzle, saying the Sioux Falls businessman has had a near perfect game plan up to this point, but the one thing he has been missing is the money. He added that the strong 3rd party presence that Larry Pressler has brought to the table combined with negativity surrounding the EB-5 scandal has turned this into anyone’s race.
While Hunhoff said the money could be a game changer for the once underdog Weiland, he added that it must be spent wisely. Given that Weiland will have little or no control over the message the advertisers send, it could actually turn voters away. “I’m not sure that some of these national PACs – or Super-PACs know South Dakota all that well” said Hunhoff.
The former Democratic Gubernatorial candidate added that he thinks this race has gone from called for Mike Rounds just a few months ago to too close to call. When asked to look into his crystal ball Hunhoff said “historically, you see in Independent candidate fade, especially since he’s gonna be the underfunded candidate. You give Rick Weiland these kind of recources and I gotta think he’s gonna jump in the polls”