Questions arise about advertising

By Kevin Woster, Journal Staff Writer | Saturday, June 03, 2006

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RAPID CITY -- Rapid City businessman Bob Fischer and his wife, Rita, have stopped paying for newspaper advertisements for state Republican Senate candidate Elli Schwiesow after her opponent, incumbent Sen. Stan Adelstein, raised questions about their legality.

Adelstein contended that the Fischers had exceeded the state campaign donation limit by running four separate advertisements for several days in the Journal. The donation limit in a legislative race is $250 per person.

"And even if you count both of them, that's still only $500," Adelstein said Thursday. "Even with a discount, I know they're over that limit. Those ads are not legal."

Adelstein raised the issue during an interview with the Journal concerning a question with one of his own campaign advertisements - a television commercial that featured a clip of Gov. Mike Rounds. After Republican officials said that the ad could appear to be an endorsement by the governor in a party primary, Adelstein pulled the advertisement.

The Schwiesow ads, which began running Wednesday, included her photo and critiques of Adelstein's record on issues including abortion, sex education and gun control. When contacted by the Journal Friday, Bob Fischer said he started running the advertisements at his own expense because he believed that Schwiesow was being outspent by Adelstein.

"Elli has been outgunned in this thing, because of the amount of money that Stan has poured into the campaign," Fischer said. "There needs to be a campaign law on the books so that a candidate cannot buy an election."

During the 2004 District 32 Senate primary, Adelstein spent more than $100,000 of his own money to fund a campaign that helped him defeat Schwiesow by 122 votes. Adelstein also pays for his own political action committee and makes contributions to political candidates throughout the state.

Schwiesow spent about $31,000 in 2004, of which about $14,500 was her own money. She said she expected to spend about $40,000 on this primary.

Fischer said he was trying to even things and also make some statements about Adelstein's record.

"I just wanted to say some things that needed to be said," he said. "They're pretty much the key differences."

The campaign financing limitations require any cash or in-kind donation to be counted toward the contribution limit. Secretary of State Chris Nelson said advertisements developed in cooperation with the candidate or campaign would likely count against that limit.

"If it is done at all in conjunction with the candidate's campaign, it becomes an in-kind contribution to the campaign. And there the $250- per-person limit certainly does apply."

Initially, Fischer said he didn't think there was a problem with the campaign law.

"It's free speech," he said. "It's my idea to do the ads. I'm happy to do it for Elli."

But Fischer was unclear on whether the campaign had been involved in the advertisements. He later called the Journal to say he had decided to pull the advertisements to be cautious.

The ads did not appear in Saturday's Journal. But the Schwiesow campaign has found another funding source for the advertisements, a political action committee called the South Dakota Freedom Fund. The ads will resume running today.

"It was a misunderstanding and our political action committee is taking care of the advertising in the newspaper," Schwiesow said Saturday.

South Dakota Attorney General Larry Long said Friday that in most cases when there is a violation of campaign contribution limits, it is simply rectified by requiring some or all of the money to be paid back.

Most violations are oversights, rather than intentional disregard for the law, he said.

Contact Kevin Woster at 394-8413 or kevin.woster@rapidcityjournal.com