Sioux Falls school board candidates raised more than $62K during their campaigns

Though the school board election was over six weeks ago, new post-election campaign finance reports due Wednesday show the five candidates raised more than $62,000.

When their initial pre-election campaign finance reports were due March 26, the candidates had raised more than $48,000 at that time. Here’s the latest.

Marc Murren

Returning board member Marc Murren’s report showed he raised an additional $3,125 on top of his $13,485 from the last report, for a total of $16,610 raised this campaign season. New income in the last eight weeks since Murren’s first campaign finance report was due includes:

• $1,000 from First Premier Bank CEO Dana Dykhouse
• $875 in unitemized direct contributions from individuals who donated $100 or less
• $500 from Mark & Cynthia Mickelson (Cynthia is a former board member), and from South Dakota Realtors Political Action Committee
• $250 from Jeff Jares

He spent another $4,798.99 on his campaign, including $3,500 on consulting, $598.99 on postage, $400 on event expenses and $300 on advertising. Murren spent a total of $15,727.30, and his final campaign balance was $1,106.07, which is higher than the $223.37 he began his campaign with in March.

Gail Swenson

New board member Gail Swenson, who will take office July 8, raised an additional $2,770 on top of the $9,582 she raised in her initial report, for a total of $12,352 raised this campaign season. New income since the first report includes:

• $1,000 from the in-state political action committee South Dakota Educators Political Involvement Committee, led by chair and treasurer Holly Frederick
• $720 in unitemized direct contributions from individuals who donated $100 or less
• $500 from the Realtors Association of the Sioux Empire
• $200 each from John McIntyre and Sheila Agee
• $150 from Mitchell Richter, a lobbyist for the South Dakota United School Association

She spent another $2,001.40 on her campaign on top of the $7,608.46 she spent in her last report, including $1,456.24 on event expenses, $293.76 on Get Out The Vote, $137.72 on advertising, $94.07 on printing, and $19.61 on ActBlue fees for online donations.

She spent a total of $9,609.86 on her campaign and ended with $2,742.14 in her campaign account.

Bobbie Tibbetts

Bobbie Tibbetts raised the most of any of the candidates despite losing the election along with other candidates Stuart Willett and Pat Starr.

Tibbetts raised $5,625.12 on top of the $17,493.80 she raised in her initial report, for a total of $23,118.92 raised this campaign season. New income from the latest report includes:

• $1,000 each from Miles Beacom, Mark Griffin and Zach Neugebauer
• $521.15 from Maria Bell
• $500 from South Dakota Realtors Political Action Committee
• $479.80 in unitemized direct contributions from individuals who donated $100 or less
• $260.73 from Josh Robinson
• $250 from Robert Weisser
• $150 each from John Pohlman and Scott Lawrence
• $104.48 each from Scott Aberson, Corey Condon and Brooke Fitts

She spent $18,586.04, including $18,529.62 on advertising and $56.42 on credit card fees. That’s on top of the $2,375.58 she spent in her last report, leaving Tibbetts with $2,157.30 left in her campaign account.

Stuart Willett

Willett hasn’t turned in his post-election campaign finance report to the school district yet, but in his previous report from March, Willett had raised $5,472.72 and spent $1,765.09, ending with $3,707.63 in his campaign account.

Pat Starr

The only new campaign contribution to Starr’s campaign account in this latest report was $2,200 in unitemized direct contributions from individuals on top of the $2,850 raised in his last report. All totaled, Starr raised $5,050 in this campaign cycle.

Starr, a former city councilman, spent $5,032 in this latest report, including $4,696 on advertising, $221 on printing and $115 on office supplies, on top of the $18 he spent in his last report. He ended with no money in his campaign account.