Wealthy politico says $100K contribution to PAC intended as loan

Dueling political action committees getting involved in key northeast South Dakota legislative races

(Visit Aberdeen SD)

A former congressional hopeful turned local campaign financier says he contributed $90,000 more than the allowed limit to his own political action committee in error.

Aberdeen businessman Toby Doeden, who established Dakota First Action after vowing to help conservative candidates in South Dakota, says a $100,000 contribution to his PAC was inadvertently reported as a donation, a violation of state campaign finance law. Instead, the six-figure check he cut was intended to be a loan, he said.

“I spoke with the folks from the finance team and they were already aware of this and working on filing the amended report,” Doeden said in a statement. “Earlier this month, I executed a loan of $100,000 to the Dakota First Action PAC. This was mistakenly classified as a contribution rather than a loan, due largely to the fact that the South Dakota (secretary of state’s) finance portal is extremely outdated and fails to function properly. As soon as I was notified of the error, we began the process of filing an amended report.”

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