David Montgomery

dmontgome@argusleader.com

Rick Weiland's number one issue as a U.S. Senate candidate is assailing the role of "big money" in politics. He promises his first act in office would be introducing a constitutional amendment to reinstate campaign-finance regulations overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Now, a well-funded "Super PAC" enabled by those same Supreme Court decisions is coming in to give a gigantic boost to the Democrat's underdog campaign.

Mayday PAC, a pro-campaign finance reform committee whose millions come from both small-dollar donors and Silicon Valley moguls, will spend $1 million boosting Weiland's campaign.

"Like the rest of us, South Dakotans are tired of seeing Congress crippled by its dependence on campaign cash and the cronies who supply it," said Mayday PAC co-founder Mark McKinnon in a news release. "The only way to take our democracy back is to elect reformers like Rick Weiland."

The group also will work with other pro-Weiland outside groups to spend up to another million helping Weiland and bashing Republican nominee Mike Rounds — a total of $2 million on Weiland's behalf.

This is huge money for South Dakota politics. As of last week, Rounds had spent only $700,000 total on television ads the past two years.

"I'm sure (Rounds) didn't count on this," said Larry Sabato, a political analyst at the University of Virginia's Center For Politics. "He planned to at least match or probably exceed his opponents, and now he's going to be clearly outspent unless there's an outside infusion (of pro-Rounds money)."

Rounds has slightly less than $1.1 million in the bank for the final month of the campaign.

"We expect to need every dime of it to compete with Weiland and his third-party groups," said Rounds campaign manager Rob Skjonsberg last week — before Mayday PAC's entry into the race became evident.

Weiland's campaign said the candidate wasn't available Monday evening to discuss the Mayday PAC buy. Instead, strategist Steve Jarding said Weiland contends groups such as Mayday PAC are "a perversion," though Jarding said Mayday PAC's "motives are fine."

Rounds said his opponents "don't want to talk about the issues that are important" — his core campaign issues such as gun control and repealing the Affordable Care Act.

"Our job is to try to correct the misinformation and trust the voters of South Dakota will really see through what these outside groups will try to do," Rounds said.

He said his campaign "knew from Day One" they'd face outside attacks, doing "their best to suggest everything they can to destroy us."

Sabato said Weiland will be vulnerable to attacks that he's being hypocritical by bashing big money in general, but not when it's helping him.

"It's an obvious hypocrisy," Sabato said.

But, he added, "hypocrisy is the lifeblood of politics" and said the question is whether voters not already opposed to Weiland mind.

Though Republicans quickly renewed charges of hypocrisy against Weiland, Rounds declined to level the same accusation.

"What I've shared from Day One, and I'm going to be consistent on this, candidates can't control 'big money' unless they're coordinating with it," Rounds said.

It's illegal for Super PACs such as Mayday to coordinate with campaigns — though the rules are extremely difficult to enforce.

Jarding said it's "not hypocrisy" for Weiland to benefit from the same groups he attacks on the trail.

"He doesn't control these," Jarding said. "It's not like his money."

Weiland might still be an underdog

Political experts said the ads should help Weiland. But even Weiland, with $2 million in outside spending at his back, might still be an underdog, given South Dakota's conservative lean.

"If this were a different kind of race, ($2 million) might make the difference," Sabato said. "It's a lot of money, but what can you say? South Dakotans don't seem to me the kind to be overly influenced by TV ads and the like. It's such a personal form of campaigning there."

Another factor is that Rounds has potential outside allies, too — whether pro-GOP Super PACs and nonprofits, or the national Republican Party.

Joel Rosenthal, a former chairman of the South Dakota Republican Party who is rooting for Rounds, said he's not worried the Mayday ad will hurt Rounds' chances.

"If the (polling) needle moves in any way, there's going to be a lot of people in here — Republicans are going to show up with the cavalry, too," Rosenthal said.

Rounds said his campaign is aware there are potentially friendly outside groups.

"We know we can't control outside groups, but we've tried our best to share with folks who have an interest in supporting us that we think it has to have a positive message," Rounds said.

The Mayday ad is a positive 30-second commercial, talking about Weiland's background and his plan to "raise the minimum wage, invest in education, and protect and expand Social Security."

Other groups in the pro-Weiland coalition have launched negative ads, including two from another Super PAC, Every Voice Action, attacking Rounds.

It's unclear what form the rest of the $2 million in planned pro-Weiland advertising will take.

Even as Mayday PAC announced its positive ad, the group's news release called Rounds a "corrupt politician."

Mayday PAC was founded by Harvard professor and activist Lawrence Lessig — born in Rapid City — in a self-consciously ironic attempt to defeat "big money" in politics by spending big money itself. Taking advantage of Supreme Court decisions allowing groups like it to raise unlimited donations, Mayday PAC has collected millions from big names such as Napster founder Sean Parker, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel. It also raised more than $2.5 million in small-dollar donations through an online "crowdfunding" campaign.

Its stated goal is to "elect a Congress committed to fundamental reform in the way political campaigns are funded by 2016." By this, it means "some version of publicly funded elections."

Mayday's involvement in this year's races has had mixed results. It backed an unsuccessful Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in New Hamphire, and is supporting a Democratic candidate for Congress in Iowa's 3rd District.

The group has yet to file its campaign finance report for the past three months. On its website, it says it has raised $7.9 million. As of its June 30 campaign finance report, it had raised $6.1 million and had $4.7 million in the bank. According to its donor data, $12,088 of the $7.9 million came from South Dakota ZIP codes.