KELOLAND News is fact checking another political ad in the gubernatorial race. This time it’s Democrat Billie Sutton’s TV commercial targeting Kristi Noem.

Wednesday night, we looked at the ad targeting Sutton from his so-called neighbors. All three currently live between eight and 38 miles away from Billie Sutton. All three people, who were not named in the ad, are strong GOP supporters.

Thursday we look at the ad that has Noem on the defense.

“Only six days after her election to Congress, Noem announced she wanted to be Governor,” the ad says.

This fact checks out. Noem announced she was running for governor on November 14, 2016, six days after the general election for her House Seat.

“Then she skipped more vote than almost any other member of Congress,” the ad says.

According to the independent, non-profit news site, ProPublica, between May of 2017 and September of 2018, after her gubernatorial campaign kicked into high gear, Noem missed 8.5 percent of votes in Congress. That made her the 38th most absent member of the House.

But if you look at all of 2017 on GovTracks Report Card of all representatives, Noem only missed one percent of votes, making her #285 on the list out of 435.

“And Noem used a loophole to funnel $1.6 million of out-of-state money into her campaign,” the ad says.

According to Noem’s Campaign Finance Report, Noem legally took and reported $1.6 million in contributions from out-of-state or federal political action committees.

“Even though south Dakotans voted to make it illegal.” the ad says.

Voters did approve Initiated Measure 22 in 2016, which would have banned such large amounts in campaign contributions from PACS. But in 2017, the South Dakota Legislature repealed the measure and there is no law lowering campaign finance limits.

“Her campaign team was even fined for a campaign finance violation,” the ad says.

Noem’s running mate for lieutenant governor Larry Rhoden paid a $200 fine for not filing a campaign finance document with the Secretary of State’s Office on time.

The election is next Tuesday.

After our story aired, Noem’s campgain reached to us and provided us with this statement regarding the $1.6 million contribution to her governor’s campaign:

“No one in South Dakota has ever gone from the House to the governor’s office. Because there was no box for a federal candidate committee, we put it in the only federal box that came close to fitting. The transferred funds, primarily made up of support from South Dakota donors, came from her congressional candidate committee, not a federal PAC.”

Brittany Comins with Noem’s campaign