You could be forgiven for thinking that, in the final weeks of last year’s election, Gov. Kristi Noem’s campaign was spending every dollar ever created.

The campaign mounted an unprecedented advertising onslaught of TV ads and mailers against her Democratic opponent, former Rep. Jamie Smith. With the exception of competitive U.S. Senate races, nothing like it had been seen before in South Dakota elections.

Noem acted as if she were running from behind. And it seemed as if she were emptying her bank account in a bid for a second term. But she couldn’t empty it all. Like soil saturated in a flood, there was no room for more money in the state’s advertising ecosystem.

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