PAC with ties to Kristi Noem behind paid ads targeting The Dakota Scout
Posts on Facebook and X said newspaper's reporting was 'baseless political hit'
This content is courtesy of SiouxFallsLive.com, a Sioux Falls news outlet that operates independently of The Dakota Scout.
A political action committee with ties to Kristi Noem launched social media posts last week attempting to discredit reporting by The Dakota Scout on the former governor’s use of state-issued credit cards.
The American Resolve Policy Fund is circulating a March 7 Fox News Digital story about a lawsuit threat from a personal lawyer of the former South Dakota governor in Washington, D.C. The paid post on Facebook, and a less-viewed version on X, echo a letter from Noem’s lawyer, as well as comments from her personal spokesperson.
“The Dakota Scout has been EXPOSED for publishing lies about Kristi Noem, which have been known to be false since at least July 2024. This isn’t just bad reporting, it’s a baseless political hit,” the organization wrote.
The Dakota Scout co-founders Jonathan Ellis and Joe Sneve rejected the accusation in the Fox story, pointing to 4,000 pages of records supporting the reporting.
It’s a familiar playbook often used by Noem allies through PACs that shelter politicians and candidates with dark money, funding misinformation and underhanded, shadowy tactics. The latest effort targeting The Scout resembles a billboard and robocall campaign against a group of South Dakota lawmakers who vetted the impeachment of former Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg in 2022. Other state-level politicos unaligned with Noem have also faced similar attacks.
The previous efforts occurred while Noem was governor, and in the context of election campaigns and political infighting. It’s not uncommon for ambitious politicians to raise money through PACs to support their rise and raise their profile. The stab at The Scout, however, happened after Noem started her new job as secretary of Homeland Security under President Donald Trump.
The American Resolve Super PAC was created before she took the new job, though. Formed in August, it’s raised more than $4.5 million. Considered a “Super PAC,” it was developed out of what’s known as a “527 committee” – a designation that has different reporting requirements – that was created in 2022 as Noem campaigned for a second term as governor.
The PAC raises money for American Resolve Policy Fund, a “social welfare” non-profit that most recently supported Noem’s efforts to help Trump-friendly Republicans in the 2024 election.
American Resolve’s work didn’t end in November. The group’s various social media accounts remain active, posting Noem’s latest interviews and appearances. They have a limited audience with only a handful of followers. The Facebook post about The Scout, however, had hundreds of comments, shares and likes, suggesting it was “boosted” with advertising money for wide distribution.
Scout reporting showed $750,000 in credit card expenses
The Scout initially requested the credit card records in May. That request was declined by South Dakota Auditor Rich Sattgast in June. Ellis and Sneve filed suit in September, saying because the bills were paid by taxpayers, the details should be available for public view.
The Scout and Sattgast negotiated a settlement in February to allow the release of a redacted version of the records – after Noem had resigned to take the Cabinet position.
Subsequent reporting showed that over the six years of her governorship, Noem and her staff paid for about $750,000 in airline tickets, hotels, rental cars, food and other services using state-issued credit cards.
Noem, through her lawyer on March 7, claimed she personally used the cards for about $2,000. The letter making that claim was delivered via email to The Scout at 5:40 a.m., 40 minutes after the Fox News story was published online.
But a story published by The Scout and Sioux Falls Live at 7 a.m. that day detailed more than $300,000 paid for Noem’s security. Other charges for lodging, food and expenses were done directly for her, if not by her.
The redactions often obscure exactly who or what the charges were for, but many directly connected to Noem range from hotel rooms to dry cleaning a gown for the President’s inauguration in January.
Pulling apart the flow of money and responsibility for disinformation campaigns, such as the one targeting The Scout, are complicated by the flood of unrestricted political money, particularly through Super PACs. While some information about contributions and expenses are available, the sources of the money and what it’s spent on often are shrouded in layers of obfuscation.
Sioux Falls Live examined filings with the Federal Elections Commission as well as the work of watchdog groups such as OpenSecrets.org and ProPublica linking Noem to American Resolve. In addition, the documents and interviews with multiple sources close to the effort reveal that Corey Lewandowski, the governor’s informal advisor and former Trump campaign aide, coordinated the 2022 campaign targeting members of the South Dakota House Select Committee on Impeachment and is still involved with American Resolve.
The Ravnsborg-era campaign was funded by another group, the Dakota Institute for Legislative Solutions, which was created to carry forward Noem’s agenda. But the players behind that organization and the one waging the latest attacks are the same.
Lewandowski connected to PAC that also attacked S.D. House members
A common thread through the PACs, as well as Noem’s re-election campaign in 2022, is Staci Goede, the official treasurer for all three.
Goede, a longtime staffer with the Republican State Leadership Committee, now operates a Virginia-based company that provides financial and compliance expertise for political groups at the state and national level.
A complaint filed with the FEC last May said Goede was “listed as the current treasurer for 21 federal committees registered with the Commission, including principal campaign committees, leadership PACs, and unauthorized committees such as super PACs and ‘hybrid’ PACs.”
Goede did not respond to emails or phone calls made to contacts listed in documents.
A less obvious connection is Lewandowski.
The New Hampshire-based consultant has worked behind the scenes with Noem for many years, including during her re-election campaign and the lead up to the 2024 presidential election.
His company, Lewandowski Strategic Advisors, was paid travel expenses by the American Resolve PAC as recently as October.
The Noem connections to American Resolve Policy Fund are numerous as well.
Their PAC raised money specifically to support Noem as a high-profile campaigner for conservative candidates in last fall’s election.
“Kristi Noem perfected the recipe of winning by leading with resolve on the tough issues – and she’ll show these leaders how to win,” according to the group’s website, which offers portals to donate directly to the PAC.
In addition to paying Lewandowski for unspecified travel, the PAC also paid Goede’s company, Sage Advisory Group, for bookkeeping and compliance.
Longtime Noem aide Leslie Hicks was paid $10,400 for event consulting.
Baker & Hostetler, the employer of Noem’s current personal lawyer who threatened legal action against The Scout, received $4,567.
And The Strategy Group, an Ohio-based campaign consultant that worked for Noem in 2022, was paid $3,000 for media production.
It was the Strategy Group, and its president, Ben Yoho, that received a multi-million dollar contract from the State of South Dakota to produce the controversial workforce development campaign known as “Freedom Works Here.”
The ads featured Noem portraying various in-demand jobs such as plumber, electrician and dental hygienist.
Lewandowski and Yoho are connected through Noem’s re-election campaign, and were even seen sitting together at her inauguration ceremony after she won a second term in the Governor’s Mansion.
Politics is a small world for the cadre of professionals who often bounce from one campaign to another, climbing the ladder to government positions with successful candidates. They tend to work with people and companies with a proven track record for what they need.
In that regard, Noem’s multiple connections to consultants, or the intertwining of firms, is not unusual, said Michael Beckel, research director for Issue One, a Washington, D.C., based crosspartisan reform group.
Super PACs and 527 committees allow politicians to raise money to support social welfare non-profits such as American Resolve Policy Fund, which is a registered 501(c)4. They differ from the more familiar 501(c)3 non-profits in that they don’t have a charitable mission.
The social welfare groups can only spend a portion of their money for political purposes, though that line is not well-defined, said Beckel.
“A lot of politicians, especially those with higher ambitions, want to be helpful to their team and are traveling the country trying to use their celebrity status to help like-minded candidates, to raise money for candidates who share their policy goals,” he said. “They can do rallies, they can do fundraisers and they can have a political machine that helps pay for that type of travel.”
Noem denied any involvement in the 2022 billboard and robocalls targeting the lawmakers. The cease and desist letter to The Dakota Scout was done in her name, but the widely viewed and commented on social media posts were not.
That was American Resolve.
It’s not illegal, but it is done largely outside the public eye and can be difficult to track.
Former legislature candidate thinks Noem was behind 2022 attacks
Noem’s rise to overseeing one of the largest, and most powerful, agencies in the federal government presents new questions about where money comes from and how it’s spent in a new and changing political landscape.
“We don't know who it is, who is bankrolling the effort. We don't know if there are people who want to carry favor with her as the secretary of Homeland Security, who might continue to contribute to this entity in the weeks and months ahead,” said Beckel.
“If there are nonprofits that don't disclose their donors, connected to administration officials and cabinet secretaries, those could be avenues for people to access and influence the administration. Those could be vehicles for special interest, to try to put their thumb on the scale of the decision-making process that will be unfolding under the Trump administration.”
The landscape in South Dakota is shifting as well, as Gov. Larry Rhoden takes over for Noem. That doesn’t mean political campaigns will significantly shift.
The scenario is familiar to Jake Schoenbeck, the son of former Senate Majority Leader Lee Schoenbeck of Watertown. The younger Schoenbeck, who lives in Sioux Falls, ran for a seat in the House of Representatives in 2022.
In the Republican primary, a text campaign paid for by Defend US PAC, portrayed him as a king with a crown sitting on a throne.
“South Dakota is not a monarchy,” the illustration read.
Schoenbeck’s only qualification for the job was being the son of a prominent Republican, the text read.
Defend US is a national PAC supporting Trump but Schoenbeck believes Noem was behind the text because his father clashed with the governor and his own statements on the podcast he co-hosts, Dakota Town Hall.
“Do I fault her for going after me? No. I fault her for not wanting to put her name on it. It’s just cowardly,” he said in an interview with Sioux Falls Live.
Schoenbeck said he supported Noem and believed she was doing a great job until her national profile started to rise during the Covid pandemic in 2020.
“She saw a rocket ship to ride on,” he said. “It worked, definitely, but you look at the mess she left in South Dakota, and I hope she thinks that it was worth it.”
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I am pleased that The Dakota Scout is hanging in there strong on this topic. Joe and Jonathan do excellent work, and this is merely an additional and important example. Our State is surely better for their journalism.
Here's a novel idea: Why not simply use the PAC money to pay back the state for all of these "over the top" expenses? Today's story is yet another example in a long history of events where Noem and her team misjudge the situation and extend the life of a negative news beyond its natural lifetime. A typical "mean girl" move from high school where somehow she needs to get in the last word. Cricket Lives, Baby!!!