Rounds: Campaign funds maintaining list of supporters

By David Montgomery
Published/Last Modified on Thursday, Feb 04, 2010 - 12:42:55 pm CST

Bob Mercer had a great catch a few days ago, noting that Gov. Mike Rounds had filed a campaign finance report reflecting $439,875 in the bank and expenditures of $92,043 — including $69,298 on "salaries."

Mercer wasn't able to get an answer from the governor's press secretary, but during the governor's press conference today, I asked him about it.

Rounds said his campaign is paying people to do several things, chiefly keep his list of supporters up to date.

"We continue to communicate with our supporters," Rounds said. "We in some cases solicit to try to promote our ideas."

With a smile and a glance back to Lt. Gov. Dennis Daugaard, seated to his left, Rounds added:

"You'd be amazed at how valuable a political supports list which is updated can be."

The governor also said his campaign fund pays for certain political events he attends.

"If there are activities out there which are something to do with my participation in a (Republican Governors Association) event, or if it's an event where I'm expected to participate but we don't use state funds to do it, we may very well use those funds to do it and pay taxes on those funds through a payroll tax."

The governor also said he's been hiring young people to help him go through what he said is a mountain of papers he's piled up during his time in office. Rounds said he's currently renting storage for his papers.

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