Hubbel: future of Constitution Party SD in judge's hands

Last October US District Judge Lawrence Piersol ordered the State of South Dakota to pay some $625,000 in costs and fees after nearly three years of litigating Libertarian Party v. Krebs ending in a two-day trial.

A total of four attorneys, including two Sioux Falls lawyers and two out-of-state, ACLU lawyers with extensive voting rights experience, were hired by the plaintiffs — the Libertarian Party of South Dakota, the Constitution Party of South Dakota and various party officials. [Rapid City Journal]

In an exclusive interview last year outgoing CP Chair Lori Stacey told her side of that story.

The Dakota Progessive: How is the lawsuit against the Constitution Party going and will it be settled before May?

Lora Hubbel: I have a legal, documented chain of CP chairs from 2012 till today...I have documented it for the judge until Im blue in the face. Im trying to stay off social media about it but maybe I should set the record straight because Im so tired of being lied about. Having a continuous Chair is important because [SDGOP Chair Dan Lederman] meddled in our party affairs and said he did not agree with me calling a convention. That was OUR call..not his. But having a continuous chair is important because the state circuit judge decided SHE could determine that there was no chair when we did. Also we were told NOT to go to the hearing (state). We got served a subpoena AFTER the hearing was over saying we could come and give our side of the story.(Improper service). That is why I took it to Federal court for violating our 1st and 14th Amendment.

State law says a "Party Chair" has to call the convention....which I did after I was determined (by the national CP parliamentarian) to be the "pro tem" chair" when we were trying to figure out the mess Lori Stacey left the party in. There were no records, no minutes of meetings, no bank records etc. She also had no record of HER being the chair....she actually just took the position from Joel Bergan after I resigned in 2017...and I resigned as chair back then because she was such a bully and refused to give me any records. I had no bank access and no website access as Chair in 2016, so I quit in 2017. Dan Lederman sued because we did not have a "Chair" to call the nominating convention....we did...but we were not allowed to give the facts to the judge.

As Partner Attorney at Robins Kaplan LLP, Brendan Johnson, former US Attorney for the District of South Dakota and son of retired Democratic Senator Tim Johnson, helped the South Dakota chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union win the Constitution and Libertarian Parties' lawsuit against Republican former Secretary of State Shantel Krebs. Johnson is representing tribes in their suit against opioid manufacturers.

Catherine Piersol, wife of Clinton-appointee Judge Lawrence Piersol who heard Libertarian Party v. Krebs, is a longtime friend of the South Dakota Democratic Party and of the Johnson family. Now that he's softened up the field it's widely believed Johnson is developing the resources necessary to mount a run for public office.

How frustrating it must be for principled conservatives to have establishment Republicans in the South Dakota legislature encouraging intellectual diversity on campus while ridiculing and stifling it in the statehouse. Little of their agenda was passed during the 2019 legislative session so principled conservatives in South Dakota really have nothing to lose by leaving the SDGOP for a viable third party. West River could become an ideological battleground and Shad Olson could be a factor in 2020.

Constitution Party of South Dakota Chair Mike Dunn has scheduled a meeting for May.