The Minnehaha County GOP central committee
Below, I wrote about the new focus on the upcoming elections for chairman of the Minnehaha County Republican Committee after the committee courted controversy by withdrawing from Chamber of Commerce-sponsored legislative forums.
So who actually votes in this chairman election?
A lot of people. More after the jump.
There’s the elected precinct committeemen and committeewomen, of whom there are 71, according to a document provided by the county auditor.
Also voting are county party officials: county party chair and vice chair, the party’s secretary, treasurer, and state committeeman and committeewoman.
The chair is Lora Hubbel. I don’t believe there is a vice-chair; Hubbel was vice-chair and became chair when David Rose stepped down. The secretary is Craig Dewey, the treasurer is Dave Roetman, the state committeeman is Ryan Haram, and the state committeewoman is Tammy Weis.
Then there’s the elected officials: all Republican state lawmakers residing in Minnehaha County, plus Republican elected Minnehaha County officials such as the sheriff and the county commissioners.
On the county side, that would seem to include commissioners Gerald Beninga, Cindy Heiberger, Dick Kelly and John Pekas, auditor Bob Litz, register of deeds Julie Risty, sheriff Mike Milstead, state’s attorney Aaron McGowan and coroner Kenneth Snell. (I don’t know for sure that all of those are Republicans; if one or more of them are not, let me know. The only county officials I know are Democrats are commissioner Jeff Barth and treasurer Pam Nelson.)
In terms of state representatives, that means that some lawmakers who represent Minnehaha County but live in other counties can’t vote. That includes Rep. Manny Steele, a Lincoln County resident who’s been heavily involved in the legislative coffee dispute.
Some of the local state lawmakers list post office boxes for their address, so I can’t say for certain which of them live in the county. The following Republican lawmakers or lawmakers-elect list Minnehaha County addresses: Tim Rave, Jon Hansen, Shantel Krebs, Deb Peters, Steve Hickey, Scott Ecklund, Phyllis Heineman, Mark Mickelson, Hal Wick, Christine Erickson and Jim Stalzer.
Unknown to me are the county residence status of Jenna Haggar, Don Haggar, Anne Hajek and Deb Soholt, who all list post office boxes.
If you want to view the full list of committeemen and committeewomen, you can do so here.
