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CORRECTION: The Minnehaha County GOP executive board did not unanimously support a call for Pischke’s resignation from the Senate, which wasn’t correctly reported in a previous version of this story. The Dakota Scout strives for fairness and accuracy deeply regrets the error.
A Dell Rapids lawmaker embroiled in an election fraud scandal is facing mounting pressure to resign Legislative seat and his Republican Party duties.
Some members of the Minnehaha County GOP Executive Committee are calling on Sen. Tom Pischke (R-District 25) to step down from office, end his bid for reelection and relinquish his duties within the Republican Party.
“It is extremely disappointing and obvious that the serious allegations against you strike at the heart of election integrity – one of the basic and core principles our party has consistently championed,” a memo sent to both Pischke and the county party’s central committee Friday said urging Pischke to resign his post as a regional district chairman within the state GOP.
Pischke has been charged with two Class 6 felonies, accused of committing election fraud this spring by submitting 16 bogus filings for committeemen and committeewomen.
Pischke, 44, deferred comment to the governor’s office and his attorney, Ryan Kolbeck. Kolbeck did not immediately respond to a phone message Saturday.
Pischke served three terms in the House before the Dell Rapids Republican won his Senate seat. He is running for a third term against fellow Republican Bryan Breitling, a former colleague of Pischke at the Capitol who filed for the District 25 legislative seat as an independent candidate.
Pischke is set to appear in Minnehaha County Court next week on two counts of offering a false or forged instrument for filing, felony charges stemming from an investigation into 16 candidate filings for county Republican precinct committeeman and committeewoman received by election officials ahead of a late March candidate filing deadline.
The Scout reported at that time the filings had been flagged by the Minnehaha County Auditor’s Office as potentially bogus.
While each form included what appeared to be a candidate’s signature, a series of inquiries by the auditor’s office determined the individuals listed had no knowledge of the filings — and did not sign them.
Precinct committeemen and committeewomen appear on primary election ballots and, if elected, serve as delegates at the state GOP convention that follows the primary, where they are eligible to cast votes to decide Republican nominees for secretary of state, attorney general, state auditor, state treasurer and commissioner of school and public lands for the general election ballot.
GOP delegates convened last week in Rapid City.
State GOP Chairman Jim Eschenbaum last month said Pischke was stepping away from his official party duties. That wasn’t enough for the county’s Executive Committee, which supported adoption of the memo unanimously. The memo did not call for his resignation from office, though top party leaders say internal conversations about that are ongoing as well.
“Whether the criminal allegations against you are ultimately proven or disproven, your continued service on the Minnehaha County Executive Board places the organization in an untenable position,” according to the July 3 correspondence to Pischke. “Every action taken by our board risks being overshadowed by your pending criminal case, distracting from our core mission and diminishing public confidence in our leadership.”
It’s unclear whether Pischke, whose time in the Legislature has earned him a reputation as both a contrarian with an antagonistic streak and a fierce, hard-working campaigner in District 25, is considering stepping down.
In 2024, he was banned from the House chamber after placing a bottle of Aunt Jemima syrup on a representative’s desk after she blocked his resolution honoring a former slave depicted on the now-discontinued syrup brand.
