More turmoil, as South Dakota Democratic Party recalls Minnehaha County party official Sheldon Osborn
Sheldon Osborn has devoted a lot of time and energy to the South Dakota Democratic Party.
On Saturday, he was told his efforts were no longer needed. Osborn was recalled as Region 3 representative during a South Dakota Region 3 State Central Committee meeting on Saturday. Region 3 includes legislative districts 9, 10, 11, 14 and 15, covers Minnehaha County and includes Sioux Falls and a section of Hartford.
Osborn (seen above with former state legislator Frank Kloucek, left, posing with a rainbow flag, a symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBT) pride and LGBT social movements. Photo courtesy Sheldon Osborn) has previously served on the SDDP Executive Board as a regional representative from 2008-10.
In a notice of the Zoom meeting to decide his status, Region 3 officials said Osborn, a 76-year-old accountant and commercial property manager with a lengthy history of party activism, actually posed a risk.
“Our party, especially at a local level, faces many threats, but the continuous presence and undermining behavior of Sheldon Osborn is the most dangerous threat to the success of party efforts in our state’s largest county,” it states. “For these reasons and more, a majority of Region 3 SCC members seek an expeditious process to recall and replace Sheldon Osborn.”
This latest round of internal turmoil provides a glimpse into how the South Dakota Democratic Party operates, who is in control, and how they deal with someone perceived to be not following the party line.
Sharon “Spider” Schulz-Elsing, who remains a Region 3 representative as well as serving as vice chair of the Minnehaha Democratic Party, said she had “long enjoyed a cordial relationship with Sheldon” but said his actions and statements in recent months had become troublesome.
“It is important for the sake of a healthy party to welcome multiple perspectives and all demographics — but the sharing of those perspectives must happen in good faith and with civility,” Schulz-Elsing said in an email to Region 3 State Central Committee members. “Those qualities have unfortunately not been demonstrated adequately by my partner outside our one-on-one conversations.
“The position Sheldon and I each hold within the SDDP, that of regional representative, comes not only with the privilege and power of bringing our individual voices to the table in guiding the path of the South Dakota Democratic Party forward. It also comes with the responsibility to caretake the organization in such a way that our conduct does not weaken the party, ESPECIALLY in public,” she wrote. “It comes with the responsibility to faithfully represent our constituency’s needs and concerns to the state party. It comes with the responsibility to actively listen as well as speak, build bridges and seek to collaborate. The personal responsibility to not browbeat, hijack meetings, sow discord, or undercut other members of leadership at any level with ugly insinuations or malicious gossip. To not deliberately splinter the party into warring factions or deepen existing ‘natural’ divides.”
On Monday, Schulz-Elsing amplified that in an email exchange with The South Dakota Standard when asked to explain why Osborn was recalled.
“This is the South Dakota Democratic Party holding its officials accountable, efficiently and thoughtfully, as grown-up organizations should,” she said. “The recall of Sheldon Osborn is democracy in action, a bottom-up effort by the folks his job it was to represent. It was not undertaken lightly.
“Despite anything you may hear to the contrary, this has nothing to do with ‘differences of opinion’ or, absurdly, ‘free speech,” Schulz-Elsing said. “That’s right-wing framing. SDDP is a true big tent and all viewpoints are heard. Our values are collectively determined and well-outlined in state party platform.”
She said the fact that Osborn shared private emails with a reporter is “only another example of how he acts as a good steward (or not) of the organization on whose executive board he sat …”
Schulz-Elsing said this is not the first time Osborn has aired “dirty laundry” with the press to advance his personal agenda, and it only “undercuts party progress along cross-coalitional lines and is further evidence of behavior unbefitting a leader in our organization. He has deliberately manufactured a self-serving public distraction from what SDDP, Region 3, MCDP (the Minnehaha County Democratic Party) and our hardworking Democratic state legislators are focused on: real issues like low wages and a child-care crisis creating workforce issues, attacks on public education and health care, the ongoing exodus of South Dakota’s incredibly talented young people, good-faith state government collaboration with our sovereign nations, and on and on.”
Deep roots in SDDP
Osborn, a Sioux Falls resident, had been a regional representative position for about five years, but his roots in the South Dakota Democratic Party run deep.
Sen. George McGovern was a family friend, often visiting their home in Huron, he said. Osborn was an intern in McGovern’s Sioux Falls office, worked in his Washington, D.C., office and was on the campaign trail for him in multiple states during the 1972 presidential campaign.
Osborn was the Beadle County Democratic Party treasurer in the 1970s, the Minnehaha Democratic County chair from 2009-11 and chaired its recruitment committee from 2005-11. He also worked on Jack Billion’s 2006 gubernatorial campaign and Sen. Tom Daschle’s final race in 2004.
But that long service to the party came to an end Saturday when the South Dakota Democratic Party Region 3 State Central Committee voted 11-3 to recall him.
“This is no way to build the party,” Osborn said on Sunday. “The point of politics is addition, not subtraction. If you want to build the party, this is not how you do it.”
He said he was stunned to learn of the recall effort in mid-January, saying in emails to party officials he wanted to know what he was accused of doing.
“I would like to defend myself,” Osborn said.
On Saturday, he spoke for about 10 minutes during the Zoom meeting before the vote was held. Osborn said he was not given proper notice for the meeting, and questions the legality of the process.
He is unsure about filing an appeal.
“I haven’t decided yet,” Osborn said. “I don’t know if they’re worth the energy, to tell you the truth.”
But he said he thinks the skids were greased for his departure in 2023, when he opposed efforts to remove Jennifer Slaight-Hansen of Aberdeen from her post as SDDP chair. He said she was accused of things she didn’t do and unfairly recalled from office.
Osborn said SDDP Executive Director Dan Ahlers, who clashed with Slaight-Hansen from the onset of her assuming leadership of the party, unfairly criticized her and that led to her recall from office.
Ahlers did not respond to an email seeking comments.
The emails from SDDP Region 3 officials support the fact that Osborn was seen by SDDP leaders as a troublesome force within the party, and his support for Slaight-Hansen was not appreciated.
She was accused of not working with the 11 Democrats in the South Dakota Legislature, hiring and firing staff members without the authority to do so, and creating a new job position without notifying the SDDP Executive Board. Her decision to align the South Dakota Democratic Party with the Biden Victory Fund also raised hackles.
Slaight-Hansen and Ahlers had trouble working together. She said when she gave directions to him, he resisted. When Ahlers, a former legislator who has run for state and federal office, announced he was stepping down as executive director, party leaders quickly moved to remove Slaight-Hansen.
Even after he “resigned,” Ahlers remained on the party payroll after resigning his post, and continued to have the keys to the office. At a SDDP event in the fall, he was welcomed back to his old job.
“Never left,” Ahlers said.
Osborn’s support of Slaight-Hansen and his hostile relationship with party leaders continued to cause friction, the emails he shared reveal.
“Through a widely documented public media campaign and several communications with State Central Committee members around the state, Sheldon misrepresented the entirety of Region 3 (Minnehaha County) throughout the process of Jennifer Slaight-Hansen’s recall as state party chair,” one email states. “MCDP unanimously voted to request Jennifer Slaight-Hansen’s resignation and pursue recall. On contrary, Sheldon actively worked against the wishes of his constituency — Region 3, fully contained within Minnehaha County — and aided Slaight-Hansen’s organization-harming efforts by misinforming State Central Committee members about legal concerns, leaking information to media, discrediting state party leaders in public forums and media, and continuously meeting and communicating with Slaight-Hansen privately to push to a recall vote, despite known communication that she had considered resignation.”
Once Slaight-Hansen was removed, party officials hoped Osborn would “work peacefully with local leadership to exercise his duties as a Region 3 representative.”
But, he continued to support Slaight-Hansen and criticize SDDP leaders. In the emails setting up the recall vote, it is stated that it was “highly probable, though unconfirmed,” that he had submitted an anonymous statement to the Rapid City Journal when Shane Merrill, who had been SDDP vice chair, was elected in September to replace her.
“So, having forced out the chair of the SD Democratic Party, Shane Merrill now wants to replace her and rebuild the Party George McGovern in the 1950s,” according to the anonymous comment. “What a surprise! Mr. Merrill, I knew George McGovern. He was a friend, Mr. Merrill, you’re no George McGovern! There is no reason to be a Democrat in South Dakota anymore.”
Osborn denied making that comment.
“No, that’s not mine,” Osborn said. “I wrote them a note saying I had nothing to do with that.”
Which direction for SDDP?
He said he feels the state party is headed in the wrong direction.
“Those behind the recall represent a small faction of Dems but they have acquired control over the three largest counties in SD in large part because changes in precinct person rules discourage demographic diversity,” Osborn said in an email. “They have driven away many Democrats with broader points of view and their base is so narrow the only elections they can win are in districts gerrymandered by Republicans to corral Dems and create safe districts for themselves.”
He said while unity is a worthy goal, it’s equally important to allow diverse viewpoints to be considered.
“The core recall folks are intolerant and downright nasty. That is not how you build a bigger party,” Osborn said. “Democratic registration has continued to decline and, despite their sense of aggrievement, the recall leaders in some form have been in charge since at least Paula Hawk’s brief chairship in 2019. During that time, statewide Dem registration has declined from 159,000 to 150,000. It was 208,000 in 2009. Minnehaha has added 12,000 voters during that time but there are only 87 more Dems than before.”
It is down to 145,700 as of Jan. 2, according to the South Dakota Secretary of State’s Office.
He said the people behind the recalls that removed Slaight-Hansen and him from party offices have been leading South Dakota Democrats for four years with “special access” to SDDP staff and its resources.
He said Erik Muckey, the chair of the Minnehaha County Democratic Party, was especially sensitive to any criticism. Muckey is the CEO of Lost&Found, which describes itself as “the region’s largest youth and young adult-focused (ages 10-34) suicide prevention and postvention nonprofit.”
In addition, he is the founder and managing partner of Pasq, a Sioux Falls consulting firm. Former SDDP Executive Director Berk Ehrmantraut is Pasq’s director of operations and Jessica Meyers, the former party vice chair, is a managing partner.
Muckey circulated a petition to recall Osborn. Among the signers were state Sen. Reynold Nesiba and 2020 Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jamie Smith, who is running to replace the term-limited Nesiba in the state Senate. Ehrmantraut notarized the petition.
Muckey is seeking the Democratic nomination for the District state House seat being vacated by state Rep. Linda Duba, who is not seeking re-election.
Muckey did not respond to emails seeking comment.
“Jennifer threatened that special access. That, as much as anything, is what the recall was all about,” Osborn said. “As I said to Jennifer, obedience and compliance seem to be the passwords for the SDDP these days.”
Slaight-Hansen, a former Aberdeen City Council member who was the chair of the Brown County Democratic Party before taking on a state leadership role, albeit briefly, said she is dismayed at what is happening with the party.
“This new Democrat leadership seems to be wasting time on vendettas and advancing personal agendas,” she said. “The relentless infighting within our party is disheartening and alienating voters.”
It’s apparent that SDDP officials grew tired of Osborn’s criticism, both in person and online via the group Drinking Liberally, which meets at a Sioux Falls bar at 5 p.m. Fridays.
“Sheldon has also shared additional comments publicly and privately about the ‘incompetence’ of state and county party leadership, as well as spreading inflammatory rumors about the private businesses of state and county party leadership attempting to take over the SDDP,” one of the emails setting up the recall vote states. “This culminated with a recent email for a non-party event called ‘Drinking Liberally,’ in which he states, ‘Lord knows the SDDP’s new Leadership can use whatever help you can give them.’”
Osborn said he realizes some of his emails may have caused hurt feelings. But he also said he had disagreements with new party leaders and wanted to make that clear.
Another allegation leading to the recall effort was “documented instances of homophobic statements and misconduct that has previously resulted in reprimand by local and state party officials.”
The emails claim he said demeaning things about Merrill and had been banned from the SDDP office in Sioux Falls for a long time. Osborn said he was never told he could not go to the office.
He also denies being homophobic. Osborn said in an email exchange with former legislator Frank Kloucek, he did make some possibly inappropriate comments after Merrill sided with the group seeking to recall Slaight-Hansen. He said he was comparing Merrill’s change in position to that of a person who undergoes a gender change.
“I guess that’s the implication,” Osborn said. “I didn’t mean it that way but pronouns are so important these days.”
Merrill said he didn’t want to get involved with this recall, since it was handled by Region 3 officials and not the state party.
“I guess he should choose his words better. I don’t want to get into it,” he said. “We got bigger things to worry about than Sheldon.”
Merrill said he did change his mind about supporting Slaight-Hansen, who was elected with more than 90 percent of voting party members on Feb. 25 and took office in May. By summer, she had lost support across the state and was recalled in a 57-0 vote, with two officials abstaining, on Aug. 19. An appeal was rejected on Sept. 16.
Merrill said he was far from alone in deciding Slaight-Hansen was a bad choice as chair after she was in office just a short time.
“Well, didn’t everybody?” he said.
Schulz-Elsing said many Minnehaha County and Lincoln County area party leaders are relatively younger or have become active in the last decade. They have been portrayed to other party leaders across the state as a “Sioux Falls mafia” that wants to reshape the nature of the SDDP in a way that utterly sidelines and silences all voices outside our metro area, she said.
“Disseminating such false characterization destabilizes the party, not to mention being inaccurate and unrepresentative of the constituency our position is intended to serve,” Schulz-Elsing said. “Again, this recall action is not undertaken lightly or with relish, and I am personally sorrowful that the situation has come to this. Sheldon has decades-long experience and knowledge that by itself is valuable to the party. Unfortunately, experience and knowledge deployed in a divisive and combative manner cause more harm than good. Similarly, experience and knowledge alone do not automatically enable someone to lead and represent others effectively.”
She said she hopes Osborn will continue to help elect Democrats in South Dakota.
He said he will remain a Democrat, and noted he remains involved in Precinct 39 in Sioux Falls. He has repeatedly offered to help party leaders but those offers have been rebuffed.
“I’m still a Democrat. I can’t see myself doing anything but voting for someone who is like a Democrat,” he said. “I stand ready — I stood ready — to help them.”
Tom Lawrence has written for several newspapers and websites in South Dakota and other states and contributed to The New York Times, NPR, The Telegraph, The Daily Beast and other media outlets.
