SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO.com) -- State Republican leaders call it money laundering for the Hillary Clinton for President campaign.
The South Dakota Democratic Party says the nearly two and a half million dollars that circulated through the state party in 2016 is business as usual.
The state's Democratic Party got caught up in the firestorm of former Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile's book excerpt in Politico this morning. Brazile essentially accused the Hillary Clinton Presidential campaign of usurping the DNC--including fundraising.
South Dakota was one of 32 states that was part of a joint fundraising agreement with the DNC. Brazile suggests it was a dodge to get around campaign donation limits for individuals versus higher limits for contributions to political parties.
The national party was in a tough spot.
"I mean, I agree with most of what she (Brazile) said, in the sense the DNC was put in a difficult position," South Dakota Democratic Party executive director Sam Parkinson said. "Because the Clinton campaign was financing it."
The South Dakota GOP sees it differently.
"It is unprecedented that a national presidential campaign send over $2.25 million to a South Dakota political party for purposes of washing funds to make them "legal" to return to the candidate," said S.D. GOP Chair Dan Lederman. "It also shows how much their party was controlled by Hillary Clinton."
Parkinson also said the state party did not profit from the movement of the funds. "So we received no money from this," Parkinson said.
"For us, because the primary was so late, and we don't join into joint fund raising agreements with campaigns until after the primary."
Further, according to Parkinson, both parties have engaged in this practice regularly.
"Every Presidential cycle," Parkinson said, "This is something the Democrats have been doing since 1996 and something Republicans have done in the past is create joint fundraising agreements with state parties."
The state Republican Party said the Brazile article proved that the DNC was fully supportive of Clinton over Bernie Sanders and that state parties received no benefit from the money. The conservative blog South Dakota War College also looked at the funding and the 2016 Federal Election Commission reports.
And Lederman engaged in some schadenfreude.
"Not that Republicans are complaining, considering South Dakota Democrats suffered historic losses at the time, but it seems that they were little more than a financial clearinghouse for the Clinton campaign," Lederman said.
Parkinson's entire interview with KELO.com News news director Todd Epp is above.