Who is Dennis Langley? He's the National Vice Chair of the South Dakota Democratic Party. Why is he significant? Well, one big reason is the fact that the Four Directions PAC owes him a whopping $100,000, according to this report. The Four Directions PAC, of course, is the predecessor of the Four Directions Committee so often in the news lately, harassing South Dakota Secretary of State Chris Nelson (who is doing a fine job in difficult circumstances, by the way). What's more, there's no evidence that this $100,000 loan from Dennis Langley to the Four Directions PAC has ever been repaid.
It seems that this Four Directions PAC has had some serious failure-to-file issues with the Federal Election Commission, which earned a nasty letter from the FEC. The letter warned that failure to timely file a receipt and expenditures report "may result in civil money penalties, an audit, or legal enforcement action."
It turns out that Dennis Langley has quite a history. From 1993 to 1999 he was the Chairman of the Kansas Democratic Party, and was (perhaps still is) owner of the Kansas Pipeline Partnership. According to a story in the Lawrence Journal World, Langley was mentioned in a 67 page criminal complaint filed by the Milwaukee County District Attorney's office. A story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, headlined "MG&E gave $45,000 to Democrats; That's $20,000 more than at first admitted" has more details.
The bottom line is that Dennis Langley came to South Dakota with quite a record of campaign problems behind him, and Four Directions PAC owed him a lot of money when it terminated. As always, this investigation only leads to more questions. How has Langley come to South Dakota? Why? Was he run out of Kansas? How did he become vice chairman? How does he earn his money? Who financed that loan to Four Directions? Was it repaid? What was the money used for? Were there any consequences for failing to file timely reports?
These are questions South Dakota journalists should be investigating. The AP story linked above is a good start, but obviously, it's only the tip of the iceberg.
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