One error leads to another. And it's the difference between Midwest and Midstates

I had a call tonight from someone who was following up on a story I did recently on campaign finance. Remember the post I did on the group of interests who funded attack ads including the group "Vision South Dakota?" Among the people funding Vision South Dakota was a group called the Midwest Coalition for Progress:

And as I looked at it, part of my research pointed to a citation in a Rapid City Journal article with an organization of the same name:

In googling the name, the result quickly comes up. It should draw the attention of statewide reporters, because they're covering this group on another issue. The DM&E rail fight. That's right. As you can see as identified in this article from the Rapid City Journal, the Midwest Coalition for Progress is an anti-DM&E Railroad expansion group:

In one letter to land owners, DM&E’s agent tells them that DM&E has “enough certainty” to start the land acquisition process. A landowner advisory group formed several years ago, but it’s unclear if it remains active.

Nancy Darnell, who ranches with her husband, Donley Darnell, near Newcastle, said it’s much too soon to talk about land acquisition. The Darnells belong to the Midwest Coalition for Progress, an opposition group. And the railroad would cross their land.

“I think they’re trying to rush people with this letter,” she said in a recent interview.

Read that here.

Of course, I come to find out that there was just one teensy problem with my research. The Rapid City Journal Article was wrong.

The RCJ article referred to the group contesting the DM&E expansion as the "Midwest Coalition for Progress." As I'm finding out tonight, the problem is, that's not actually their name. The group contesting the DM&E expansion is called the "Midstates Coalition for Progress."

And it makes sense, because if you look, you find a great number of references to the Midstates Coalition for Progress contesting DM&E actions:

Nancy Darnell, a Newcastle, Wyo., rancher and member of the Midstates Coalition for Progress (my emphasis - pp), cited her group’s landowner survey this summer that showed 10 percent have a deal with the railroad.

Of the remaining 90 percent, Darnell said she believes most are against the project. “I don’t see hardly any fence-sitters,” she said.

It's the same article author, and one of the same commentators as the article I cited. And the name of the organization was screwed up.

Dammit. Aside from the embarrassment of citing a trusted news source, the Rapid City Journal, who gets it wrong, I'm back to square one on trying to figure out who the Midwest Coalition for Progress is.

What do we know? Well, for starters, they have money. They dropped $30,000 into Vision South Dakota. And they share a post office box with the group funding Daniel Brendtro's Forward South Dakota Anti-video lottery effort, the South Dakota Association....
where someone with the same address dropped better than $414,000 into that effort. PO Box 1401 in Sioux Falls would seem to be the key to both groups. And the trail runs cold there.

Anyone have any information on this group or who might own this PO Box? E-mail me here as the mystery deepens.