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Krebs Assures Brown County GOP She’s Got the Grip Gant Didn’t

Attorney General Marty Jackley’s appearance this morning in the initial hearing on Joop Bollen’s charges is not completely out of the blue. A.G. Jackley stayed overnight after emceeing the Brown County Republicans’ Lincoln Day Dinner last night. He introduced keynote speaker Secretary of State Shantel Krebs, who, like Jackley, came to Aberdeen to assure an audience beyond the 200-some party faithful at the Dakota Event Center last night that the GOP powers that be are righting the wrongs of their predecessors:

Her approach during the past 15 months in office has been to look at the way the office operates and set the budget according to what the office needs. Krebs noted the “crisis situation” when she first arrived in the office, with business filings and permit applications weeks behind schedule [Elisa Sand, “Krebs to Brown County Republicans: ‘Crisis Situation’ in Secretary of State’s Office Is Over,” Aberdeen American News, 2016.04.01].

Secretary Krebs’s comments mirror those she made at a Brown County GOP luncheon last November, when she said the man she replaced, disgraced Secretary Jason Gant, left the office in a shambles and that she and her experienced team have cleaned it up. In addition to letting petition and business documents go unfiled, Secretary Gant oversaw a shoddy office that lost iPads, didn’t keep the books updated, and let an original state flag get stolen.

Secretary Krebs herself now has some catching up to do. She has three petition challenges sitting on her desk: the payday lenders’ challenge filed at the end of January to the real-36%-rate-cap petition, my challenge filed at the beginning of February to Lisa Furlong’s fake-18%-rate-cap petition, and Melissa Mentele’s challenge filed at the beginning of March to overturn the Secretary’s rejection of her medical cannabis petition. Last night, she said that once all the new candidate petitions are processed, she plans to turn to those challenges and process them by the end of April.

16 Comments

  1. mike from iowa 2016-04-01 08:53

    Secretary of State Shantel Krebs, who, like Jackley, came to Aberdeen to assure an audience beyond the 200-some party faithful at the Dakota Event Center last night that the GOP powers that be are righting the wrongs of their predecessors:

    So,Krebs fired Jackley-right?

  2. Jenny 2016-04-01 08:58

    Krebs appears to be much better at her job than fat lazy Gant. I’m not going to knock her.

  3. caheidelberger 2016-04-01 09:00

    Ha! No, Mike, only we voters have that power… although maybe Krebs will challenge Jackley and Mickelson for the title of corruption-fighting gubernatorial candidate?

  4. mike from iowa 2016-04-01 09:28

    I give Ms Krebs good marks for being a lilac bloom in an immense CAFO. Unfortunately, the bloom will fade away and the stench becomes more pervasive. Alas, if only she were rooted in Independence or Democracy, she could continue to blossom despite being surrounded and smothered in fertilizer.

  5. leslie 2016-04-01 09:28

    Krebs has her sights on 1st female governor. jackley 1st. let Shantel get a little experience.

    barbies everywhere. SD, the place of beautiful faces

  6. Rorschach 2016-04-01 11:35

    One thing I don’t like about Shantel’s work is that we used to be able to go to the county auditor’s office and look up names to see how people are registered, which helps to verify petitions before sending them in. Now the county auditor says they don’t have a public computer anymore, and blamed it on the Secretary of State. The auditor said we have to go to the SOS website now. Problem is, to check anyone’s registration you need their birthday. Or you need to pay the SOS to buy a list.

  7. Ken Santema 2016-04-01 17:56

    If you have a smartphone you can use the Vote605 app. With it you can use the persons zip code instead of using the birthday for a voter registration check. I wish that feature would be added to the SOS website.

  8. Rorschach 2016-04-01 21:06

    Thanks for the information Ken. I did not know that. But why take the county auditor public computer away?

  9. David Bergan 2016-04-01 22:26

    Yeah, the Vote605 app even does partial matches, which is extremely handy. You can find Cory with “Co” “He” “57401”

    Kind regards,
    David

  10. mike 2016-04-02 10:17

    Cory,

    I had never thought about Krebs running for governor against Mickelson or Jackley. That is an interesting idea to ponder. She’s earned the right to be in that conversation.

    Jackley to this point in his career (appointed in August 2009 by Rounds) has not done much to bolster his resume as a top candidate for governor other than that he’s AG. I’m assuming he has the Rounds establishments backing.

    Mickelson has basically been running for governor since 2012 when he first ran for House. He definitely has the Mickelson establishment backing. He’s the guy that will be the most interesting to watch in the next few sessions. He has out maneuvered Jackley so far with legislation, fundraising and ideas.

    We hear plenty of talk about Noem being a possible candidate for governor which is probably why Krebs doesn’t get as much attention. Krebs could be a serious dark horse if Noem doesn’t run.

    There really isn’t anyone being talked about who has actually done something. Krebs might be that overlooked candidate.

  11. grudznick 2016-04-02 10:59

    Ms. Krebs running for Governor would be like a small, hyperactive, yippy chihuahua fresh off a 3rd place dog-showing with a bow still tied to its ear piloting a 747 onto the Belle Forche landing strip.

  12. grudznick 2016-04-02 11:00

    Fourche, grudznick’s U button is nearly broken.

  13. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-04-02 11:57

    I’ll be darned, Ken! That’s pretty cool—there I am on David’s search, along with fellow Aberdeen Dems Colter and Courtney! That functionality should totally be added to the SDSOS.gov website.

  14. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-04-02 12:05

    Mike, good point—Krebs has a little more “self-made” cred than Mickelson and Jackley. And she wasn’t afraid to upset the apple cart by challenging Gant in 2013… or was she just stabilizing the apple cart by throwing out the most obvious rotten apple?

    Grudz, I do not find Secretary Krebs “yippy.”

  15. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-04-02 12:07

    (and get that keyboard fixed—you need to help us e-mail all your friends and tell them to vote NO on Amendment U!)

  16. grudznick 2016-04-02 12:08

    PP would know how to add it there but after Mr. Gant was run out of town on a rail by a bunch of really stout men there was probably nobody left to be able to fix the web pages. They should put whole lists there with big letters so it is easy for everybody to read even if they don’t know how to use the apps on phones.

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