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Lederman Likens Self to Reagan, Doesn’t Explain Dual Voter Registration

Dan Lederman
Dan Lederman

That Sioux Falls paper gives SDGOP chair Dan Lederman a chance to respond to the brouhaha about his holding an active registration as a Democratic voter in Iowa. While Lederman likens himself to former Democrat Ronald Reagan and smartly exploits the free press to recruit for his party, he says nothing about the salient legal issue: why, as of July of this year, was he registered to vote in both Iowa and South Dakota?

An astute reader finds an Iowa statute (636.11) that says, “An agent for a company authorized to engage in the business of becoming surety upon bonds must be a resident of this state for the purpose of acting on behalf of the surety company with respect to any bond or bail in criminal cases.” That statute suggests that, when Lederman moved to South Dakota in 1996, he would have lost the ability to serve as an agent in his own bail bondsman company. Keeping his Iowa voter registration might have kept Lederman freer all these years to conduct business activities in Iowa.

Of course, if voter registration were sufficient to retain residency status for Lederman’s business purposes, might that not also mean he retained residency status for Iowa state income tax purposes? Another Iowa statute (38.17(2)) includes voter registration as one of the criteria for establishing “domicile” for income tax purposes:

There is a rebuttable presumption that an individual is domiciled in Iowa if the individual meets the following factors:

(1) Maintains a residence or place of abode in Iowa, whether owned, rented, or occupied, even if the individual is in Iowa less than 183 days of the tax year, and either

(2) Claims a homestead credit or military tax exemption on a home in Iowa, or

(3) Is registered to vote in Iowa, or

(4) Maintains an Iowa driver’s license, or

(5) Does not reside in an abode in any other state for more days of the tax year than the individual resides in Iowa.

Even if Lederman sleeps most nights at his golf course villa just across the river, keeping a flop in Newton, Iowa and calling it his residence for voter registration purposes could be enough to subject his bountiful income to the Iowa taxman’s consideration.

So Dan Lederman really is like Ronald Reagan: he’s very good at avoiding questions. Sioux Falls paper, you’d better invite Lederman back and ask him again about his curious dual voter registration.

9 Comments

  1. Rorschach 2017-10-13 08:56

    There are still questions to be answered. How did Lederman’s Iowa registration remain classified as “active” as opposed to “inactive” after all of those years of not voting there? Did Lederman take steps and/or sign documents to keep his registration “active?” Is he claiming Iowa residency to comply with bail bond business “fiduciary” laws although he doesn’t live in Iowa, thereby violating Iowa law?

    If members of the media are afraid to ask the tough questions what good are they?

  2. jerry 2017-10-13 09:42

    Lederman has likened himself to Reagan because Reagan could not remember. Well played Danny boy, well played. Grab yourself a handful of jelly beans now and hope the media does not remember that you are a just another fraud in South Dakota politics.

  3. mike from iowa 2017-10-13 09:44

    Lederman pronounced hisself dead, like Raygun?

  4. jerry 2017-10-13 10:27

    There is some irony in your post mfi. Danny boy may be in for a showdown.

  5. Joe 2017-10-13 12:03

    IDK, when I moved to Arizona, I registered to vote here, and as late as 3 years after moving I was still registered in South Dakota, and I put on my registration that I was registered in South Dakota and they were suppose to take me off ( I think I finally have been removed, but I’m still not 100% sure)

    So it could be innocent, it might not be

  6. Bruce 2017-10-13 13:15

    Now comes the question, how could he be a resident of two states while being a member of the South Dakota legislature? Did he resign when someone might asked the question?

  7. jerry 2017-10-13 16:53

    Nice water carrying fred, to bad though, Danny boy has some real issues with this. One thing it shows though is that your dear leader he is pretty lax in the responsibility department. If he cannot manage something as important as the legality of his own situation, then he is much like those he posts bail on. Lock him up

  8. Donald Pay 2017-10-13 19:30

    Lock him up.

Comments are closed.