In the absence of experience, Jason Ravnsborg apparently thinks he deserves the Republican nomination for Attorney General because his poor mom died a year ago. So opens Kevin Woster’s profile of the least qualified man on the statewide ballot:
… the newly nominated Republican candidate for South Dakota attorney general celebrated his victory at the GOP convention in Pierre on Saturday, which was also the one-year-anniversary of his mom’s death.
And so it became more than just a sad day. It became a mom-and-dad-story day, too.
“Our personal little rallying cry was that we’re going to make that a happy day so that we wouldn’t remember June 23rd always as a sad day,” Ravnsborg said by phone from the airport in Dallas, Texas (More on that shortly…). “I know my mother is looking down proudly. I know she would be proud” [Kevin Woster, “Ravnsborg Turns Sad Anniversary into Winning Way Forward in Attorney General’s Campaign,” SDPB: On the Other Hand, 2018.06.28].
Kristi Noem squeezed political mileage out of a parent’s death; apparently Ravnsborg thinks it’ll work for him, too.
I don’t know whether Democratic nominee Randy Seiler‘s parents are still alive or not. I do know they have at least as much reason to be proud of their son as Ravnsborg’s parents. I also know that parental pride and health status have nothing to do with who’s more qualified to lead state law enforcement. And on relevant qualifications, even Woster agrees that Seiler beat Ravnsborg on prosecutorial experience, “no contest.”
In his weak attempt to draw out attention away from his own failures, Ravnsborg shows he hasn’t paid much attention to Seiler’s other obvious advantages:
“There are so many other areas of the law that give a person courtroom and life experience also,” he said. “One has to not only be able to take a case to trial but also many more time negotiate a successful resolution without going to trial” [Woster, 2018.06.28].
Negotiate a successful resolution without going to trial—as Seiler said in our May 31 podcast conversation, 75 of his over 500 federal felony cases went to jury trial… which means that in hundreds of serious cases, he must have negotiated a successful resolution without going to trial. Seiler also had thirteen years of experience in private practice before advancing to the federal prosecutor’s office in South Dakota. That’s just a couple years shy of the fifteen years of attorneying Ravnsborg brags about.
Ravnsborg also argues that his military experience matters. He says he oversees 600 Army Reserve personnel across the Dakotas, Nebraska and Missouri.
“I work daily with staff making decisions, assessing resources, personnel issues and budgetary matters,” he said. “And I will do that in the Attorney General’s Office” [Woster, 2018.06.28].
Military experience—Ravnsborg has this bad habit of forgetting that his opponents also served in the military. Seiler served in the Air Force, did a tour in Vietnam, and earned an Air Force Commendation Medal.
As for supervisory experience, as U.S. Attorney, Seiler managed an office of 60 people in four offices spread across South Dakota, not just chasing each other around Camp Swampy but doing the same kind of prosecutorial work that he’s applying to do for us as Attorney General.
But sure, keep going, Jason:
Ravnsborg says he hasn’t determined an approach to the campaign against Seiler.
“I’ve not seen him take many positions yet. But we’re going to talk about issues, because I will talk about issues,” Ravnsborg said. “I’ve got some issues, especially fighting drugs and fixing SB 70 and SB 73, and human trafficking” [Woster, 2018.06.28].
Maybe Ravnsborg gave up reading for Ramadan. He must have missed the positions Seiler took in our May 31 interview on meth, drug laws, corruption, various state lawsuits, guns and school safety, relations with Indian Country, and crime victims’ rights. He must not have read Seiler’s campaign website.
Not even a week past his nomination, Ravnsborg is already sputtering, throwing out emotional appeals and hoping that if he just doesn’t look at Seiler’s awesome résumé, no one else will, either. Let’s hope South Dakota voters are smarter than that.
Jason is depending on one thing to get elected, the ‘R’ behind his name.
As a long time Democrat suggested to me the other day, why aren’t the 3 leading Dem candidates pooling resources and out campaigning together? Sutton, Bjorkman and Seiler should be out on the trail together.
Let’s not get too misty-eyed over Seilers’ “negotiation of successful resolutions” to his felony cases. Most likely, he used plea bargaining to “negotiate” guilty pleas from a great number of them. I suspect that among those were a hefty number of people who were not guilty of that of which they were charged, but chose what they felt was the best route, knowing that they had little chance of “justice” in a trial, which held Seilers’ promise of a much worse punishment than they would receive if they pled out. I don’t know any of this, but I think it’s a safe bet, given the shameful actions of many, if not most, US Attorneys.
This is a slam dunk for Seiler. Fitzgerald tried to debate him and the GOP establishment shut him down. Now we are guaranteed a democrat for Attorney General. Has he not heard of the rules of evidence?
Fitzgerald tried to debate Seiler? Where? When?
The GOP shut him down? How?
Has who not heard of the rules of evidence?
Isn’t Ravnsborg in violation of the Hatch Act? While on active duty you cannot be involved in any political activity or fundraising.
No, he is not violating the act as he is not active duty.
http://www.afrc.af.mil/News/Commentaries/Display/Article/946973/political-season-dos-and-donts-for-reservists/
Was the post about his Mother his version of Nixon’s “Checkers” speech?
He won the nomination BEFORE he mentioned his mother’s death.
Can’t wait for the first debate. Will Fitz be invited if he runs on the constitutional party?
Here we are at the end of June and Rvnsbrg won’t even answer the simple question, “How many jury trials have you done?”
It really is a simple question to answer for a lawyer. Randy Seiler answered it. Seiler has done so many that nobody could blame him for giving a ballpark answer. Still he gave a clear and concise answer, and the answer showed he has extensive legal experience. Extensive!
So Ravnsbrg will have to answer the question sometime. If he hasn’t tried a case he should come clean. If he’s tried 1 civil case in 15 years he should come clean. I don’t think he has ever really been a practicing lawyer. He’s probably a LINO (lawyer In Name Only) who inherited a lot of money from his late mom.
Looking back to when Jason Ravsnborg was running for US Senate I was under the impression he was in the USAF during the Iraq War with a photo on his campaign website standing with Aviator glasses on in front of an A-10 Warthog. Did he not fly for the USAF? Now I’m reading he was a US Army Transportation Unit Company Commander?
That’s fine, Anne. But here he is, turning to voters and saying more about his more dead mom than about the one basic question about his qualification for the job he’s asking for. He is publicly exploiting this sad story, à la Noem, to get votes.
The fact that he refers to the anniversary as “Our personal little rallying cry” indicates that he and others were thinking about this issue as a justification for thinking he deserved the nomination, which is what I said in my opening.
See details on Ravnsborg’s Warthoggery here: http://madvilletimes.com/2014/01/reservist-ravnsborg-responds-respects-regulations-revamps-website/
Miranda Lynn posts at 4:20. How ironic.
He won the nomination BEFORE he mentioned his mother’s death.
The nomination is not an election. What are his lawyerly qualifications, Ms Beale?
Grudgenutz ! you adorable curmudgeon !
You nailed it with the plea bargains. Sad day when someone is shouting success is equated by the amount of people you can fleece into plea bargaining rather than the quality of justice.
Prosecutors need body counts to get promotions , and poor people cannot afford to sit in jail when they are innocent so they plea bargain out.
I notice that Cory nor Dems are challenging Prop W as well.
Ravnsborg will surely come out against Amendment W, as his one job is to keep the lid on corruption in Pierre, not allow the people any means by which pry that lid open and expose the worms.