South Dakota’s first impeachment rolled forward today, as the House, meeting in its second Special Session of this week, approved House Resolution 7001, which establishes a select committee to investigate the conduct of killer Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg and recommend to the full House whether the Republican manslaughterer should face a Senate trial to remove him from office.
HR 7001 directs the eight Representatives appointed by Speaker Spencer Gosch to the Select Committee on Investigation—Republicans Kent Peterson, Mike Stevens, Steven Haugaard, Doug Barthel, Kevin Jensen, and Jon Hansen and Democrats Jamie Smith and Ryan Cwach—to “investigate whether the conduct of Jason Ravnsborg, Attorney General of the State of South Dakota, surrounding the death of Joe Boever, involved impeachable offenses pursuant to S.D. Const. Art. XVI, § 3.” This direction does not limit the committee to discussing the two misdemeanor traffic charges to which Ravnsborg down-pled no contest in August. The committee may discuss the fact that Ravnsborg’s illegal actions killed a man. The committee may discuss the statements Ravnsborg made relating to that death and his car crash. It may discuss his 911 call moments after he killed Joe Boever on Highway 14 after 10 p.m. on September 12, 2020, and the fact that the Highway Patrol accident report, evidence discovered by investigators and by Boever’s cousin Nick Nemec, weather data, and common sense about what cars look like when they hit deer don’t square with Ravnsborg’s statements.
HR 7001 authorizes this impeachment committee to subpoena witnesses and documents and throw anyone who refuses to respond in jail for contempt of the Legislature. HR 7001 authorizes the Speaker to appoint a special counsel to assist the committee.
In an important amendment, Representative Will Mortenson torpedoed Speaker Gosch’s threat to keep the Ravnsborg investigation file secret from the public and from fellow legislators. The Pierre Capitol rookie amended HR 7001 to include these to vital transparency clauses:
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the select committee shall redact all confidential or nonrelevant information from any information received before such information is released to the public; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that all members of the House of Representatives shall have nonpublic access to all information gathered by the select committee; and [Amendment HR7001B, offered by Rep. Will Mortenson, approved by House, 2021.11.09].
The Mortenson amendment ensures that all House members will be able to see all the information the committee gathers, which seems an obvious minimum requirement for elected officials preparing to vote to overturn the expressed will of the electorate by removing another elected official. The Mortenson amendment strikes a reasonable compromise on public release of the Ravnsborg investigation file, although I would contend that, in this momentous case, “confidential” and “nonrelevant” means Social Security numbers, personal medical details not related to the car crash, and not much else.Just release the Ravnsborg file, legislators, and let your constituents see exactly what you see as you consider impeachment.
HR 7001 does not set a deadline for the committee to report its findings and recommendation. But the House and the Senate passed technical resolutions setting each chamber’s timeframes for subsequent action. House Concurrent Resolution 6001 and Senate Concurrent Resolution 601 each allow the chambers to “adjourn day-to-day under this special session,” meaning the rest of the legislators don’t have to conduct any pro forma business to keep the Special Session active while the eight impeachment committee members meet under the Speaker’s presidence. HCR 6001 directs the House to reconvene fourteen days after the select committee delivers its report to the House clerk. SCR 601 directs the Senate to reconvene fourteen days after the House sends word to the Senate “regarding the disposition of the investigation and any articles of impeachment.”
Rep. Fred Deutsch of Watertown said on the House floor that he doesn’t “fully understand” what Ravnsborg did that constitutes an “impeachable offense.” This specious and willful partisan blindness did not stop Deutsch and the similarly horsehockeyful Rep. Greg Jamison from joining 46 other Republicans and all ten present Democrats from voting for House Resolution 7001 to launch the impeachment investigation.
Ten Republican Representatives, all hard right-wingers, voted against investigating Ravnsborg:
- Randy Gross (8-Elkton)
- Steven Haugaard (10-Sioux Falls)
- Taffy Howard (33-Rapid City)
- Phil Jensen (33-Rapid City)
- Chris Karr (13-Sioux Falls)
- Sam Marty (28B-Prairie City)
- John Mills (4-Volga)
- Marty Overweg (19-New Holland)
- Scott Odenbach (31-Spearfish)
- Bethany Soye (9-Sioux Falls)
I can only speculate why any Republican would stand in the way of impeaching a law-breaking, man-killing Attorney General who has lost the confidence of law enforcement and the public through his crimes and his incompetence. Are these ten so steeped in Trumpism that they think “impeachment” is a dirty word and that any attempt to hold elected officials accountable for bad behavior is just some woke plot?
Voters, you can see if your representatives voted against investigating Ravnsborg. If you see Gross, Haugaard (especially Haugaard, since he’s on the impeachment committee), Howard, et al. around town, go right up and ask them why they voted to sweep Ravnsborg’s crimes under the rug.
We’re far from impeaching Ravnsborg. The impeachment committee has no timeline, but even if they held a lightning hearing tomorrow and ended the day by reporting, “Yeah, we should fry him,” the House and Senate’s required fourteen-day delays would mean we wouldn’t reach trial until December. I speculate that we can expect the committee itself to take at least a month to consider and call witnesses and review documents. While I would argue that the case for Ravnsborg’s immediate removal is clear, compelling, and urgent, I can accept that the Legislature, faced with taking an action never before used in 132 years of South Dakota history, may feel inclined to take its time to avoid mistakes.
On the good side, the Legislature’s taking its time will give all of us more opportunity to watch and make sure they don’t make mistakes as they move toward the proper and necessary action of impeaching Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg.
So, there is at least one Republican in my home town of Elkton who realizes Ravnsborg is a liability to the future of his party.
It’s really none of our business what Ravnsborg’s sexual preference is but parents should have very creeped out by his appearance at a South Dakota Teen Republicans (TARs) camp in 2018.
This will creep into next year’s legislative session where his sympathizers will try obfuscating it in the good old SD GOP methods perfected over the decades of one-party rule.
Naysayers to impeachment, like Phil Jensen, probably think to themselves that “Boever was just another dang liberal-good riddance perhaps.”
Looks like I misread the post. I knew Randy Gross’ mom and dad since they lived across the street from my folks. Great people. Just goes to show how the extreme white wing of the Republican Party has corrupted the legislature in my home state.
Well…Ravensborg defenders seem to be saying he was involved in an “unfortunate accident” in which another person died. This will likely be Ravensborg’s defense during the Senate trial. ‘Let he who has not used his cell phone while driving cast the first stone”. Unfortunately for Ravensborg, Republican Senators have no problem being hypocrites.