In a sign that Republicans have learned nothing from the failure of Jason Ravnsborg and Kristi Noem, they are coddling kakistocracy by letting disgraced former Secretary of State Jason Gant carry their banner as county auditor in Charles Mix County.
Gant, you may recall, was the state’s chief election officer for just one term, from 2011 to 2015. He was a frequent but inconsistent participant in the Republican effort to suppress Indian voters, but overall Gant’s performance was so awful—the electronic pollbooks debacle, partisan abuses and corrupt cronyism, and general deceit, incompetence, and laziness that destroyed public trust in the office—that the SDGOP rejected his record of failure and gladly backed Shantel Krebs’s early effort to push Gant off the stage.
Nothing Gant did added durable value to South Dakota’s election system; his only legacy is being South Dakota’s first Secretary of State not to seek a second term. (Krebs became the second, but only because she wanted to run for Congress… and maybe because her star performance in running South Dakota’s elections was a little off-putting to a party committed only to winning elections, not demonstrating actual proficiency in public service.) But evidently this Republican incompetent found a way to slink back onto the public dole back home around Geddes as auditor for Charles Mix County. Elected auditor Danielle Davenport resigned from the position in August 2021; on December 9, 2021, the Charles Mix County Commission hired Gant as auditor at $50K/year. At the January 13, 2022, meeting, Auditor Gant got commissioners to raise his pay to $56,245.32/year. Gant’s previous record of gross mismanagement has evidently not yet reared its ugly head at the courthouse in Lake Andes, as Gant filed a petition on February 24 to run for a full term as auditor.
Come on, Charles Mix: I know you only have 6,580 adults eligible for the job, but at least a dozen of them can run your elections better than Jason Gant can. And might you be better served by an auditor who actually lives in Charles Mix County? Gant’s nominating petition and voter registration claim an address in this humble 736-square-foot abode at 410 Missouri Ave in Geddes that Zillow reports assesses at $22K, but his Gant Group consulting firm claims an address at 47157 S Clubhouse Rd, a 4,110-square-foot Baker Crossing golf course house that listed for $559K in 2017 and which Realtor.com suggests could fetch a million in today’s market. (Seriously? Enough people seek Gant’s consulting that he can afford prime digs like that? I guess fortune in South Dakota favors the feckless.)
But hey: when a political party can’t even figure out that it should impeach an attorney general who breaks the law and kills a man, it should be no surprise that it keeps non-performers like Jason Gant hanging around to swill at the public trough.
Charles Mix county? Lake Andes? Isn’t that the very same area where Richard Benda was ambushed by a shotgun wielding tree? Why do magats like to return to the scene of major crimes?
Come to think on it, why didn’t US Marshalls or FBI take in all trees for questioning? Like with POC, every tree likely could be said to match the description of the perp, even if it means violating 4th amendment rights.
The medical term is Careeris Politicus Interruptus, or CPI, meaning it’s just another Republican crook waiting until things cool off before getting another government job in South Dakota. Gant appears to be exiting CPI while Ravnsborg may be catching CPI unless the spin doctors in the SDGOP can save him.
Mfi, Yes. Richard Benda’s mysterious “suicide” which Attorney General Marty Jackley covered up, is a reminder of how fatal and violent scandals can be in Charles Mix County. Let’s not forget the Scott Westerhuis murders and suicide that kicked off the GEAR UP scandal, based in Charles Mix County, and which snagged only the little fish due to the delicate treatment by the AG’s office. Two major grafting scandals operating in plain view of the Governor Marion M. Rounds Administration. Many millions are still missing. The big fish all escaped.
Will Jason Gant add his name to the roll of mysterious suicides/murders of Republican political scandaldum in Charles Mix County? Nah. Gant’s more the Clown of Republican Crooks in South Dakota. An inflated ego bursting of self-importance as he bumbles around, hoping there will be something bigger and better in his Careeris Politicus Climbus. You know, kinda like Kristi Noem riding out on a horse and holding a flag to pander to dumb rednecks.
NOTE TO COUNTY COMMISSIONERS: Don’t forget to perform an annual forensic audit on the County Auditor. Watch out for any line items marked “Consultant Fees” going to Brookings.
Lots of Indians down there in Charles Mixedup County. Makes sense for republicans to have someone who knows how to rig elections to be counting the votes. As they say, “The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.”
96Tears, I either did not know or plumb forgot where Westerhuis murder /suicides took place. Thanks for the clarification.
Why do folks get so misled over suicide? 96 is still banging that drum like evans.
What makes you think 96Tears was misled over suicides?
I suppose they decided that by hiring Gant, they got someone they knew was already bought and paid for.
Among Secretary Gant’s exploits, didn’t he file some official paperwork with a bogus address? I don’t remember what exactly what was supposed to be at the address, but I do remember some enterprising individual checked the address out and it was a vacant lot in a run down portion of Fort Pierre. It appears Mr. Gant is returning to the same playbook Secretary Gant used.
Are all bumbling Republicans who are elected to statewide office named “Jason”? It seems like some sort of tell.
leslie – The systemic corruption of the Noem/Ravnsborg administration and the Rounds administration should have taught, by now, even the least skeptical person that a basic standard should always be applied: Trust but verify. No verification, no trust.
Then-AG Jackley responded to inquiries about the details of the Benda death in October 2013 by promising to expose his office file to two news reporters. Then he tossed in the poison pill. Um, the two reporters can review the record but only if the family lets him. Now, leslie, that was a slam dunk. Who’s child would want to further expose their beloved father’s violent death which was tied into a deep scandal of swindles? Jackley’s offer was hogwash and he’s not dumb enough not to have known that.
My recollection of the news stories as the EB-5 scandal came to light, only because of Benda’s violent death, was there was no indication or signs of pending suicide coming from friends’ and family’s observations of Mr. Benda before his death. While he had just been notified that he faced felony charges in October 2013, it seems as likely or more likely that Mr. Benda’s presence on this Earth posed a really big problem for others who may have had a role in the unauthorized privatization of the state agency taking the money and handling the affairs of untold numbers of investors who paid hundreds of thousands each for American citizenships. Also going on before and during the EB-5 scandal coming to light was a major U.S. Senate race involving the then-Governor who was also the one who appointed Jackley to replace Larry Long as Attorney General.
Then, there’s the official explanation of the suicide that, frankly, sounds very odd.
Let’s just say, according to the official version, Mr. Benda saw the walls closing in. He would be disgraced by the trial on the felony charges. He would lose his jet-setter lifestyle in return for prison. He felt compelled to stop the pain. So he told folks he was going to Charles Mix to hunt pheasants. He reportedly went to the shelter belt alone. Propped his shotgun against a tree, grabbed a twig and used it to push the trigger to shoot himself in the gut. He bled out at the base of a tree. This was on October 22, 2013. It took a month for a report on the death to be issued. Here’s a story from a month later, with Jackley already shadow dancing with what the public knew or had heard:
https://www.aberdeennews.com/story/news/2013/11/22/bendas-death-ruled-suicide/46162789/
Bleeding out like that is a very slow, very painful, lonely way to go. Virtually all hunters know this. Think of the mechanics of this suicide report and you can think of dozens of more expedient, less painful ways to go. Like a long drive in a parked car with the garage door shut. Or a shot to the head. Or an overdose with alcohol. Or jumping off a ledge. Or ramming a car at 90 mph into a concrete bridge pillar. Or jumping off a bridge over the Missouri and drowning.
But the kicker to all of this is the official story of the EB-5 scandal, the felony warrants and the AG’s involvement did not come to light until the end of July 29, 2014. The U.S. Senate primary ended in early June. Jackley didn’t reveal much until the Government Operations & Audit Committee meeting and the dots that had been gleaned by reporters by then began to take shape. Here’s the David Montgomery story on Jackley’s revelation:
https://www.argusleader.com/story/davidmontgomery/2014/07/29/jackley-benda-arrest/13313227/
Trust but verify was not what the GOAC hearing did. It was all about glossing over some of the facts, stonewalling any controversial questions and protecting Mike Rounds’ Senate race at any cost. The slow-walking of the case was nothing but running down the clock to the November election. Compared to the GOAC whitewash job, the Ravnsborg impeachment proceedings have been a picture of transparency.
So, yes, leslie, I find everything about the whitewash job that allowed the EB-5 fleecings and provoked the death of Mr. Benda very mysterious. This is why justice should be pursued vigorously. Events like this remain a mystery because of unanswered questions and circumventing the legal process. For some, cover-ups are painful because they won’t allow healing to start.
Has anyone ever seen Gant’s birth certificate? He just seemed to materialize one day, paired up at Burger King with Pat Powers, and proceeded to plunder the Capitol building. His regime seemed to coincide with several deaths, as well. The northern lights have seen queer sights….
Mr. Gant, insaner than most, is a heavily jowled fellow who mismanaged the business of many initiatives. The word in the rooms out back is Mr. Gant was forced to bow down and out because of his failures and ineptitudes that have only since been surpassed by Mr. Ravnsborg. If Mr. Gant is back on the stage, one can only assume that the stage is built with some pretty sturdy lumber, and the fellows in the County of Charles Mix best gird their loins.
“96Tears” writes:
*Whose
But thanks for the timely history lesson, Tom. Would Marty Jackley have exploited Jenny Boever’s grief as a pretext for shielding the Ravnsborg investigators from accountability?