Governor Kristi Noem sent an attorney to the Government Accountability Board yesterday to ask that the ethics panel dismiss two complaints filed against the Governor, one for nepotism, another for political use of the state plane. The three GAB judges reviewing the complaints said no, the complaints warrant further investigation:
After meeting in a closed-door executive session for roughly one hour, the board’s three retired judges who are evaluating the complaints voted unanimously to deny the governor’s requests to dismiss the complaints. They then voted to give themselves a 60-day extension “for further investigation” to evaluate the merits of the complaints [Stephen Groves, “South Dakota Ethics Board Pushes Ahead in Noem Investigation,” AP, 2022.08.03].
60 days—that means the GAB may announce its next steps in its investigation of Noem’s corruption on October 3, ten days after early voting begins in the general election, three days after the only debate she’s willing to have with Democratic challenger Jamie Smith, five weeks before Election Day… and a full year since they received the state plane complaint. I do hope Their Honors on the GAB aren’t trying to drag this matter out and delay their ruling until after the election just to avoid trying to influence the voters. The whole point of the Government Accountability Board is to hold members of the government accountable. The best way to hold government officials accountable is to submit them and the full record of their actions to the voters at election time. If Noem has done nothing wrong in using the state plane and in firing the state official who denied her daughter a real estate appraiser’s license, the public would benefit from knowing that before they vote. If Noem has abused her authority in either case or both, the public should know that before voting as well. Either way, GAB, let’s git ‘er done.
Speaking of ethics the legislature passed a law so John Thune wouldn’t have to resign from the Senate if he ran for higher office so if Mrs. Noem becomes the DeSantis Veep choice will she have to resign to run for that post?
Isn’t her support of the Big Loe equally damning?
*Big Lie*
The “Big Lie” is eroding away under Governor Noem’s feet. Unequivocal support of Donald Trump is an albatross around her neck. Lyng and self dealing by the Governor continue to merit scrutiny and the Ethics Board is not whitewashing the Governor’s deceit. Women voters are especially suspicious of the Governor’s motives, statements, and actions. We are not yet at a tipping point but that moment is in sight.
haha i love the quote in the AP article from moron ravnsborg: “the people of South Dakota deserve to know the truth of these two matters.”
Just these two matters, though, right? haha classic
Ryan, I don’t know why the AP or any other press would give that moron any more ink. Ravnsborg needs to stop lurking around the GAB and shut up. He is nothing but a harmful distraction from Noem’s corruption. If he swiped a bunch of files on the way out of the office that show Kristi Noem committed crimes, he should leak those documents to the press now or just post them all to his website (where he’s still branding himself as the Attorney General—can someone please get an injunction on this lying killer?). If he has no evidence to share, he should pipe down and go find himself a house in Iowa.
Cory, i agree in principle, but his continued existence in this conversation does two helpful things in my opinion. First, i bet every time kristi reads his name or sees his face anywhere, it makes her day just a little worse, and I want kristi to have many bad days. Second, it creates a bit of a storyline that i think will keep the public a bit more engaged and hopefully will reduce the likelihood that this all just gets rug swept. Wouldn’t it be funny, in some weird way, if idiot jason ended up being the pebble in kristi’s shoe that eventually wore her down and sent her off into the sunset? hahahaha oh man, it’s a delicious thought.
The Kristi vs. Jason melodrama drones on and, perhaps, well it should. Jason is like the “Ghost of Elections, Past.” Having him lurking around reminds us all, especially ambivalent Republicans, of the dirty, stinking, laundry stuffed into a closet on the back porch of the Party. The three retired judges on the Ethics Panel, all with stellar reputations, are taking their time waiting to see what other laundry from the Noem closets happens mysteriously to appear before them. They now know enough to know that in this case as in much that happens in Pierre, “All things are not as they appear.” But…the fog is lifting and the Noem administration is heading for the rocks. Right now, Ravensborg is a good friend to the Democrat cause.
a house in Iowa? Seriously, Master? He needs to be injected in a test drill hole in yer state.
grudznick knows why the AP inks about Mr. Ravnsborg, he of the impeached killer ilk, Mr. H. The AP inks about Mr. Ravnsborg because they are on a witch hunt against Ms. Noem; they are an entity corporate which is afflicted with a bad, bad case of NDS.
As to the GAB, there is a saying.
It is a good saying.
Cory is correct on this one. Frankly, I wish Denny Daugaard would put party aside and come out and oficially scold Kristi Noem for her behavior. We need a few Republicans come out against here.
I’ve heard through the grapevine that Dennis Daugaard is NO fan of Kristi Noem and I think it’s past time he come out and make it known how he disapproves of her irresponsible behavior in office and selfishness. This is the time Denny needs to put state above party.
Did not Mr. Daugaard employ a relative in a high falootin’ position in the governments? Did he not expend considerable and perhaps more than Ms. Noem in remodeling his government home? I suspect there are still complaints with the GAB about Mr. Daugaard. Still pending, of course. What goes to the GAB, stays at the GAB.
Oh good grief. Denny Daugaard is up to his areolae in scandal: a pot calling a kettle cracked. Weirdly enough, one post about him has gone viral at my place.
Grudz, the Government Accountability Boards is the state’s official ethics board and is made up of appointed judges by the past two Governors. This is not a “witch hunt” as you mistakenly allege. They are looking into matters that have been officially investigated by the Attorney General and the State Legislature’s Government Operations and Audit committee. May I remind you that the GOAC officially and UNANIMOUSLY found Noem in violation of the law by giving special treatment to her daughter….that is on the official record in the final report and you can check their website and educate yourself.
Off Subject!
Noem mentioned that she has a book on the New York Best Seller List! Tried to find it- not on it!
Another lie or wishful thinking.
Does anyone think she might need some help?
Mr. Guy, you are misreading my blogging. Go back and read it again.
Slower this time. Here, I will re-blog the sentence that involved the words “witch hunt.”
grudznick is not an English teacher, like Mr. H used to be, but in that portion of English above, the pronoun “they” in the 4th line replaces the noun “AP” in the 1st line. Read it again, slower, then faster and faster until it’s one sentence for you. “The AP is on a witch hunt…”
Not the GAB.
Details matter.
Grudz, the AP is not on a “witch hunt”. Maybe in your head you’re misperceiving they’re on a “witch hunt” The APis simply doing their journalist duty and reporting what the GAB is doing like they reported on what the. GOAC was doing by law.
So yes Grudz, “details matter” and the AP has got the details down and they’re letting us know the details.
Forget Ravnsborg. This is not about him
I think it’s preposterous that the Govt Acct Bd thinks they need another 60 days. OK, so these guys are retired, but DO YOUR JOB! Either our Governess is a criminal, or maybe not. I guess that’s not up to us.
Ryan, in this case, I don’t think the extra storyline Ravnsborg creates helps the public focus on Kristi’s corruption. To the contrary, his intrusion distracts us from the main issue and gives Republicans an easy way to say that the charges are false and politically motivated. Something similar happened when Noem weighed in on Ravnsborg’s impeachment, but in Noem’s case: Ravnsborg and his supporters used it as an excuse to divert attention from Ravnsborg’s own crimes and alleged Noem was persecuting him for purely political purposes. In the impeachment scenario, that diversion was offset by the fact that Noem was bringing political weight to bear that may have helped give some legislators cover for their votes to impeach and convict. But in this GAB case, Ravnsborg has no authority, no political power left to tip the scale. He doesn’t even appear to have any evidence (or at least the guys to use any evidence) to make his case. His all-talk intervention is pure distraction, pure harm to the case.
We could analogize to Ravnsborg’s entrance into the 2014 Republican Senate primary. He didn’t have any real heft to bring to the race: no base, no big money, no record to run on, and, most importantly, no willingness to take on frontrunner Rounds. Ravnsborg’s 2014 campaign only served to divide the in-party opposition, take the dogs off the scent of Rounds and EB-5, and ensure that Rounds coasted to a primary victory.
Just like Dan Lederman sent Ravnsborg into the Senate race to protect Rounds and weaken Stace Nelson, I could rationally make the case that Lederman would send Ravnsborg to the GAB hearings to create a distraction, to make it easy for Noem and the party to say these corruption charges are politically motivated and that Ravnsborg is just crying over impeachment and seeking personal vengeance. As big a liar as Kristi is, I suspect that most voters are going to take her word over Jason Ravnsborg’s (at least until Kristi Noem leaves a body at the side of the road). The distraction makes Ravnsborg look bad, but if Lederman promised Ravnsborg some nice inside deal, some easy job doing bail bonds or quietly lawyering for Summit Carbon Solutions or maybe even serving as state’s attorney in some county in Iowa, the craven Ravnsborg would do it, just to prove he’s still a good party boy.
Ravnsborg has never helped anyone but himself and his party. He is not helping us secure corruption charges against Kristi Noem.
Interesting comment, “ Ethics Board is not whitewashing the Governor’s deceit”. The white skins are whitewashing the white skins holding office supported by a majority of white skins to enhance and make better for the white skins in the state of white faces in to many white places.
A government is as good as the worst person leading it. Yep, South Dakota has had corrupted governance since the 70s. Stumbling and fumbling for several decades looking for that right mix of federal dole over state revenues. Noem is the norm. The impeached and fired AG in most societies would find a political rock or deep hole to crawl under or into. Most societies like that are not to be found in South Dakota. Instead he is making relevance of his corruptive and killing ways.
Noemie might be a boot in come November, but there is enough time to expose her corruptive behavior and inability to govern. The 3 put out to pasture judges will not expose the weakest political link in the inept inbred Republican Party; their party. The test to be found out is do enough voters understand enough to care? Ineptness and inbreeding runs deep in the still waters of republican corrupt political behaviors.
There might be a better day awaiting South Dakota in November. But a majority of the legislators relaying on their ineptness, inbreeding and corruption will be willing to whitewashing the misdeeds of their collective corruptive gang. Or in the case of the current governor; gangster moll.
Totally agree with Cory! It is time now to expose and change our state government.
If only there were two Kristi Noems! One would go to national campaign events in Washington, D.C., where nothing matters for South Dakotans. The other would go to the Western Governors Association meeting, which was described by former Governor Dennis Daugaard as “a non-partisan organization that actually gets things done.”
Guess which one our only Kristi chose to attend?
It isn’t the one with Governors of 19 states and three U.S. territories that, as Daugaard said “provides opportunities for non-political conversations about the issues western states have in common – issues like transportation, trade, energy, and workforce – and those conversations result in action.”
Nope. Noem chose the campaign junket to pander to the Heritage Foundation, National Conservative Student Conference and a CBS podcast about her presidential ambitions.
Thank Bob Mercer of KELO for being awake on the job to report this one: https://www.keloland.com/news/capitol-news-bureau/noem-chose-dc-campaign-trip-over-wga-meeting/
No doubt, y’all have seen Jaime Smith’s campaign ad where he promises to stay home and do his job as Governor. Noem just doesn’t seem to understand this most fundamental issue since she took office three years ago. Time for a replacement so she doesn’t have to make choices between her silly political ego trip and sticking around to do her job. She’s lazy, easily distracted and corrupt.
Interesting comment, “ Ethics Board is not whitewashing the Governor’s deceit”. The white skins are whitewashing the white skins holding office supported by a majority of white skins to enhance and make better for the white skins in the state of white faces in to many white places.
A government is as good as the worst person leading it. Yep, South Dakota has had corrupted governance since the 70s. Stumbling and fumbling for several decades looking for that right mix of federal dole over state revenues. Noem is the norm. The impeached and fired AG in most societies would find a political rock or deep hole to crawl under or into. Most societies like that are not to be found in South Dakota. Instead he is making relevance of his corruptive and killing ways.
Noemie might be a boot in come November, but there is enough time to expose her corruptive behavior and inability to govern. The 3 put out to pasture judges will not expose the weakest political link in the inept inbred Republican Party; their party. The test to be found out is do enough voters understand enough to care? Ineptness and inbreeding runs deep in the still waters of republican political behaviors.
There might be a better day awaiting South Dakota in November. But a majority of the legislators relaying on their ineptness, inbreeding and corruption will be willing to whitewashing the misdeeds of their collective corruptive gang. Or in the case of the current governor; gangster moll.
This stuff is a nothing-burger for me .. just the uniparty trying to drive a wedge between us while trafficking our governor.
Far more important is our voter roles:
https://SpearfishCityLimits.com
Would love to hear your thoughts and opinions on the substantive aspects of our interview.