Tony Mangan’s press release on the state’s copious assistance to the tribes with snow removal may be one of the last he issues for the Department of Public Safety. Mangan, who did double duty at DPS and as Governor Kristi Noem’s interim spokesman through the summer and fall while her usual spokesboy Ian Fury worked officially for her campaign, is not seeking to work for Team Noem again to stonewall all those hostile journalists. Instead, he’s getting out from under Noem’s DPS appointees and taking refuge under the Jackley tent as our new-old Attorney General’s director of communications:
Attorney General-elect Marty Jackley has announced the eight-member leadership team that will join him when he takes office next month.
Former Attorney General Mark Barnett returns to the office as the Chief Deputy. He began in that office as an Assistant Attorney General 42 years ago and served three terms as the South Dakota Attorney General. He also served 12 years as a Circuit Court Judge.
Jackley also has named:
- Brent Kempema, Deputy Attorney General, Criminal Division.
- Tony Mangan, Director of Communications.
- Charlie McGuigan, Deputy Attorney General, Civil Division.
- Chad Mosteller, Assistant Director, Division of Criminal Investigation, Field Operations.
- Dan Satterlee, Director, Division of Criminal Investigation.
- Tiffany Stoeser, Assistant Director, Division of Criminal Investigation, Administrative Operations.
- Sarah Thorne, Deputy Attorney General, Appellate Division, which handles all of the state’s criminal appeals [Office of the Attorney General, press release, 2022.12.20].
Another hire of note is that of former A.G. and former circuit court judge Mark Barnett. Barnett retired from the bench in 2019 at age 65; at 68, you’d think he wouldn’t be terribly interested in coming back to the office and lawyering for the state, but there he is, jumping the queue over current Chief Deputy AG Charlie McGuigan, who held the office together amidst killer Jason Ravnsborg’s reign of error but now gets a demotion from his old boss. But hey—maybe McGuigan himself wants to ease toward retirement.
A non-hire of note is the absence of a chief of staff from Jackley’s leadership team. Neither Jackley nor any A.G. before him had a chief of staff. That position was a sinecure created by his successor Ravnsborg to fatten crony and campaign contributor Tim Bormann.
No word on whether Tiffany Stoeser will be able to keep her side job as head volleyball coach at Pierre Riggs High School.
Ah, the hapless Charlie McGuigan, rosy-cheeked perennial buttboy for a succession of Attorneys General. I, for one, shall always remember the time he said that there were over 400 Carciginians in cannabis. After his testimony on the matter, I asked him to point out where Carciginia was. I got what may have been a blank stare. Charlie was hard to read.
Good one, Bob.
It appears Barnett is double dipping-getting state retirement and a state paycheck at the same time.
It’s a relief to see the AG’s office return to some form of normalcy with old hands on deck. After the batsh^t crazy four years with rudderless Ravnsborg at the helm, anything resembling reasonable is welcome. Maybe batsh^t crazy Noem might realize by watching a competent Jackley office that her goofy, juvenile antics are embarrassing and ridiculously mean-spirited to her constituents.
I doubt that this was on his bucket list.
Mark Barnett is a great choice, as far as I’m concerned. He’s fair, smart, and ethical, which is good enough for me…
It’s a jaw-clenching comment on the state of SoDak politics when the choice of Mark Barnett as a deputy AG seems to be about as good as we’ll get.
Pierre is where fairness, smarts, ethics and truth go to die.
My good friend Bob is inwardly dancing a jig at the demotion of young Mr. McGuigan, with whom he has disagreed on an occasion or two.
Blizzards are truth sayeth the floored.