Republicans will attack anyone who poses even the most remote threat their status quo, including members of their own party.
Representative Kevin Jensen (R-16/Canton) is running against Senator John Wiik (R-4/Big Stone City) for chair of the South Dakota Republican Party. Wiik is the party favorite, carrying the endorsement of every elected Republican statewide official and the outgoing chair, Iowa lobbyist Dan Lederman. Jensen stands no chance.
Yet even though Jensen poses no real threat to the SDGOP order, the Republican establishment has apparently directed longtime Lederman lapdog Pat Powers to write up a blog post nine days before the party chair election suggesting that Jensen has financial conflicts of interest that disqualify Jensen from serving in the Legislature. SDGOP spinster Powers cites South Dakota Constitution Article 3 Section 12:
No member of the Legislature shall… during the term for which he shall have been elected, or within one year thereafter, be interested, directly or indirectly, in any contract with the state or any county thereof, authorized by any law passed during the term for which he shall have been elected [SD Const. Art. 3 Sec 12].
Powers then cites six contracts (22-085E-306, 22-085E-343, 21-085E-306, 21-085E-620, 22-085C-311, and 21-085C-311) issued by the Department of Social Services to Dakota Drug & Alcohol Prevention, Inc. d/b/a Prairie View Prevention, an entity owned and operated by Jensen’s wife Darcy. Three contracts were issued in 2020; three were issued in 2021. The six contracts have a total value of $528,123. All six of the contracts list Kevin Jensen as the provider fiscal contact, indicating that Kevin handles the money for his wife’s business.
Over a two-year period, the state transferred over half a million dollars from budgets voted on by Representative Jensen to the Jensen bank account. Powers plays passive aggressive:
How indirect does “indirect” have to be?
…I cannot find a South Dakota precedent on how this particular instance would be viewed, especially in light of the fact that Representative Jensen’s name is on the contract as the fiscal officer for the business.
But given that the State Constitution says “indirectly,” it may be a question that needs to be answered [Pat Powers, “How indirect does ‘indirect’ have to be… {Pat’s headlines are incompetently long},” Dakota War College, 2023.01.05].
Cut the crap, Pat. Representative Jensen approved the budgets. The state then gave his wife contracts. Not a third cousin. Not a brother-in-law who lives on the other side of the state. His wife, whose business finances he handles, and whose wealth directly translates into goodies in Representative Jensen’s fridge.
Test the thesis, married readers, by asking yourselves: how interested are you in your spouses’ contracts?
Jensen has a clear conflict of interest that should lead to his immediate disqualification from the Legislature. But Powers and the SDGOP aren’t interested in applying the law objectively and consistently; for the Republican powers that be in South Dakota, the law is simply something to trot out to terrorize troublemakers back into conformance with the party line.
Powers is sending Jensen a warning on behalf of the SDGOP establishment: continue your challenge to the powers that be, and we will end your Legislative career.
Pat Powers is like Herbie Popnecker, I wouldn’t cross him Cory. Bad things can happen.
Impeach him.
But there is no legislative oversight.
This is a complete NDS meltdown by Mr. H.
It is a funny thing to grudznick, but a shameful libbie reaction that Mr. PP has gotten Mr. H’s goats so completely.
Mr. Jensen should mind his sheep, Mr. H has let his raging NDS get the better of hisownself, and Mr. PP called a duck a duck. For you fellows like Mr. Nesiba who are all into the pompousness, when you are dancing with the female elected officials remind yourself of “who paid for this party?”
To some extent here, what Mr. H is doing is defending the righteousness of the goodies in his fridge coming from a Lutheran God.
That’s the way grudznick sees it. What say you fellows who are more into the world where you have gods or churches where you are supposed to wear pants?
Mr. H gets a lot of money from the church. Just like Mr. PP does.
grudznick gets none.
Those contracts were in direct conflict on Day 1 in 2020, but we’re only hearing about it now? Yet another milestone in the deep corruption that gets overlooked by uninterrupted one-party rule since 1979. Face it. After the latest glaring examples of violations committed by the greedy, incompetent governor (state plane and the Sherry Bren affair, for starters) being brushed off by the toothless, spineless watchdogs, the elite class in Pierre remains protected while anyone stepping out of line gets stomped. Kevin Jensen should thumb his nose at PP’s bought-and-paid-for threats on his silly blog and wait to see if the attorney general has the balls to enforce laws that aren’t enforced against The Protected Class.
Considering how the SDGOP Protected Class wants to shrink the authority of activists and the state central committee, why would any intelligent person want to remain a Republican in this state? If your sense of “freedom” is to stick up for yourself, you’re in greater danger as a Republican than as a Democrat or independent. They are watching you! Get out of their way or fall in line. That’s the S.D. Republican Party code of ethics.
Pat Powers is credible like Mrs. Noem is chaste but GOP on GOP violence is the bestest kind.
Lar, do you think this Herbie Popnecker fellow is invited to the big dance at the Capitol this weekend?
grudznick also wonders if this Mr. Jensen fellow, and his leaders Ms. Taffy and Mr. Haugaard, will be dancing.
I hope they all bring guns.
I’d pay to watch a rousing game of Russian Roulette at Mrs. Noem’s inaugural balling.
I pay to watch Mr. and Mrs. Micki Powers bouncing off one another like inflatable dinghies dancing with the goose turds in Capitol Lake.
It appears that the Alt Left, probably from Sioux Falls, has launched an attack on Mr. PP’s blogging place. The new NotNatvig DCI will probably launch a probe, crawl right up the wires of the internet, and pop right out of the computers from whence the attack came. It’s probably in a coffee house.
“grudznick” writes:
It’s remarkable how often such an attack occurs within seconds of one of my attempts to post a comment there (dakotawarcollege.com), as it did again this evening just before “grudznick” commented above.
In two cases during 2021, the iPad I’m using inexplicably shut down and locked within seconds of trying to post a comment there defending Jason Ravnsborg. I’ve been using the iPad for several years, and so far those are the only two times that’s ever happened. In one case I had to dig up the Apple ID and reset the password from another device before I could unlock it.
Do Five Eyes intel agents have the ability to shut down and lock an iPad from a remote location?
https://dakotafreepress.com/2015/08/14/democrats-stepping-stone-to-take-thunes-seat-kurt-evans/#comment-20118
Mr. Evans, you and grudznick both would be wise to be leery of the surveillance put upon us, for neither of us are in the mainstream clubs.
We drink from the fountains of knowledge, and truth. We, literally, https://quaff.com/
I hope Mr. Evans brings guns to Pierre, too.
I pray Mr. PP eats Mr. Evans’ gun sooner than later.
Maybe Governor Noem purchased Israel’s super spy Pegasus package and has full control over the devices belonging to her critics…. she would and could. Beware of her access to the mics and cameras on your infected electronics. You wouldn’t want an audience next time you drop the Browns off at the Super Bowl.
Powers’ hypocrisy is vertiginous. Recall former South Dakota State Senator Stace Nelson called out Mrs. Powers for conflict of interest.
Sen. Stan Adelstein even called for an investigation of Jason Gant and the Republican former Secretary of State’s alleged collusion with former employee, Powers to engineer an ALEC-inspired red map strategy. There were even rumors floating around that South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley is preparing indictments for Gant and his henchman, Powers for their roles in deleting documents pertinent to Bendagate and the events leading up to the Westerhuis murders.
It’s important to remember South Dakota is a cesspool because of Pat Powers and people like grud who skim the gravy and leave pond scum in its place.