How do you make amends with the party establishment after ousting one of their favorite sons from his Pierre sinecure? By hiring another favorite son of the party establishment:
In the midst of the South Dakota state legislative session, Secretary of State Monae Johnson has brought on two new staffers.
Johnson confirmed the addition of Reggie Rhoden and Adam Miller to the office. Rhoden will be the Elections Coordinator and Pistol Permit Administrator for the office, and Miller will serve as the Help America Vote Act (HAVA)/National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) Coordinator.
…Rhoden worked with the Noem reelection campaign in 2022. He is the son of Lieutenant Governor Larry Rhoden.
“I have known him since 2010, when I was the Meade County Republican Women’s President and he helped me this summer on my campaign,” Johnson said in an email to Dakota News Now/KOTA Territory. “He was the best qualified person for this position and thrilled to join the office” [Austin Goss, “Monae Johnson Adds Two to Secretary of State’s Office,” KSFY, 2023.02.11].
The Lieutenant Governor’s son, who has never to my knowledge worked in an elections office, was the “best qualified person” to coordinate elections while also administering pistol permits? Boy, we must really have a workforce shortage.
And wait: I thought election denier Logan Manhart was the Federal and State Elections Coordinator. Is inexperienced Logan finding that job so hard that they have to hire inexperienced Reggie to help? Or is inexperienced Monae handing out jobs to just enough friends and family of the party elites to keep the GOP from Krebsing her in 2026?
Monae Johnson may be as bad as Jason Ravnsborg, but she at least knows how to pick the right favorites to protect her job.
It seems, at first glance, sickening. That Ms. Monae would corrupt a young fellow and try to make him insaner than most, is just sickening.
I am told this son does not carry the gene that provides for the Rhoden Gut Punch. So, people dealing with the State Secretary’s office don’t need to fear any Rhoden Gut Punches. Those will be contained to the lobbies.
The Corn Palace says it all: Under The Big Top……We got a circus and plenty of clowns.
Elections and Pistols….seem to be the two highest priority issues for Republicans.
She should look into the integrity of the voting machines in our state capitol. Never trust those tabulators the legislators vote on. Demand hand-counts!
Surprise! Pierre is 39th in quality of life among the nation’s capitals.
https://wallethub.com/edu/best-state-capitals/19030
Larry, you’ve got to consider Ft.Pierre into the judgement.
Hi Mark.The Wanblee district should be in Oglala Lakota County then Jackson should be rolled into Stanley, Haakon, Jones and Lyman Counties
Well Larry, I was a young guy but the extra hour or more of Ft Pierre was worth it when I worked in the Capital.
Looks 22nd overall, Lar, and 6th best in value, if you believe those sort of scorecards. Value and Overall score are probably more accurate than “quality of life” which those fishermen probably value higher than those urban yuppie theatre goers.
Austin Goss reports:
Mary Fitzgerald writes:
Cory writes:
Remember how shocked we all were after the U.S. Senate primary in 2014 when unknown insurgent candidate Mike Rounds upset Larry Rhoden and the Republican establishment?
The core of South Dakota’s Republican establishment consists of the long list of judges, state’s attorneys, law enforcement officers, and nominally Roman Catholic lawyers who aggressively backed Marty Jackley’s 2018 primary campaign for governor. They’re Republicans mostly just in name, and they’re probably the main reason Hughes County flipped to the Democrats in the general election.
They’re soft left Republicans who use the phrase “hard right” to describe South Dakotans who don’t want Jackley and Lee Schoenbeck forcing vaccines, psychotropics, or catheters into their bodies or the bodies of South Dakota’s children. They’ve never regarded the Noem family or the Rhoden family as favorites, and they only kiss up to them when they’re trying to manipulate them.
I don’t trust Mary Fitzgerald at all, but her statement above about Reggie Rhoden appears to be literally true.
This post includes Austin Goss’s direct quote of Monae Johnson explicitly pointing out that Reggie helped on her campaign. It isn’t clear how hiring him would supposedly “make amends” with the establishment that despises her and actively worked to undermine her credibility and throw her race to the Democrat.
Cory writes:
The media’s one-sided assault on Monae has probably helped her filter out some potential applicants who weren’t up to the challenge.
The self-appointed Republican elites were hell-bent on Barnetting her in 2022. She never flinched, barely acknowledged them, and defeated them.
Any honest Democrat should be thankful to have a Republican officeholder appoint a man with Reggie Rhoden’s integrity to this position.
Shantel Krebs is going back to Pierre, at least for a while.
Recall that in 2007 Krebs’ husband was an anchor for KSFY teevee where he was witness to Republican now-Governor Kristi Noem’s extramarital dalliances and to the affair his co-anchor Nancy Naeve was having with Republican South Dakota Senator John Thune.
https://www.kccrradio.com/2023/03/10/shantel-krebs-krebs-named-interim-leader-of-avera-st-marys-hospital-as-holland-on-medical-leave/
Oh, for the halcyon days of Jason Gant.