Speaking of conflicts of interest, Patrick Lalley reports that the Noem Administration appears to have written its request for proposals for its “Freedom Works Here” ad campaign straight from documents produced by the out-of-state firms the Governor’s Office of Economic Development ultimately hired to do the job:
Discussions with two out-of-state political firms that were awarded contracts related to Gov. Kristi Noem’s workforce marketing campaign began weeks before the official requests for proposals were published, according to documents obtained by Sioux Falls Live.
…The documents obtained by Sioux Falls Live indicate the governor’s office developed the plan in consultation with The Strategy Group, an Ohio-based consultant that worked on Noem’s 2022 re-election campaign, and eventually was awarded the $5 million contract.
The documents show that Ben Yoho, the CEO of The Strategy Group, and officials from the political polling firm WPA Intelligence pitched the GOED after the 2022 election on a plan to do market research to guide Freedom Works Here. The language of that proposal is nearly identical to the RFP that was published on Jan. 10, which was awarded to WPA for $100,000 [Patrick Lalley, “State Discussed Freedom Works Here Plan with Winning Firms Before Opening for Bids,” Sioux Falls Live, 2023.12.21].
The Ohio guys plagiarized the bad-plumber ads; the Noem Administration plagiarized the RFP? Wow—doesn’t anyone in Pierre have an original idea?
I don’t know what Democrats think about Noem’s cronyism (Lalley reminds us that Yoho has connections to Kristi Noem’s good friend Corey Lewandowski), but Republican Representative Chris Karr (R-11/Sioux Falls) smells a rat:
“If a state agency is complicit in allowing a company to write the criteria for an RFP specific to that company for the purpose of that state agency to choose that company for that RFP, then the Legislature needs to look at our state’s RFP process and modify it so that the Executive Branch avoids ‘sweetheart deals’ and allows for transparent government that results in a fair process and equitable use of taxpayer dollars,” Karr said in a statement to Sioux Falls Live.
…“There are laws that address the RFP process, and based on the information, the Legislature needs to look at that process and decide how to amend the law. If current law was broken due to the process that was used, then we need to rely on the attorney general to assess the actions of the agency and pursue further action,” Karr said [Lalley, 2023.12.21].
Yes, the Attorney General! Hey, Marty Jackley! Instead of chasing after AI child porn (which I’m sure is gross but I’m still not sure is criminalizable), how about digging into real crime in Pierre? Governor Noem isn’t just dressing up as a bad plumber; she’s rigging the bidding process to give state contracts to her best buds.
What a setup. I would not be happy if I were bidding on this just to see that it may have been rigged.
And was this her way of paying back Corey Lewandowski for his “volunteer” work on her behalf? Was she using her out of state political “buds” to market South Dakota in a way that, in reality, mostly benefits her. She gets tons of glossy political ads and national exposure disguised as official state promotion. But you get to pay for it.
Many of the legislators don’t care for her. Maybe we will get those answers despite the overwhelming Republican numbers.
We have our very own cracked-out version of Sarah Huckabee-Sanders.
I think it’s bad form to pick out of state when there are capable people in state, but I would probably ask to see all the bids/proposals and explanation why the chosen bid was picked. We wouldn’t want any bid rigging…
Do you know who they should have picked? I mean, he already sold out to The Man, so what’s one more contract for old-friend-of-the-blog and grudznick’s good friend Bill?
Ah, yes, corruption: Noem’s On It!”
SD leads the nation in hemp production. Despite noem’s opposition, fear mongering, & trumpian delays. Noem shows she lacks bonafides in agriculture & business.
Perhaps it’s likely her corrupt decision was related to her husband selling crop insurance.
An RFP written by a contractor???? It is just more evidence of how inept, inexperienced, and asleep at the wheel, the Governor and her crack staff really are. Only in a world of amateurs would this kind of overt graft occur.