Wondering when they were going to get off the facebooks and twitters and say something about this;

SIOUX FALLS, SD - South Dakota Democrats are calling on Attorney General Marty Jackley to recuse himself from the state investigation into the Governor’s Office of Economic Development.

Last month, Governor Dennis Daugaard confirmed a state and federal investigation into alleged financial misconduct was underway in the office. Daugaard said the allegations took place prior to his administration.

South Dakota Democrats say Jackley, who was appointed by former Governor Mike Rounds, has a conflict of interest and can not conduct a ‘real investigation’ into that administration.

Jackley says because the alleged financial misconduct did not relate to the Attorney General’s Office there is no direct or indirect conflict. He also adds that the allegations do not relate to Rounds, so there is no conflict there either.

Jackley says the federal government has jurisdiction over the EB-5 immigration program that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office has said is the target of an FBI investigation.

Kind of reminds me of when Jackboots investigated the BK brothers in the SOS’s office for a crime he knew they would be innocent of, stealing from the state. Heck, a three-legged Corgi dog could have told you they weren’t stealing anything.

Even if Jackboots doesn’t think he has a conflict on the economic portion of the investigation, he certainly shouldn’t be looking into Benda’s death. BTW, how is that going . . .

We’ve noticed this job advancement on David Montgomery’s blog:

Judge Long moves up

Former South Dakota Attorney General Larry Long, currently a South Dakota judge, is moving up a step to be the presiding judge for Minnehaha and Lincoln counties.

It reminds us of something we have been wondering about. When Larry Long was running for re-election to the SD Attorney General position in 2006 he received a very large contribution from a curious contributor (page 7 of PDF) Republican State Leadership Committee 2006 Oct 31 2006 3177 Larry Long.

Why would the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) give $25,000.00 to an already sitting SD Attorney General who could have been elected without it even dressed in a clown suit.

South Dacola highlighted the slimy Koch Brothers, John Birch Society, ALEC based RSLC recently and their money giving ways.  We know he accumulated thousands of dollars from other ALEC PACs to run for office so why the RLSC donation?

This is also the same AG Larry Long who ‘returned’ $1,950.00 to Sioux Falls used car salesman Dan Nelson in 2005, about the same time he offered his positive opinion of Nelson’s business operations.

In 2009 as a term limited AG and Republican, he curiously left / resigned the AG office to accept an appointment by Gov. Mike Rounds to a judgeship in the state’s Second Judicial District.  We now have Marty Jackley as our AG.

Most of us don’t usually worry about such mundane positions as Presiding Judge. This little job decides which Judge gets to preside or be your Judge, if you go to state circuit court for any reason.  If a local citizen or group of citizens do not like an action the city, county or state undertakes, we citizens can take them to court.  If we are harmed by a corporation or neighbor, we have the right to have our gripe heard in open court.  It is the Presiding Judge who determines which circuit courtroom / judge hears – decides the case.

Now he is being appointed to be ‘presiding’ judge for the state’s busiest circuit.

Food for thought.

 

Just got done rereading Randall Beck’s open government committee article under Ellis’ byline in the Argue Endorser and it made me chuckle. We at South Dacola have been real interested in the open.sd.gov website lately. Who wrote this? Under whose guidance? With the results we see, why bother? It kind of reminds us of putting lipstick on a pig.

Was it worth it?

The reporting / contracting agency is responsible for up-loading their contracts and expenditures when and if they want to.  Just go look for a company, law firm, or medical firm you know is doing business with the state.

Try to find the contract and the terms.

How do these outfits get paid? And how many of these companies (individual owners) are donating to the same old yahoos getting elected to run our state every year?

Look for contracts – payments the Attorney General, the Secretary of State, Governor or any other office out of Pierre. You will be hard pressed to find anything out there.  So much for the phoniness of ‘open’ SD government.  With all the legislative hearings without contract questions, no-bid contracts, hidden contracts, Governor’s club arrangements and other special deals reported out of Pierre we at South Dacola want to be able to trust something out of Pierre. But you know what they say, “You can only get the shit so shiny when you polish a turd (Pierre).”

Is Gant competent or just another ‘TOOL’?

First an overview of some organizations that are behind some this;

YOU MAY HAVE HEARD ABOUT the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which helps Republicans draft bills in statehouses. (We reported on the group last month.) But you’ve probably not heard of the Republican State Leadership Committee, which gets them elected in the first place.

Able to raise unlimited funds, the Republican State Leadership Committee is a stalking horse for corporate America. Top contributors to the group include Altria (formerly Philip Morris), Anheuser-Busch, Citigroup, Comcast Cable, Exxon Mobil, Home Depot, Monsanto, PhRMA, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Verizon, and WellPoint.

Guest Poster contributed to this;

There was an organization formed to takeover state legislatures starting in 2002. The group managers make their organization look like they are loosely banded together citizens with a simple public mission to be conservative.  The mission is to make all US state legislatures their version of conservative. Their version of conservatism is based in pre 1965 southern white state’s rights principles, where only certain land owners should be able to vote.  As these managers continue to assume more power they want someone to make their actions appear legal…  I am sorry, they not only want they MUST have someone to make the actions legal.  What group am I talking about?  A little known group based out of Virginia, the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC). (mentioned above).

Why does this affect us in South Dakota?  Why do I bring this up and why should you care?  In the 2010 Pre-General Election Financial Reports available on the Secretary of State’s website, we find the RSLC has given two of our senior elected officials in South Dakota $25,000.00 each for their 2010 campaigns.  These organizations do not give this kind of money out of the goodness of the heart.  They expect something in return.  In a small state like South Dakota, $50,000.00 can make a difference. Who are our owned or rented officials?  Well SOS Jason Gant and Attorney General Marty Jackley.

COMPLETE DOCUMENT: Jackley 2010 Campaign Report

You remember them, Gant of the shoddy SOS office and his legal savior when questions arose recently.  You might also remember the legal eagle AG decision made within hours of being given instructions on how to investigate potential computer / business / public ethics issues.

Is the SD Republican Party protecting Gant because he is an ‘investment’?

Click on image to enlarge. See more here.

Again, why should we care?  The RSLC wants our SOS office to control all our voters and local elections from Pierre.  This group is part of ALEC.  The mission of RSLC is to elect future members for ALEC.  We currently have several dozen GOP members of our legislature who are subsidized by ALEC. They will be pushing for more Real ID laws, use of unverifiable voting equipment, rules to block citizens from voting and limitations on the citizens right to redress their grievances before their elected officials.  Once you know what ALEC is, you see how bad both RSLC and ALEC are for South Dakota.

So how does this work with ALEC, RSLC, Gant and Jackley?  RSLC finances campaigns of ambitious politicians, usually people with no principles.  ALEC needs their legislation passed in Pierre, RSLC backed officeholders write SOS rules.  These new laws and rules are implemented by SOS offices and the Attorney General is necessary to defend the actions in court plus write ballot explanations to confuse.

After the recent Attorney General’s financial “question not asked” opinion I had to look harder at the data we have available to find reasons for the strange official responses received and NOT received.  There are more figures which do not add up and puzzle pieces still falling into place. There will be more to come in this matter.

I originally started to look into this trying to answer the questions:

“Is the AG and the SD Republican party protecting Gant because he was such a huge investment in the 2010 campaign cycle and still owes a good chunk of change?”

“Did the SD Republican party give Gant such a large donation because they had confidence that he was qualified to be SOS?”

“or… or he could be easily manipulated by the party and his benefactors to do their dirty work?”

His repeated incompetence certainly shows he is not qualified for the job, so one would assume the SD Republican party was looking for a ‘tool’.  Is Jackley there to keep him “legal”?