Pat Powers is still in charge of Jason Gant’s campaign website . . . As a state employee? For your boss? Look at the website. This is part of building a narrative from Whois records and why laymen’s eyes glaze over into a dead man’s stare. When this data is compared to the data posted on May 9, 2012, the bigger story unfolds.
The last updates shown below to jasongant.com was June 27, 2012. Take note of the change dates. All during the time Bill Clay was on ‘vacation’.
Dakota War College is now located on servers controlled by rackspace.com. The last domain update occurred to dakotawarcollege.com was June 26, 2012. Pat is using a proxy service to hide the ownership and management contact for dakotawarcollege.com as of July 2, 2012.
Dakotacampaignstore.com domain information was last changed on June 24, 2012.
Patpowers.com domain information was last changed on June 27, 2012. Pat is using his dakotawarcollege.com email address as technical consultant for this site.
It keeps getting better… Ownership and management of the website, jasongant.com, at 10:12am July 2, 2012 from www.whois.com:
jasongant.com Registry Whois
Technical Contact: Powers, Pat @yahoo.com
(SEE THE FULL DOCUMENT:Â GANT-GATE)
“Pat is using a proxy service to hide the ownership and management contact for dakotawarcollege.com as of July 2, 2012.”
QUESTION: Why would BK jr. go through this if he is still the owner? We already know he owns the blog and controls it. Has he parted ways with the blog since switching servers over the last few days and going through the process to hide the server source and owner?
Why would he hide something from us we already know?
You and I know it, but does the public. It’s about perception.
It was just in the Ellis Argus article that he used to own and opperate the blog.
But you are right I doubt the average person knows anything about BK jr.
It’s interesting that “Bill Clay” hasn’t posted anything on DWC since 06/27/12. Troy Jones has written everything since then. Where in the world is “Bill Clay”? What does “Bill Clay” have to hide? The SD media isn’t capable of uncovering what lies beneath the layers of fat in the office of the SOS. Bring in the national players!
It’s all smoke and mirrors, nothing to see here children so move along. PP and Gant are the smartest people to ever race our space. We could never figure anything out without them telling us what to see and do. So move along and don’t bother with the illusions lining the path…
We are the Wizard of Oz state, Frank L Baum would be proud… NOT
I’m a bit confused. Did Mr. Powers ever claim to relinquish ownership of the Dakota War College or just claim to no longer write blog post? I thought it was the former… Its very conceivable he retains ownership of the domain name so that he can return to blogging when he leaves State government. That wouldn’t be surprising or a conflict of interest.
What is it that has been uncovered here? Mr. Powers is an evil computer genius, yet he isn’t smart enough to supposedly blog as Bill Clay and sign up on a website to transfer servers at the same time..? You see a conflict in Mr. Powers owning the website for his boss. Mr. Powers is a political appointee, huge surprise he’s involved with the Secretary’s campaign website..
The Secretary of State’s office is an elected office, it will engage in political activity. Employees will be political appointees. Would you rather it be a bureaucrat? Someone appointed by the Governor?
HYS – I don’t have a problem with Pat owning his websites, it seems Pat has a problem with people ‘knowing’ he owns these domains. Not sure why, and that is where the suspicians kick in.
No one is saying that is the problem, it is being active on these sites that causes the problem, not the ownership.
There is really only one issue here, Pat was actively moonlighting as a campaign consultant while working for the SOS’s office. Clear conflict of interest. Especially when you factor in that he was consulting the very person his boss, Jason, endorsed in the primaries.
I don’t have a problem with Gant or Powers engaging in political activity, the 1st Amendment guarantees them that right. They can do whatever they want when it comes to ‘political activity’ just as long as lines are not crossed, such as using the offices they hold for political advantages (having access to information that the public does not). IMO, this is really where the investigation needs to go.
BTW – The ‘Pat’s Angels’ graphic was found on the waybackmachine website. Thought is was funny.
http://web.archive.org/web/20040225042411/http:/patpowers.com/
“Here’s Your Sign”, this appears to be a continuing effort to blur the line between ethical and legal behavior on the part of the duly elected officeholder charged with making sure elections and laws are properly discharged.
No personal or political bias can be applied to the decisions this office makes. It may be an elective office but it is not a partisan office. It is not an office for party hacks to use for their own personal gains
For these reasons and more legalistic reasons, hyper-partisans cannot be left in charge of sacred offices of trust. Since there is no oversight in Pierre, we the people must look at all the issues, people and responses to requests to be assured our rights are guaranteed safe.
We have to thank L3wis for making this available to review.
I also wonder how ‘thorough’ the AG’s office will be in their investigation. I discovered an interesting connection the other day. I was reading an interview that featured the deputy AG, Bill Golden. Bill Golden is married to Kristi Golden (Stewart). Kristi used to blog on DWC and is pals with Pat. Kristi used to work for Pressler back in the day.
Personally I do not think anything illegal has gone on but they have tainted the public perception of themselves as a partisan office to the point that Gant is almost unelectable.
Tough part for Dems is that this guy beat Nesselhuf by 20% in ’10.
Politics is perception and to the public these guys look crooked even if they haven’t technically broken and laws.
WOW! when you look at only one piece of information or another you could think it is just inexperience, ineptitude or simple mistakes. When you take in the full picture, it has to be investigated by proper authorities with the power to dig into the records, programming and actions. There smells of a conspiracy to commit. The list of infractions is too long for simple mistakes.
I’m with Testor on this. These two by law are to swear oaths to carry out out the duties of the office impartially. The SOS office is to be served by them, not the other way around. It not some little rovian tool for use advancing their personal agendas or politics.
Has Gant said anything about this other than Pat’s activities had become a “distraction”, or suggesting to Stan they may be able to resolve this. Two sets of considerable man tits are in the ringer on this and we hear nary a peep. Must be driving powers nuts to be muzzled on this. The silence does indicate to me those two are not fully comfortable with how they have played this.
Note to Gant: faithfully and impartially carrying out the duties of SOS is not an item that can be negotiated between you and Adelstein.
This is for Lewis: http://www.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/view/80450552/
WOW – Not sure if anything ‘illegal’ was done, that is why an investigation needs to take place.
Maybe you guys are right. Not going to surprise me either way.
I’m surprised Gant hasn’t produced a fall guy in all of this yet. Clearly he is a bigger problem than PP because he has allowed this to happen and lacks the leadership needed.
The worst thing of all this has been the Gosch notary deal. It clearly reaks of partisan politics to punish Russ Olson’s opponent (a dem) for the same things they let Gosch get away with. The Dems should take Gosch to court and get him tossed off the ballot if they can. If Gosch would turn on Gant he would be finished in that office. Because Gosch has always been a strong supporter of Gant’s. Gosch and Olson are both tainted in this because they recieved special treatment.
The campaign store is the second most damning. This never should have been allowed to go on and kudos to Southdacola for calling him out.
The blog should have been shut down or sold while PP was in the office because we all know he’s still active in it in some aspects. It becomes clearer the longer the blog goes ignoring he and Gant’s current situation.
Then there were the endorsements. Absolutely the stupidest things I’ve ever heard of. Politically speaking Gant cut his legs out with the party base by endorsing. They want him gone.
And to pile on PP making literature for one of the candidates Gant endorsed looks really really bad.
With Adelstiens impeachment calls this is only going to get worse through the next session.
We could also factor in how Gant allienated most of the past SOS administration with his takeover of the SOS office.
Personally I do not believe anything illegal has gone on (maybe the Gosch/Olson deal) but they have proven they are not fit to run the states elections. Both need to go.
But Gant is stopping Washington from stealing our elections! At least that’s what his campaign ads said.
And Jason and his children did it all in a little red chicken coop.
Great discussion today about Gant on ‘100 Eyes’
http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/99999999/MULTIMEDIA/100419010&template=livestream
David Montgomery was the guest;
http://politicalsmokeout.tumblr.com/
I just watched the edition of 100 eyes. Gant is getting hammered. The question I have is does this become a potential pickup for the dems in ’14?
I know PP is fun to beat up on but the real problem in the SOS office isn’t PP – It’s GANT. Employee’s aren’t the ones causing all of the bad decisions here.
Exactly WOW! Gant’s judgement is in question. The ethics or lack thereof leads to the troubles we find.
BTW, great job southdacola questioners!
Gant knew Pitty Patt was doing all of these things MONTHS AGO, and until someone ‘official’ said something about it, he just ignored it.
Can anyone say ‘Impeachment’
What started all of this was the endorsements. That falls on Gant alone. Second was the Gosch notary deal – Gant alone. That showed absolute partisanship and double standards.
The PP stuff falls on Gant’s judgement. – Gant alone. Anyone else wouldn’t have allowed these actions to take place in the first place..
PP is a lightning rod because of his past. He is a celebrity in many ways and I bet most of us couldn’t name any other deputies working under any other constitutional official.