Why did the SOS’s election supervisor leave suddenly?

l3wis August 16, 2012 18Comments

“I’m outta here!”

While the departure yesterday was a bit suspicious, what made it even more suspicious was his interim replacement was hired almost simultaneously;

Elections Director Aaron Lorenzen resigned early Wednesday to pursue a job in the private sector, Gant said, but he did not offer further details. Gant hired Lorenzen in January 2011.

“He decided this morning to accept a new venture outside of state government,” Gant said.

Wasting no time, Gant hired former five-term retired Minnehaha County Auditor Sue Roust to serve as interim elections director through the November general election.

So let me get this straight, your election supervisor quits and you hire his replacement within a matter of hours? One can only wonder if his departure was in the making for awhile. I hardly doubt that Roust made the decision to fill in as interim supervisor from a single phone call from Gant. This decision had to have been in the making for awhile, but not according to Gant;

Gant told me today that he only found out about Lorenzen’s departure yesterday morning. By the end of the day he’d persuaded Roust — who’s on vacation — to agree to serve as interim through the election.

Makes you wonder if it stems from this comment left on a thread I posted about Lorenzen in July;

I know for a fact (aka direct knowledge) that Aaron does his job much better and with more integrity than that of Gant and PP. He takes his job seriously and loves what he does. The games that Gant and PP partake in Aaron disagrees with 99% of them.

To be honest, Aaron doesn’t have much of a say when he comes up with an idea. Gant and PP (especially PP) shoot down all recommendations that come into their office from fellow employees. Aaron and the rest of the staff wished none of the new electronic additions (Campaign Finance, Lobbyist, etc) would have gone live until 100% satisfied internally with the system. Gant and PP just wanted to push it and push it even if it’s a garbage system (which it is). Next be on the lookout for the new electronic filing system that business services is pushing. Trust me, it’s a great system once it works, but like the other systems, they will go live way too soon with too many defects.

I hate the fact his name got brought into something that he had no control over. Gant vetoes any and every idea that didn’t originate from PP. Maybe now that PP is gone, things will be for the better. One can hope.

Could this comment by one of Lorenzen’s ‘friends’ cost him his job? You know how these things work in government,

“You can either resign, or we will fire you and that could be very, very messy. Hey buddy, take one for the team like Pat did.”

This situation is getting stinkier by the day. If anyone has the real story, I would love to hear it.

Why did SOS state Gant hire Sue Roust

l3wis August 16, 2012 8Comments

Besides the breaking story of Pat Miller taking over for Pat Powers in the SOS’s office (Governor Miller’s 2nd wife), he also hired former Minnehaha county auditor Sue Roust as a temp employee. Stay tuned.

Gant investigation ‘suspicious’ timeline

l3wis August 6, 2012 9Comments

I first want to say when it was brought to my attention that SOS Jason Gant’s deputy was running an online campaign store, I never thought for a moment that anything illegal was being done. Only unethical, which apparently isn’t against the law in SD. I never once thought the operations director or Gant were ‘stealing’ any money from the state. This was always a question about ethical behavior. I think not only was I pretty clear about that, I think many other journalists, bloggers and even senator Adelstein was clear about that.

There has been discussion that Gant may have broken the law, or at least not enforced it, on the Gosch petitions, but it has NOTHING to do with stealing from the state.

That is why it was so bizarre when the AG released the results of his investigation and essentially said that neither Gant or Powers were stealing from the state. Duh. It was almost like the AG investigated something he already knew they were innocent of.

Read his results here; Jackley-Gant

But the release of the report on Tuesday, July 17 is even more bizarre. Why? Well let’s fill you in a bit.

The person who tipped me off about Power’s campaign website, ‘Guest Poster’ was basically anonymous to everyone but myself. He wanted to keep it that way, but I encouraged him to AT LEAST reveal his identity to Senator Adelstein to assist him with the investigation. It’s not like ‘Guest Poster’ is a nobody in the politics world of SD, he assisted many democrats and republicans over the years with campaigns, and is well known in those circles. He also has expertise in data mining, data security and Information Technology. He has made his living from it since the 1980’s.

So after he contacted Adelstein in an email and phone call, he sent the Senator this email suggesting how the investigation should at the very least move forward with all speed; Guestpostemail

Was this a ploy by either Adelstein OR by Jackley and the DCI to get the name of ‘Guest Poster’? Not sure, but it worked. The email went to the senator on Sunday July 15^th who in turn probably forwarded the email on Monday July 16 to DCI  – then magically the investigation is closed the next day.

Jackley and DCI only looked at the topic NOT brought up.  As stated from the beginning:

• This was an ethics discussion, not embezzlement or financial

• When it would not go away, it became a DCI “investigation”

• A show was put on to make like action was being taken

• Jackley and DCI reached a decision to clear the SOS of financial criminal activity

• Instead of answering simple questions with direct answers from Gant

• The subterfuge and games became a possible criminal conspiracy

• Now we have to deal with the keeper of the laws (SOS) and enforcer of the laws (AG) doing what?  Why?

Food for thought.

The irony of Jason Gant

l3wis July 26, 2012 8Comments

While I agree PAC’s should be filing reports, I had to shake my head at this comment by Gant;

“But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if they’re active or not,” Gant said. Filing reports is “the only way (voters) know who’s paying for different postcards or different billboards or any of that type of political activity.”

Unless you of course work for Gant, because then you can do whatever you want and the AG will put his tiny little stamp of approval on it.