Entries Tagged 'Secretary of State' ↓

“I’m telling the truth, just ask Whopper Junior and the traveling computer server fun show.”

While the state debates whether or not spending $18,000 per military vote (while thumbing their nose at native American voters) was a wise choice by our former Secretary of Hamburgers, uh, I mean State, some other questions have arisen, like who stole the flag? And more importantly, why is it a secret?

Well, it really isn’t a secret, but that’s all you are getting from me. But if the person’s name is ever released, and it is who it is, you will see they have many political connections in Sioux Falls.

Stay tuned, this is going to get interesting.

I also wonder if the timing of this flag fiasco and Gant investigation (that has been going on for months) has anything to do with taking attention away from the latest EB-5 findings? As you may or may not know, Shantel and Mitch Krebs are close friends with Mike Rounds, and would defend him in any manner. Nice distraction folks.

Let’s worry about flags and I-Pads while the elephant walks out of the room.

Stuff like this really gets my blood boiling;

The South Dakota Secretary of State’s Office under former Secretary Jason Gant misused federal grant money, overspent its annual budget and couldn’t account for $43,000 in state funds, according to a report by the state auditor.

Cameraman Bruce and I told the media and government officials over two years ago that we were very suspect of what was going on in that office. Not just the campaign business being run by the deputy SOS, but the moving servers, the large donations to the SDGOP from election services companies, missing records, etc., etc.,

Stan Adelstein responded (thankfully) and all we got was a watered down report from the AG that said, “They didn’t steal anything.” Now we know that might not have been the case.

But what do I know, I’m just a speculator.

UPDATE: It only took Stormland TV two and half years to pick up on something I forgotten I reported.

And a year earlier I was exposing the ‘campaign store’ Pitty was running.

I guess I don’t feel so bad for not catching this before Stormland, because it has been so long since I reported it, I forgot about it. Now maybe they will do a story about real pressing issues, like our mayor possibly running for higher office and hop-scotching all over the state to OTHER Home Rule cities on our dime.

Remember when we were chasing former SD deputy secretary of state Powers and SOS Gant for running a campaign business while working for the state?

Remember Powers’ departure and the nationwide tour his servers took?

Seems Kennecke over at Stormland asked current SOS Krebs an interesting question about missing corporate files, her response? Astounding;

When Krebs won the election for Secretary of State, she also discovered she had inherited a problem. Krebs says the state IT department informed her of a hack on the data base for corporate filings in April of 2012.

“I want to clarify that the corporations system or website was on an outside server.  And it was not on the state’s information and technology–state sanctioned and state secured–server,” Krebs said.

Something Krebs says was set up by her predecessor Jason Gant.

“We used state servers; we used outside servers,” Gant said.

Outside Servers!? This is going to get real interesting real quick.

As you may or may not know, the MC Election Review Commission’s chair, Danielson found many issues with data coming from the SOS office, and probably caused many of the issues auditor Litz was having with sending out wrong ballots. These issues occurred during Gant’s tenure. I think Krebs should take heed of the recommendations, and fix the issues with data that happened during Gant’s administration. It will only be to Shantel’s benefit, but better yet, benefit voters and auditors across the state. We will see how she handles it.

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Mayor Kooiker continues to surprise me every day;

Kooiker, who estimated he personally collected about 400 signatures, said he was pleased that the City Council’s decision to approve $180 million in bonds for a new civic center arena will be put to a public vote.

What I find amazing about what Sam did, is that not only did he support a public vote, he helped collect signatures. This is in stark reality to our mayor who told everyone he supported snow gates, but when asked to sign the petition to put them on the ballot, he refused, as did many local politicians, including our Secretary of State elect Shantel Krebs, who told petition gathers after refusing to sign, “Initiatives/referendums should be illegal in South Dakota.” Interesting statement from the person that is now in charge of our elections 🙁

I want to commend Mayor Kooiker for standing up for democracy in South Dakota and setting an example for other elected officials who don’t really understand the process that well.

So when Jason’s partisanship is called out, he calls it ‘Absurd and Pathetic’

Myers has described the secretary of state as ‘a hit man for the Republican machine in Pierre.’

“The secretary of state is used as a party to advance the interest of the dominant party,” said Myers.

“Absolutely not — that’s absurd and pathetic. That’s just the sad attempt of publicity,” said Gant.

“And you know what, I don’t like bullies. So Gant is the big guy up in front of all the bullies,” said Myers.

“The law is the law and I can’t change it. Mr. Myers can’t change and I have to follow it. If he doesn’t agree with it, that’s his concern,” said Gant.

Jason has time and time again used his position as a REPUBLICAN to advance his party, he has made anybody who isn’t in the Republican party follow a separate set of rules, he has raised gobs of money for the state party, he has even went as far to purchase equipment from companies that have donated to the state party (E-Poll books) and has even endorsed candidates. Now if that isn’t partisanship, not sure what is. This issue could have been easily accommodated, the AG could have went in front of a judge (in the absence of the law referring to Indy candidates) and asked for an exception for Myers and Hubbel, then instructed Gant to put them on the ballot. But instead, they must punish those who don’t ‘kiss the ring’ and make them go dig up attorneys. Gant and Jackley know who their bosses are, and it is not the citizens of this great state.

While reading one of Lalley’s meandering columns about Skunk Creek/Big Sioux pollution I found this little tidbit about Shantel interesting;

The rather difficult bit to stomach is the reaction from the lawmakers whose job it is to guard our natural resources, in this case Sens. Shantel Krebs of Renner and Jason Frerichs of Wilmot. They represent their parties as the top managers of the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee.

And their message, as relayed by Harriman’s reporting, was clear: “Everything is fine.”

Both said they see no need for further regulation.

Both also pointed to urban run-off and lawn chemicals as a contributor to pollution. It’s true, that’s a point of discussion, but it ignores the larger issue.

While Frerichs just kind of throws his hands in the air and blames farmers who probably won’t work with government, Krebs IS a small farmer who probably is polluting the Big Sioux herself. It seems Krebs is happy with the status quo (unless she is working hard to make the referendum and initiative process harder so she can keep good standing with her favorite organization ALEC). This is the kind of person we want for our next SOS? Krebs doesn’t want to improve the lives of South Dakotans, which includes cleaning up the pollution in the Secretary of State’s office. Maybe Krebs as SOS will just continue the blatant prejudice against the Native Americans, continue screwing up the voter lists, continue to let Republican candidates to break the rules while turning in the Dems for breaking the same rules. Maybe she thinks ‘Everything is fine’ in the office, just like she thinks nothing should be done to fix the polluted Big Sioux. I have a feeling that if Krebs wins in November we will just have ourselves a skinnier blonde as SOS, not much else will change, it may even get worse.

As for Krebs’ challenger, Angela Schultz, I have only heard good things. A stellar resume (I didn’t see shoe salesperson in there though).

What is scary about this is that Pat currently serves under Gantless as our deputy Secretary of State. I sometimes wonder where these people come up with their campaign slogans. As deputy, shouldn’t she know what the job of a SOS is? It has nothing to do with religion, God or abortion. It scares the Sh*t out of me that an ideologue like this is running our elections. How would she treat a petition challenge by a liberal Democrat Atheist who was pro-choice? It seems a Republican SOS only duty is to make sure that the opposition party doesn’t get a fair election in our state. What is even more dreadful is that the people of SD continue to vote these kind of people in office (Her challenger, Krebs, isn’t much better).

Yet the Democrats can’t dig up one single person to challenge these yahoos.

The job of SOS is simple, very simple. You must be fair and unbias. That’s it. No one cares what church you go to or whether you like kittens and rainbows. We want to know if you can do the job fairly.

Pat, as a principled voter, your postcard scares me. I will pray for you.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHhrZgojY1Q[/youtube]

SKrebs wouldn’t know how to be nonpartisan if it came up to her as a makeup counter attendant and applied the reality. She is an ambitious person who only wants power for herself, family and those who pay, ALEC. Her husband was a nice enough news reader for the second place Sioux Falls TV station who now uses his connections and power to return Marion M. Rounds back to a front row power seat. Shantel is just part of the PG13 program.

Shantel does not believe in the freedoms she espouses. She has proved this in everything she has done in her public and private work (former shoe salesperson). Just the way she blew off the courthouse petition gatherers and let those who witnessed, she did not believe in the petition process.

Krebs is a cog in the wheel of ALEC puppet power system. She will only do what Jason Gant could not get done for them. There must be a complete control system for all positions of responsibility in Pierre and she will make sure Gant’s ALEC plans are carried out.

Montgomery did a good job of outlining why South Dakotans should be afraid of Shantel.

• The statement reported “she would “do whatever it takes” to help Republicans win every single statewide office on the ballot next year, include secretary of state“ says it all when she is in office.
• How much will her husband and his personal connections to power assist in her effort.
• Opposes early-voting sites to three other reservation and probably any other place where the GOP majority could be “harmed”.
• Also note, she went to the former ALEC SOS, Chris Nelson, to get his advice. Doesn’t his make you warm and cozy?

Montgomery also throws more into the pot with this post Nelson hits Gant’s performance.  Shantel is getting advice from Nelson as Nelson dumps on Gant. Just remember, Nelson was SOS with control over the Help America Vote Act $9 million fund. He did nothing to help the Native American citizens to vote. Nelson was also SOS during the Lake Andes Native American voter harassment program to scare them away from voting for Daschle.

So Krebs promises to be nonpartisan, sure she will. You betcha,  just like Gant and Nelson…