A tardy digest draw from news and commentary about Tuesday's action in the South Dakota House of Representative, setting the terms for the consideration of the impeachment of Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg.
Both our District 1 state representatives--Jennifer Kreintz, D-Eden and Tamara St. John, R-Sisseton, voted to move the impeachment process forward.
Reporting for the Associated Press, Stephen Groves wrote in South Dakota House votes to launch impeachment probe of AG:
South Dakota’s House launched an investigation Tuesday into whether the state’s attorney general should be impeached for his conduct surrounding a car crash last year that killed a pedestrian.
A sizable majority of the Republican-dominated House voted to have a committee prepare a report and recommend whether Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg should be impeached. It could take weeks for the committee of seven Republicans and two Democrats to delve into the crash investigation. The committee is a mix of Ravnsborg’s political allies and those who have called for his ouster.
Ravnsborg, a Republican who was elected to his first term as attorney general in 2018, pleaded no contest in August to a pair of misdemeanors in the crash that killed 55-year-old Joseph Boever, who was walking along a rural stretch of highway when Ravnsborg struck him with his car. Ravnsborg has insisted that he did not realize he killed a man until he returned to the scene the next day and discovered his body.
House lawmakers said they first wanted to know whether Ravnsborg could be impeached for his misdemeanor convictions, the fact that he killed a man, or that law enforcement associations have said they no longer have confidence in his office.
The state constitution stipulates that officials like the attorney general can be impeached for “corrupt conduct, malfeasance or misdemeanor in office.” But a state official has never been impeached in South Dakota.
“Our first meeting is literally to sit down, go through the constitution, go through case law, to get an idea,” said House Speaker Spencer Gosch, a Republican.
Gov. Kristi Noem, who has called for Ravnsborg to resign, has delivered a hard drive containing the crash investigation to Gosch, but he said the committee would subpoena the crash investigation from the Department of Public Safety “just to ensure accuracy.”
Ravnsborg’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the House’s move.
Republican Rep. Will Mortenson, who first called for Ravnsborg’s impeachment in February, pushed to allow public access to the material the committee reviews. The House agreed to make public that material, with the exception of redacted confidential and “nonrelevant information.”
“This is unprecedented in state history, which means we need to be thoughtful,” Mortenson said. “And keep in mind the public, the family of any victims here and the subject of impeachment as well.” . . .
At the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, Joe Sneve reported in House takes first step toward impeachment of South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg:
The South Dakota Legislature for the first time in state history has begun the process of considering the impeachment of a duly elected public official.
But until Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg no longer holds constitutional office, the widow of Joe Boever says justice will not have been served.
"They just need to make the right decision and take him out of this because there is going to be no closure until something is figured out," said Jenny Boever, whose husband was killed 14 months ago when he was struck by a car being driven by Ravnsborg. "He needs to be impeached."
Ravnsborg, a Yankton Republican first elected in 2018, was driving along Highway 14 in Hyde County in the evening hours of Sept. 12, 2020 when he struck Boever, who had been walking along the shoulder of the road. Boever's body was not discovered until the following morning.
The attorney general was ultimately convicted of a pair of misdemeanors stemming from the crash but has remained in office despite calls for him to resign by law enforcement groups and high-ranking state officials.
And that in part prompted a majority of representatives in the state House to overwhelmingly approve a resolution triggering a Special Investigative Committee to vet Ravnsborg's conduct in relation to the crash.
With a 58-10 vote, the nine-member panel was directed to begin considering impeachment by gathering information and evidence it deems relevant to its probe and report back to the entire House with a recommendation on whether or not to proceed with impeachment.
The timeline for the committee to finish its work is unclear, with Gosch saying a final recommendation might not be delivered to the House until the Legislature convenes for a regular session in January 2022.
"We need to know what we can and can't do before we move forward," said Gosch, who will serve on the Special Investigative Committee along with six other Republicans and two Democrats. "I'm not speculating anything beyond step one." . . . .
Read the rest at the Argus Leader.
The Mitchell Republic's Christopher Vondracek reported in South Dakota Legislature starts impeachment process against Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg:
Lawmakers in Pierre opened a historic impeachment inquiry into South Dakota's embattled attorney general on Tuesday, Nov. 9, establishing a select committee in the House of Representatives and moving one step closer to drafting an impeachment article that could, ultimately, remove Jason Ravnsborg from office for his role in a deadly crash last year.
Any vote on impeaching Ravnsborg weeks, or even months away. Impeachment can be brought for "misdemeanor in office," according to state law.
While the House on Tuesday voted in a bipartisan and wide margin, 58-10, to move ahead with a nine-member select committee to investigate and bring any article to the larger body, some lawmakers remain skeptical of the inciting charge against Ravnsborg. In August, the Republican AG pleaded "no contest" to criminal misdemeanors in the death of Joe Boever along a roadside west of Highmore, South Dakota, in 2020.
Before Tuesday's vote, Rep. Fred Deutsch, R-Florence, told the chamber he still doesn't "fully understand" Ravnsborg's "impeachable offense."
"Is this the fact that there were misdemeanors committed?" asked Deutsch, a bellwether of the conservative voting bloc in the House. "Is this the fact that there was a tragic accident that resulted in the loss of life of an innocent man?"
Family members of Boever, who watched Tuesday's vote from the gallery, have disputed the word "accident," for describing the deadly crash that happened on Sept. 12, 2020, when Ravnsborg's car veered onto the shoulder and struck Boever.
Nevertheless, Deutsch and others voted to go forward with the committee. While 10 hard-right members of the body voted against the resolution, the voting bloc appeared fractured, with Rep. Mary Fitzgerald, R-Spearfish, saying such an inquiry would dispel the notion "there are two tiers of justice — one for the rich and powerful, and one for everyone else."
In approving the impeachment inquiry, the House also approved on a voice vote an amendment brought by Rep. Will Mortenson, R-Pierre, to open up some of the records the select committee will be viewing to the public. . . .
At Keloland's Capital News Bureau, Bob Mercer reported in Legislature opens impeachment of Ravnsborg:
The South Dakota Legislature opened a special session Tuesday morning on the possible impeachment of state Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg.
The House of Representatives adopted a resolution calling for House Speaker Spencer Gosch to appoint a select committee of nine members to investigate whether Ravnsborg committed impeachable offenses.
The committee, which Gosch will chair, is assigned to look at what happened during the night of September 12, 2020, when the car Ravnsborg was driving struck and killed Joe Boever.
Boever was walking along US 14 at the west edge of Highmore.
Gosch said he would appoint House Republican leader Kent Peterson; House Democrat leader Jamie Smith; Democrat representative Ryan Cwach; and Republican representatives Mike Stevens, Steve Haugaard, Jon Hansen, Doug Barthel and Kevin Jensen.
Stevens, Haugaard, Hansen and Cwach are attorneys. Barthel is a retired Sioux Falls chief of police.
The resolution also calls for a special legal counsel chosen by the House speaker. The committee will set its own schedule and will report to the full House whether impeachment should be sought. . . .
In commentary? at the conservative Dakota War College blog, Pat Powers writes in What was behind the “NO” votes on Impeachment Investigation? Haugaard makes case for impropriety of Impeachment:
. . . What brought those Legislators to vote no on establishing a committee to review whether impeachment is warranted? A recent newspaper column from State Rep. Steve Haugaard in the Brandon Newspaper may shed some light on it . . .
Rep. Haugaard seems to tip his hand in the article, and gives the impression that he will be one of the chief forces arguing against impeachment of the Attorney General.
With popular opinion for impeachment inflamed by media coverage versus the minimal traffic violations the AG pled ‘No Contest’ to, it is interesting to see the degree of pushback on impeachment as well as where it’s originating from.
Ok then. In the South Dakota Standard Tom Lawrence writes in Impeachment moves ahead again — do Republicans feel the need to remove Ravnsborg this time?:
So the process is underway — again.
Will they move forward this time? Is South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg (seen above in an image from lawandcrime.com) on his way out? Or will the South Dakota Legislature decide to just let him complete his term in office, hoping this ugly matter slips from the public radar?
Do they want this resolved before the 2022 election cycle begins? Is there sufficient political will to remove an elected official? Is there proof he committed an impeachable offense?
The first time the Legislature started to move on impeaching Ravnsborg, the process ground to a halt. It was February, and Gov. Kristi Noem was working hard to remove Ravnsborg from office. They are both conservative Republicans, but what many people have failed to grasp, for some reason, is that they are far from allies.
She asked him to resign, and when he declined, she urged the Legislature to remove him from office. Impeachment proceedings were filed on Feb. 23 as Noem authorized the release of information tied to his Sept. 12, 2020, fatal crash, when he ran over and killed Joe Boever just east of Highmore.
But that seemed to cause a reaction Noem had not anticipated. Judge John Brown, the retired Sixth Judicial Circuit judge who took on the criminal trial when all other active judges passed on the case involving the state’s highest law enforcement officer, ordered the state not to release anything else and called for the videos to be removed from a state website.
By early March, hearings were halted and the state House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly — 57-11 — to stop and wait for the criminal case to come to an end.
That was a clear signal that they were not in a hurry to toss him out of office. Ravnsborg has friends and supporters in the Legislature and in South Dakota Republican circles, and they’re not going to let a guy being run over and his body abandoned on the side of the road bother them very much.
Ravnsborg’s reluctance to admit he knew much about the crash — he somehow did not see a face come through his windshield nor notice a pair of glasses land in his car — doesn’t bother them. His puzzling performance while being interviewed by a pair of North Dakota investigators also isn’t a concern. . . .
Read the rest of the saucy take at the Standard. Finally, Dakota Free Press's Cory Allen Heidelberger muses at the close of House Votes 58–10 to Investigate Jason Ravnsborg for Impeachment:
. . . I can only speculate why any Republican would stand in the way of impeaching a law-breaking, man-killing Attorney General who has lost the confidence of law enforcement and the public through his crimes and his incompetence. Are these ten so steeped in Trumpism that they think “impeachment” is a dirty word and that any attempt to hold elected officials accountable for bad behavior is just some woke plot?
Voters, you can see if your representatives voted against investigating Ravnsborg. If you see Gross, Haugaard (especially Haugaard, since he’s on the impeachment committee), Howard, et al. around town, go right up and ask them why they voted to sweep Ravnsborg’s crimes under the rug.
We’re far from impeaching Ravnsborg. The impeachment committee has no timeline, but even if they held a lightning hearing tomorrow and ended the day by reporting, “Yeah, we should fry him,” the House and Senate’s required fourteen-day delays would mean we wouldn’t reach trial until December. I speculate that we can expect the committee itself to take at least a month to consider and call witnesses and review documents. While I would argue that the case for Ravnsborg’s immediate removal is clear, compelling, and urgent, I can accept that the Legislature, faced with taking an action never before used in 132 years of South Dakota history, may feel inclined to take its time to avoid mistakes.
On the good side, the Legislature’s taking its time will give all of us more opportunity to watch and make sure they don’t make mistakes as they move toward the proper and necessary action of impeaching Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg.
Yes indeed on that.
Links to our related posts included in South Dakota legislature likely to take its time with Ravnsborg impeach investigation/
Photo: The South Dakota House vote board on starting the impeachment process for Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg. Photo by Bob Mercer at Legislature opens impeachment of Ravnsborg.
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