While Minneapolis Star Tribune political reporter Briana Bierschbach tells readers that a change might come in Minnesota GOP eyes 'Virginia model' for midterm success, Minnesotans might only look across their western border to see how Republican dominance of state government might not seem the problem solving situation some people might envision.
Instead, we read headlines like this one from the op-ed from the Sioux Falls Argus Leader's Jonathan Ellis, Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg became proxy war in Kristi Noem, GOP feud:
It’s hard to pinpoint the exact moment when it happened, but at some point following Sept. 12, 2020, Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg and his fatal traffic accident became a sideshow.
The focus shifted from a highway shoulder-surfing attorney general who had a proclivity for reading news on his phone while driving, to the political feud that developed between the governor and House Republican leaders. In the end, Ravnsborg became a proxy war between the governor and the enemies she's created in the House.
Through all of this, we’ve been treated to some pretty low-brow political theater. This included a mysterious influence campaign whose provenance remains unknown and is reminiscent of the scene in the movie “All the President’s Men,” in which Deep Throat tells Woodward that the people advising President Nixon amid the Watergate scandal aren’t very bright.
On Monday, the House Select Committee on Investigation voted not to recommend impeachment for Ravnsborg, who killed Joseph Boever west of Highmore while, authorities say, he was driving on the shoulder of Highway 14. That vote was a rebuke to the governor, who has been trying to oust Ravnsborg almost from the start. The vote also triggered the release Wednesday of the voluminous investigative materials collected in the weeks following the accident. . . .
After Ravnsborg pleaded no contest to two of three misdemeanor charges in August, there was a chance she might get her way after the House voted to create the select committee. But House Speaker Spencer Gosch, with whom Noem has been feuding, stocked the committee with other lawmakers who don’t like the governor, including former Speaker Steve Haugaard, who is challenging Noem in the June primary. . . .
That takes us to the House Republicans and their upcoming April 12 impeachment vote. Many of them have primary challenges. A vote against impeachment will be viewed by some voters as an attempt to cover up for the attorney general. Those lawmakers must weigh how their votes on impeachment will be used by their opponents in the June primary.
And so it is nearly two years later, Joe Boever, a guy who was out looking for the pickup he’d driven into the ditch earlier that day, a guy who was not known to be active in politics, will cast a long shadow over this year’s political process.
Read the entire article at the Argus Leader.
That shadow didn't come cheap. At the Aberdeen American and other USA Today papers in the state, there's Joe Sneve's South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg impeachment probe racks up $87,000 in attorney fees:
Impeachment proceedings into Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg will cost South Dakota taxpayers at least $87,000.
South Dakota House Speaker Spencer Gosch, R-Pierre, told the Argus Leader on Friday the House Select Committee on Investigation racked up $87,334 worth of attorney fees while it vetted Ravnsborg's conduct related to a fatal 2020 crash.
The committee this week issued a formal recommendation that the 45-year-old Republican should not face impeachment, but not until after a special counsel hired to assist the nine representatives guided them through 10 separate meetings and hundreds of documents, videos, recordings and other materials.
The special prosecutor hired in the case was Rapid City attorney Sara Frankenstein, a partner at Gunderson, Palmer, Nelson & Ashmore. . . .
While Keloland reports Democrats leave open 58 S.D. legislative seats, the article closes with this:
Unofficially, Republicans have legislative primaries for:
16 Senate seats, in districts 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 15, 16, 23, 24, 25, 29, 30, 31 and 33; and
44 House seats, in districts 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 19, 20, 23, 24, 26A, 28B, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 and 35.
And this tweet of a Dakota Free Press post leads to another tangle:
Ravnsborg Using Noem’s Image on Campaign Website https://t.co/cfcf3tv35b
— Dakota Free Press (@dfpblog) April 4, 2022
Cartoon: South Dakota Republican politics.
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