I had to chuckle a little bit about Paul’s concern;
A candidate for State’s Attorney is accusing his competitors of violating residency requirements for living outside of Minnehaha County.
Paul Bengford, an assistant city attorney for the city of Sioux Falls pursuing the county’s top prosecutor’s job, this week took to radio airwaves and reporters’ inboxes calling on two others in the race to suspend their campaigns because they have residences in Lincoln County.
“Crystal Johnson and Daniel Haggar have broken faith with voters by filing petitions falsely claiming each has a primary residence in Minnehaha County,” Bengford said in a news release Wednesday.
UPDATE: First of all, it is completely legal to be a State’s Attorney and live in another ‘adjoining’ county. Marty Jackley served in a county he did not live in. If it is a small county. It doesn’t apply in Minnehaha;
7-16-31. Residency requirements for state’s attorney in counties with low population. In any county with a population of less than five thousand persons, no state’s attorney is disqualified from holding office for failure to be a resident of that county if the state’s attorney is a resident of a county which is contiguous to the county in which the state’s attorney holds such office.
Source: SL 2004, ch 69, § 1.
But the concern really made me chuckle, because Bengford has been an attorney with the City of Sioux Falls for several years and has never said anything about the massive amount of city employees who don’t live in Sioux Falls or pay property taxes here. For example one of the city attorneys lives in Madison, our Fire Chief lives in Canton (he told councilors when he was appointed to the job that SF wasn’t a safe place to raise kids) and our Library Director lives in Minnesota. I think I was told once about a third of the city’s employees don’t live in Sioux Falls. I have often recommended that at least management and directors have a requirement to live in the city they serve, especially someone who works in public safety like our Fire Chief. Many councilors have told me they were not really concerned about it, so no ordinances have been proposed. It is pretty obvious Bengford is just trying to make this into a political football. Remember, Paul was the city attorney who went after Cameraman Bruce for a raspberry bush in his fenced off back yard as a public nuance. Bengford lost that case and many other code enforcement cases. Not only is Paul not qualified to be State’s Attorney, he barely is qualified to be a city attorney.
Vote for Crystal Johnson.
I also chuckled about Daniel Haggar defending his residency. His sister Jenna was rumored to be living out of state with her husband while serving her last year in the legislature. The legislature was asked to investigate the claims, but nothing was ever done about it. She resigned after the session was over.
I agree that Crystal is the best Republican candidate of the three, but it’s still bull that she and Haggar really don’t live in Minnehaha.
I also get a kick out of how Bengford sandbagged this issue until the final days of the campaign. If he really cared about this issue, he would have raised it earlier.
At times, state’s attorneys are asked to cover less populated counties, which they do not reside in, but that’s because of a scarcity of attorneys in a given county to do the work. But how could that be a problem in Minnehaha?
As far as Haggar, didn’t Jenna also live in her parents’ basement in Legislative District 10, while she represented LD 15? The Haggar’s are apparently politically hungry at any cost.
I will agree if Bengford beats Johnson, I will just yawn. But Haggar! That will be devastating. That family needs to go. Did I ever tell you about the time Don took an idea from me and was writing it down in a little notebook. And when I called him out about it, he denied it. He is a bottom feeder.
His “bottom feeder” tendencies probably come from his time in the legislature. Republicans love to deny good Democratic ideas, then they re-issue them as GOP ideas in the next legislative session.
Yah, if Haggar gets in there, watch out! In the age of Barr and Trump, Republicans, especially ones like Haggar, have lost their true and honest duty, in my opinion.
When Haggar calls themself a “Conservative Republican” in his commercials, that’s not only the truth, but also code to his right wing buddies.
I believe they should live in the county but it’s not policy. Bengford has represented the city in court. He has no regard for due process, face with ones accuser, witnesses, evidence, etc.. Fighting for sovereignty is not democracy. Civil rights is not something Bengford stands for.
The info about neighboring counties you put out is not quite accurate—there are different rules for large counties and small counties. Only small counties can have someone from an adjoining county.
7-16-31. Residency requirements for state’s attorney in counties with low population. In any county with a population of less than five thousand persons, no state’s attorney is disqualified from holding office for failure to be a resident of that county if the state’s attorney is a resident of a county which is contiguous to the county in which the state’s attorney holds such office.
Source: SL 2004, ch 69, § 1.
Thanks John.
Which stations are airing Bengford’s ads?
it is kind of funny that two out of the three candidates can’t even vote for themselves.
Scott do you think the third one knows how?
We all know what bottom feeders eat!