Is the SD Republican Party protecting Gant because he is an ‘investment’

by

Is Gant competent or just another ‘TOOL’?

First an overview of some organizations that are behind some this;

YOU MAY HAVE HEARD ABOUT the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which helps Republicans draft bills in statehouses. (We reported on the group last month.) But you’ve probably not heard of the Republican State Leadership Committee, which gets them elected in the first place.

Able to raise unlimited funds, the Republican State Leadership Committee is a stalking horse for corporate America. Top contributors to the group include Altria (formerly Philip Morris), Anheuser-Busch, Citigroup, Comcast Cable, Exxon Mobil, Home Depot, Monsanto, PhRMA, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Verizon, and WellPoint.

Guest Poster contributed to this;

There was an organization formed to takeover state legislatures starting in 2002. The group managers make their organization look like they are loosely banded together citizens with a simple public mission to be conservative.  The mission is to make all US state legislatures their version of conservative. Their version of conservatism is based in pre 1965 southern white state’s rights principles, where only certain land owners should be able to vote.  As these managers continue to assume more power they want someone to make their actions appear legal…  I am sorry, they not only want they MUST have someone to make the actions legal.  What group am I talking about?  A little known group based out of Virginia, the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC). (mentioned above).

Why does this affect us in South Dakota?  Why do I bring this up and why should you care?  In the 2010 Pre-General Election Financial Reports available on the Secretary of State’s website, we find the RSLC has given two of our senior elected officials in South Dakota $25,000.00 each for their 2010 campaigns.  These organizations do not give this kind of money out of the goodness of the heart.  They expect something in return.  In a small state like South Dakota, $50,000.00 can make a difference. Who are our owned or rented officials?  Well SOS Jason Gant and Attorney General Marty Jackley.

COMPLETE DOCUMENT: Jackley 2010 Campaign Report

You remember them, Gant of the shoddy SOS office and his legal savior when questions arose recently.  You might also remember the legal eagle AG decision made within hours of being given instructions on how to investigate potential computer / business / public ethics issues.

Is the SD Republican Party protecting Gant because he is an ‘investment’?

Click on image to enlarge. See more here.

Again, why should we care?  The RSLC wants our SOS office to control all our voters and local elections from Pierre.  This group is part of ALEC.  The mission of RSLC is to elect future members for ALEC.  We currently have several dozen GOP members of our legislature who are subsidized by ALEC. They will be pushing for more Real ID laws, use of unverifiable voting equipment, rules to block citizens from voting and limitations on the citizens right to redress their grievances before their elected officials.  Once you know what ALEC is, you see how bad both RSLC and ALEC are for South Dakota.

So how does this work with ALEC, RSLC, Gant and Jackley?  RSLC finances campaigns of ambitious politicians, usually people with no principles.  ALEC needs their legislation passed in Pierre, RSLC backed officeholders write SOS rules.  These new laws and rules are implemented by SOS offices and the Attorney General is necessary to defend the actions in court plus write ballot explanations to confuse.

After the recent Attorney General’s financial “question not asked” opinion I had to look harder at the data we have available to find reasons for the strange official responses received and NOT received.  There are more figures which do not add up and puzzle pieces still falling into place. There will be more to come in this matter.

I originally started to look into this trying to answer the questions:

“Is the AG and the SD Republican party protecting Gant because he was such a huge investment in the 2010 campaign cycle and still owes a good chunk of change?”

“Did the SD Republican party give Gant such a large donation because they had confidence that he was qualified to be SOS?”

“or… or he could be easily manipulated by the party and his benefactors to do their dirty work?”

His repeated incompetence certainly shows he is not qualified for the job, so one would assume the SD Republican party was looking for a ‘tool’.  Is Jackley there to keep him “legal”?

Gant investigation ‘suspicious’ timeline

by

 

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 15th 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

by

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.

If Pat Powers wasn’t doing anything wrong, why did he resign?

by

I would assume that Pat will get his job back now that it was found he didn’t do anything illegal;

Attorney General Marty Jackley says he has found no evidence that Secretary of State Jason Gant or former employee Pat Powers violated state law.

Sen. Stan Adelstein asked Jackley to review the activities of Gant and Powers for any “impropriety, conflict of interest and possibly illegal activity.”

Jackley issued his response this afternoon, saying he agreed with the Division of Criminal Investigation, which found no evidence of a crime while interviewing witnesses and reviewing more than 60,000 emails and 150,000 Internet usage entries from the Secretary of State’s office.

Jackley concluded as follows:

“Based upon witness information and document review, I concur with DCI’s determination that there exists no evidence of state criminal violations within the scope of this investigation. The voluminous emails, internet usage and computer files provided no evidence that the activities of Secretary Gant, Mr. Powers or “Dakota Campaign Store” were in violation of state criminal statutes.”

I knew all along in my heart of hearts, this is how it would turnout. When you have a Republican AG investigate a Republican SOS, we know the results. I will be interested to see if Powers shows back up at his old job come Monday. You have been cleared of wrongdoing Pat, go back to work.