Now, who’s law client is suing the State of South Dakota? The same firm representing that other client that’s suing the State of SD.
From the Rapid City Journal/Associated Press, there looks to be a really big lawsuit where the Flandreau tribe is suing the state of South Dakota:
A lawsuit alleging the state has unfairly prevented the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe from adding slot machines to its casino is temporarily stalled by a dispute over access to possible evidence, including some records from former Gov. Bill Janklow’s administration held up by claims of executive privilege.
At issue in the lawsuit, filed in March 2007, is an allegation that in the past, state officials had a “gentlemen’s agreement” with the Deadwood casino industry and other kinds of non-Indian gambling to limit the number of slot machines allowed in Indian casinos.
and…
The lawsuit says the state negotiated in bad faith as the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe sought a gambling agreement that runs for a longer period and allows more slot machines in its Flandreau casino. The lawsuit says state officials have refused to let each Indian casino have more than 250 slot machines but have let the number of slot machines in Deadwood and the number of video lottery machines in casinos statewide skyrocket.
You know, I read through this article, and not once does it appear to mention anything about who their attorneys are…..
Oops. Oh – there it is…..
“As soon as that decision is rendered, we’re full speed ahead,” said Steven Johnson of Sioux Falls, a lawyer representing the tribe.
So, it appears that the tribe is represented by the Johnson, Heidepriem, Abdallah & Johnson law firm. Yes, once again, State Senator Scott Heidepreim’s law firm is representing someone suing the state of South Dakota. Not that this hasn’t come up already:
The state Supreme Court’s disciplinary board and the Legislature should launch investigations into Senate Democratic leader Scott Heidepriem of Sioux Falls.
The scope of the probes should be four-fold:
- His now-dead attempt to propose unlimited gambling for South Dakota;
- The timing of his law firm’s involvement with the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe in its lawsuit against the State of South Dakota, seeking more slot machines at its casino;
- Heidepriem’s answer to a legislative committee that he didn’t know whether his firm was representing anyone in the gambling industry; and
- The conduct within the eight-lawyer firm, regarding how something so significant failed to be brought to his attention, during the span of nearly three weeks between the filings by three of the firm’s lawyers in federal court on Feb. 6 and Heidepriem’s testimony Feb. 25.
and…
There’s a political cliché from the Watergate days, “What did he know and when did he know it?”
Scott Heidepriem said he didn’t know.
The additional question now is “How couldn’t he know and why?”
Read that here from investigative reporter Bob Mercer.
2 lawsuits against taxpayers. Does that give us any indication as to what Scott Heidepreim’s campaign slogan in his race for Govenor is going to be?
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Comments
I can see the campaign commercial now…Scotty H’s voice taken from the recorded committee hearing saying one thing, then pictures of the documents filed by his own law firm.
At the end we are asked if he is incompetent or decietful…
“Are the those the qualities we as South Dakotans want from our next governor?”
Heidepriem is the biggest phony since Milli Vanilli. Word is that Heidepriem just dropped his fancy country club membership in Sioux Falls so he can pretend to be a “man of the people.”
I can’t believe Abdallah is doing this again. Not that it is important, but does the have any merit?
The Forehead stikes again! I can’t wait to see his commercials, standing in front of a Salvation Army building with his manbag, saying he is just an average person.
9:36.. are you saying mercer wrote this because somebody was paying to slam Scott. It looks to me he is just stating what happen. Please show me the evidence that you have that he was “paid off” to write this.
Oldguy – it was worse than being paid off. Mercer found the information, gave it to Noem to attack Scott with and then wrote an article about it. When the article didn’t receive enough attention he wrote the same article and then called for an investigation. Ask any reporter in Pierre what they think of Mercer and, if they are frank, they will call him a hack.
(Anon, too bad your take on it is utterly biased, false, and without merit. It’s as if I anonymously typed on the website – “I know this guy named anon, and he molests farm animals.”
There’s no proof. Just someone who won’t put their name to things making false accusations.
I’ve liked what Bob has written in the past, and I’ve been hopping mad at it. But I respect him as a journalist.
So, unless you care to put your name to it, can cite sources, and do better than to act like a jackass, don’t bother. -PP)
10:57: Bob Mercer is of impeccable integrity with a hound dog disposition. He gets on a scent he follows it to where it leads him.
Despite being a friend (in Pierre, it is hard to not know everyone and since we were both softball players and baseball friends plus him marrying a gal a few years older than me from Riggs High School), when I worked for Mickelson, he wrote several articles that I thought were unfair and excessively critical of my programs (and still do).
Bob plays NO favorites, writes as he sees it, and lets the chips fall where they do. Criticize Bob for not getting it right or missing part of the story (he is definitely not perfect). More than once, I hit him over the head with a baseball bat. But, accusing him of doing something unethical or inappropriate is a “dog that won’t hunt.”
Why don’t some of these attorneys understand that you cannot be a trial attorney and run for office in South Dakota?
And then they need to understand that you can never be part of a firm that sues or might sue the State of South Dakota!
If your going to go that route as an attorney then write politics out of your life! Why can’t they understand that?
It seems we are missing something here. The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act states the governor of a state that allows gaming must negotiate with any federally recognized tribe that wants to engage in gaming. That’s South Dakota. Since gaming has been legal, Republicans have controlled not only the governor’s chair, but the legislature. This lawsuit, which is intended to be fair in dealing with the tribes is warranted because the Republican administrations have decided to not allow the Indian casinos to grow and prosper, thus helping the state in many ways. Heidepriem’s law firm is justified in suing the governor, thus the state, in an effort to level the playing field between the tribes, which by federal law have the right to operate gaming facilities, and the state sanctioned Deadwood and video lottery casinos. Thus, Heidepriem, because he is associated with the law firm which is representing the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe, is not a vilain, whether he knew of the law suit or not.
It’s a matter of justice for some people in this state who are trying to rise out of poverty through gaming.
Put it to the vote of the people. Most of the people I know would vote in favor of letting the Indian casinos grow to meet the demand. I thought capitalism was supposed to let that happen?
Or are we Republicans just trying to level the playing field. You know, make sure one group doesn’t make more money then the other groups. Oh, wait a minute, that’s what we say about obama isn’t it!
Bob Mercer is a Republican hack. Everyone knows it. He’s worked for Republicans. He rarely writes negative pieces about or “investigates” Republicans. He’s a nice guy and that’s why he’s “respected”. But he does a lot of dirty work for Republicans and against Democrats.
With that in mind, this “issue” is meaningless to voters. No proof of anything other than innuendo from some Republican legislators and a Republican journalist. Even if voters wanted to believe this crap, it would NOT affect an election because it is meaningless to average voters in this climate.
I thought Mercer was a Demo or maybe an independent. He’s butchered the last 2 GOP governors with repeated and often bullshit articles, except for that period when he worked for Janklow. Perhaps Rounds should have hired Mercer and perhaps this is all a shot across Denny’s bow.
This might sound a little Sibbyesque….but what if Mercer controls state government even today? still!
Check the records on Indian gaming during Janklow’s final term. The compacts were expanded to allow unlimited numbers of card tables for the tribes. The tribes also received more slot machines as a result. That is because the card tables no longer applied against the total number of devices allowed. The updated compact for the Rosebud Sioux Tribe doubled the number of slots they could have and brought them into line with the other tribes. The Oglala Sioux compact actually was allowed to expire by the tribe, but Janklow knew the casino was important and negotiated an emergency compact to keep it open so that people wouldn’t lose their jobs, while a new compact could be worked out. He also supported allowing the Sisseton Wahpeton tribe to start offering video lottery in addition to slots and card tables, but the federal regulators rejected the deal because the tribe would have been paying a 50 percent share from video lottery to the state; the federal decision was that the 50 percent was too high, although it was the same percentage as other video lottery operators.
I am not a Republican. As I’ve stated before in this Republican-leaning blog, and Todd Epp subsequently referred to on his Democratic-leaning blog, I purposely don’t register to vote. If I accurately recall, I haven’t voted since 1976 when I had just turned 18.
As for working for Republicans, I worked for four years as press secretary during Bill Janklow’s final term. I have turned down many job offers from any number of Republican and Democratic candidates and office holders through the past 25 years. The press secretary position was the only time I worked for government, other than a summer job I held with ASCS measuring crop fields in college and a small, short-term advisory contract with S.D. Public Broadcasting at some point in the early 1990s.
To summarize why I took the press secretary job: Tom Daschle was Democratic leader of the U.S. Senate, he and Bill Janklow got along well, Bill Janklow wasn’t planning to run for any other office (I didn’t want to be part of any campaign effort), Janklow was the longest-serving governor in state history, Daschle was the highest ranking elected official in state history, and it was a chance to see a historic period from a unique vantage point.
From a news media standpoint there were many things which needed to be modernized in state goverment’s day to day workings with reporters. Some were as simple as e-mailing news releases rather than faxing and developing a web site. As I’ve written, the number of reporters has declined drastically since I began reporting in South Dakota in 1984. One of the steps started during my time as press secretary was instituting teleconferences so reporters statewide could have access to state officials on important developments. Another was development of the weekly News Tips which alert reporters and the general public to state government meetings and public events.
If you think I am a Republican hack, ask Scott Heidepriem what he said to me earlier in the 2009 legislative session, after I reported on the way that Republicans rammed some legislation through the state Senate on a simple majority vote when Scott was arguing a two-thirds was necessary.
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Isn’t his firm representing the landowners who are trying to block the pipeline project too?