Does “do you know who I am” ever work well in South Dakota?

Pat Powers

So this just pops up in my facebook feed this morning from former State Senator Neal Tapio, where he’s upset over a contractor charging him more on concrete than had originally been quoted on a construction job. Neal explains how he sends a text message to this person, and intimates he’s going to use his political & media connections against someone in a private contracting dispute if it isn’t resolved in his favor. :

and…

Read it all here.

As Neal recites his political bonafides, and how he’ll use them against this person he deems to be a nefarious actor, I can’t help but wonder, does pulling out the “do you know who I am” ever work well in South Dakota?

Anecdotally, I’ve run across it a couple of times myself. Way, waaay back when I handled insurance complaints at the Division of Insurance, I had someone call on an insurance complaint, detailing their issue with an insurance company.  At the end of the discussion, as if it would provide them some special treatment, as if they couldn’t help themselves, they had to add, “I don’t suppose being the mayor of Salem is going to help me?”

My deadpanned reply? “No. Not at all.”

More recently is the example of back in 2014 when former State Representative Kathy Tyler tried to use her magical legislative authority to tell a businessman that she – Tyler herself – was allegedly overruling a court’s determination on a property dispute decided by a judge, as referenced in a political ad used against her:

A small business man in Rapid City won a lawsuit against a customer that owed him money, but Kathy Tyler called and tried to overrule the judge. Kathy Tyler said she disagreed with the judge. She said she was a legislature and knew better.”

That post is old enough I don’t have it actively on-line anymore, but others have referenced it.

I’ve got other examples, as I’m sure some of you readers do as well.  But really, as friendly and “South Dakota nice” as our state’s residents are, I also consider them to have very readily available “BS detectors” when it comes to someone elected to office trying to use a title (or former title) to buffalo them.

And really, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen such threats work.

And as Kathy Tyler found (when she lost the race that ad appeared in), it usually reflects negatively on the person saying it.   I suspect Neal would be equally as successful in attempting to find redress by reporting the deceptive trade practice, or fighting the contractor in court without dragging out the “I am a former state senator..” card.

Since it’s questionable whether laying it out there is going to help him, I can’t but wonder if playing it is going to do the opposite, as it did for Kathy Tyler when she threw it out there in a private dispute, and later ran and lost her race.

Neal broadcasting he intends to use his political & media connections against someone in a private contracting dispute is not necessarily going to be taken seriously by the person he threatens.

But it makes pretty interesting copy in a political campaign.

And it may not be the last we hear about it.

19 thoughts on “Does “do you know who I am” ever work well in South Dakota?”

    1. Nothing intentional. That’s prob my best public example of someone throwing that kind of stuff out there & have it backfire.

  5. Well, I want everyone to know that I know Spike Lee and Kevin McHale. Pretty sure they’d deny knowing me. That said and seriously, this is something I’d give Tapio a pass on. All of us get upset when we feel screwed and our first reaction is to throw out everything including the kitchen sink.

    If Tapio were here right now, I’d say let’s go have a beer and have a few laughs at his expense while sharing wild wings and Monday night football. I’d buy.

    BTW: I think there is a distinction between Tapio saying he’d call the AG (who has the authiority to do something or nothing) vs. Tyler linking her title and undercutting a lawful ruling from the bench.

  6. Every Judge ever will then respond: “So, then you should have known better than to not get a written contract, shouldn’t you?”

  8. Some would say become a politician to use your power and influence to better communities, help farm & ranchers out, improve trade relations, or cut back on government waste,

    Others would say use your power and influence to air grievances and get even.

  9. Let’s see if I got this right. Contractor made Neal cry, Neal went on Facebook and complained. Neal’s dad can beat up the contractor’s dad. Except for the Facebook part, Junior High hasn’t changed in 50 years.

  10. What is this contractor thinking?  This is Neal Tapio, he’s built like what…1,2,3,40 houses.  Conducts business on a high level…the highest, as in flatwork, ain’t no other business dealins higher than concrete flatwork ..especially w/steps.  And he KNOWS Trump.  I mean Trump’s straightened out those Mexicans and Canadians  and soon to be Chi-coms.   Once that is finished I’m pretty sure Trump will get Neal’s concrete bill straightened out.

  12. I came on duty in a local hospital one evening and found one of my patients with a dog in the bed with her. The person sitting next to the bed said “it’s okay, I’m so and so.”
    I’m not going to say who these people were.
    But I will say, it worked. Or maybe I just like dogs more than hospital policies.

  13. Ravnsborg should publicly distance himself from Tapio.

    Ravnsborg is a good guy with a bright future.

  14. $7.65 per square foot? I’ve never heard of commercial concrete costing over $7, and that is twice as thick. I never paid close to that for work at my property.

    Sounds like a con artist to me, dishonest at best.

  15. Tapio once again displays his over-inflated level of self-importance. South Dakota is a small state. There are hundreds, if not thousands of people who could claim that resume.

    1. So what if hundreds can claim the same, his connections exist all the same. Others having the same doesn’t diminish his own. Duh

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