Final Impeachment vote in House: 36 YEA, 31 NAY, and of course Taffy Howards skips.

@SoDakCampaigns

The vote of the House to send impeachment to the Senate for trial is in..

Voting Yes: Anderson, Aylward, Bartels, Beal, Blare, Bordeaux, Chaffee, Chase, Cwach, Davis, Derby, Deutsch, Drury, Duba, Fitzgerald, Goodwin, Healy, Hoffman, Keintz, Koth, Ladner, Lesmeister, Mortenson, Olson, Pourier, Reed, Rehfeldt, Schneider, Jamie Smith, St. John, Thomason, Tiemann, Weisgram, Willadsen, Wink, and York.

Voting Against Impeachment: Barthel, Dennert, Finck, Greenfield, Gross, Hansen, Gubernatorial Candidate Steve Haugaard, Jamison, Kevin Jensen, Phil Jensen, Chris Johnson, Karr, Marty, May, Mills, Milstead, Miskimins, Mulally, Otten, Overweg, Perry, Kent Peterson, Sue Peterson, Tom Pischke, Randolph, Reimer, Soye, Stevens, Vasgaars, Weis, and Gosch.

Excused were Scott Odenbach (Recused), Marli Wiese, and Congressional Candidate Taffy Howard keeps her streak of absenteeism up and misses 100% of the votes today, similar to how she skipped 14% of the votes on the House floor during the regular session.

The vote required a majority of the membership to send to the Senate, and receiving 36, they literally had 1 vote to spare.

13 thoughts on “Final Impeachment vote in House: 36 YEA, 31 NAY, and of course Taffy Howards skips.”

    1. I am not so sure about that. The Senate is a much different environment from the House these days.

      Today’s vote was about the ability of House GOP leadership to maintain a firm enough grip on the rank and file to achieve its apparent on-going mission of out-flanking the governor. All those efforts on this particular issue concluded in a 4th floor conference room earlier today. I don’t see Senate leadership going that route.

      I’d bet a bag of Donut Shop donut holes that if the Senate takes a straight up “vote your conscience” on conviction, they’ll convict.

      This is a horribly tragic, regrettable, and embarrassing episode of SD politics. Unfortunately, all the politicking, process, pomp and circumstance has only served the same purpose as putting a handful of sprinkles on a fresh dog turd. I don’t understand why those red names on that tally board want to go down swinging with Jason Ravnsborg. And, I don’t understand why he insists on taking those folks down with him.

      None of this serves South Dakota, and it only makes the whole tragic ordeal that much more grueling for the family of an innocent pedestrian.

      What might help? A resignation (with or without decent proofreading).

      1. Resigning should have happened nearly 18 months ago…

        I look at how my legislators voted and they are in a strongly contested primary. I am seriously looking at supporting their opponents over this!

        1. Many who voted no also have contested primaries. Yet they had the courage to vote no. Some voted yes, hoping this would get them re-elected. It became about them. Think you are criticizing the wrong group.

  2. The Senate will absolutely get to 2/3. Clearly the AG is a criminal with misuse of vehicles and dishonest during the interview process for killing the guy.

  3. Now I would not be surprised if he resigns. A trial in the Senate is far different from being Impeached…. In two regards. First, he knew he had a legitimate shot of squashing this in the House. Second, now we’re talking removal from office. Who wouldn’t want to resign rather than be removed.

  5. Brown County legislators demonstrate once again they are an embarrassment and need to be replaced. A new low in a district that once had outstanding & sensible representation regardless of party.

    1. Wonder what Al will do. Chances are if you ask him, he won’t respond…

      There is a really good chance that the incumbents do not make it out of the primary…

  7. In light of the suspension from duties clause you brought up, how long should the Senate portion take and who’s exercising the AG powers in the meantime (and afterwards if the Senate convicts)?

  8. I heard during testimony that both the Police Chiefs Association and the Sheriff’s Association thought the AG should resign. However, I see that Barthel and Milstead voted against impeachment given their former job and husband’s current job. Frankly, I’m surprised (and embarrassed) at the number of SF area legislators that voted against impeachment. As a District 9 voter, I reached out to Rep. Soye asking her the reason she voted the way she did as I start to look at the primary. Jason should have taken the lifeline thrown to him earlier today and resigned. All I can do is look at this list of “no” votes and shake my head.

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