Jamie Smith taking some heat over his Hawaiian legislative trip on the taxpayer dime

In the comment section, Sioux Falls Democrat & Mayoral Candidate Jamie Smith is taking some heat over the December Hawaiian trip that then Speaker of the House Spencer Gosch authorized him to take on behalf of the legislature – nevermind that the junket was in December of 2022, the last month he served, after choosing not to run ten months before, in February of 2022.

Twelve South Dakota state lawmakers took a trip to Hawaii in December 2022. A controversy was born out of that trip because of the attendance of outgoing state lawmakers Reps. Spencer Gosch (R-Glenham) and Jamie Smith (D-Sioux Falls).

Critics argued that both lawmakers were outgoing, and thus their attendance on the trip was unnecessary. Smith unsuccessfully ran for governor last November, and Gosch was defeated in a bid to run for senate in June 2022.

Both former lawmakers argued that the trips were already booked prior to their electoral defeats. Others have suggested that the trips could prove useful for outgoing lawmakers who may one day return to the legislature.

and..

“It grows out of an abuse of power by the former speaker of the House approving a trip to Hawaii for he and Democrat leader last December, a few weeks before they were leaving office,” Schoenbeck said.

Remember the entire story here.

Gosch attending was bad enough, but at least he had attempted to run for the legislature at the time.   The bigger point is that Smith had already taken his name out of consideration, and was not even a candidate for the legislature, very likely at the time the travel was booked.   Unless people are in the habit of booking travel 10 months out.

4 thoughts on “Jamie Smith taking some heat over his Hawaiian legislative trip on the taxpayer dime”

  1. All twelve attendees should be scrutinized. Especially the “fiscal conservatives” who care so much about how are tax dollars are used. That conference could have been done closer to home and saved a lot of money. They just wanted a vacation on South Dakota.

  2. Pffffttt. Dig into Noem’s travel as well, if you want to be fair. Apply the same scrutiny to all state representatives. If you did that, Smith’s travels would be a drop in the bucket compared to Noem’s.

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