Kristi for Governor Issues Statement on Government Accountability Board’s Illegal Action

Pat Powers


Kristi for Governor Issues Statement on Government Accountability Board’s Illegal Action

PIERRE, SOUTH DAKOTA – Today, in response to the actions taken by the Government Accountability Board (GAB), Kristi for Governor Communications Director Ian Fury issued the following statement:

“The actions taken by the GAB today did not follow state law or precedent. They have yet to point to one single statute the Governor has violated in either of these complaints.

“These complaints are all political and filed by a disgraced former attorney general who literally killed a man, lied about it, and tried to cover it up. Governor Noem was the first to call him out for this, and he filed these complaints in retaliation.

“It is unfortunate the board chose not to bring this charade to an end today. Kassidy Peters did not receive any special treatment, and Governor Noem followed the law, period!”

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87 thoughts on “Kristi for Governor Issues Statement on Government Accountability Board’s Illegal Action”

  1. She was relying on the conclusions drawn by every crash reconstruction expert and every law enforcement officer who investigated the scene.

    People forget she had a good relationship with Ravnsborg prior to that.

    Whether you agree with her as the Ravnsborg or not, it’s pretty clear that Ravnsborg is motivated in this matter by vengeance, not justice.

    1. She may have at one time had a pretty good relationship with Ravnsborg, but after he started investigating, the relationship soured. She pushed really hard for resignation and impeachment. Connected? Nah!

  2. Trump playbook, blame everything, everyone, accept no responsibility for anything. Three retired judges, highly respected, no agenda, doing what the law requires and she attacked them politically. Not fit for public office.

    1. { Three retired judges, highly respected, no agenda, }

      Judges, retired or not, whether respected or not, are NOT gods. They are human with biases and prejudices just like other people.

  3. SDCL 5-25-1.1
    SD Constitution Article 16 Section 3

    When Jim Jordan sent Noem a political hack he definitely didn’t send his brightest.

  5. When you’re losing and when you’re wrong you attack the process. She is not fit to govern.

    1. Exactly, when you’re losing and you’re wrong you attack the process. That’s exactly what Ravnsborg is doing. Noem hasn’t even been accused of any illegal wrongdoing, just a bunch of false correlations that sound bad to anyone who already has a confirmation-bias against her. Kassidy had her business destroyed and who’s to say how she’s handling all this. All she tried to do is get an appraisor’s license the legal way. If they wanted to break the rules they wouldn’t have used the exact legal avenue to get things done the legal way. If it was the Cuomos or the Clintons that license would just magically appear in their kid’s pocket. Noem’s problem is that she is TOO transparent. The media’s problem is they have no sense. Democrats problem is that they somehow have even less sense and are sheep.

      1. Then after failing the 2nd time, Kassidy would have waited the required time period to be able to try the process over again and not went into a meeting with her mom to get her preferential treatment.

      2. The Democrats are not in control in SD, the Republicans are. The Government Accountability Board is mostly Republicans yet they found probable cause to continue with the investigation. Cuomo got run out of office and HRC was grilled in a hearing for 11 hours. They did not get a pass. Governor Noem is “transparent” for sure. She circumvents the law out in full view of the public. What was that $200K bribery payment to the Appraisers Licensing Board official to retire and keep quiet? Why did the governor have to sit in the room with her daughter with the licensing board as they were reviewing her adult daughter’s appraiser’s license application for the third time? Anyone and everyone else would not be allowed to do such things….entitled? Kinda looks like it.

  7. “This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration — period — both in person and around the globe.”
    —White House press secretary Sean Spicer, remarks to reporters, Jan. 21, 2017

  8. So this will go to the AG, handpicked by Governor Noem to replace AG Ravnsborg who she got the legislature to impeach and remove? Interestingly the event she is being investigated for happened before Ravnsborg’s accident. No wonder she hated him so much!

    1. This smells so wrong. First Noem pushed Vargo to be part of the prosecutors deicing what to do about AG Ravnsborg’s case, and I heard Vargo was pushing for manslaughter. Then he leads the prosecution during the senate trial, then he gets appointed as interim AG. Noem is out of control over her meddling and wrongdoing in this state.

      What else is she trying to hide and protect???

        1. The security js an moot issue. The governor uses security anytime they travel outside the state foe any such event.

          1. So let’s see the costs as compared to previous governors to see how much more she is spending to further her career. I have no problem with the occasional trip out of the state to represent SD interests, but these numerous trips are for her own interests and at our expense.

        1. BIG TIME! Vargo needs to recuse himself from this process, and the board needs to appoint an intended investigator.

    2. You people are absolutely absurd! RAVNSBORG KILLED A MAN! You think she hated him??? Good Christ if you people didn’t have double-standards you would have zero standards whatsoever. OF COURSE SHE WANTED HIM IMPEACHED! HE KILLED A GUY! Pull your heads out of your asses you disingenuous worms.

    3. You mean to say they’ve had these allegations for two years in their back-pocket and they waited until 2 months from her re-election?
      And that doesn’t sound suspicious to you?
      Wake up, sheeple. It’s the same thing they did/are doing to Trump. It used to be hard to see how the Devil was working in the world, now we have the Democrats giving us a firsthand example.

      1. Awe yes, those democrats did it again when they announced an fbi investigation into Hillary 11 days before the election. Lol What is the story with Trump now? The docs were planted? The docs were declassified? He had a right to them? I can’t seem to keep his fundraising stories straight.

  11. Didn’t Ian once say it would be against the law to comment on ongoing investigations??

    1. How dare you use his own words against him. He is Ian F@#$ing Fury! And now he is going to spend the rest of the day shooting off mean tweets about you.

    2. It’s not an ongoing investigation and he is Noem’s communication director.
      I swear, this morning I must have woke up in a world where the average IQ is now 75.
      Or maybe that’s how Democrats have always been.

  12. This might shrink the margin of victory on her reelection a bit, but she is in no real danger because she has such a weak opponent. Maybe, had Sutton run again, this could have made things interesting.

    However, her actions and her staff’s response is amateur hour and make Kamala Harris look professional by comparison. Yes, everyone helps their kids out whenever they can and gets them a job if that is within their capabilities. It’s just that it normally doesn’t cost the taxpayers $200K in settlement money to do it. Whomever the GOP nominee is is going to take a hard pass on her for VP (or anything cabinet-level if they win).

  14. Kassidy didn’t receive special treatment? Can you name me another applicant who got a meeting with the governor and the department head to negotiate a deal to allow her another chance outside the typical standards? Noem would have been better to own up to this one from the start because it doesn’t take a genius to see what happened her.

    1. That’s against the GOP playbook of “never admit fault, always double down.” Which is kind of backing them into a corner at the moment.

    2. Kassidy did not receive her certification until months after the infamous meeting. Had she received special treatment, wouldn’t she be certified immediately as a result of that meeting?

      Bren, testifying before a joint legislative panel, revealed herself to be one of those lifer government employees who was fully aware of the problems in her program but had no interest in fixing anything. She was coasting toward retirement, and the only direction you can go when you are coasting is downhill. Her settlement was allegedly based upon “age discrimination,” which is interesting, because in her testimony it became obvious she had been there too long. If you have never had to work with, (or worse, under,) somebody like that, you should consider yourself fortunate.

      While the optics are terrible, it is really a stretch to say that the Governor did anything illegal.

      1. “Had she received special treatment, wouldn’t she be certified immediately as a result of that meeting?”

        No, she had the meeting so she would have the option to remediate the issues with her last submission because after 2 submissions, the applicant is not allowed to be certified. The fact she got a 3rd chance is exactly the special treatment that no one else is allowed.

        1. The daughter couldn’t pass the test so mommy steps in and pressures the government employee to give her a license. Then pressures for the employee to retire. Noem has been and is a horrible governor. All she does is care about herself and getting elected. She is a typical politician that most of us are so tired of having.

          1. Would you all have rather two paid Government employees meet during office hours to discuss her daughter’s licensure process? (a problem which has been needing to be fixed for years) Or would it be more fitting to meet after hours and have a face-to-face discussion.

            You all need to pull your heads out and use some critical thinking for FIVE seconds before you make complete fools of yourselves. You’re likened to jackals with this visceral bias.

            1. If it is a much bigger governmental process issue, having an applicant in the meeting is the last thing you do.

        2. So you get two submissions, fail both, then what? Is a lifetime ban on re-applying imposed? It seems you can take the bar exam three times here, same for medical licensure.

          In all professional licensure procedures, there is a process by which you can continue to apply, isn’t there?

          2. There is a waiting period which is meant for you to get more education and then you can start the entire process over again from the start. You don’t get to pick up where you left off after the 2nd failure.

            1. ok so you have to start all over again. Who decided that? Is that one of the reasons the state doesn’t have enough appraisers?
              A Registered Nurse, responsible for keeping people alive, can retake the NCLEX 8 times in the same year. That same nurse can get certified in Advanced Cardiac Life Support even more easily than that.
              I think there is a problem with priorities here.

    3. Kassidy did not receive her certification until months after the infamous meeting. Had she received special treatment, wouldn’t she be certified immediately as a result of that meeting?

      Bren, testifying before a joint legislative panel, revealed herself to be one of those lifer government employees who was fully aware of the problems in her program but had no interest in fixing anything. She was coasting toward retirement, and the only direction you can go when you are coasting is downhill. Her settlement was allegedly based upon “age discrimination,” which is interesting, because in her testimony it became obvious she was way past her “best by” date.

      While the optics are terrible, it is really a stretch to say that the Governor did anything illegal.

      1. And Bren also testified that she felt intimidated by Noem. She says she was “forced” to leave the role she had worked in since 1991. And Noem had like 3-4 lawyers in the room when she was intimidating Noem?

        Nope, nothing illegal here, nothing to see.

        1. Have you ever spoken to the Governor? She’s always intimidating. Particularly if you work for the Government for 30 years and don’t do a single thing and have no idea how to answer straightforward questions. An incompetent 75 year old woman was intimidated by her boss for not knowing how to answer simple questions or solve simple problems?
          OoOoOoOoHhHh so terrible. HEY EVERYBODY! AN INCOMPETENT EMPLOYEE FELT INTIMIDATED BY HER BOSS AND TOLD SOMEBODY! UNPRECEDENTED! Somebody call the press! You’re a joke.

  15. Ian fury—no one believes your rhetoric. No one believes that the Governor did not give her daughter special treatment. I have talked to people that even support the governor and they think this is a big problem. It was the same as the illegal billboards and robocalls…no one believes her that she was not involved. (by the way where is the investigation of those matters?)

    I agree with the last poster…the daughter got special treatment by the meeting alone, let alone everything else.

    Then the plane referral for investigation is a criminal action. That is a horrible development for the Governor. Clearly, there is something to those allegations also.

    1. if Kassidy had received special treatment, why did it take months for her to get her certification?
      Wouldn’t she have received it immediately after that meeting? Why did she have to follow some plan of remediation to finally get certified?

      2. If Kassidy didn’t get special treatment, why was she given another chance to correct her errors when no one else is allowed that? You get 2 submissions. She failed her second and then this meeting happened and she was allowed to fix the problems.

  16. Anyone trying to get an appraiser knows how hard it is, and something needed to change. It’s unfortunate that people who have nothing better to do than sit in their basements commenting on blogs and FB all day have largely taken over this blog. Ravnsburg is guilty, and still doesn’t want to take the responsibility for killing a man and then tries to cover it up. Meanwhile the people on this ethics committee are sore because they lost elections or their friends did so they partner with him to get back at the best Governor we’ve ever had. These liberals & RINOs want to hurt our Governor so that we can live under a ‘mini Biden’. They are putting their personal revenge before the people of South Dakota. Ravnsburg is extremely lucky he isn’t sitting in the Pen! The man is a corrupt criminal who got away with it and is doing it again right under our noses. I want to see the names on this committee who voted to move forward with this charade. They are no better than him. The majority of SD is intelligent enough not to buy it. Why don’t they spend their time and energy on something worthwhile like fighting recreational marijuana which will totally ruin our state? What would SD look like with these kinds of people in charge? Think about it!

    1. So you’re in favor of transparency in government. Too bad republicans overturned IM22 and gave us this murky accountability board instead. And Noem is the least transparent governor ever.

      1. IM 22 took taxpayers’ money to pay for political campaigns. It was not only unconstitutional it was ridiculous. What could be more corrupt than taking money from the taxpayers, against their will, and giving it to politicians to fund their campaigns?
        If you want to fund somebody’s campaign, use your own money!

    2. Well I guess we all know that T”hink About it” is on Noems team and trying to salvage her image and horrible press release. Nice try, but deflecting to Ravnsborg, which everyone knows was a political hack job, will not save Noem and her ineptitude.

  17. Looking at the composition of the GOAC Board (Judge David Gienapp, Judge Gene Kean, Chief Justice David Gilbertson, and Justice Lori Wilbur) it must be that Mr. Fury has an amazing grasp of South Dakota law that is beyond the scope and comprehension of this group of seasoned, South Dakota, legal practitioners.

  18. If there is anything we know this current GOP respects, it is precedent, good thing the Noem campaign cited this value.

  19. It would be nice if the governor didn’t sound like Donald Trump in press releases. Contrary to popular belief on the far right, Donald is not God.

  20. Curious, why is Noem releasing this from the campaign and not in her official capacity as governor? Someone at the state is filling in for Ian’s absence right? Why couldn’t they release the statement? She’s still governor even if it’s in name only.

  21. Having a state employee viciously attack four retired judges, each with an excellent reputation is a total misuse of tax payer money. Absolutely nothing Conservative about the Governor siccing Ian Fury on these exemplary citizens. The Governor’s behavior leads me to have doubts about her judgement and mental health.

  22. Well technically he’s on a leave of absence from his state job at the moment.

    Let’s vote Smith and just be done with all this sniveling nonsense.

  23. Pardon me, if I was in error as to what source of funds pay Mr. Fury’s salary. I thought he did not leave the Governor’s office staff until September 1, when he would join the Campaign. Who replaced him on the Governor’s staff??? Maybe it doesn’t matter, it’s still a disservice to the people of South Dakota. Just slight of hand.

    1. “I wanted to update you all on some changes that are coming to the Governor’s communications team. Starting on June 24, I will be taking a leave of absence from state government through Veteran’s Day (Nov. 11). As you are doubtless aware, Governor Noem is in the midst of her reelection campaign, and I will be working on that end for the time being,” Fury wrote.

      Fury indicated that he and Koisti plan to return to the administration if Noem is reelected. Fury clarified that although he and Koisti will be paid by the campaign, their leave from state government will be unpaid.

      Department of Public Safety spokesman Tony Mangan will fill in for Fury during his absence.

  24. Again, sorry I missed Mr. Fury’s change of status under the employ of Governor Noem. My point remains, if Governor Noem does not respect the ruling of these four retired Judges, who have given their lives to interpreting the laws of South Dakota, calling their ruling “illegal”, then, who does she respect?

    2. Nome he no care or respect for the state, she only cares about herself. Her entire image is fake.

  25. Man! Too many Dems on these comments. This is not how most people feel. Our Governor is being lied about, plain and simple. The crazy liberals and some revengeful Republicans that lost their elections are taking the low road. Kristi has done an AMAZING job as governor and people will see through these lies. Give it up and get a job!

      1. She is NOT using the state plane for personal or political use. If you say she is, then that’s up to you to prove it.

        She’s doing her job by promoting SD and has done a good job of it seeing how many people are moving to our state. They aren’t moving here because of the weather, they’re moving here because of our governor and the freedoms she holds dear for South Dakotans.

        As far as the appraisers, they’ve had a monopoly for years and it’s been like pulling teeth just to get an appointment with one. That’s from personal experience. You shouldn’t have to wait for 4 months for an appraisal. It’s time that department was exposed. Not to mention Kassidy lost a career over this whole issue. Now what is your proof the governor did anything wrong? What if it weren’t her daughter? Should she just ingore it? Were you present at the meetings? You should watch what you say without facts.

        1. I would love to prove it if she would allow the records to be released. 4 judges think it is worth reviewing and it should be pretty easy to tell if the events she attended were campaign stops or personal endeavors. Kassidy should have never had a career which is why she turned in her license without even a fight. She knew she was in the wrong. If Noem had any applicant in that meeting looking for another chance after failing twice, I’d say the same thing. You can’t give preferential treatment to anyone, especially your daughter. The thing is, no one else would have had that chance because it only became an issue to fix once it affected Noem’s family. I don’t need to be present at the meetings when i know her daughter was there. That was completely inappropriate. Not to mention, it cost us around 200k to pay off a lawsuit because of Noem being a bully as a result.

    3. Another attempt by one of noem’s people to paint a positive picture of her. Nice try, but looks like all of noem’s lies and abuse of power is coming back to get her.

    4. Interesting you come up with a conclusion that does not bear out. I will probably vote for Noem in November. But facts are facts. Noem did interfere with the certification of her daughter. She did pressure the head of a department to do so. She also was the main cheerleader in getting the AG who was investigating the situation removed. She chose the person who prosecuted the previous AG to be the replacement. The three judges on the panel have turned over to the AG something else to be investigated for a criminal complaint. So perhaps you can tell us just what is innacurate?

      1. Agreed, most people I talk to around the state don’t like her and think she has done nothing for the State. Wish the republicans had put someone else up to replace her.

  26. It’s going to be a little weird having my Thune and Dusty yard signs up next to Jamie Smith’s sign, but I have a feeling I won’t be the only one.

  27. What exactly did the board do illegally?

    Noem should explain that if her people make that claim

    1. Easier to throw out wild accusations and stomp and shout like a toddler. Someone should give Ian his paci.

  28. The Anti-Kristi vote has already lost three times. Stacey Nelson four years ago running for Lt. Gov. at the GOP State Convention, Ravnsborg in his Senate Impeachment trial this Spring and Steve Haugard this summer running for Lt. Gov. at the State GOP Convention.
    I’ll come back on November 9th and add Representative Smith to the list.

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