During the Second Special Session of the week, there was an interesting vote from conservative corners of the State House against moving forward with the impeachment of Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg:
HR 7001 – Establishing a select committee to investigate whether articles of impeachment should issue against Jason Ravnsborg, Attorney General of the State of South Dakota, and draft any resulting articles.
The question being “Shall HR 7001 pass as amended?”
And the roll being called:Yeas 58, Nays 10, Excused 2, Absent 0
Yeas:
Anderson, Aylward, Bartels, Barthel, Beal, Blare, Bordeaux, Chaffee, Chase, Cwach, Davis, Dennert, Derby, Deutsch, Drury, Duba, Finck, Fitzgerald, Goodwin, Lana Greenfield, Hansen, Healy, Hoffman, Jamison, Kevin Jensen, Chris Johnson, Keintz, Koth, Ladner, Lesmeister, May, Milstead, Miskimins, Mortenson, Mulally, Olson, Ernie Otten, Perry, Kent Peterson, Pischke, Randolph, Reed, Rehfeldt, Reimer, Schneider, Jamie Smith, St. John, Stevens, Thomason, Tidemann, Vasgaard, Weis, Weisgram, Wiese, Willadsen, Wink, York, and Speaker Gosch
Nays:
Gross, Haugaard, Howard, Phil Jensen, Karr, Marty, Mills, Odenbach, Overweg, and Soye
Excused:
Sue Peterson and Pourier
There were 10 “NAY” votes, mainly from strongly conservative quarters, with three of them Attorneys, and one outsider Congressional challenger in Taffy Howard.
What brought those Legislators to vote no on establishing a committee to review whether impeachment is warranted? A recent newspaper column from State Rep. Steve Haugaard in the Brandon Newspaper may shed some light on it:
What seems to be missing in all of this is any indication that there was any action on the part of the Attorney General that rises to the level of maliciousness, recklessness or even carelessness. That is why the ‘careless’ charge was dismissed in an effort to resolve the case. Anyone who has operated a motor vehicle knows that there are very brief moments when our eyes are not focused on the road ahead or something suddenly comes at us from the side, and that is apparently what happened that tragic night. If that happened to anyone else it would be found as tragic and the matter would be at an end.
Certainly, we should hold our elected leaders to a higher standard, but should one be forced to resign based upon an absolute accident? No one can seriously believe that the Attorney General sought to cause a death, or now, based upon the evidence, that the Attorney General was ‘reckless’ or even ‘careless?’ After an exhaustive review of the actual evidence, the State’s Attorney could not find ‘reckless’ behavior and willingly dismissed the ‘careless’ charge apparently due to the fact that the evidence would not ultimately be found sufficient.
When anyone reviews the work of AG Ravnsborg since his election, and especially since last September, it will be apparent that he has done an excellent job overseeing the Attorney General’s office and that he has continued to do his job, serve the state, accomplish victories for the State and developed relationships with the tribes that create a pathway for ongoing success.
Rep. Haugaard seems to tip his hand in the article, and gives the impression that he will be one of the chief forces arguing against impeachment of the Attorney General.
With popular opinion for impeachment inflamed by media coverage versus the minimal traffic violations the AG pled ‘No Contest’ to, it is interesting to see the degree of pushback on impeachment as well as where it’s originating from.
JR was not convicted of manslaughter or murder in a court.
But he is being tried in the court of public opinion which seems to be influenced by a mind virus to conflate what actually happened in the plea vs what JR’s competition would prefer (immediate impeachment and/or jail).
This impeachment fight seems to be just business.
Most of us have been saying this from day one when impeachment was brought up, there is NO legality to the impeachment of the AG. The entire impeachment is politically motivated and should have been dismissed the first thing.
It is embarrassing that so many voted yes. I would be more interested in hearing their excuses. The ones who voted no don’t need to explain themselves.
The vote was about allowing the committee to go forward and investigate, not to declare guilt or innocence.
At least they got Haugaard on the committee (insert snark here.) No matter what they do, Jackley will be back in that office by January 2023 and Noem will have to work with him.
Perhaps that explains all the Yes votes.
the yes votes were for the PROCESS not on the merits…If i had to say from talking to members no one thinks this is anything more than BS…but since Noem pushed it they have to go through the motions but now are nervous as Noem’s scandal came out with her possibly lying and committing actual impeachable offenses.
So get the rules set up for the real impeachment to come next….
If a representative is going to vote to impeach, that representative had better have a perfect driving record. If a senator votes to convict, that senator had better have a perfect driving record. A life was lost. It was a tragedy. If not for the Grace of God, there go I. I do not know of anyone who has not at some time been guilty of one or all of the following: careless driving, driving out of his lane and operating a motor vehicle while on his phone. Who has not reached for the radio or looked for a fry and looked up and noticed he has drifted across a lane? The phone incident, as I understand it had nothing to do with the accident and I am willing to bet almost every one of those legislators has used a phone while driving at some time or the other.
and what was the result of JR’s bad driving? A man dead. He is not and can’t be trusted and the public is not behind him. He even got pulled over again recently for speeding! The guy doesn’t learn clearly.
It was not bad driving, where does it say that? You keep coming back with the same tired old rant. Unfortunately, a man died as a result of an accident, not through the fault of another. Do I need to educate you on the definition of an accident again?
I would love to see your driving record, I am sure you are a saint with flawless driving. “lest ye cast the first stone”.
It was an accident, but morally and legally it was his fault.
If he had stayed in his lane in the road, the man would not be dead.
This is not saying that he should be impeached, but he was at fault.
(and before you start asking to see my driving record, I have had exactly 2 citations for motor vehicle infractions in 34 years of driving -one for a broken tail light, one for a loud muffler – so pass me the stone and I’ll be casting it)
Your comment seems somewhat contradictory. Has anyone said he was not at fault? I believe he does accept that responsibility. Are you not saying he should not be impeached as well? Why do you want to cast a stone? To declare him at fault or to suggest voting for impeachment.
BTW, as for your driving record, have you never been speeding? Have you never drifted across a lane? Have you never reached for a fry? Have you never made a call?
Literally in the previous statement from Anonymous-
“Unfortunately, a man died as a result of an accident, not through the fault of another.”
He said – right there – that it was an accident so it wasn’t his fault.
It Was His Fault.
Again, it was an accident, but his actions cause the avoidable death of another person.
As far as impeachment goes – that is a completely different question. Do his actions rise to the level of an impeachable offense? THAT may or may not be the case, and has been debated by many people on this and other pages.
I’m not going to debate that, but I am saying that anyone who tries to pretend that somehow Jason Ravnsborg is somehow a completely innocent victim who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time is deluding themselves.
He is responsible for his own actions and his own choices.
How do you draw the conclusion it is his fault??? By your logic, the person that died is at more fault in his death than anyone. He was wearing dark clothes, walking on a highway on a Saturday night, stumbling in the road because he was overmedicated extremely. Had Joe not done any of this, he would most likely still be here today. So again, you are wrong.
This was an accident. A life was lost. It was and is a tragedy. The AG was cited for minor offenses. He was found guilty. I imagine he paid any fine. How does that rise to the level of impeachment? If a House member has ever done any of those things, then perhaps they should resign? If a Senator has ever done any of those things, perhaps they should resign? Accidents happen and sometimes the results are terrible, but that does not mean the punishment should exceed the crime.
I think Fred Deutsch saying he didn’t know if he was voting on the traffic violations or the lack of political support speaks volumes. If he didn’t know what he was voting on, he should have voted no.
The fact he lied to investigators alone is just cause for impeachment.
I do not know that any claim of Jason lying to investigators is a factual accusation.
He said he hit something, possibly a deer in the middle of the road.
The accident report clearly indicated this was a false statement.
he told the dispatcher he hit something
it was the dispatcher who suggested it was a deer.
The recorded 911 call was made public
the only person lying is YOU
JR told the dispatcher “I don’t know, but it was right in the middle of the road!” That is a lie.
that’s an interesting take on an accident:
reminds me of when my daughter collided with a teenaged hunter pulling out of a field. She was driving on the road, but the boy said “she came out of nowhere!”
That was how he perceived it. We didn’t accuse him of lying, we just understand that people’s perceptions of an event can be different. (We did think it was funny, though.)
What is a lie about something was in the middle of the road, I have seen no evidence suggesting otherwise that Ravnsborg was off the road.
What we do know is a bolt from his car was found in the middle of the road, and there was a person stumbling in the road that was extremely overmedicated.
Exactly… Noem better be careful about pushing for he lied as an impeachable offense with her daughter situation… clearly she or labor Secretary are lying if not both
Take off your blinders and read the full report. He clearly was not in his lane. If he hit something in the middle of the road the damage would not be on the passenger side.
A strong AG wouldn’t act like a little girl under questioning.
Again, no evidence to support your claim LCJ. Why don’t you stop acting like a lying punk. With Ravnsborg in the road middle of the road, and the damage was on the right side, then that leads us to the person was most likely in the driving lane but towards the side.
This was explained early on–his saying of middle of the road meant the middle of his driving lane and thus hit on the right side…..
Another talking point where people don’t want to look at the evidence of the case
BS impeachment— couple minor traffic… no intentional actions…all a political push only
I just go back to that it was an accident that could have happened to anyone. The AG called immediately and cooperated fully.
Contrast that with the people investigating it. They released selective information to bias the public and any potential jury. They released video tapes which one of the prosecutors said was unethical. Then the DPS secretary criticized the prosecutors who looked at all the evidence and could only find a couple traffic misdemeanors. What law enforcement officer does that publicly against prosecutors.Then you have the Governor criticizing the judge as and prosecutors.
Who’s conduct was inappropriate? I hope they dig in to the investigation and how it was conducted also. How do you believe an investigation was conducted after all those actions above?
It seems like from day one Noem has had her hands all over this like with her daughter. She was trying to influence the outcome from the beginning so she could put one of her people in as AG. Kind of suspicious that she pushes out a government employee in August because her daughter couldn’t pass a test. Then, she gets an opportunity the following month in September with the unfortunate accident the AG was involved in to put someone in as AG. Suspicious that it seems likely she was already starting to cover things up.
Most people will never understand the concept of “dereliction of duty” in terms of public service though “not leaving any rock unturned” an easier euphemism to get. That said every ounce of information involving a high level state official charged with a crime needs to be looked at and inspected through and through. Not doing so would be a dereliction of duty.
I agree 100%
It is fun watching Noem’s errand boy Mortenson talk about transparency when Noem won’t give any documents about her daughter’s appraisal situation or the $200,000 payoff and won’t waive the non-disparagement clause.
Even more telling that Mortensen offered two amendments to the resolution, both to keep parts of the record from the public with no real criteria on what they will be. And that on top of Mike Moore’s statement to the effect that the governor chose to release only some of the evidence and we should be able to figure out why. Someone above said to read the entire report, but we don’t have it and most likely never will. That’s what Mortensen was going for with those amendments.
Didn’t Noem run on Transparency??? That is a laugh.
I hope in future any traffic violation or other dmisdemeanor by any legislator or high ranking state official, will be investigated for possible removal from office. Nothing is off the table now that this has become political.
Yeah how many unprecedented unethical things that should not have happened in the investigation….Mike Moore even said those words about Noem’s actions in this case.
can we resume the discussion of what prompted the votes?
Did the people who voted yes consider it politically safer to vote yes? Did the people who voted no feel secure in their districts for re-election? Or are they termed out or not going to run again? How does Taffy’s vote help or hinder her run for Congress? what will the scorecards say?
These are all process votes…..the only votes that will matter are the ones on the actual merits which only one member may have even seen at this stage.