Transitions...
(I'm sure that someone will correct me if I'm grossly wrong, but) I'm told several people are involved with the the Jarrod Johnson School and Lands transition team. I think we can expect that many of the same faces will likely find themselves in that office after the dust settles in January.
Aside from Jarrod himself, Jennifer Giannonatti, who had early on been part of the campaign, has been taking part. Add to that list Mike Mehlhaff Jr., a GOP activist who had been a paid staffer during the waning months of the campaign.
Tom Leckey, former Deputy Secretary of State under Joyce Hazeltine and Secretary of the State GOP, has been mentioned as part of the transition, as well as an aunt of Jarrod's who has been in on discussions taking place in the S&L office.
The big question for me is "who will end up as the deputy" as that topic has been pretty quiet at this point. Will it be Jennifer? Will it be Tom? Will it be one of the others, or will Jarrod bring in additional outside expertise as he forms his staff?
As one of three in the PUC office, it's my understanding that new PUC Commissioner Steve Kolbeck may get one position he gets to fill of his own volition, but being the Democrat on a majority Republican panel, that's going to be about it.
As reported previously in the mainstream media, at the Gubernatorial level, Department Secretaries Gabriel (Ag), Viken (Revenue) and Cooper (GF&P) will all be stepping down shortly.
Aside from Jarrod himself, Jennifer Giannonatti, who had early on been part of the campaign, has been taking part. Add to that list Mike Mehlhaff Jr., a GOP activist who had been a paid staffer during the waning months of the campaign.
Tom Leckey, former Deputy Secretary of State under Joyce Hazeltine and Secretary of the State GOP, has been mentioned as part of the transition, as well as an aunt of Jarrod's who has been in on discussions taking place in the S&L office.
The big question for me is "who will end up as the deputy" as that topic has been pretty quiet at this point. Will it be Jennifer? Will it be Tom? Will it be one of the others, or will Jarrod bring in additional outside expertise as he forms his staff?
As one of three in the PUC office, it's my understanding that new PUC Commissioner Steve Kolbeck may get one position he gets to fill of his own volition, but being the Democrat on a majority Republican panel, that's going to be about it.
As reported previously in the mainstream media, at the Gubernatorial level, Department Secretaries Gabriel (Ag), Viken (Revenue) and Cooper (GF&P) will all be stepping down shortly.
Comments
The kid is just plane lazy....
Leckey is probably the best of the names mentioned....but
Jarrod knows alot of good people....I would not hold my breath on who he chooses.
Seriously... who brings his aunt to serve in office with him? Good god.
She can't notarize documentsanymore. Do we really want her in charge of managing public property and school funds?
But she's good enough for our GOP state government. whoop!
Keep it up, and you might find that Dems live in a glass house as well.
It's my understanding that it wasn't that many years ago, and you had an attorney general candidate who injured a cop during an arrest when he was about the same age as Jen. Or a Daschle staffer who was arrested for urinating in the street (at the time he was on the daschle payroll) at a similar point in his life. Or a statewide elected official who was arrested for open container.
Puts things in perspective, doesn't it?
And urinating in the street, you can put in the category of "big deal". It doesn't even compare to election fraud.
It involved the improper registration of otherwise eligible voters.
Dave Nelson didn't even want to press charges but he got political heat from the D party.
Improper notarization happens in banks across this state and the us everyday. It's never considered a big deal because all parties have consented to notarization process.
This would have been a big deal if it involved fake names or non existent people but Jen G was registering voters, real people who wanted to be registered.
Completely different from Maka Dutu and her exploits.
Well, that sure doesn't speak very well of our highly respected banking institution does it!
What does the GOP do with a person like that? Give them a job. sickening!
Give her a break.
Lay off the Kool-Aid...
Every notary is receives instructions and legal requirements from the Secretary of State's office. Nothing wrong with those instructions. Giannonatti didn't follow the WRITTEN INSTRUCTIONS the secretary of state's office gave her. Obviously she hadn't been a notary long, and the instructions were fresh in her mind. She knew what she was doing was wrong and did it anyway.
Notarizing signatures of people she never met is not some "technicality". Witnessing signatures is the entire purpose of being a notary. Her actions were illegal, unethical, dishonest, and show contempt for the election process.
I've heard some silly things about Johnson - most recently that he's promised to double output from school and public lands. I also heard that he was telling school kids in Sioux Falls that he was going to raise teacher salaries.
Either way... the guy sounds like he doesn't have a damn clue how to run the office.
And... by the way... when Kranz mentioned him as having a bright future in politics, I thought to myself, "Oh please oh please oh please."
Jokes and jokes and jokes.
Giannonatti notarizing signatures she didn't witness is not some innocent mistake, it's directly contrary to the written instructions from the secretary of state, and directly contrary to what every notary knows is the notary's sole function: to be an eyewitness to people signing documents.
She was part of Larry Russell's fraud factory - trying to win Thune's election at any cost even if it took breaking the law. They had a whole system set up to violate the notary laws, and giannonatti, as the notary, was the key person in the scheme.
Honest and responsible are not words most people use to describe someone who did what she did.
And for you to call people who ARE telling the truth juvenile and stupid, as you defend a criminal is just plain insulting. Maybe you need to grow up!
Only in state government. Only with the Republicans.
Jen G is a bright, hardworking and politically savy individual.
The rising stars always get beat up on this blog.
Let's add to her accomplishments her ability to help a virtually unknown politician beat an incumbent constitutional officer.
She has already been prosecuted once. Does she really need to be put on trial here?
But she protected her higher ups in the GOP, so they're rewarding her with jobs and defending her here on this blog.
Way to circle the wagons boys! Let the taxpayers fork over the payola to keep her quiet.
Or is she a dullard with good intentions as other defenders say?
She can't be both. Bright and savvy means she violated the laws intentionally, and shouldn't be resting her arse in a government chair. Stupid and well meaning means she shouldn't be on the public dole even if she were honest.
How do you defend the indefensible? I suspect we'll have more attempts on this thread.
I took all that with a grain of salt, but perhaps comments here suggest the rumors had some validity.
Who are all those Democrats who did all those terrible things? I haven't heard any of that gossip.
Got names that go with the events?
Anybody have an explanation of why Kolbeck for the PUC and Johnson won for S&PL? I was supporting Kolbeck, but his win compared to other elections is still a bit of a mystery to me.
It was the volume over which Giannonatti misused her notary. One or two might be understandable. I am GOP and demand more accountability.
12:05 -
There is no excuse for not following simple law found in the instruction packet or on the web. If Giannonatti is bright then ignorance can not be a defense.
12:53 -
I support Johnson and that is why I bother with this.
1:29 -
Two years is not a lot of time to gain maturity. She avoided written legal directives merely two years ago. Not enought time to gain my confidence. Johnson needs more than ambition helping him.
Real mature.
If giannonatti was dedicated to this state, she wouldn't have been out trying to circumvent election laws and abusing her notary commission only a couple short years ago. We don't need her on the public payroll.
You want to talk about public records. Miss Giannonattie is the least of Jarrod's concerns. Rumor has it that there is something very recent and very damaging in Jarrod's record. I don't think you want to pick that fight with the Demcocrats.
5:04, unless you can produce proof, it's going and staying gone.
Otherwise, what is turning this into a hatefest?
Now is the time to expect ethics and integrity from people in government. We should expect people of both parties to behave ethically.
To reward someone who recently committed crimes against the public trust by giving them a state job, and hoping the public forgets, is just not acceptable. It is not acceptable if Democrats did it, and it is not acceptable if Republicans did it.
Who is going to replace Gabriel, Cooper and Viken? I say we demand that all the new people have to be South Dakota residents.
There are a lot of us who have had a belly full of out of state jerks like Cooper. Surely there must be some one in our state smart enough to run GFP?
....unless, of course, they are of the same party as the brood of vipers who are calling for certain R's heads, while giving certain D's free passes.
Jarrod, I tip my (non-cowboy) hat to you. If you believe Jen G. is the best person for the job, hire her. Because of your work to get elected, you've earned the right to determine who gets to step onto your playing field. Trust your judgment & pay no mind to the sour grapes losers.
What is so difficult to understand about that?
Except when your 19 or 20 years old you just do a lot of things without thinking. Heck, even President Bush will tell you that and I guess Bill Clinton would probably have a few stories to tell wouldn't he!
But you know, that was over two years ago. She paid the price and I guess still is. Let her go on with her life.
Worse things have happened to a lot of us and we all seemed to have turned out OK!
Can you hear the crowd roar....
Indeed good questions. Perhaps those jobs could go to Giannonatti, Mike Jr and Tom Lecky. According to 8:17 Jarrod is a political genius and doesn't need their help. Oh, yes, with that cast of characters heading up the GF&P, Revenue and Department of Ag all South Dakotans could sleep well at night.
But here is a silly question, SPL has what four or five people working there yet it is taking three people plus Jarrod, plus his aunt to help with the "transition." He isn't taking over the governor's office for pete's sake.
Besides this office has relationships to maintain. Lets not get sportsman and land users pissed off because Jarod should only have one person helping him make this transition.
Looks to me like a lot of people have a lot to say about an office they just do NOT understand.
All the back and forth stuff was ridiculous!
Thank you!:)
However, all the Thune folks, Russell, Schlekeway, Ferendorf, Jen G, Alec, etc... have to understand that regardless of their political talents, they committed an act which at the minimum was illegal and invovles voter registration.
It's no surprise that there is such venom out there for them. Johnson would be wise to avoid the taint of hiring those who have such backgrounds regardless of talent levels.
Face it Thune folks, you screwed up and have drawn fire. Now you have to prove that you have overcome it or continue to take it up the shorts regardless of your skills.
pp, some of us can prove the stuff you deleted. We have the reciepts!
Well, as long as we're getting specific, was not it an Executive Director of a certain minority political party who defecated on a car in Vermillion?
Was it not Jennifer Giannonatti who defecated on election laws and her notary commission?
Was it not Lee Schoenbeck who defecated on Dan Sutton's due process rights by demanding a resignation long before anything has been proven?
There's so much defecating going on that the GOP is up to its eyeballs in it.
Foley: written evidence (e-mails), mulitple witnesses, swept under the rug rather than investigated
Sutton: no written evidence, no evidence of any kind produced so far, no witnesses who have spoken publicly, thoroughly investigated by Republican AG but no action taken 9 months later
But maybe you just didn't understand the 5:46 comment. In addition to your inability to see the differences between Foley and Sutton, you also were unable to see that 5:46 wasn't blaming Schoenbeck for Sutton's actions. He/she was blaming Schoenbeck for Schoenbeck's actions.