Republican State Senator Stanford Adelstein is taking Secretary of State Jason Gant to court. Senator Adelstein has accused Secretary Gant of breaking state law by not publishing "con" statements to balance to "pro" statements on the four Constitutional amendments on the statewide ballot. Secretary Gant has refused to publish the "con" statement on Amendment P provided by Senator Adelstein.
Thus, Senator Adelstein has filed a writ of mandamus demanding that Secretary Gant immediately publish Senator Adelstein's Amendment P con statement on the SOS website. Senator Adelstein also demands the immediate recall and reissue of all official information on Amendment P to include his con statement and a news release from Secretary Gant to correct the record.
Judge Mark Barnett hears the arguments Friday at 12:30 p.m. Central in Pierre. How he will rule is an open question... but one must wonder how many rank-and-file Republicans are tired of making excuses for a Secretary of State whose bumbling keeps landing him in court. I hate to create chaos, but it would seem Jason Gant could do himself, his party, and his state a whole lot of good by resigning and letting Governor Daugaard appoint Gant's highly paid and better qualified special consultant Sue Roust to run the rest of the 2012 election.
Like Stephanie Strong, I think Senator Stan is a bit too late to prevail in court on this issue. But regardless of outcome he'll make his point that Gant tried to stack ballot outcomes with slanted or one-sided issue statements & either the law needs to be clarified or the SOS needs to be replaced or both.
Rorschach, something tells me the attorney/client team is a little more on the ball in Stan's instance. We'll see, huh?
Senator Adelstein shared some of his thoughts with us yesterday.......http://www.rightsidesd.com/?p=12302
Thanks Ed. Good job, guys.
Any chance Stan could get copies of all emails regarding this subject from everyone involved? Of course sworn testimony would be fun too...
Young Mr. Howie and Mr. Stan are going to surround Gant and squeeze him from both sides of insane.
*** grudznick is a nationally syndicated author. He has been a conservative activist and rabble-rouser for over 30 years and is currently the most senior editor of the Conservatives with Common Sense Newsletter, which will soon be published in the breakfast menu of most decent joints in South Dakota. ***
Thanks for that video, Ed! Since we can't get Gant to publish the arguments against Constitutional Amendment P, we have a civic duty to publish those arguments in as many forums as we can.
It's a great day when either of the prominent blogs love Ed Randazzo! Praise Jesus. Here today, gone tomorrow Ed, don't let it go to your head, it won't last.
From the penthouse to the outhouse. More of the good honesty we see in politics.
The Mitchell newspaper reports Gant has been ordered to re-print the ballots: http://www.mitchellrepublic.com/event/article/id/71173/
Hmmmm, maybe Life-Liberty/SDGO's did have something to do with some of the unelections.
The plain fact is that Senator Adelstein was correct. He is also correct in calling for Jason Gant to step down as Secretary of State. Even merely the appearance of impropriety should not be tolerated in the Secretary of State's office. This violation, the Powers incident, the acceptance of a candidate's petitions that were notarized by the candidate himself in clear violation of the law and the political endorsement of primary candidates in a primary election reveal a pattern of incompetence that is unacceptable.
The key phrase from Judge Mark Barnett: "The Secretary did not comply with the law."