Poor tax planning and death of Kristi Noem's father drove her into paramour's arms

Kristi Noem's father Ronald Arnold perished in a grain bin mishap because apparently he wasn't very smart.

“Ron Arnold did a will in 1976, and never updated it between 1981 and 1994,” said Robert Lord, a Phoenix tax attorney who has looked at probate documents of Noem’s father. “Based on better estate planning and the law in 1994, Kristi Noem’s family could’ve and should’ve had zero tax liability.” Arnold had an estate worth over $2 million, with about two-thirds of that leveraged by expenses. Only 15 states and the District of Columbia currently have an estate tax. No estate tax has been collected statewide in South Dakota since 2005. The state – in addition to friendly tax laws – is home to a $1 billion trust industry.

Read that here.

Ron's death likely drove Kristi into a extramarital love life with Jim Meidinger, a much older family friend and mentor. After the birth of her first child persons within the Republican circle allegedly observed intimate contact between Kristi and Jim that is ordinarily reserved for couples.

From the Argus Leader:

Noem's dive into the family operation led to posts agricultural boards - her first steps into politics. She served on the South Dakota Soybean Association board. In 1997, then-Sen. Tom Daschle nominated her to serve on the state board of the Farm Service Agency. That led to an appointment to the board from President Clinton. Noem also attended one of Daschle's leadership camps, which were intended to groom up-and-coming Democrats to compete for local and state offices. Noem said she attended when the camps were open to Republicans because she wanted to learn more about campaigning. Noem isn't sure how her name got to Daschle for the FSA appointment. It came when the board was being expanded from three members to five. Regardless, Noem was a Republican serving among Democrats. "I don't know why or how she got on that board," said Mike O'Connor, a former Democratic lawmaker who served as the executive director of the state FSA.

In a twenty minute phone conversation Noem's affair was revealed to this blogger in 2010 by Shantel Krebs, South Dakota's current secretary of state and 2018 candidate for the earth hater nomination to the state's lone US House seat. In a phone interview with this blogger, Steve Cutler would not go on the record about being a witness to intimacy between Noem and Meidinger.

It's common knowledge that Krebs, Joni Cutler and other South Dakota legislators loathed Noem.

Shantel was giddy about spilling her guts during our phone conversation and provided me with eyewitnesses to the affair that nobody wanted to go on the record about. What really stuck in Krebs' craw was that KELO teevee buried the story replete with first person accounts of public intimate contact between Noem and her paramour.

With Meidinger's special help and a history of federal aid, Noem has announced she's leaving the US House of Representatives and running as a candidate against fellow earth hater, Attorney General Marty Jackley for the earth hater party's nomination for governor.

Small government Noem can virtually fly right into her back yard now thanks to a federally air service subsidy for the Watertown Regional Airport.