Mercer: Gant, Powers spun records black hole

Bendagate and the Westerhuis murders send pretty strong signals to anyone who might be considering blowing the whistle on South Dakota’s 1 percenters.

Will Pat Powers end up dead in a shelter belt with a shotgun tied to a tree or will he take out his entire brood, torch his house and turn a firearm on himself?

Secretary of State Shantel Krebs asked the state Department of Legislative Audit to take a look through the office records after she took over on Jan. 5. Turns out she had good reason to wonder about what occurred under her predecessor, Jason Gant. [Bob Mercer]

Former public employee Rose Mary Woods Pat Powers has wiped more servers than Charmin has wiped Pat's ample bottom.

Powers has the temerity and raw balls to put up a blog post berating the Flandreau City Council for denying a reporter access to an executive session.

Recall that Sen. Stan Adelstein called for an investigation of Jason Gant and the Secretary of State's alleged collusion with former employee, Powers to engineer an ALEC-inspired red map strategy.

The legacy of Republican Jason Gant’s single term as South Dakota secretary of state includes the withdrawal of public records that had been available on the SDSOS website. He changed the system so that business records older than a few years aren’t available. The records remain listed as part of search results, but a “U/A” appears where there once was a hyper-link. Secretary of State Shantel Krebs hasn’t been able to correct the situation, yet, and perhaps never will be able to afford such a project without the Legislature approving extra funding for the project. Gant’s change of the system came in the wake of the EB-5 scandal.

Read more from Bob Mercer about wiped servers linked here.

From Ryan Lengerich of the Rapid City Journal:

If Gant decides not to resign, Adelstein said he will ask colleagues in the House of Representatives to call for an impeachment at next year's legislative session. Doing so would cause a distraction Adelstein said he would rather avoid by having Gant resign. “We have more problems in South Dakota than incompetence and a possibly dishonest Secretary of State," Adelstein said. “I don’t want these matters shoved aside for something like an impeachment.”

The Rapid City Journal believes an investigation should be conducted so does the Watertown Public Opinion.

There was a rumor floating around about a week ago that South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley is preparing indictments for former SD Secretary of State Jason Gant and his henchman, Pat Powers for their roles in deleting documents pertinent to Bendagate and the events leading up to the Westerhuis murders.

In the wake of what we’ve seen in the last two years — and frankly, what we still don’t see now — an ethics commission seems like a reasonable consideration for this state. It’s too bad the idea probably won’t go anywhere this winter. On the other hand, maybe that fact only reinforces the case for such a panel. [editorial, Yankton Press & Dakotan]

Read more at Dakota Free Press and at the Northern Valley Beacon.

Marty Jackley has the dirt on all the potential statewide candidates and the cold blooded intensity of a psychopath.

We all know this thing goes so much deeper. How much deeper?

Powers has long been banned from this and other South Dakota related sites because of a constant stream of bigotry, misogyny and other hate speech.