Want a Job in the Noem Administration? Get Out Your Checkbook
After running a campaign which is under investigation for violating campaign finance laws, Gov. Kristi Noem has appointed a number of large campaign donors to her cabinet and other positions. It looks like the best way to get a job or appointment in the Noem administration – besides being a member of Gov. Noem’s family – is to have been a campaign donor. The large number of donors in her administration begs the question of who Gov. Noem intends to serve as governor: her campaign donors or the people of South Dakota? Right now, it doesn’t look like the people of South Dakota.
Below is a partial list of Noem appointments and their contributions to Noem’s gubernatorial campaign, along with the date each contribution was reported.
Craig Price, Secretary of Public Safety
10.22.18 = $1000
1.28.19 = $250
Total= $1250
Darin Bergquist, Secretary of Transportation
10.22.18 = $1000
Jim Terwilliger, Secretary of Revenue
10.22.18 = $1000
Jim Hagen, Secretary of Tourism
10.22.18 = $2000
Kelly Hepler, Secretary of Games, Fish, and Parks
10.22.18 = $1000
1.28.19 = $250
Total = $1250
Marcia Hultman, Secretary of Labor and Regulation
10.22.18 = $1000
Kim Malsam-Rysdon, Secretary of Health
10.22.18 = $1000
Laurie Gill, Commissioner of the Bureau of Human Resources
10.21.18 = $1000
James Patrick Snow, Interim Commissioner of the Bureau of Information and Telecommunications
10.22.18 = $500
Kim Vanneman, Secretary of Agriculture
1.26.18 = $500
10.22.18 $ 1200
Total = $1750
5.21.18 = $1500
Christina Klinger, Judge in the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court
1.26.18 = $500
5.21.18 = $500
1.28.19 = $750
Total = $1750