
SD lawmakers declare state of ’emergency’ to force repeal of ethics law - RKoutnik
https://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/south-dakota-lawmakers-declare-state-of-emergency-to-force-repeal-of-voter-imposed-ethics-law/
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caseysoftware
If you want to "bribe" someone, you don't hand them cash. You fly them to that
industry conference in Hawaii in February. You give their spouse a non-job.
You give them great interest rates on loans. You help their kid get into
college. You buy the house next to theirs, tear it down, and make it a
beautiful, lush lawn.

* Those are all real situations.

Protip: This is not a Republican vs Democrat issue.. just people getting
massive kickbacks for using their power in specific ways.

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pdoege
The article clearly identifies this as a Republican issue in both SD and ND?

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vacri
> _Lawmakers who are found guilty of violating the act face $1,000 in fines
> and up to one year in prison._

This seems to be a bizarrely asymmetric pair of punishments. Someone on higher
than the average wage can pay $1k without blinking, but a year in prison is
career-crippling.

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CodeWriter23
I once went on a blind date with a prosecutor from a large city, who worked in
a department that investigated corrupt cops, lawyers, politicians and city
employees. She said some of them were straight up psycholopaths that needed
the book thrown at them. Others who had a singular lapse in judgment and found
themselves on the wrong side of the law received some leniency. So penalties
like this are to give the judge or jury a tool to remove someone permanently
from the position they abuse, or to give them an opportunity to make amends.
Or re-offend but second offenses often carry stiffer penalties.

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CodeWriter23
I'm not a lawyer but it seems kind of like these politicians might be setting
themselves up to become targets of a RICO investigation.

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Analemma_
They really don't even try, do they?

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stevew20
I'm curious as to what emergency the state is going through right now. At face
value it only seems to be an emergency of abuse of power and breach of
ethics...

