SD guv Kristi Noem sued for shilling for Texas Dental group on social media

[pdq]

Doubt this will go anywhere, but…

The lawsuit, filed by the consumer advocacy group Travelers United in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, alleges that Noem "advertised a product or service without disclosing that she has a financial relationship with that company" after she posted a video to social media Tuesday regarding dental services she received.

… Noem "seems to have taken up work as a social media influencer," the group wrote in the filing, arguing that the video post is intended to promote medical tourism and advertise services...

… “There is no disclosure that this is an advertisement or that she received any free or discounted medical procedures in exchange for this social media advertisement,” the document added.

Hey, her $121K salary from South Dakota just doesn’t go as far any more, so it looks like this sitting governor may be supplementing that by doing a paid spokesperson gig on the side (without, y’know, acknowledging she’s a paid spokesperson).

[gabester]

Wow. A governor is only paid $121k in 2024? I realize it's South Dakota, but you would think that it would be at least half what a US President is paid, you're like the CEO of an entire state.

Explains why rural state Republicans always seem to be on the take - with the low salaries they all need side hustles to make ends meet and don't realize that it doesn't have to be that way if you just pay people living wages and provide them benefits like health insurance and time off.

[RgrF]

By SD standards (unless you're on the oil hustle) 100K is pretty good money and not paying pols state money has built in bennies - think about it - CEO of Exxon/Mobile your biggest client drops more than your yearly salary at his/her lunch.

[Tiangou]

The primary job of the governor of SD is to make recommendations to the legislature of SD and to report once a year on the state of the state.

She also appoints people to administrative positions created by the legislature.

The SD legislature only convenes for 2 months a year. Roughly 40 business/working days.

What's she do for the rest of the year to earn those wages? (Other than getting banished from the state's Indian reservations?)

[Speedy]

Always the grift, always, with Repugs. This should up her profile even more with the MAGAt cult and its leader as a possible VP nominee.

[mrbigstuff]

gabester wrote:
Wow. A governor is only paid $121k in 2024? I realize it's South Dakota, but you would think that it would be at least half what a US President is paid, you're like the CEO of an entire state.

Explains why rural state Republicans always seem to be on the take - with the low salaries they all need side hustles to make ends meet and don't realize that it doesn't have to be that way if you just pay people living wages and provide them benefits like health insurance and time off.

Governors (and mayors, typically) are not paid anywhere near commensurate with the work they put in. It's quite literally a 24/7 job. And that's why we get people who have an eye toward something more lucrative.

[Ombligo]

Then you have the highly overpaid governors like DeSantis. I don't know what we pay him, but whatever it is - it is too much.

[Filliam H. Muffman]

$122k is pretty close to base pay for a Seattle region police officer with a couple years of seniority, but real estate prices are a lot higher here.

[pdq]

Reminds me of old Norm Coleman. Guy from out East; ran for Mayor of St. Paul as a Dem (which was the only way he could have gotten elected). Once he was elected, he promptly switched parties and became a Republican darling. Next he ran for governor, but lost to Jesse Ventura (!). He then ran against Paul Wellstone for Senate, and won when Wellstone’s plane went down and Paul was killed, like, a week before the election.

Had kind of an undistinguished single term during Bush II, mostly memorable for chairing a hearing where he accused a UK politician (George Galloway) of being on the take from Saddam Hussein (based on the kind of purely invented BS the Repubs used to “justify” the Iraq War). Watching Galloway rip him a new one on camera was pure pleasure. Normie lost his first-and-only reelection campaign to Al Franken in 2008.

Anyway, to the point: When he first showed up in Minnesota, he had a gap in his front teeth and a bit of a coarse look. After he switched parties, he decided that wouldn’t do, so a Republican dentist in my old neighborhood did a do-over on him (and, allegedly, Norm had some plastic surgery as well.) There was a real question whether Normie had to pay anything for the dental makeover, which would have been an undisclosed political donation-in-kind. But the cheeky dentist also used before-and-after pix of the Senator to advertise (see below) which was also against Senate rules (and made the pages of the Washington Post circa 2005).

The married dentist eventually left his wife and family and ran away with some floozie. Norm rode off into the cushy sunset of some wingnut welfare consultancy job, IIRC.

A quintessential Republican story all around, I thought (and still think).


Senator Coleman, before and after.

[RgrF]

Minnesota produces some interesting politicians, I remember HHH with a degree of fondness.