"The choice in South Dakota’s secretary of state race is between Jason Gant, a Republican, and Ben Nesselhuf, a Democrat, who are vying for term-limited incumbent Chris Nelson’s position. A third candidate, Lori Stacey, of the Constitution Party, has scarcely been heard or seen during the campaign.
The office is in charge of, among other things, overseeing elections in the state and maintaining information on campaign finances and corporations.
Nesselhuf has promised to be an aggressive secretary of state. He wants to transform the office into a leader in economic development by using the corporate filings to connect entrepreneurs with development officials. He says the secretary of state is a first point of contact for entrepreneurs, and the holder of the office is therefore in a position to be an economic development coordinator of sorts.
Gant, meanwhile, has pledged a more conservative approach. He has promised to focus on what the office was created for: ensuring fair and accurate elections, and providing the public with access to things such as campaign finance reports and corporate information. During Gant’s time in the Legislature, his record on government openness was impressive enough to earn the Eagle Award from the South Dakota Newspaper Association, which is given annually to a person who works for government openness. Nesselhuf has also pledged to work on these basic duties of the office, but he seems bent on converting the secretary of state’s job into the kind of highprofile post that it was never intended to be.
So, we’ll vote for Jason Gant. There is really nothing in government that’s more important than an election, and we want the secretary of state to be laser-focused on making each and every election in this state run smoothly and effectively. A foray into economic development, or other issues not assigned to the secretary of state by law, could endanger that focus."
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