SIOUX FALLS - While South Dakota is back in the courtroom again for the GEAR-UP scandal that left millions of taxpayer dollars missing and took the lives of a South Dakota family, reports show Kristi Noem took campaign cash from two former government officials who were paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in connection with the corruption-ridden GEAR-UP program.
According to the last campaign finance reports, just this year Kristi Noem took sizable donations from Rick Melmer and Keith Moore, former government officials that cashed in as GEAR-UP consultants after leaving state government.
Regarding Noem accepting campaign cash with ties to the program central to one of state government’s biggest scandals, Sutton for South Dakota Campaign Manager Suzanne Jones Pranger said:
“The Congresswoman accepting campaign cash from former government officials connected to the GEAR Up scandal is just another example of why we know we cannot trust Kristi Noem to fix what is broken in state government. The Congresswoman’s questions of pay-to-play and links to insiders who are part of the problem with state government raise serious concerns about whether the people of South Dakota can trust Kristi Noem to look out for them and their tax dollars.”
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