Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
Editorials & Other Articles
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Noem Boosted Hubby's Insurance Biz with Official Retweet
The Republican spin blog suggests that an elected official’s use of her official online campaign channels to promote the family business “skirts some ethical boundaries.” While the spin blog’s anonymi shout “Garbage” and “Grifter,” GOP commenter Troy Jones calls such mingling of politics and profit-seeking grossly stupid:
I will accuse her of gross stupidity for these reasons:
1) In the event someone who supports her* had a house to sell, this probably is superfluous to her getting the listing. *Not a big universe because not that many hands change hands in a year and the number of people who support her AND would entrust the sale of their house to someone other than expecting the best price is a small universe.
2) It isn’t always about avoiding conflict but also avoiding the appearance of “being for sale.” Go back to my original comment about when it would be an actual conflict of interest. Now, if a supporter gives her a listing, she makes a big commission, and later this supporter asks her to pursue/act on a particular issue, even if she was inclined to do it anyway, when she does do her inclination, she is now open to the charge of an ethical violation.
3) One doesn’t have to think too hard to jump to the conclusion this is her offering her office’s powers in exchange for a listing. As I said before, if it weren’t so stupid, it would be unethical. Stupidity is not a crime [Troy Jones, comment, Dakota War College, 2018.07.09].
2) It isn’t always about avoiding conflict but also avoiding the appearance of “being for sale.” Go back to my original comment about when it would be an actual conflict of interest. Now, if a supporter gives her a listing, she makes a big commission, and later this supporter asks her to pursue/act on a particular issue, even if she was inclined to do it anyway, when she does do her inclination, she is now open to the charge of an ethical violation.
3) One doesn’t have to think too hard to jump to the conclusion this is her offering her office’s powers in exchange for a listing. As I said before, if it weren’t so stupid, it would be unethical. Stupidity is not a crime [Troy Jones, comment, Dakota War College, 2018.07.09].
The spin blogsters are referring to State Rep. Lynne DiSanto’s (R-35/Box Elder) encouraging her supporters on her Facebook campaign page to do business with her as a realtor. (I don’t see the alleged offending July 8 post, but Rep. DiSanto responds unapologetically to the criticism in her July 10 post.)
But they could just as well have been referring to a bigger fisher for business, Congresswoman Kristi Noem, who on May 30, 2016, pushed her husband’s crop insurance business on her official Congressional Twitter feed:
Read more: http://dakotafreepress.com/2018/07/14/noem-boosted-hubbys-insurance-biz-with-official-retweet/