This week, Lee Strubinger, the Politics & Public Policy Reporter for South Dakota Public Broadcasting, released a nine-part serial podcast on the impeachment of Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg and the accident near Highmore that killed pedestrian Joe Boever and led to Ravnsborg’s impeachment.
You can find all nine episodes here, as well as on podcasting apps, and I highly recommend that you do.
As far as I know, this is the first serial podcast to focus on a South Dakota political history topic, and it is a major contribution. Strubinger wrote and produced all nine episodes, which vary in length from 20 minutes to 30 minutes. He drew heavily from the considerable contemporary audio that is available, including recordings of 911 calls and witness interviews in the investigation file, and recordings of legislative proceedings. Interviews from the time, and some done after the fact, are included with many of the major players, including Ravnsborg, Governor Noem, Public Safety Secretary Craig Price, Hyde County Deputy State’s Attorney Emily Sovell and Ravnsborg defense attorney Tim Rensch, members of the Boever family, and legislators including Will Mortenson, Spencer Gosch, Kent Peterson, and Lee Schoenbeck.
The events Strubinger describes are still pretty recent – the accident near Highmore was in September 2020 and the impeachment trial in the Senate was in June 2022 – so it is still controversial in some minds, and I’m sure there will be people who were involved who will disagree with one aspect or another. I was Governor Noem’s chief of staff at the time of the accident and during the early stages of the investigation, as well as during the 2021 legislative session when the first impeachment articles were filed. After I left the Governor’s Office in April 2021, I continued to follow the matter closely from afar. I thought the series did very good job of dispassionately explaining the various twists and turns in this human and political drama, and it certainly reminded me of some things that I had forgotten.
South Dakota is a small state and we don’t do enough to record and remember our history. I’ve tried to remedy that in various ways, including by writing this blog, so I appreciate it when others enter the field. I especially commend Strubinger on taking SD History into the medium of the serial podcast.
SoDak Governors 