On April 15, a South Dakota state court upheld the 2012 election of Dedrich Koch as States’ Attorney for Jerauld County, even though he lived (and still lives) in a neighbor county, and even though he had simultaneously also run for States’ Attorney in his county of residence. South Dakota law does permit candidates for States’ Attorney to live in neighboring counties if the population of the county is small. South Dakota does not permit candidates to run for two offices simultaneously, but the decision says it is more important to respect the will of the voters than to remove someone from office for having run for two offices simultaneously. See this story.
It is way so much better than the story indicates.
Koch defeated Casey Bridgman, the incumbent state attorney in the June primary for the Republican nomination in Jerauld County, and was the unopposed Republican nominee in November. Bridgman’s court challenge was based on a South Dakota law that a state attorney continues to hold office until a successor qualifies.
Koch also ran as an independent in Buffalo County and defeating the Republican incumbent and nominee Steve Fox. Buffalo County is mostly an Indian Reservation, and Obama carried it by a 74% to 26% margin. But in South Dakota, unopposed candidates don’t appear on the ballot, and apparently nobody else had sought the part-time office (they can also act in private practice).
Meanwhile, Steve Fox has just had his South Dakota law license lifted for 3 years, after a complaint filed by his former law partners. He had split from the firm last May and had been diverting partnership income from 2008-2011. Fox was (is?) also an assistant state attorney in Brule County. I suspect there is a connection between Koch’s decision to run as an independent against Fox, and the split last May, just before the June primary.
The independent filing deadline is June 5, which was also the date of the primary. So Koch was running for the Republican nomination in Jerauld County, while simultaneously collecting signatures in Buffalo County to run against the Republican nominee.
Koch resigned from the Buffalo County office without ever having been sworn in. So had he filed in Buffalo County, believing he would lose the primary in Jerauld County? Had he made any assurances to anyone, about which office he would resign?
Did the Republican primary voters in Jerauld County know that he was going to run against a Republican in a neighboring county? And didn’t Koch disrespect the will of the voters in Buffalo County by quitting without ever taking office?
Koch appears to have practiced in Rapid City, Spearfish, and Custer in the western part of the state, and has only recently moved to Gann Valley, population 14.