Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight
When South Dakota’s governor makes a board or commission appointment that requires state Senate approval, the appointee is legally obligated to file a financial disclosure document that can be scrutinized for conflicts of interest.
State law on the matter is straightforward and succinct: “Any gubernatorial appointee for whom Senate confirmation is required shall file with the secretary of state a statement of financial interest before confirmation.”
But a South Dakota Searchlight review of last year’s confirmed appointees found nearly half of the disclosures were not available on the website of the Secretary of State’s Office. Searchlight’s requests for the missing documents sparked contradictory claims from that office and the Governor’s Office about whether the remaining documents had been filed and why they weren’t on the website.
When asked about Searchlight’s findings, state Rep. Eric Muckey, D-Sioux Falls, said state laws meant to protect against conflicts of interest mean little without the information needed to evaluate potential conflicts.
“Without those disclosures, it creates significant uncertainty and mistrust among South Dakotans,” he said.
Recent Searchlight reporting highlighted the importance of financial interest statements. Searchlight found that the longtime chairman of the state’s Board of Economic Development, Jeff Erickson, is also on the board of a company, CJ Schwan’s, that has benefited from $69 million in tax rebates, grants and loans from state government, some of it approved by the state Board of Economic Development — although Erickson abstained from those discussions and votes. Erickson is additionally a member of a corporation that rents office space to CJ Schwan’s in downtown Sioux Falls.
That reporting by Searchlight was based partly on information in a 2017 financial interest statement that Erickson filed with the Secretary of State’s Office. Although he’s been reappointed to the Board of Economic Development multiple times since then, his most recent available statement is from 2017.
The state’s financial interest form directs appointees to list any source of money that contributed more than 10% or more than $2,000 to their family’s gross income in the preceding calendar year, including any enterprise for which they or their immediate family members control more than 10% of the capital or stock. Many political candidates and elected officials also have to fill out the forms.
Findings from review
To test whether gubernatorial appointees’ financial interest statements are being filed, Searchlight examined the 29 Senate confirmations of the governor’s appointees in 2025 and found 14 appointees without a 2025 disclosure posted online. There were no disclosures at all for six of those appointees, while there were old disclosures for the other eight but nothing new for their latest appointments or reappointments. There is a box on the form for “no change,” indicating that even reappointed officials are supposed to file the form and, at a minimum, check that box.
Additionally, 10 of the financial interest statements that were posted on the secretary of state’s website did not display correctly or displayed an error message when clicked. Searchlight was able to obtain copies of those statements via a records request.
When Searchlight contacted the Governor’s Office, spokesperson Ian Fury said the office had received the disclosures for all of the 2025 appointees and had submitted them to the Secretary of State’s Office. He said that if any documents were not online, it was because the Secretary of State’s Office had not published them.
In an email response, Christine Lehrkamp of the Secretary of State’s Office said that’s “untrue.” She said the office had never received the missing documents.
“When we receive documents to file, we file them,” Lehrkamp said.
She said of the six appointees who had no new or old financial interest statements published, “The Governor’s Office has tracked them down and provided the document to us and they have been filed.” When she provided those six financial interest statements to Searchlight, each document was stamped as having been received by the office on Dec. 31, 2025 — the day Searchlight had contacted the Governor’s Office about the issue.
Updated documents for the other eight appointees — for which there are old filings, but no new ones — are still missing from the website.
Lehrkamp said the office is not required to post disclosures online but does so “as a courtesy to the public,” and noted the website hosting the images is old, has limitations and “is not in our control.” Lehrkamp did not respond to a follow-up question about who is responsible for ensuring the website functions properly.
The Governor’s Office did not respond to Searchlight follow-up questions about Lehrkamp’s statements. One of Lehrkamp’s superiors, Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Deadrick, provided a statement to Searchlight about the office’s role.
“We do not enforce, we only file,” Deadrick said. “What we have provided is what has been filed with us.”
Lawmakers’ role
State Senate President Pro Tempore Chris Karr, a Republican from Sioux Falls, told Searchlight it’s not the Senate’s responsibility to ensure the documents are filed. He referred questions to the Legislative Research Council.
The council said it had the missing documents, but said they should be obtained from the Secretary of State’s Office. The council said it retains copies for filing purposes, and the documents are not the council’s to share.
Other senators that Searchlight spoke with — including Republicans Tom Pischke of Dell Rapids, Carl Perry of Aberdeen, Kyle Schoenfish of Scotland, and Democrat Liz Larson of Sioux Falls — all said the financial interest statements of proposed appointments are not provided to them.
Schoenfish said reviewing conflict of interest statements as part of the approval process “has never really come up.”
However, according to the Legislative Research Council, the disclosures are available to senators serving on the committees that vet the governor’s appointments before sending them to the full Senate. Those senators can view the documents via their access to private sections of the Legislative Research Council website, according to the council. The documents are not available on the public version of the site.
Senators on the Senate Commerce and Energy Committee on Thursday, including Perry and Larson, voted on the appointment of three people and the reappointment of five, including the commissioner of economic development and members of the Lottery Commission, Building Authority, and Board of Economic Development.
Supporters of the proposed appointments told senators about the appointees’ backgrounds and qualifications. No senators asked for financial interest statements.
“The information that we received for this appointment tells us that we have a great person for this position,” said Sen. Perry of one appointment.
“Sounds like a fine man for the job,” said Senate Majority Leader Jim Mehlhaff, R-Pierre, of another.