Noem tells South Dakota treasurer to ‘kiss my abacus’ in new TV ad

Governor appears as accountant in latest Freedom Works Here spot

Gov. Kristi Noem has enlisted the help of another state constitutional officer to sell South Dakota jobs to out of staters as part of a national advertising campaign that is under legislative scrutiny.

The 52-year-old governor, in the latest commercial for the Freedom Works Here workforce recruitment campaign, is joined by South Dakota Treasurer and fellow Republican Josh Haeder. In the ad, Haeder appears to be drowning in paper receipts when Noem, playing an accountant, tells him to “kiss my abacus” to end the humorous, 30-second advertisement.

“Gov. Noem, you didn’t carry the two,” the 43-year-old Huron native said before Noem returned the quip while holding an abacus, a calculating instrument that uses beads to represent decimal places.

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The ad first aired on Fox News during the 9 o’clock hour Sunday morning during the show “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo.”

In previous Freedom Works Here commercials, Noem has portrayed a plumber, dentist, electrician and welder. The spots are aimed at attracting out-of-state workers to fill vacant South Dakota jobs, part of a nationwide marketing blitz launched by the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) in June.

While the Freedom Works Here campaign has proven successful — the South Dakota Department of Labor reports that nearly 2,000 out-of-state job applicants have moved or are in the process of moving here as a result of the ads — the $5 million contract behind it and the marketing concept of Noem as a worker has caught the attention of state lawmakers.

That's because last month, Sioux Falls Live published documents showing that a marketing agency that lost out on the contract had pitched the idea of Noem acting as everyday workers — not the firm GOED hired last spring to conduct the campaign, Ohio-based Go West Media.

The following week, the South Dakota Legislature’s Executive Board requested GOED provide details on the request for proposals process used to hire Go West Media and what competing proposals not awarded contract looked like.

GOED responded by offering to share with legislative leaders printed copies of all proposals it received when bidding for the work behind closed doors. The Executive Board is expected to convene a meeting in early January to revisit the matter.

Haeder declined to comment on the controversy surrounding the Freedom Works Here contract, though he said he appreciates the governor’s commitment to addressing the state’s worker shortage. He is happy to help however he can, he added.

“I was very proud when she asked me, even just to play some small role,” he said.