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AMES — Organizations that spend money attacking political candidates in Iowa should be forced to disclose their donors, Republican gubernatorial hopeful Terry Branstad said at a town hall forum Friday.
Terry Branstad
Branstad was specifically discussing Iowans for Responsible Government, a 527 organization that repeatedly attacked him before the June Republican gubernatorial primary. A month after Branstad won the primary, the group had to file disclosures with the Internal Revenue Service that revealed 100 percent of the funding came from the Democratic Governors Association.
“The voters have a right to know who’s paying for these vicious and distorted attacks,” Branstad said. “I believe all of those groups should be required to disclose just like the candidates do. I believe you should have the right to contribute and support candidates, but it should all be disclosed, and it should be disclosed in a timely manner.”
Iowans for Responsible Government has been silent since the GOP primary. But a conservative group with a history of attacking Democratic Gov. Chet Culver has been active in recent months. The Progress Project (originally Iowa Future Fund, then Iowa Progress Project) launched a radio ad last month attempting to link Culver with Jack DeCoster, the key businessman behind a recent massive shell egg recall who has a long history of running afoul state and federal regulators.
The Progress Project is a 501(c)4 nonprofit and does not have to disclose its donors. The group’s leadership includes Kathy Pearson, who is also a member of Branstad’s Linn County campaign committee; and Allison Dorr Kleis, a former aide to Iowa House Republicans. The group’s website does not list a current president, but it’s former president is David Kochel, who was deputy manager of Branstad’s 1994 gubernatorial campaign and has also done some consulting for the current Branstad campaign. The group’s spokeswoman, Amanda Weiland, is an account representative with the Concrodia Group, a political consulting firm founded by one of Branstad’s biggest financial supporters, Nick Ryan.
The Progress Project’s sister organization, the American Future Fund, focuses on federal races and would not be subject to any changes to Iowa’s campaign disclosure laws.
In addition to calling for more strict disclosure laws, Branstad said he’d like to see limits on out-of-state donations to Iowa candidates.
“I think we should restrict some of this out-of-state money,” Branstad said. “[Campaigns] get huge amounts of out-of-state money from interest groups trying to influence Iowa elections. I’d prefer more of the money to finance campaigns come from individual Iowans.”
Adam Mason, an organizer with the progressive group Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, said he’s happy to hear Branstad supports more disclosure, but doesn’t think the former governor is willing to go far enough.
“We would agree we need full disclosure so there is 100 percent transparency when it comes to campaigns and money in politics,” Mason said. “But in terms of limiting out-of-state donors, you can’t have it half way. If he agrees with us that money coming in from out-of-state interest groups is a problem, the special interests in the state are just as bad. That’s why we want to see public financing to really empower small donors.”
For the past two legislative sessions, Iowa CCI has pushed for bills that would limit the amount any individual or political action committee could donate to a candidate. Donation limits are a first step towards CCI’s ultimate goal of voluntary public financing for political candidates, Mason said.
“It is kind of a surprise that Gov. Branstad would speak out on this,” he said. “Earlier in the campaign season, around some of the DeCoster mess, Gov. Branstad was calling Gov. Culver to return some of the donations from those big monied interests. But if you dig into Branstad’s campaign finance reports he’s got hundreds of thousands of dollars from corporate agriculture interests as well.”
According to the National Institute on Money in State Politics, Branstad’s top individual donors are Bruce Rastetter — who owned hog confinements in the 1990s and gave the campaign $108,000 this year — and Eldon and Regina Roth — owners of Beef Products Inc. who gave Branstad $102,000 this year.
“If he recognizes the out-of-state contributions are bad, he needs to go all the way and see that the ones here in Iowa are just as harmful to our democracy,” Mason said.
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