Two candidates for elected office in Linn County are under investigation by the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board. Neither investigation, however, is anticipated to be resolved before the votes are tallied on Election Day.

Eric Rosenthal, a former chairman of the Linn County Republican Central Committee, has been the subject of an open investigation since November 2007. The charges, filed by former Linn County Republican Chairwoman Kathy Potts in the summer of 2007, stem from checks written by the county party to Rosenthal. He filed in March as a candidate for Linn County Supervisor.

Mike Robinson, a former chairman of the Linn County Democratic Central Committee who suspended his campaign for a state legislature seat in House District 35 in September, is also under the scrutiny by the state agency. Robinson called off his candidacy citing personal reasons prior to the ethics complaint being made public.  The suspension of his campaign, however, was not done early enough for the candidate’s name to be removed from the ballot.

Robinson’s investigation involves the possible co-mingling of personal and campaign funds, as alleged by former members of his campaign committee. Robinson did not respond to Iowa Independent’s request for comment.

Charlie Smithson, executive director of the Iowa Ethics Board, indicated that a formal investigation into the complaints involving Robinson was initiated after a review of his October campaign finance report.

Rosenthal’s alleged violations were the subject of a state panel review last week. While it was hoped that the review might shed light on the case which has been active for nearly a year, Smithson told the Iowa Independent in an e-mail earlier this week that the “situation is not resolved.”

“We have received responses from Mr. Rosenthal and are in the process of looking through that information and checking with vendors and the Linn County Republican Party,” Smithson said. “Unfortunately, we are also now in the middle of the 2008 election with issues coming up that are needing immediate attention.”

Smithson said the board plans to continue the investigation into the allegations, but does not expect the situations to be resolved prior to the November general election.

“In order for the Board to do its due diligence and to be fair to Mr. Rosenthal and Ms. Potts, we are going to do a full and thorough investigation and we are not going to rush any results,” he said. “It would have been useful if this complaint would have been received closer to 2004, and it would have been useful for responses from Mr. Rosenthal to come earlier than June and October of 2008.”

Potts admits that her own hesitation to formally file the complaint against Rosenthal may have presented an obstacle to those who now have to investigate the matter, but she still feels that waiting to officially file was the appropriate thing for her to do.

“I spoke face-to-face with Mr. Smithson in 2005 shortly after I was elected as chair of the Linn County Republicans,” Potts said. “At that point, I told Smithson about the discrepancies and asked for his advice. He told me that since the Democrats were not complaining and because he was now aware of the situation, I didn’t have to do anything else.”

Potts said that she also addressed the matter internally with Republican Party leaders and made an appeal for them to resolve the situation.

“A year later — in 2006 — I resigned because I couldn’t get the committee to do the ethical thing,” she said.

The complaint, which references county party disbursements from the 2004 general election cycle, was filed by Potts in the summer of 2007. The state agency launched its official investigation in November with a letter requesting information and documents from Rosenthal.

That initial letter was answered by John Daufeldt, Rosenthal’s attorney, with a promise for further information in January or February of 2008. The promised response, however, was not given to the state until June. A follow-up by the state garnered more information from Rosenthal’s attorney earlier this month.

Rosenthal said he has not purposefully dragged his feet in responding to the charges, but was overwhelmed by family medical crisis involving both his wife and mother. He adds that much of the information the state needed was difficult to find due to the passage of time.

“I had dramatically scaled back my full-time practice of real estate to deal with these health issues prior to the notice of this complaint on Nov. 16, 2007,” Rosenthal wrote in e-mail to Iowa Independent. “I had to file my nomination papers from the hospital. Friends collected the signatures and the hospital notary notarized the nomination petition.”

Rosenthal said that because he had been involved with the effort to expand the Linn County Board of Supervisors from three to five members and to have all members elected by district (in lieu of at-large), he “wanted to continue to change county government to make it more representative and responsive.”

The fact that Rosenthal received funds from the county Republican party is not in dispute. The investigation focuses on if those funds, which Potts claims were given to Rosenthal for distribution to vendors, were used by Rosenthal for personal benefit.

Documents obtained from the Ethics Board show that Rosenthal presented the Linn County Republican Central Committee with reimbursement forms for two invoices from a local vendor. Potts has stated that shortly after her election as chair, the vendor phoned and requested payment for those same invoices, totaling roughly $600.

“I told him that, according to the books, we’d already paid those bills,” she said. “But he was adamant that he had not been paid so I began to look into it.”

She found a check, written by the Linn County Republican Treasurer to Rosenthal, that had been deposited into his personal banking account. Via his attorney, Rosenthal has not denied depositing the check, but maintains that not only was he owed additional reimbursements, but that disagreements on a county level contributed to the situation.

“I understand why the current discussion of these events focuses on the political ramifications of the investigation,” he said. “However, the deep disagreements within the committee at that time stemmed primarily over, one, how the Sept. 1, 2004 effective date of McCain-Feingold was to be applied at the local level; and, two, prior committee practices that allowed for the expenditures now questioned.”

According to Rosenthal, he had “many unreimbursed expenses as chair,” including furniture for the 2004 headquarters and out-of-town mileage.

Rosenthal, who has used his background in accounting in marketing pushes for his supervisor bid, said the issue “will be resolved by the Board without regard to the political ramifications, as it should be.” He added that this is the same approach he “would advocate professionally,” and the reason why he has “been reluctant to air my side of the story, regardless of the political consequences.”