Stories

More than 25 percent of funds raised by Rep. Tom Latham’s political action committee during the 2008 election cycle paid for trips to resorts around the country, according to documents filed with the Federal Election Commission.

A golf outing in West Virginia and a weekend getaway to Atlantic City, N.J., are just two of the trips taken this year by U.S. Rep. Tom Latham of Ames that have garnered the attention of campaign finance watchdogs.

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley is taking heat for touting his opposition to health care reform legislation to a group of donors at a Miami fundraiser last week.

An ethics complaint against a lobbying group that was five months late in filing a disclosure report was dismissed Tuesday by the state Senate Ethics Committee.

The state’s largest gay rights organization and a progressive religious group have filed a formal complaint against the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board.
One Iowa and the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa filed the complaint Monday alleging that NOM, a New Jersey-based group that opposes same-sex marriage, violated Iowa [...]

Despite giving itself authority over disclosure reports for legislative parties paid for by lobbyists, neither the House nor the Senate ethics committees have the power to initiate investigations into violations.
In order to open a legislative investigation, a third party must file a formal ethics complaint.
This process has come under scrutiny of late after the Iowa [...]

Huck PAC, the political action committee of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, failed to file proper disclosure forms with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board (IECDB) after it donated $2,500 to the gubernatorial campaign of Bob Vander Plaats, the board’s executive director said Tuesday.
Charlie Smithson, executive director of the IECDB, said his staff has [...]

While state Rep. Kerry Burt’s drunk driving arrest has garnered many headlines, there is a bigger scandal emerging from the lobbyist reception where his evening began, according to one activist organization.

The Iowa State Education Association PAC raised more money than any other Iowa-focused political action committee during the first 6 months of 2009, bringing in $204,072, according to paperwork filed with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board.

Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley is taking heat from campaign finance watchdogs for hosting a fundraiser Monday night with lobbyists and a political action committee representing the mortgage, insurance and financial industries.
The problem, critics say, is that Grassley recently backed those industries in his opposition to legislation allowing judges to renegotiate mortgages.