A spokesman for Culver said the allegations fall “somewhere between nonsense and paranoia.”

One set of e-mails from June involves Culver’s then chief of staff, Patrick Dillon; then head of the Department of Management and current chief of staff Charles Krogmeier; and chief legal counsel James Larew. The subject is tax policy and ways the government could restructure tax code in response to flooding, an idea Krogmeier calls “All the more reason to avoid a special session.”

The second e-mail exchange from September shows Rebuild Iowa Office Chief of Staff Emily Hajek saying she was “relieved” no special session would be called.

The e-mails exchanges took place while Culver was saying publicly that there was still a chance a special session could be called to deal with flood recovery. Iowa Progress Project President David Kochel said he believes they show that the administration was never considering calling legislators back to Des Moines.

The e-mails “raise many new questions about the [Rebuild Iowa Office], its leadership, competence of bureaucrats, and the intentions of those who wanted to block a special session that would give relief to flood victims,” Kochel said in a press release.

Troy Price, Culver’s press secretary, said the group’s allegations don’t merit a response.

“The so-called Iowa Progress Project is nothing more than a secret political slush fund that lacks the honesty or integrity to reveal their campaign contributors,” Price said. “They are quick to make negative, dishonest, political attacks but are apparently too cowardly to reveal their true identity.”

Because IPP is organized as a nonprofit it does not have to reveal its donors and is not governed by Iowa campaign finance law.

The group shares an organizational history with American Future Fund (AFF), a conservative nonprofit that works on the national level. Iowa Progress Project was originally named Iowa Future Fund. Leadership in both organizations is made up of several former leaders of the Republican Party of Iowa and Mitt Romney’s unsuccessful Iowa Caucus campaign.

Both AFF and IPP are registered with the IRS as a 501(c)(4), a section of federal tax code that exempts them from federal income taxation if they operate primarily to promote social welfare. Both organizations have been accused of violating their tax-exempt status by trying to influence elections.

“The real issue is how an organization that does nothing other than make political attacks against Gov. Culver and other Democrats can continue to flout and ignore the intent of Iowa’s campaign finance laws,” Price said.

The Iowa Progress Project, a politically conservative non-profit based in Des Moines, commissioned Duffy to draw a cartoon critical of Gov. Chet Culver’s ties to labor unions, specifically the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees. The group believes non-union state employees will be asked to sacrifice more than their union counterparts during the upcoming budget discussions.

Iowa Progress Project (IPP) was formerly known as Iowa Future Fund and shares an organization history with American Future Fund, a conservative non-profit based in Des Moines that operates on the national level. Since changing names, IPP has run several radio ads critical of Culver and Democrats in the legislture.

American Future Fund, an Iowa-based nonprofit advocating “conservative and free market ideals” has opened an Iowa chapter, and with it launched a series of ads attacking Democratic candidates for the Iowa House of Representatives and praising a Republican incumbent.

More than $100,000 worth of ads began airing Wednesday in various markets.  One ad praises Iowa Rep. Jamie Van Fossen, R-Davenport.  Others criticize Rep. Elesha Gayman, D-Davenport, and Rep. McKinley Bailey, D-Webster City.

The ads use a loophole in campaign election law that allow nonprofit organizations to engage in election related activity as long as they don’t advocate directly for or against a candidate. The ads in question simply ask voters to call their legislator, and in the case of the Democrats, to ask them to oppose any change to the state’s collective bargaining laws.

The organization is run by a network of Iowa Republicans and Washington, D.C., media consultants who played key roles in the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads in 2004 and the Willie Horton ad in 1988. Because it is a nonprofit, it does not have to disclose its donors and is not governed by the Federal Election Commission or the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board.

It has had complaints filed against it in Minnesota and Colorado saying it has violated its tax-exempt status by spending most of its resources trying to influence elections. The Iowa Democratic Party filed a complaint against an earlier incarnation of the group, named Iowa Future Fund, after it ran a series of ads against Gov. Chet Culver earlier this year.

American Future Fund spokesman Tim Albrecht did not respond to requests for comment. But in a recent Quad-City Times story, Albrecht called the Colorado complaint, which was filed with the Internal Revenue Service, “some liberal wack job who doesn’t approve of conservative free-market ideals, so they wrote a letter.”

For more information on American Future Fund, read “Secrets of American Future Fund,” an Iowa Independent investigation that ran in August.