I highlighted an attack video done alleging special interest contributions made to a 527 group that current Gubernatorial candidate, Representative Chris Rants (R-Sioux City) started. Rants sent Kevin Hall, who did the original article on this, an email in which very little of it was referenced in his article. Rants provided the entire email to Krusty Konservative at The Iowa Republican and I thought I should include it in its entirety:
The video is a mixture of the accurate and inaccurate – both of which have been covered extensively in the main stream media.
The Iowa Leadership Council was created as a response to the activities in Iowa by three liberal 527 groups; MoveOn.org, America Coming Together and the DLCC.
The Iowa Leadership Council (ILC) is not a “leadership pac.” That is inaccurate, and false. If you look at the publicly available financial disclosures filed by the ILC you’ll see that it does not donate to candidates, nor does it advocate for the election or defeat of any candidate or political party – it is prohibited by law from doing so. The ILC has been very careful about following the law – hence all the legal bills on the disclosure reports.
Did the ILC raise over $1.1 million from 2005-2008 to advocate for conservative issues and causes – yes, it did. I haven’t bothered checking the breakdown on how much came from gambling related industries, or tobacco related industries, etc… I will accept their numbers at face value – although I’m sure that MGM, the parent company of the Bellagio pictured is not a donor as only casino’s with properties in Iowa were asked to contribute. Interestingly enough many if not all of those groups are also donors to liberal 527s such as the DLCC, and other Democrat causes – a fact my liberal critics have chosen to ignore over the years.
I take it the other $400,000 we raised came from sources the liberals approved of…
Did it buy “luxury vacations” – no, it did not. While it covered costs including travel and lodging associated with fundraising meetings, Dallas Texas was not on the list. A good rule of fundraising – you go to your donors, don’t wait for them to come to you.
The liberals and Democrats have attacked me over the ILC since its inception. They preferred us to fight with one arm tied behind our backs, and were angry when we chose to fight back. If I’d had the idea earlier, the ILC would have started sooner. But 527s were something I had not encountered before, and once we saw what they were up to in Iowa in 2004 we got in gear and responded.
I know that my liberal opponents would just as soon I go away, and the sooner that happens the happier they will be.
