IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) - Democrats trying to pick up a Republican-held congressional seat in Iowa are seizing on disclosure records about the GOP candidate that they say gives heft to their charge he’s a Washington insider.
The records show Republican nominee David Young raised more than $500,000 in donations for Sen. Chuck Grassley’s 2010 re-election campaign, even while Young served as Grassley’s full-time chief-of-staff. Young reported being paid $51,000 by Grassley’s campaign, receiving a 10 percent commission on the money he raised.
Young’s opponents have made his finances and time in Washington an issue in the campaign for Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District, which stretches from Des Moines to Council Bluffs. But painting him as a Washington insider could be tricky, given that he wasn’t a lobbyist or longtime incumbent. Instead, he was working for Grassley, one of Iowa’s most popular politicians.
Young is running against former state Sen. Staci Appel in a competitive race that Democrats see as a chance to pick up a seat and elect Iowa’s first female member of Congress. The seat is being vacated by 10-term Rep. Tom Latham, a popular Republican.
The Democrats have noted Young did not live in the state for roughly 20 years while he worked in Washington, where he owned a $1.2 million home. They created a website mocking Young last year when he moved back to his home town of Van Meter after he was quoted as saying, “Did you know you can buy a four-bedroom house in Van Meter for $70,000?” The site, called “Welcome Back to Iowa, David,” explained common Iowa sights such as a barn and silo to him.
Appel campaign manager Ben Miller said the campaign “will certainly have the resources to see that Young” faces scrutiny about the fundraising income he received in Washington.
“This is a serious question for Iowans: does Washington insider David Young think he can skirt the rules, take huge pay raises, and never have to answer about how he traded public relationships for personal profit?” he said.
While congressional staffers work on campaigns routinely, Democrats and outside watchdogs say Young’s arrangement in 2010 was unusual in two respects. First, he did not take a leave of absence from his $169,000 job as Grassley’s chief of staff. That means he would have had to raise all the money on his own time, such as nights and weekends, to avoid violating rules that prohibit campaign work on Senate time. Young’s campaign says he did just that.
Second, payments from Grassley’s campaign of $26,550 and $24,592 to Young came two weeks apart after Grassley’s re-election. But they straddled separate calendar years, which allowed Young to stay just under the $26,955 limit in outside annual income that’s allowed for high-ranking Senate staff members. Young’s campaign says his work spanned two years, and that’s why he was paid that way.
Young is touting his experience working for Iowans for seven years as the top aide to Grassley. He says he knows how to get results from the federal government’s bureaucracy. And the contacts he made in Washington are helping as he seeks to close a fundraising gap with Appel.
Young declined an interview request but issued a statement saying, “I’m proud of the work I did for Iowa’s families and farmers being entrusted by Senator Grassley as his Chief of Staff.” A Grassley aide noted that the campaign work was done and disclosed in compliance with campaign and ethics rules.
Ethics experts said he appeared to take advantage of a legal loophole by having the payments split into different years.
“It’s just a peculiarity of the law that would allow people to profit more from campaign work while still meeting the letter of the law,” said Sarah Bryner, research director for the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign spending.
Young finished fifth in the voting in a six-way primary June 3, but none of the candidates cleared the 35 percent threshold to win the nomination. Republican Party delegates awarded Young the nomination at a June 21 convention after five rounds of voting, finding Young their best bet to win.
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