As a new outside group airs ads supporting state Sen. Zach Wahls in his U.S. Senate bid, he’s calling on his Democratic opponent to join him in pledging to make a donation to charity worth half of the outside money spent on their campaigns’ behalf.
Speaking to the Des Moines Register’s editorial board on Friday, May 15, Wahls challenged state Rep. Josh Turek to take “the People’s Pledge,” which would require both candidates to make a campaign donation to a charity of their opponent’s choice worth half the money spent on their behalf by outside groups.
Wahls’ challenge for Turek comes one day after NBC News reported a group called Iowa Action had purchased $38,000 worth of ad time to air an ad characterizing Wahls as “a fighter for Iowa.”
“He apparently shares my position about getting this dark money out of our politics,” Wahls said of Turek. “He has an opportunity to put his signature on this document and actually stop the outside spending by incurring real penalties when outside spending occurs.”
Turek’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Business filings with the Iowa Secretary of State’s office show Iowa Action Network was incorporated as a nonprofit on April 24. It lists Tanya Negin as its president and Blair Schuman as its treasurer, operating from an address in Cedar Rapids.
Asked if he was telling Iowa Action to stop spending on his behalf, Wahls replied: “What we’re going to do is put forward this pledge and say look, we have both been willing to say that this is a problem in our politics. We have the opportunity to actually create real penalties for both campaigns when outside spending occurs.”
The pledge originated in the 2012 Massachusetts U.S. Senate race between Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren and the Associated Press reported in 2014 that “it was largely successful in blocking television, radio and Internet ads by outside groups.” The pledge is voluntary and has seen limited success in races where not all candidates agreed to it.
Warren has endorsed Wahls in his U.S. Senate bid this year.
Wahls has criticized Turek repeatedly for benefiting from millions of dollars of spending on his behalf from VoteVets, a Democratic-aligned PAC.
VoteVets has spent at least $6.7 million on television and digital ads promoting Turek’s candidacy and is continuing to spend ahead of Iowa’s June 2 primary. Early voting is underway.
Turek has noted that campaigns can’t legally coordinate with super PACs.
But asked in a meeting with the Register editorial board on April 20 if he wants VoteVets to stop airing ads on his behalf, Turek said, “I’m grateful for support, wherever we can get it from.”
Turek, like Wahls, has said he supports a constitutional amendment overturning the U.S. Supreme Court’s “Citizens United” decision that allowed for unlimited spending from outside groups, among other campaign finance limits.
“I’m going to talk about the need to address corruption,” Turek said May 5 in a debate on Iowa PBS. “Corruption, both on the need to change campaign finance reform, (overturn) Citizens United, make sure we pass the DISCLOSE Act so that every dollar that is donated to a campaign, to a PAC, to a super PAC, is accounted for.”
Stephen Gruber-Miller is the Capitol bureau chief for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com, by phone at 515-284-8169 or on X at @sgrubermiller.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Amid new ads, Wahls calls on Turek to pledge to refuse outside money
Reporting by Stephen Gruber-Miller, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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