Democrats turn over GOP court files

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By The Associated Press | Monday, October 6, 2008 10:54 PM CDT | () comments

DES MOINES — Republican lawmakers say they are furious over Democrats’ effort to scour public records for GOP misdoings and then turn them over to the media.

Democrats recently provided a binder full of records to The Des Moines Register that document that several Republican House candidates have criminal charges in their backgrounds.

“This is the sleaziest thing I think I’ve heard of in Statehouse politics,” said House Republican Leader Christopher Rants of Sioux City.

Republicans said the Democrats delved into candidates’ personal lives, poring over public documents on small-claims cases, financial woes, divorces and child-support

disputes.

The newspaper said its independent review of court records for both Democrats and Republicans seeking seats in the Iowa House showed a few candidates with alcohol-related offenses, and most of those charges were older than five years.

The newspaper noted that one candidate had a felony conviction for third-offense drunken driving, and another has an active warrant for his arrest in connection with a driver’s license problem. One candidate also is dealing with a federal violation at his workplace.

While both parties do opposition research, it’s unusual for the information to be released collectively, as it was in the binder to the newspaper.

Democrats claimed there is an unusually high number of GOP candidates with legal problems, and they believe voters should consider how a candidate’s history could affect his or her ability to serve the public and obey laws.

“If these candidates were elected to office, it would not be a stretch that we would need to establish night court at the state Capitol, together with a bailiff and maybe bring in Jerry Springer to cover it,” said House Democratic Leader Kevin McCarthy of Des Moines.

Rants, the House Republican leader, declined to turn over GOP research on Democratic challengers. He said there are pertinent items to research about the candidates, but there are other things “that have nothing to do with how they’ll perform in the Iowa House of Representatives.

“I am not going to get into that sort of sleazy personal stuff,” he said. “Kevin McCarthy can take his book of dirty little secrets and do whatever he wants with it, but we’re not playing that game.”

The Register reported that its review of online state and federal court records showed that none of the Republican or Democratic incumbents has any felonies or outstanding warrants. Nor do any of the Democratic challengers, although two Republican challengers do.

Most of the candidates from both parties had blank records, except for some small-claims cases or traffic violations.

Steffen Schmidt, an Iowa State University political science professor, said a drunken driving conviction isn’t an automatic ticket to political failure.

“These kind of things are very common,” Schmidt said. “You cannot use exceptionally stringent middle-class values in order to select or disqualify people from office. Those don’t hold up that well in a society that’s as diverse and complicated as ours.”

Van Roekel decries reports as ‘political ploy’

CLINTON, Iowa — Jonathan Van Roekel, a Clinton Republican running for an Iowa House seat, said Monday that reports of his prior criminal convictions and those of other Republican candidates were “nothing more than a political ploy” by the Iowa Democratic Party.

Van Roekel’s record includes a 1996 felony conviction of third-offense operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated. He publicly acknowledged the conviction in a letter to the Clinton Herald early in his candidacy, saying he regretted his actions but had turned his life around.

His record also includes a $250 civil judgment for a bad check written on his checking account to a Davenport check-cashing business in 1998. Van Roekel said the check and others were

written by a woman he was dating at the time who had stolen his checkbook. He said he paid the money to avoid having his wages garnished. He said he did not pursue criminal charges after the woman agreed to repay him.

Van Roekel said the information was provided to the media in a “political maneuver by Polly Bukta and the Democratic Party because they’re worried and they’re scared that I’m going to take her job.”

His opponent, Bukta,

D-Clinton, said Monday, “I had absolutely nothing to do with this.”

Bukta said the information is public record and scrutiny of political candidates is to be expected.

“When you’re running for public office, you become a public figure,” she said.

Bukta said she has not sought to make an issue out of her opponent’s past.

“I want to win this election on my record, not by trying to make someone else look bad to swing votes my way,” she said.

— Steven Martens