Fallon group's e-mails questioned

Saturday, March 29, 2008

(Des Moines Register)

By THOMAS BEAUMONT • REGISTER STAFF WRITER • March 29, 2008

U.S. Rep. Leonard Boswell is questioning the campaign ethics of his challenger, Ed Fallon, in what has become an increasingly tense Democratic primary for Iowa's 3rd U.S. House District.

Boswell's campaign wrote in an e-mail to supporters last week that "ethical questions have emerged" about an organization Fallon formed after losing the 2006 gubernatorial primary.

The questions are whether Fallon, a former state representative from Des Moines, used the group called I'M for Iowa to promote his candidacy for Congress and, if he did, whether that violates federal campaign regulations.

Boswell has stopped short of accusing Fallon of campaign violations, but raised the specter of wrongdoing in the e-mail. The issue has bubbled up as Fallon and Boswell have stepped up their attacks on each other, with roughly two months until the primary.

"Ethical questions have emerged surrounding Ed Fallon's leadership and work with" I'M for Iowa, the message from Boswell's campaign manager Scott Ourth said.

Fallon said he has tried to keep his campaign activity separate from I'M for Iowa. Boswell, Fallon added, is attacking him on campaign finance ethics because Bos-well received the bulk of his campaign contributions from political action committees.

Fallon does not accept PAC money, although he has been endorsed by an anti-war political action committee whose members were encouraged to contribute.

"The political establishment attacks a candidate on his strength," Fallon said. "My strength is my commitment to issues. They are looking for ways to discredit me."

Fallon started I'M for Iowa, which stands for An Independence Movement for Iowa, last year to promote issues and draw a salary after the 2006 campaign.

The organization is a trade name registered with the Polk County recorder. Small businesses such as lawn care services and other sole proprietorships register this way.

However, some other advocacy organizations, such as the 15-year-old, Des Moines-based State Public Policy Group, is also registered the same way as Fallon's group.

I'M for Iowa is not a corporation, over which the Iowa secretary of state has regulatory authority.

Fallon's group does not have to report its sources of money or what kind of business it is. But it receives no money from corporations, said Lynn Heuss, Fallon's partner in the organization.

It runs on contributions from individuals who support its agenda, which includes limiting large livestock confinements, curbing global warming, promoting campaign finance reform and preventing abuse of eminent domain.

Fallon has drawn a salary of $3,000 per month from the organization this year, according to Heuss, who also is Fallon's campaign manager.

Boswell's campaign aides said Fallon should disclose his group's source of money. They argue that two e-mail messages sent from I'M for Iowa to the group's supporters promoted Fallon's candidacy.

The first, in January, noted Fallon's plan to run for Congress against Boswell, a six-term Des Moines Democrat. The second, a month later, included information about Fallon's 50th birthday and directed recipients to his campaign Web site.

Campaign finance law bars corporate contributions from federal races. However, the law specifies corporations and limited liability companies, which Fallon's group is not.

"If he's going to run on clean elections, then he should come clean about what he's doing," Boswell campaign spokesman Mark Daley said.

Fallon has continually criticized Boswell for voting in 2002 for the resolution to authorize the war in Iraq and subsequent measures to finance the war.

Boswell has in recent weeks stepped up his own criticism of Fallon. At the Polk County Democratic Convention this month and the party's central committee meeting this week, Boswell launched into Fallon's support for Ralph Nader's 2000 presidential campaign and characterized Fallon as an ineffective legislator.

"Because it's clear we're going to have a spirited primary, I guess we're going to have these kinds of issues come to the fore," Polk County Democratic Chairman Tom Henderson said.

The ethics questions are the latest jab by Boswell ahead of the June 3 primary.

"On the surface, this looks like a fund to give him a job," Daley said.

Fallon's main source of income during his 14 years in the Iowa House was his salary as a member of the Legislature. Fallon did not seek re-election in 2006, the year he lost a three-way primary for governor.

After the June primary, Fallon paid himself a total of $13,750 from his gubernatorial campaign. Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board officials told Fallon this was allowed, as long as Fallon was doing work related to the campaign.

Fallon claimed as rationale that he weighed an independent bid for governor after the primary and later spent months working on the campaign's database, records show.

Fallon earned roughly $33,000 last year, which was most of his 2007 income, as an adviser to presidential candidate John Edwards' Iowa caucus campaign.