With less than two months until Election Day, new details are coming to light on Democratic Senate candidate Theresa Greenfield’s record as a real estate executive.
As Director of Real Estate at Rottlund Homes in Minnesota, Greenfield directly oversaw a project that weaponized eminent domain to drive down the price of land. According to the Star Tribune, a local business even sued Greenfield’s company, which was the lead developer on the project, for “using the threat of eminent domain to force down the value of its business.”
Jeff Kaufmann, Chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa and former state Representative from Wilton, worked specifically on this issue in the legislature. “When I served in the Legislature, I rewrote our state’s eminent domain laws to help protect Iowans from the shady abuses that people like Theresa Greenfield employ to line their own pockets,” Kaufmann said in a statement to Iowa Field Report. “Theresa Greenfield will stop at nothing to gain power and money for herself — history shows she has threatened property owners, kicked mom and pop stores to the curb to make way for a foreign-owned chain, and run over the wishes of local communities. Iowans deserve to hear about Greenfied’s real past, not just the past that Chuck Schumer and D.C. lobbyists portray on her TV ads.”
Public records show that after Rottlund Homes went bankrupt, Greenfield became President of Colby Interests. The company bought farmland in Warren County for $800,000. Just a few years later, they turned around and sold it to Microsoft for $8.4 million, which is over ten times the amount they paid the original landowner.
Critics, including Iowa Republicans and Joni Ernst’s campaign, point out that not only did Greenfield, as leader of Colby Interests cheat the original landowner out of a better deal, but this project also threatened several homes along with 20 acres of a popular recreational area — but the company moved forward even though numerous residents in the area expressed concerns.
Despite quitting Colby Interests so she could run for office, Greenfield secured a deal to continue receiving private health insurance through the company, directly contradicting her support for government-run health care plans.
Iowa’s US Senate race is one of the most competitive and closely watched races in the nation. Iowa voters will decide in 60 days if they will send Senator Joni Ernst back to Washington DC to represent them or instead select Theresa Greenfield.
