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Greenfield accepts a glut of special interest and corporate PAC money despite pledging she would not

by | Feb 13, 2020 | Congress

Theresa Greenfield

Iowa U.S. Senate candidate Theresa Greenfield has taken an oath not to accept money from special interest groups or corporate PACs. However, publicly available campaign finance reports say otherwise.

However, according to Federal Election Commission reports, Greenfield has taken more than $355,000 worth of contributions from special interest groups and corporate-funded Leadership PACs. Greenfield’s name was at the top of a chart produced by Open Secrets. They research and track money in U.S. politics.

In their report, it shows Theresa Greenfield as the leader amongst Chuck Schumer-endorsed candidates to take money from Leadership PACs despite pledging not to accept corporate dollars. The report details that Leadership PACs are funded by corporate dollars but run through an intermediary such as another member of congress. According to Open Secrets, One-third of money going to Democratic leadership PACs comes from business PACs associated with corporations, trade associations, and other business interests.

This fact was also pointed out by a reporter for the Atlantic:

Complicating this information, Local Iowa newspaper, Times-Republican of Marshalltown, recently featured Greenfield in a story. The article explicitly notes the pledge that Greenfield has taken.

The Times-Republican also claims that Greenfield has managed to raise “…more than $1.1 million, which is more than what Ernst has raised.” But according to the Federal Elections Commission, that is incorrect. The latest reports from the fourth quarter of 2019 show that Joni Ernst raised nearly $1.7 million and ended the year with $4.9 million COH.

Despite the factual errors in the article and the inconsistency between the pledge and her finance reports, Greenfield’s campaign and her communications director retweeted the article anyway.

Iowa Field Report called the Greenfield campaign for comment but received no reply.