One of the interesting exchanges during Monday night’s U.S. Senate debate between Sen. Joni Ernst and Theresa Greenfield dealt with “dark money” in politics.
The issue has been at the heart of this race as Greenfield has routinely criticized Ernst on this issue. Moderator David Yepsen even alluded to that.
Ernst said that Greenfield is receiving money directly from lobbyists, executives — even big oil and big pharma.
“You can dig into her campaign reports and find that,” Ernst said. “If she’s lying about this, what else is she going to lie about?”
One of the moderators asked Greenfield if she was lying, but she didn’t answer.
“Iowans want those awful attack ads to end,” Greenfield said. “And how we do it is by getting rid of dark money in our politics and ending the political corruption. Sen. Ernst has taken $2 million in corporate PAC donations. And folks, there’s too much money in our politics. I put a plan together, she doesn’t have one. I drew a line in the sand and said I won’t accept one dime of corporate PAC donations. She’s accepted $2 million.”
Ernst responded.
“While she is talking about dark money, in one hand she’s saying ‘oh we’re not going to have dark money in this campaign.’ She’s got the other hand behind her saying ‘please hand me some dark money,'” Ernst said. “She is benefitting from nearly $100 million of dark money in this campaign, folks. So while she says I’m going to go to the United States Senate and get rid of dark money spending, what she’s saying on the campaign right now is, ‘give it to me please.’ Bring in the dark money.”
Greenfield didn’t deny it.
“Well at least I have a plan to get rid of that dark money,” Greenfield said.
