(Radio Iowa) – Both Democrats who are running for the U-S Senate say it’s time to tighten campaign finance laws. Josh Turek of Council Bluffs and Zach Wahls of Coralville spoke last (Wednesday) night at an event hosted by Progress Iowa and End Citizens United, a group that opposes the 2010 U-S Supreme Court ruling that said it was a violation of the First Amendment to restrict corporate spending on political advertising. Wahls has proposed amending the Constitution to overturn that decision and allow congress to limit political spending by corporations.
“It is time to curb the reign of big corporations and billionaires in our political process,” Wahls said. Turek says the ruling has given corporations and billionaires outsized influence in elections. “Honestly, we can have oligarchy or we can have democracy, but we cannot have both,” Turek said, “and I want to go to the United States Senate to be fighting for Iowa and Iowans, not for large corporations or billionaires.”
The candidates answered questions from the event’s hosts and did not appear on stage at the same time, but the flash point of the evening came when Wahls said a political action committee that’s been linked Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is running ads in support of Turek. “On the very first day of my campaign, I said I think it is time for new leadership in Senate Democrats and Representative Turek has not taken that position,” Wahls said. “And if you don’t think there’s a connection between those two things, I don’t know what to tell you.”
Turek later told reporters he’s had no contact with the group running the ads and it was disappointing Wahls had tapped into negative energy by talking about it during the event. “I am someone that is talking about the need for hope and positivity and optimism and the need to focus on the issues,” Turek said, “not on going after him.”
Turek and Wahls are both current members of the Iowa legislature and running for a chance to fill the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Joni Ernst, who is not seeking reelection. Congressman Ashley Hinson is the favorite to win the Iowa G-O-P’s nomination for the U.S. Senate and a political action committee that supports Republicans announced this week it will spend 29 million dollars on advertising in Iowa to boost Hinson’s campaign.
