The issue has been the subject of multiple tense meetings. Harkin sits on cash as Dems sweat

Senate Democrats are pleading with donors to give to Rep. Bruce Braley’s campaign as they struggle to pull off a victory in Iowa and save their endangered majority.

But there’s one key player holding onto his campaign cash: Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin.


Despite direct appeals from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and other top Democrats, Harkin has refused to transfer money from his $2.4 million campaign account to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, according to sources and campaign finance records.

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Instead, the retiring Iowa senator has informed party leaders that he plans to use the campaign funds for a charitable contribution to an entity that bears his name: The Harkin Institute for Public Policy and Citizen Engagement at Drake University in Des Moines, according to sources close to discussions with the senator.

The issue has been the subject of multiple tense meetings. Reid first made a plea for money during a face-to-face meeting with Harkin in April, and again at another session in late summer when he was joined by Harkin and DSCC Chairman Michael Bennet of Colorado.

Harkin said no both times.

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The veteran Democrat has also complained in front of other senators about the ban on congressional earmarks, which has prevented him — a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee — from steering money to Drake University, said Democratic sources.

Finding a home for his official papers has been a priority for Harkin, who has served in the Senate for three decades after 10 years in the House.

Last year, Harkin announced he would not donate his papers to Iowa State University, his alma mater, after a dispute over the scope of research. He chose Drake University instead.

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Reid and other Democratic leaders, meanwhile, are under enormous pressure to win in Iowa; a loss would significantly diminish their chances of holding the Senate. State Sen. Joni Ernst leads Braley in recent polls, and Democrats say they need to keep pace financially with Republicans in the final weeks of the campaign. The DSCC has already spent $6.6 million in the race, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

“It is ridiculous that Bruce Braley is getting outspent by Republicans when Tom Harkin is sitting on over $2 million in his campaign account,” said one senior Democratic aide. Harkin’s refusal to give is all the more exasperating, the aide said, because Braley “has seen Tom as a mentor.”

Harkin declined to be interviewed, but a spokeswoman for the senator, Susannah Cernojevich, strongly disputed that the Iowa senator was being stingy.

“Anyone paying attention to the Senate race in Iowa knows that few people have worked harder or done more to help elect Congressman Braley than Tom Harkin,” Cernojevich said.

Cernojevich said that Harkin has headlined more than 20 fundraisers for Braley and attended more than 30 events to raise money for the Senate hopeful and other Iowa Democrats on the ticket. In addition to a $10,000 donation from his leadership PAC to Braley, Harkin’s office said he has helped raise more than $100,000 for the Iowa Democratic Party, partly through his annual steak fry fundraiser, which Bill and Hillary Clinton headlined last month.

Asked about the senator’s plans to reportedly donate his campaign funds to the Harkin Institute, the spokeswoman said that Harkin “has made no announcement regarding any disposition of leftover campaign funds.”

The back-and-forth over Harkin’s campaign war chest speaks to the growing anxiety among Democrats in this high-stakes election year. With less than three weeks until Election Day and several crucial races too close to call, Democrats know that any mistake — or a lack of resources — could determine whether they lose the majority for the first time since the George W. Bush era. Republicans need to net six seats to take back the majority, and Iowa is ripe for the picking given that Braley has run an uneven campaign so far.

Asked about Braley in an interview last month, Harkin predicted that the progressive congressman would win now that he’d ironed out prior problems.

“I think he had some bumps in his campaign early on; he changed his team; believe me, it’s a lot better,” Harkin said. “Things are really moving smoothly now.”

Asked about his involvement in that race, Harkin said at the time: “I’m involved as I can be. I’m trying to do everything I can to help him. I’m raising money for him, I’m in contact with him all the time.”

Still, it irks Democratic officials that Harkin is sitting on far more money than any other retiring Democrat. And his state is the most competitive among those with a senator leaving the body. Critics say Harkin should follow the example of then-Sen. Kent Conrad, who in 2012 made large cash transfers to the DSCC and the North Dakota Democratic Party to help Heidi Heitkamp hold the seat he was vacating.

By contrast, the last time Harkin gave money to the DSCC was in October 2012, when he ponied up $50,000 before the elections that year, according to public records. While Harkin has maxed out to Braley and other Senate Democratic candidates through his leadership PAC, there is no limit on how much a campaign can transfer to another political committee, meaning his $2.4 million could go a long way.

Harkin’s office says the criticism fails to recognize the amount of work the senator has done on the ground, including stops this week for Braley at the Good Samaritan Society in Davenport and the Hamburg Inn in Iowa City to promote the congressman’s work on Medicare and Social Security. In addition to meeting with campaign canvassers trying to bring early voters to the polls in Iowa, Harkin also traveled to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, this week to campaign for Democratic candidate Rick Weiland.

“No one knows better than Tom Harkin that people are more important than money in Iowa politics,” said Cernojevich, “and that is why he’s been crisscrossing the state with and for Bruce during recent weeks.”