Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) (Pete Marovich/Getty Images)

First-term Sen. Joni Ernst‘s (R-Iowa) 2020 re-election bid and Iowa’s congressional races are a million-dollar battleground for anonymously funded political groups.

Groups aligned with Democrats and Republicans, but not run by particular candidates’ campaigns, have already spent more than $600,000 apiece in Iowa to sway voters’ opinions of Ernst, a Republican, or attack “Medicare for All,” the health care plan championed by some Democrats, according to filings with the Federal Communications Commission and compiled with OpenSecrets’ ad data tool.

The ad campaigns come more than a year before the general election and are airing when the state’s political bandwidth is otherwise consumed by the Democratic presidential caucus race. The onslaught could be a precursor to a flood of cash as Republicans work to maintain their majority in the Senate in 2020, and Democrats aim to flip it.

Rather than advocate for or against a candidate’s election, which would require reporting the spending with the Federal Election Commission, these groups advertise for or against issues Ernst has weighed in on, and then urge viewers to contact her office and share their opinions.

New progressive-aligned group spends big against Ernst

Iowa Voices, which operates as Iowa Forward and has a mailing address in Kellogg, formed in March, according to documents filed with the state. In its less than six months of existence, it has bought or reserved more than $600,000 worth of television and digital ads criticizing Ernst for her vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

The group wheeled out a billboard at the Iowa State Fair that urged Iowans to call Ernst and “tell her to stop voting to gut our health care.” It brought it out again at a recent Des Moines-area town hall Ernst hosted.

Iowa Voices claims it isn’t focused on the election, but rather it wants “to hold Senator Ernst accountable for her actions on health care and taxes,” and pressure her to drop her push to repeal the Affordable Care Act, its communications director, Ben Cobley, said in an email. The group is gathering Iowans’ stories to try to persuade Ernst, he said.

Iowa Voices is building a grassroots movement, according to its website. But as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, it isn’t required to disclose its donors, leaving the public with no information about where its money comes from. While it doesn’t currently solicit donations on its website, Iowa Voices amassed enough cash to launch its six-figure ad campaign within months of its incorporation in March.

Cobley declined to specify its funding source beyond “folks who share our mission and feelings that an (Affordable Care Act) repeal would harm hundreds of thousands of Iowans.” It has partnered with several progressive groups, including the Iowa Citizen Action Network, Progress Iowa, Indivisible Iowa and the Iowa Federation of Labor, Cobley said. An online donation button is also on the way, he said.

It originally launched under the name Heartland Forward and renamed itself Iowa Forward on May 30. It then purchased or reserved more than $434,000 worth of TV ads in the Des Moines market and nearly $160,000 in Cedar Rapids to air 1,738 spots from late July through early November, according to Federal Communications Commission records.

Ernst is no stranger to mysterious political groups. Outside groups spent tens of millions to influence voters during Iowa’s expensive 2014 Senate race, including several prominent Democratic and Republican-aligned nonprofit groups that do not disclose their funders. The Iowa contest, a titanic struggle to win the seat vacated by the retirement of 30-year Democratic U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, was the third most expensive Senate race that cycle. Outside groups accounted for almost $63 million out of the $92.6 million spent on it, according to a tally by OpenSecrets.

In an interview in August, Ernst floated enacting disclosure requirements as a way to police anonymously funded ads without infringing on people’s First Amendment rights to express their political opinions. Ernst predicted Iowa will be one of the top targets for spending by independent groups, with unlimited anonymous donors supporting and opposing her re-election bid.

“What I fear is that there is so much outside money being spent that my message is not going to be heard,” Ernst said. “How will people be able to sort through that, and understand that I am not supporting these other messages?”

If people need to disclose who is funding these groups, “then maybe people are a little more cautious about what they’re throwing up on TV or in the newspapers,” Ernst said.

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Jordanna Zeigler, the campaign manager for leading Democratic rival Theresa Greenfield, blamed Ernst for “letting special interests spend unlimited amounts of secret money.” She flagged votes Ernst made as far back as her Iowa state Senate service that Zeigler characterized as protecting anonymous spending, and highlighted Greenfield’s support for funding disclosure.

While Greenfield officially has three fellow Democrats she needs to defeat in next year’s primary, her campaign received immediate endorsements from prominent Democrats when it launched in June, and she holds a commanding fundraising lead. She ended the second quarter of 2019 with almost $600,000 on hand, more than triple the next nearest Democrat, according to the most recent FEC filings. Ernst had $3.4 million cash on hand.

Democrats in Congress have led the charge to increase transparency of secret money groups such as political nonprofits and shell companies. Prominent Republicans have pushed back, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) arguing that limits on political spending infringe on free speech rights.

But Democrats are also staffing Iowa Voices, which does not disclose its funding. Former staffers for Hillary Clinton’s and Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns are among its staffers. The group is run by Emily Holley, former political director for Iowa state Sen. Rob Hogg and Midwest field organizer for Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. Cobley and fellow Iowa Voices staffer Kate Vibbert are both former Clinton campaign aides.

Republican-aligned groups weigh in to support Ernst

One Nation, an anonymously funded nonprofit associated with Republican strategist Karl Rove, has also shelled out more than $600,000 on TV and digital ads in Iowa. The group is running a batch of ads attacking Medicare for All, and urging viewers to call their members of Congress about it, as well as ads defending Ernst’s record.

Because of how it files its ads with the Federal Communications Commission, it’s difficult to track exactly how much it has spent to sway voters in the Hawkeye State.

One of the group’s ads praises Ernst for her support of a bill that would eliminate subsidies for electric vehicles and contends that the tax credits force Iowa taxpayers to subsidize wealthy individuals in California and New York.

In addition to its ties to Rove, One Nation shares its staff and Washington, D.C., offices with Senate Leadership Fund, a powerful super PAC that is linked to McConnell. Now-shuttered outside spending groups linked with Rove spent more than $5.4 million backing Ernst in 2014, according to tracking by OpenSecrets.

These aren’t the only anonymously funded Washington-tied groups to jump into the fray.

Iowa Values, yet another political nonprofit with a generic name, launched a six-month digital ad and voter canvassing effort to support Ernst in late June. The group, run by Johnston mayor Paula Dierenfeld, former Rep. Tom Tauke (R-Iowa) and political strategist Sara Fagen, has spent almost $18,000 on digital ads backing the Republican senator so far, according to Google and Facebook ad databases. It plans to spend six figures on a digital ad campaign, according to a news release.

In a statement announcing its launch, the group also pledged to canvass the state and knock on at least 150,000 doors.

“No other organization will match the work that Iowa Values is doing in 2019,” Tauke, a Republican who represented northeast Iowa in Congress from 1979 to 1991, said in the statement. “With a sophisticated mix of digital advertising and personal contact, Iowa Values will help create a friendly environment for conservative ideas in 2020.”

While this race is still more than a year away, Ernst’s 2014 race against Democrat Bruce Braley attracted a dozen outside groups that spent $1 million or more, and another 37 that spent at least $100,000, according to OpenSecrets. And in all, the vast majority — $44.5 million out of the $62.77 million total — was spent to oppose their candidacies.

This story was a collaboration between OpenSecrets and the Des Moines Register. Redistribution for any purpose requires permission from both parties.



