Despite Sanders' protests, super PAC comes to his aid in Iowa

A super PAC is spending on behalf of Bernie Sanders in Iowa, although he has often said he doesn't have a super PAC supporting his presidential campaign.

A nurses' union put up new billboards in Iowa on Monday that promote Sanders.

The nurses' PAC works outside Sanders' control. And it isn't a "typical" political organization anyway, Chuck Idelson, communications director for the National Nurses United, told The Des Moines Register on Tuesday.

"We're not Sheldon Adelson or the Kochs with $100 million to drop on one candidate," Idelson said, referring to well-known Republican campaign donors. "These are working nurses who take care of patients who are behind this campaign."

The latest billboard advertising purchase in Iowa amounted to just $7,400, Federal Election Commission records show.

Sanders' campaign officials say they stand by their position that they don't want super PAC aid.

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"Unlike others, we have not started a super PAC, are not coordinating with a super PAC, and we have not fundraised for a super PAC," Jeff Weaver, Sanders's campaign manager, told the Washington Post.

Despite Sanders' protests against PACs, the nurses union intends to do "as much as we can to support him," Idelson told the Register.

"We're not done by any means," he said.

The nurses marched for Sanders in Des Moines before the November debate at Drake University, said Jean Ross, a Minnesota nurse who travels to Iowa to campaign for the Vermont U.S. senator. They're going door to door to ask Iowans to caucus for him on Feb. 1, she told the Register. A nurses' union leader stood on stage with Sanders at a recent Iowa event.

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The nurses are passionate about Sanders because he champions the right to health care for everyone, no matter when or where they need it, Idelson said.

"Certainly Hillary Clinton's not saying it, and she has attacked him for it, for his Medicare-for-all proposal," Idelson said.

Clinton, the frontrunner in the Democratic race, returns to Iowa Friday. Sanders is in Washington, D.C., this week after undergoing outpatient surgery for a hernia. He campaigns in New York next week and will be back in Iowa Dec. 12, aides said.