By Hannah Hess
IowaPolitics.com
IOWA CITY, IA. -- Democrats fighting to maintain control of Iowa's Senate bankrolled the campaign of former television anchor Liz Mathis to the tune of $18,000 per day, according to campaign finance reports filed Tuesday.
Between Sept. 29 and Oct. 14, the Iowa Democratic Party invested $292,426 into Mathis' special election campaign for the open seat in Iowa's Senate District 18.
The Republican Party of Iowa, meanwhile, pumped $68,528 into the campaign of Mathis' opponent, rural Cedar Rapids businesswoman Cindy Golding.
The parties gave resources in the form of direct mail, television advertising, office space and supplies, classified as in-kind contributions in reports filed with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board. These contributions are not included in their campaign warchests.
The two will face off Nov. 8 with the winner completing the remainder of term for the seat vacated by Swati Dandekar, a Marion Democrat, who resigned Sept. 16 to take a $137,000-a-year job with the Iowa Utilities Board, which regulates Iowa's utilities. The seat will be up for re-election in 2012.
If Golding wins the seat, the Iowa Senate would be in a 25-25 tie. That would give Republicans a better chance to debate such issues as a public vote on same-sex marriage, an end to state-funded preschool and property tax reform.
Democrats say they must win the election to maintain their majority in the Senate, a buffer against the agenda of Republican Gov. Terry Branstad and the Iowa House, where the GOP holds a 40-60 majority.
"This is a very important race, and there's a lot at stake," said Iowa Democratic Party Communications Director Sam Roecker, who helps with communications for the Mathis campaign. "When you look at the Republican agenda, and how little they have done to support education and job creation in the state, that's why we need to keep the majority."
The district is politically competitive. As of Oct. 1, Republicans had 16,008 registered voters in Senate District 18, while Democrats had 15,745. Independents topped both parties with 19,960 voters, according to data from the Iowa Secretary of State's Office.
Political observers had predicted that the threat to gay marriage rights could draw out-of-state donors, and special interests, but an investigation by IowaPolitics.com proved otherwise.
No contributions were reported from ONE Iowa, the state's largest gay-rights advocacy group, or The Family Leader, a nonprofit social conservative group led by Bob Vander Plaats that advocates against same-sex marriage.
Instead, resources flowed from the parties and cash came largely from in-state donors. The candidates raised a combined total of more than $108,000 in cash contributions.
Mathis collected $63,407. More than $17,000 came from political action committee ActBlue, a national clearinghouse for Democratic fundraising. Online donors select the campaign to which they want to contribute; then, Massachusetts-based ActBlue mails weekly checks.
Another $23,000, or more than 35 percent of Mathis' total, came from Iowa unions. Calls to Mathis regarding her stance on unions and collective-bargaining rights were not immediately returned Wednesday.
"Hers is an out-of-state, big union campaign," Golding spokesman Don McDowell said of the Democratic candidate. "Ours is a grassroots campaign that is based on Iowans that are ready to see a change in the way things are going in the Iowa Senate."
Golding reported raising $44,808, of which 40 percent came from conservative political action committees, or PACs. She collected $12,500 from Team Iowa PAC, a Republican PAC that has helped elect many Iowa GOP candidates.
Golding also received $5,000 from PursePAC, part of Purse Iowa, which helps elect female candidates who support fiscal responsibility, limited government and free-market issues.
The contributions reflect "her vision of Iowa being a place where people can find a job, they can educate their kids at the best schools in the world, and they have a government that spends less than it takes in," McDowell said.
Mathis reported four times more cash on hand than Golding in the Oct. 14 report. She ended the fundraising period with $40,843 in her warchest, compared with Golding's $9,259.
See Liz Mathis' campaign finance report: http://is.gd/hRDRqV
See Cindy Golding's campaign finance report: http://is.gd/R3Cpwu
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