Politics & Government
Republican Website Says Iowa State Senator Paid to Support Ron Paul
A state senator accused of stealing an email database from a Johnston woman to use in the Iowa Caucuses campaign this week faces new accusations that he was paid $30,000 to support Ron Paul.
A Republican state senator who faces an Iowa Senate ethics probe for allegedly taking an email list from a Johnston GOP volunteer reportedly talked about accepting payment to endorse former Sen. Ron Paul, according to the Iowa Republican website.
The IowaRepublican.com says it has obtained a recording of a phone conversation between State Sen. Kent Sorenson, R-Milo, and GOP operative Dennis Fusaro, made just days after Sorenson abruptly abandoned Michele Bachmann’s campaign and publicly endorsed Paul. The Iowa Republican also says in a new post that Sorenson was paid $30,000 to support Paul shortly before the Iowa Caucuses.
The website says a recording features Sorenson explaining how Paul’s Deputy National Campaign Manager, Demitri Kesari, met with Sorenson and his wife at a restaurant where, Sorenson says, his wife was presented and accepted a check while he was in the bathroom.
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Sorenson has denied the charge since it was first made last year.
Sorenson first faced trouble last year when Barb Heki of Johnston alleged that Sorenson stole an email database, which Bachmann campaign staffers then used to contact homeschool families. The reported theft happened at the campaign headquarters in Urbandale.Heki and Bachmann reached a settlement in June in a lawsuit over the email database.
The Iowa Republican reported in late June that court papers were filed dismissing with prejudice the case filed by Heki against the Minnesota congresswoman, Sorenson and others involved. Dismissed with prejudice means the lawsuit can't be refiled.
Terms of the settlement were not released.
The Urbandale Police Department, the Polk County Attorneys Office, the Iowa Senate Ethics Committee, the Federal Elections Commission and the Office of Congressional Ethics are investigating claims ranging from ethics violations to criminal activity in Bachmann's 2012 presidential bid, KCCI.com reports.
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