Iowa Democrat Theresa Greenfield
The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, Carolyn Fiddler, and Matt Booker, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar.
Leading Off
● IA-Sen: Real estate executive Theresa Greenfield announced Monday that she would seek the Democratic nod to take on Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst. Greenfield kicked off her campaign with a strong video that highlighted her farming background and how Social Security aided her family after her first husband, who was a union electrician, died in an on-the-job accident.
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The video also shows a clip of Ernst's famous 2014 "Make 'Em Squeal" ad where the Republican is shown saying, "Washington is full of big spenders. Let's make 'em squeal." Greenfield stands in front of a hog pen and tells the audience, "Listen folks: She didn't castrate anyone. She cast her vote to let the corporate lobbyists keep feasting like hogs at the trough." Greenfield continues, "You want to really make 'em squeal? Ban corporate PAC money. Take away their loopholes and special tax breaks."
Greenfield challenged GOP Rep. David Young last year, and she was arguably the primary frontrunner until just before the March filing deadline. However, her bid suffered a huge setback when her campaign manager, Noah Wasserman, confessed just before the filing deadline that he'd forged signatures to help her get on the ballot. Rather than submit tainted petitions—even though it's likely they would have gone undiscovered—Greenfield chose to throw out all the signatures she'd already turned in and engaged in a mad one-day dash to gather the 1,790 she'd need to qualify as a candidate in the hours she still had before the deadline.
Ultimately, Greenfield fell just short of making the ballot, and while the 3rd District Central Committee initially voted to add her to the primary ballot anyway, Democratic state Attorney General Tom Miller eventually issued a legal opinion saying he didn't believe that Iowa law allowed this. Greenfield ended up deciding to abandon any further efforts to remain in the race, and one of her former primary foes, Cindy Axne, went on to win the nomination and unseat Young. In April, more than a year after the forgery came to light, Wasserman took out a full-page ad in the Des Moines Register apologizing for his actions, and he was indicted days later.
Greenfield is the third Democrat to jump in the race. She joins attorney Kimberly Graham and businessman Eddie Mauro, who lost that 3rd District primary to Axne 58-26.
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