“The Stevens were convicted of embezzling $6 million from Aviva. They gave large chunks of that stolen money to a slew of Democrats, including the Iowa Democratic Party, Bruce Braley, Leonard Boswell and a host of other Iowa Democrats, plus Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Kerry and many more.”
As we pointed out more than two years ago in these pages – Republicans have much to gain from raising issues of integrity. But to do so Republicans must have their own house in order. Democrats were not the only recipients of embezzled funds.
Then Republican incumbent State Senator Maggie Tinsman received $4200 from the Stevens pair in her 2006 primary campaign with David Hartsuch, MD. The money was conveniently received prior to the primary election but in the period not reportable until after the election.
Compared to other candidates for state office in Iowa, the amount the Stevens sent to Republican Ms Tinsman was second only to Democrat candidate for governor Ed Fallon (and not by much) for the duration of their crime spree.
Of the individual campaigns TIR specifically mentioned, Ms Tinsman’s campaign received almost three times as much as Braley; more than twice as much as Boswell; almost twice as much as Hillary Clinton and about two and one half times what was sent to Kerry. Obama only received pocket change from them compared to Ms Tinsman’s campaign.
So why has doing the right thing, returning the embezzled funds, making Aviva USA whole to the extent of the receipt of such funds, not been an issue for Republican leadership in this state? Knowledge of this matter predated the current RPI administration by nearly two years. Is it because Ms Tinsman is a Republican and what it might dredge up?
The return of tainted money and the integrity of elections has been made an issue in Iowa before. Why not in this case? R Mall
Senator Rand Paul chastised Democrats for using Bill Clinton as a fund raiser at the same time they are accusing Republicans of a war on women. As Senator Paul points out, Bill Clinton was impeached for being a “sexual predator.” Paul called on Democrats to return the money Bill Clinton raised for them. The Drudge Report kept the story alive for a couple of days, linking this YouTube video via CNN. We agree with Senator Paul.
Kevin Hall, a featured editorialist, analyst and reporter writing in the influential publication The Iowa Republican recently called to task Democrats for not returning 