Iowa Official Criticizes Cruz Campaign Over Mailer

NY Times ^ | January 30, 2016 | Matt Flegenheimer

[McGruff]

Iowa's secretary of state chastised the presidential campaign of Senator Ted Cruz on Saturday for sending a mailer that he said violated "the spirit of the Iowa caucuses" and misrepresented state election law.

The secretary of state, Paul D. Pate, called the effort "misleading."

"Accusing citizens of Iowa of a 'voting violation' based on Iowa caucus participation, or lack thereof, is false representation of an official act," Mr. Pate said. "There is no such thing as an election violation related to frequency of voting. Any insinuation or statement to the contrary is wrong and I believe it is not in keeping in the spirit of the Iowa caucuses."

Mr. Pate added that his office never "grades" voters, nor does it maintain records of caucus participation. He said that the office also did not "distribute" voter records, but they were available "for purchase for political purposes only, under Iowa Code."

[KGeorge]

Oh, I’m familiar with that group of people. I think I can imagine. But I was 17 years old when all that was affecting my family, so the details are pretty sketchy.

[Company Man]

Once, when I was young, I came across a brochure distributed by Dallas TV evangelist Robert Tilton, who was looking for donations. Upon casual observation, it appeared to be an amateurishly self-produced handout with ball point pen and sharpie writing all over it.

Upon carefully examination, it was found to be an expensively produced direct mail advertising flyer. The union printer's imprimatur in tiny print was the only thing that gave it away.

[KGeorge]

I’ve seen a number of those- probably political ads or car dealer ads are the most common here. Junk mail is my nemesis. Someday, I swear I’m going to put some kind of a trash container right next to the mailbox so that it never makes it into the house.