Iowa Senator Joni Ernst dropped the microphone during Monday night’s debate with her Democrat challenger and ally of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Theresa Greenfield, on “dark money” campaign contributions.
Hand-picked by Sen. Schumer and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), Greenfield built much of her campaign to unseat Sen. Ernst on a pledge to resist donations from corporate PACs and “dark money” groups, but abandoned her initial promise during the contentious Democratic primary. While being bankrolled by Senate Majority PAC, which is directly aligned with Sen. Schumer, among other groups, Greenfield vows to end “big money” in politics and advocates for the overturn of Citizens United.
Greenfield previously said that she “cannot control” what outside groups do; Sen. Ernst spotlighted Greenfield’s obvious hypocrisy:
The line of the night from Joni Ernst -->
— Nathan Brand (@NathanBrandWA) September 29, 2020
"While Greenfield is talking about dark money - in one hand, she's saying 'oh don't, we're not going to have dark money in this campaign' she's got the other hand behind her saying 'please hand me some dark money.'" - Ernst #IAsen pic.twitter.com/jF9SK2BqEb
"Let's talk about corporate donors & corporate PACs. Greenfield has based her entire campaign on the fact that she will not take corporate dollars. But she is receiving dollars directly from lobbyists & the executives - even big oil and big pharma" -Joni Ernst #IAsen #Iapolitics pic.twitter.com/omMUVnad79
— Nathan Brand (@NathanBrandWA) September 29, 2020
Greenfield even formulated an “anti-corruption” plan to overturn Citizens United, ban dark money, make corporate PACs illegal and end coordination between campaigns and outside groups, despite violating all of these wishes herself.