As we reported on Friday, UTGD received a batch of emails from Matt Schultz’s office from an open records request that raise some serious questions about his ability to remain independent and ensure election integrity.

A large portion of the emails we received were press clips from Erin Rapp, Schultz’ communications director, who always wrote her subject lines for the clips as “The Rappsheet.” Apparently they run a serious office, but sometimes it’s a bit difficult to tell.

In every morning’s Rappsheet, there was an update about the state of the presidential race all across the country.  These clips make complete sense, because Iowa’s caucus leads the  nation and Schultz is in charge of ensuring election entegrity here.

But what would happen if our Secretary of State wasn’t independent? What would happen if Iowa’s Secretary of State was tied closely to one of the presidential campaigns and attempting to sway the caucus in their favor?

We’ll have additional emails later today that show just how far Schultz crossed the line and which raise serious questions about his use of public money for his political attack on Jon Huntsman.  In the meantime, here are a few of the “Rappsheet” clips that show just how focused his team was on the Republican presidential primary process.

The June 2, 2011 Rappsheet’s Caucus Update includes poll results of Iowa republicans from Public Policy Polling and a reference to Mitt Romney announcing his presidential campaign in New Hampshire.

The June 7,2011 Rappsheet’s Caucus Update kicks off with an update on the Secretary of State’s anti-Huntsman press release, which should raise some eyebrows.  Rapp wrote, “Jon Huntsman announced he wasn’t playing in Iowa.  But we took care of that yesterday.” The clips continue by mentioning a private event Rick Santorum was holding in Iowa and a clip featuring Romney’s bold claim to CNN’s Piers Morgan that he fully expects to be the 2012 GOP nominee.

The June 8, 2011 Rappsheet’s Caucus Update kicks off with an interesting clip about Santorum and Romney.  Rapp wrote, “Santorum caught some flack for ‘criticizing’ Mitt Romney as the GOP favorite at a private event in Waukee.”  The comment that Santorum made, which was picked up by the Des Moines Register, was, “[Romney’s] not a favorite in any kind of real political sense.”

The June 10, 2011 Rappsheet’s Caucus Update includes a clip about Mitt Romney announcing he wouldn’t participate in the Ames Straw Poll and a mention of Newt Gingrich that said, “Newt Gingrich’s campaign imploded yesterday, several top aides departed en masse, while all Iowa staffers resigned…Gov. Branstad says that Gingrich ‘in real trouble.’”

Like we’ve said several times, why would the Iowa Secretary of State be so invested, and use taxpayer time to closely follow, the caucuses when his office has no actual responsibility in the caucus process? He is however responsible for running an independent office and ensuring a fair playing field for everyone in the caucus, and his office’s obsession with the caucus horse race runs counters to his responsibility as SoS.

It leads one to believe, as we reported in our first post on the FOIA request, his office has stake in the Santorum campaign. If Iowans learned that Schultz had broken their trust in him, and had handed over the keys to his office to a partisan political operative, what could we do? How would turning over the Secretary of State’s office, which is in charge of overseeing a presidential primary caucus, to a partisan political operative affect his ability to work with the other republican presidential campaigns?

Check back to UTGD around 5:30 p.m. CST today for the breaking news on Matt Schultz’s use of taxpayer resources to fund a political attack on Jon Huntsman.

 

 

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