Roger W. Barr Jr.
Newton
The race for state representative in Jasper County is getting pretty interesting. Accusations of negative campaigning and of taking money from outside the district are flying around, and voters are being told that our current representative, Dan Kelley, is taking the high road in all this. I think it’s time someone set the record straight.
I looked through Mr. Kelley’s 2014 campaign contribution disclosures, and what I found there was very interesting. First of all, only about a quarter of his contributions have come from within Jasper County. So it’s not as though he’s largely, or even mostly, funded from within the district. Where things get interesting is when you look at the money he has taken in from Political Action Committees (PACs). In 2014, $14,825.00, or a whopping 56% of Mr. Kelley’s campaign contributions, came from PACs! PACs are often considered to be one of the greatest scourges in American politics, and yet, over half of the money contributed to Mr. Kelley’s campaign this year is PAC money!
Comparing Mr. Kelley's contributions with Patrick Payton's is quite revealing. Mr. Payton has accepted no PAC money whatsoever. None. That means that 100 percent of his itemized contributions have come from private citizens. As with Mr. Kelley, some of these citizens are residents of the district, and some are not. But unlike Mr. Kelley, all of Patrick Payton's donors are personally and individually invested in Mr. Payton's campaign, because they are personally and individually invested in a better Jasper County and a better Iowa.
So I ask… Do we want a state representative who is mostly bought and paid for by special interest groups and PACs, or do we want a state representative who is supported by everyday citizens like you and me because he is one of us? I think we all know the answer to that question. So, please join me in voting for Patrick Payton, Jasper County's next state representative.