The Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board will not ask the state legislature to limit the practice of candidates automatically opting donors into recurring contributions.
No one suggested new campaign finance regulations when board’s six members discussed 2022 legislative proposals during an August 12 meeting.
The Federal Election Commission recommended in May that Congress ban pre-checked recurring contribution boxes by federal candidates and committees. Any such regulation would not affect candidates for state or local offices in Iowa.
Governor Kim Reynolds’ campaign has been opting donors into recurring contributions for at least five months. Here’s one example, accessed on August 16 from a mobile phone. The top box commits the contributor to monthly donations, and the one below allows for an additional contribution, known as a “money bomb.” About every two weeks, the Reynolds campaign has been changing the “money bomb” date to the middle or end of the current month.
The ethics board’s executive director Mike Marshall told Bleeding Heartland in May, “The Board has not discussed this issue, but based on the unanimous recommendation of the FEC the topic certainly is worthy of consideration for a proposed bill next legislative session.”
After the board adjourned on August 12, Marshall said Iowa’s campaign regulator has not received any complaints regarding this practice, and that complaints typically drive the board’s legislative agenda. Before the most recent meeting, Marshall spoke with some of the board members about pre-checked recurring donations. They decided the matter was not “ripe for the board to expend its very limited political capital” on in the absence of any objections from the public.
If anyone did complain about being charged for recurring donations, Marshall explained, the board’s “first response would be to contact that campaign to say, ‘It would appear that at least some portion of this donation was not freely given’ and request that they return it.” If the campaign refused to refund the contributions, the board might pursue the matter.
Many donors to President Donald Trump’s campaign filed fraud complaints with banks or credit card companies in 2020. The FEC told Congress its staff was “regularly contacted” by donors who “do not recall authorizing recurring contributions.”
The Commission’s experience strongly suggests that many contributors are unaware of the “pre-checked” boxes and are surprised by the already completed transactions appearing on account statements.
At least two federal office-holders in Iowa (U.S. Representatives Ashley Hinson and Mariannette Miller-Meeks) have pre-checked recurring donations on some of their online fundraising pages. Recent examples are enclosed below. Congressional campaigns are regulated through federal law, unlike campaigns and committees formed for Iowa elections.
Cropped image from a Kim Reynolds fundraising appeal accessed on August 13:
From a fundraising page for Ashley Hinson, accessed by phone on July 20:
Fundraising page for Miller-Meeks, accessed on a computer on August 17:
