Tag: Bob Vander Plaats

Posted on

Donald Trump Attacks Iowa’s Anti-Gay Hate Group Leader Bob Vander Plaats Over Cruz Endorsement

Bob Vander Plaats (R) predicts Iowa win for Sen. Ted Cruz

Donald Trump took to Twitter to attack virulently anti-gay hate group leader Bob Vander Plaats after Vander Plaats endoresed Sen. Ted Cruz.

In 2012, Vander Plaats was famously accused of attempting to sell his endorsement to Rick Santorum for $1 million.

Posted on

Possible campaign finance investigation for Rick Santorum and NOM

A complaint filed by former GOP presidential candidate Fred Karger triggered a possible campaign finance investigation for Rick Santorum, NOM and Bob Vander Plaats:

The Federal Election Commission is asking former presidential candidate Rick Santorum, Iowa evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats and an anti-gay marriage organization to tell the agency why it should not investigate an allegation that they violated campaign finance limits during the last election.

The complaint, brought by Fred Karger, a gay rights activist who ran a quixotic campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, accuses Santorum of coordinating with the National Organization for Marriage to pay $1 million to Vander Plaats to endorse him, with the money eventually going for ads backing Santorum. That would be a violation of campaign finance law.

The move by the FEC is routine when a complaint meets basic requirements.

In June, the FEC sent letters to Karger and the accused: Santorum, Vander Plaats and NOM. The three now can respond to the FEC with reasons why it should not investigate the matter. “This letter signals the beginning of the beginning,” said Craig Engle a campaign finance attorney at Arent Fox who is not connected to the case.

(via JMG)

Posted on

Money for endorsement? Santorum and Iowa Conservative leader in controversy

An Iowa Christian conservative leader who bestowed his highly sought-after endorsement on presidential candidate Rick Santorum this week is now at the center of a controversy over whether he asked for cash in exchange for his public support.

Less than 48-hours after receiving the backing of Bob Vander Plaats, the head of the prominent evangelical group The Family Leader, Santorum disclosed that the prominent Iowan told him he needed money to make the most out of the endorsement.

“Clearly the endorsement was for sale — without a doubt,” one source said.  It’s a charge that The Family Leader flatly denied.

But even Santorum acknowledged in an interview with CNN that money was among the topics he and Vander Plaats discussed last weekend ahead of Tuesday’s endorsement press conference.

“What he talked about was he needed money to promote the endorsement and that that would be important to do that,” Santorum told CNN. “There was never a direct ask for me to go out and raise money for it.”

The former Pennsylvania senator’s statement differs from what he told ABC News on Monday night — just hours before Vander Plaats endorsed him. At a campaign event in Indianola, Iowa, Santorum said the issue of money never came up in his conversations with the Christian leader.

Read more at ABC News