The Liberty Iowa PAC’s website says that the group supports candidates who will stand for Constitutionally limited government and free enterprise.  Typically when a PAC supports a candidate, it does so financially, but the Liberty Iowa PAC seems to operate a bit differently.  It is financially supported by the endorsed candidate.

Rod Blum, one of the candidates the group endorsed on April 30th, turned around a few days later and made a contribution to the Liberty Iowa PAC.   The $5000 contribution was made from Blum’s wife, Karen, on May 4th.  The $5000 contribution constituted over 87 percent of the funds that Liberty Iowa PAC has raised since it inception.

The Liberty Iowa PAC didn’t make any contributions to candidates, but it did spend $4,974.46 with Midwest Freedom Enterprises LLC, who apparently sent out a mailing according to campaign disclosures made with the Iowa Ethics Campaign Disclosure Board.

Midwest Freedom Enterprises was also recently paid for services provided to Matt DeVries, Greg Heartsill, Matthew Ung, and Josh Davenport during the most recent campaign disclosure period.  DeVries and Davenport have been officially endorsed by Liberty Iowa PAC, while Heartsill and Ung definitely fit the mold of other candidates that the group has endorsed.

There is nothing technically wrong with Liberty Iowa’s endorsement of Blum or the contribution that Blum’s wife made to the group, but it does raise a few eyebrows.  It appears that either Blum basically paid for an endorsement, or he is paying a group to send out something in support of him that says it’s paid for by a supporting group, when it’s actually paid for by funds out of the Blum family check book.