Paul Scott comment: Iowa Democratic Party complaint against Darrel Branhagen is much ado about nothing

Sometimes I feel like a referee at an Iowa versus Iowa State football game--someone whose job calls upon them to try to render impartial judgments, even though it's likely half the public will think they don't know what they're doing.

Which is what it can be like arbitrating between Republicans and Democrats a week before Election Day.  But I can't let the latest news release from the Iowa Democratic Party pass without comment.

That news release was issued after State Assembly candidate Darrel Branhagen--a Republican--filed a campaign finance report that omitted showing that the Iowa Republican Party had paid for TV ads for Branhagen's campaign.  Branhagen's response to decorahnews.com when he was asked to comment was, in essence, that the Republican Party of Iowa had forgotten to send him an updated statement.  He asked for the paperwork and then filed it along with an amended disclosure report that reflected the additional information given.

That's not how the Iowa Democratic Party saw it, however.  Iowa Democratic Party Executive Director Troy Price's news release statement said, "With just a couple of weeks left until Election Day, voters deserve to immediately know who's lining the pockets of Branhagen's campaign, why he's hiding their identity, and what other nefarious campaign activity he's covering up."

Only in politics can not filing paperwork be taken as proof of "nefarious" activity, but that's the sorry state of politics in 2014.  Instead of bipartisanship, we see political groups looking for every opportunity to paint the opposition as morally corrupt.  The trouble is, if both sides engage in the same behavior, it isn't long before the public agrees with both of them and gives up all hope of the political system working with the public's best interests taken to heart.