first on decorahnews.com: The answer to the question, "What is this 'Legacy Foundation' which ran newspaper ads for Michael Bergan?"

Posted: Sun, Oct 28, 2018 2:35 PM

At the recent Candidate Forum held at Luther College two weeks ago, Republican State Representative Michael Bergan was asked, "What is this 'Legacy Foundation' that is running ads on your behalf?' His answer was surprising: "I'm not quite sure...I wasn't called or notified." That response started a search by decorahnews.com for an answer to this question.

Mike Bergan also began a search. He tells decorahnews.com the newspaper ads by the Legacy Foundation Action Fund were in support of his "no" vote on Senate File 2311, which dramatically reduced energy efficiency programs financed by utility customers. Mike voted against the bill because he felt it wasn't good for his district, where many people participate in energy efficiency programs.

While that's the overall story, the details give a fascinating picture of how politics work these days, when a candidate's spending is often outweighed by spending by outside groups which might or might not be working in coordination with the candidate.

A search of the website "Open Secrets" says the Legacy Foundation Action Fund has a Sioux City address (600 4th Street, Suite 360). The website www.politico.com says former Iowa House Speaker Chris Rants was listed as the president and secretary of Legacy Foundation Action Fund during the 2014 election. A 501(c)(4) filing by Rants in 2014 did not disclose its donors, but www.bleedingheartland.com says the watchdog group "Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington" said the Legacy Foundation Action Fund reported $980,000 in "contributions and grants" on its 2014 tax return. CREW was able to determine that most of that money came from American Encore, a 501(c)(4) group operated on behalf of the Koch brothers.

All of this, of course, was back in 2014. Legacy Foundation spent under $9,000 in 2016, according to the Iowa Ethics & Campaign Disclosure Board, a far cry from the nearly $1 million it spent in 2014.

For 2018, Rants has teamed up with PolicyWorks, a Des Moines-based government and public affairs firm. While Rants has many contacts within the Republican Party, PolicyWorks Senior Vice President John Cacciatore is a former Chief of Staff to Gov. Tom Vilsack, a former staff member for the Iowa Senate Democrats, and a campaign operative since 1983.

Why would a Democrat place advertising on behalf of a Republican State Assemblyman? The ad talks about "making sure utilities can't discriminate against customers," which is a reference to Senate File 2311, a hotly-debated bill that allowed utilities to dramatically reduce energy efficiency programs financed by utility customers. While the bill had the unanimous support of Republicans in the State Senate, in the State House Bergan voted against the bill, saying he was voting the preferences of his district.

As a way of thanking Bergan, a solar energy association gave money to Cacciatore, who apparently used Rants and his Republican contacts to run an ad backing Bergan's campaign.

(Attempts by decorahnews.com to reach Cacciatore and Rants were not successful. Instead, we used campaign financing reports and an interview with Michael Bergan to write our story).