When you talk about the ties between campaign contributions and public policy the most obvious players in the money game are interests like the oil industry, pharmaceutical companies, and big banks but what about the nursing home industry and their campaign contributions? Check out this letter in the Des Moines Register urging legislators to return campaign contributions from the nursing home industry, and support Clean Elections.

Here's the letter in full -- a good argument on a less commonly discussed problem:

Back clean elections: Return contributions from nursing homes

February 11, 2008


Iowans who live in nursing homes, or have loved ones in nursing homes, owe a debt of gratitude to Register staff writer Clark Kauffman for his continuing investigations of the Iowa nursing-home industry.


Kauffman's Jan. 20 story, "Care Homes, State Fight Over Fines," shows that legislative leaders have surely taken money from nursing-home interests - money that the owners ought to be spending to provide better care to nursing-home residents.


As a lifelong Democrat and an advocate for senior citizens, I ask the Democratic Party, the governor and any legislators who took money from the nursing-homes interests to follow the lead of former Gov. Tom Vilsack, who returned money he received from nursing-home owners in his 1998 campaign.
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In order to eliminate having to raise campaign funds, and to do the right thing, Democratic legislators should support the Voter Owned Iowa Clean Elections bill (VOICE) by bringing it to the floor for debate by the entire Legislature.


- John Tapscott,

Indianola