It’s difficult to know whether to tell this story in straight or reverse chronology, but either way, it raises eyebrows about the tactics that Iowa Democrats will deploy in 2012. Let’s take this in reverse. The story starts with an arrest yesterday in Des Moines of Zach Edwards, who works at Link Strategies as its Director of New Media:
Zachary Edwards was arrested Friday and charged with identity theft.
The Iowa Department of Public Safety issued a news release saying Schultz’s office discovered the scheme on June 24, 2011 and notified authorities.
The criminal complaint says Edwards fraudulently used or attempted to use the identity of Schultz or Schultz’s brother with the intent to obtain a benefit. No other details were given.
Link Strategies is a well-connected consulting firm with a long relationship to Senator Tom Harkin. In fact, Link Strategies has a testimonial on its website from Harkin, extolling their work and giving LS credit for his success.
So what was going on in June? For that, we turn to Kevin Hall at The Iowa Republican, who tells the tale of a strange political attack aimed at Iowa’s Secretary of State at about the same time the alleged crime involving Edwards occurred:
Since his surprise victory over incumbent Michael Mauro in November 2010, Secretary of State Schultz has been a target of the Iowa Democratic Party. Interestingly, on June 24, the same day as Zach Edwards alleged crime, Under the Golden Dome, a blog connected to Iowa Democrats, launched a three-part series of articles critical of Matt Schultz. They were based on documents obtained through an open records request from “a tipster.” The blog alleged that a batch of emails from Schultz’s office “raise some serious questions about his ability to remain independent and ensure election integrity”.
Just 15 days earlier, on June 9, the Iowa Democratic Party filed an ethics complaint against Schultz, claiming the Secretary of State of used public resources to campaign against presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman. The Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board dismissed the complaint on July 19.
Interestingly, Link Strategies no longer has a mention of Edwards on its website, butGlenn Reynolds found it in the Wayback Machine, along with Edwards’ bio — which includes his work as a staffer on Obama’s primary and general-election campaigns in 2007-8:
