Vote 2010: Zaun Wants to Keep Focus on Issues

By Rod Boshart, Reporter

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By Aaron Hepker

Story Created: Aug 19, 2010 at 3:54 PM CST

Story Updated: Aug 19, 2010 at 3:54 PM CST

DES MOINES, Iowa – Republican Brad Zaun, a candidate for Congress in Iowa’s 3rd District, said Thursday he believes opponents are digging up dirt on him to distract voters from focusing on the issues and Democratic U.S. Rep. Leonard Boswell’s record.

Zaun acknowledged he used poor judgment during a 2001 incident in which he was told by West Des Moines police to stay away from a former girlfriend who accused him of harassing her that was the subject of a Des Moines Register story – information he told reporters he believed was channeled by “surrogates” of Boswell’s campaign.

Boswell denied any involvement in the disclosure of a police report that surfaced nine years later in the throes of a political race some rate as a toss-up. “It didn’t come from my campaign. I was surprised as anybody else. It’s just as simple as that. I was very surprised and I don’t have a lot of comment about it,” he said.

Zaun, a state senator and former mayor of Urbandale, said he regretted what transpired during “a heated and emotional argument” that came to light for the first time this week, but he did not believe the “isolated incident” would hurt his effort to unseat Boswell, a seven-term Des Moines Democrat, in the Nov. 2 general election.

He said he had a relationship with the woman for four years that “just didn’t work out.” The situation was complicated via a connection whereby he took care of the woman’s daughter because she worked the second shift as a hospice nurse. Zaun was single at the time after going through a divorce and has since remarried.

“I learned from that incident, it is unfortunate, but it is not going to change my message,” Zaun told reporters during an appearance at the Iowa State Fair. “It was a mistake I made but I’m not running from it.

“What I think is unfortunate that Leonard Boswell and his campaign and the DNC (Democratic National Committee) want to dig up all this dirt and not talk about the issues. He doesn’t want to about the 98 percent voting record that he’s had with (U.S. House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi,” he said. “I don’t think if you polled everybody out here that they’re interested in digging up dirt on everybody.”

Zaun vowed that he would “win this race” by overcoming Boswell’s financial edge with hard work.

During Thursday’s separate fair appearances, Zaun said he supports continuing a tax break for ethanol but is undecided whether to extend a biodiesel tax credit that expired last year. He said he would not support a mandate for ethanol or biodiesel and wants a long-term national energy strategy that eventually would make it possible to “wean down these tax credits.”

Boswell said Zaun “seems to be jumping around” on the issue of tax credits for renewable energy. “I’m not totally surprised by that. Will he stay with that or will he jump back in a few days? I don’t know,” he said.

Zaun said he wants to bring the perspective of an “average American” to Congress in curbing federal spending and ending pork-barrel earmarks. He also said that if elected, he would “to do everything in my power to shut down this Obamacare.”

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