DES MOINES, Iowa — The Iowa Unity Coalition filed an ethics complaint against Melissa Vine, a Democratic candidate for Iowa's 3rd Congressional District, a seat currently held by Zach Nunn.
The Iowa Unity Coalition said this complaint sparked after the coalition received 125 membership registrations during its endorsement voting period.
The coalition says it was flagged to a problem when all of the registrations voting for Melissa Vine used the same credit card, all had email addresses ending with "@melissavine.com" and all listed the same mailing address, which was Vine's campaign headquarters.
"They all had the same address, the same credit card information, the same amount, same email server," said Mitch Henry, chair of Iowa Unity Coalition.
The votes all came within the same hour and within seconds of another — something Henry said the organization had never seen before.
"Most of Melissa's vote came in between 8:30 and 9:30, and it was actually I believe," Henry said. "The number was about the 90 people that voted, which was a high number in itself put in a one-hour period for us."
Another aspect the coalition questioned was whether the voters were even real people.
"Because there was no way for us to contact these people individually unless we actually knew them, because they didn't have a real mailing address," Henry said.
Local 5 reached out to Vine's campaign for a comment and received the following statement:
“We had a staffer who made a mistake and when we discovered the mistake, we moved to correct it. Our campaign’s values have always been to build our party so that we can bring people together to fight for abortion rights, our public schools, and working families.”
We also reached out to the Iowa Board of Ethics on their next steps, which told Local 5 that the board will meet on Thursday, May 16 at 3 p.m. to "consider initiating an investigation into the allegations".
The Iowa Unity Coalition is an organization endorsing progressive political candidates, specifically aiming for races that are "purple", which tend to vote either Democrat or Republican.
"I think the key thing is we're a statewide PAC, so we try to get out there, the entire state, and support progressive candidates," Henry said.
Vine's campaign told Local 5 campaign manager Lou McDonald no longer works with the campaign following this incident.
“A staffer took actions that do not reflect our values, and he is no longer a part of our campaign. Melissa is committed to bringing people together to fight for abortion rights, our public schools, and working families, and that's what she is going to continue to do in this campaign," a spokesperson shared.
The Coalition has now endorsed the other Democratic candidate in this race, Lanon Baccam.