From The Washington Post via Rick Hasen, Election Law Blog
“RFK Jr. urged Iowa candidate to make deal to help GOP win House seat, per audio recording”
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. urged a Libertarian congressional candidate in Iowa to drop out of a competitive House race to help Republicans keep control of Congress, according to an audio recording of the conversation obtained by The Washington Post.
During the call, Kennedy said he was acting as a “liaison” with the White House, argued that a Democratic takeover of the House would undermine President Donald Trump’s agenda and suggested that he could help the candidate if he left the race. He also suggested that the candidate could “make an agreement” that would accomplish more than a “symbolic run” for office.
“I can’t go into specifics because there’s legal prohibitions about that,” Kennedy told Rick Stewart, a Libertarian candidate running in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District, in a June 11 call. “If it’s something that you want to talk about, you know, you and I can talk about specifics.”
Kennedy’s phone call was at least his second to an Iowa congressional candidate this month, according to Libertarian politicians in the state.
Government ethics experts said Kennedy’s apparentintervention in the Iowa races was unethical and potentially illegal, depending on whether he promised candidates specific favors and whether he made the calls in his capacity as a Cabinet official, among other factors….
Stewart, a 74-year-old who has previously run as a Libertarian in other Iowa races, said in an interview that he interpreted Kennedy’s roughly 12-minute call as an attempt at quid pro quo. No specific offer was made, but the message was clear, he said.
“He was very careful about the words that he used, but the whole implication is: You help us, we’ll help you,” Stewart said. “They want to get me out because I might pick up 2 or 3 percent — and if I pick up 2 or 3 percent, they think it’ll come out of the Republican pocket.”…
In his call with Stewart, Kennedy appeared to allude to this possibility.
“I don’t want to be fighting subpoenas for the next two years instead of improving America’s health,” Kennedy told the congressional candidate. “For me, you know, there’s an immediate pragmatic reason for this phone call.”
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