The Iowa Ethics Commission is moving forward with an investigation into Melissa Vine’s campaign

DES MOINES, Iowa – The Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board voted Thursday to move forward with the investigation into Third Congressional District candidate Melissa Vine.

Vine’s campaign is accused of donating to a political action committee on other people’s behalf in order to win an approval vote.

The Iowa Unity Coalition, a local political action committee, filed the ethics complaint against Vine after a vote on who the coalition would support in the primary race – Vine or Lanon Baccam. Mitch Henry, the coalition’s chair, told WHO 13 that they filed the complaint after noticing an unusually high number of votes from new members and noticing that a group of those voters all shared the same email address with the ending @melissavine.com.

At Thursday’s meeting, the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board voted unanimously to open an investigation.

Zach Goodrich, an attorney with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board, said the state’s law is clear.

“Iowa Code Section 68A.502 states that a person may not make contributions or expenditures on behalf of another person and that persons should not knowingly accept the contributions or expenditures of a person on behalf of another person. It’s as simple as if you’re the one paying for it, then you better use your name,” Goodrich said.

On Wednesday, the Vine campaign announced that the employee who was allegedly responsible for registering the multiple people and making donations on their behalf was no longer participating in the campaign.

An employee has taken actions that do not align with our values ​​and is no longer part of our campaign. Melissa is committed to bringing people together to fight for abortion rights, our public schools, and working families, and she will continue to do so in this campaign.

A spokeswoman for Melissa Vine’s campaign

The board hopes to complete the investigation before the June 7 primary election.