Vernon takes on Blum over religious liberty bill

CEDAR RAPIDS - Chanting 'stop the hate” and 'stand with the middle class,” Democratic congressional challenger Monica Vernon and about three dozen supporters rallied Thursday against U.S. Rep Rod Blum for supporting the First Amendment Defense Act.

In a repeat of a rally about a year ago, Vernon told supporters the 'so-called First Amendment Defense Act (is) blatantly discriminatory, absolutely.”

FADA, according to Congress.gov, 'prohibits the federal government from taking discriminatory action against a person on the basis that such person believes or acts in accordance with a religious belief or moral conviction that: (1) marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman, or (2) sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage.”

'I have three daughters and it's very obvious that it could result in a single woman who is pregnant being fired from her job,” said Vernon, who is challenging Blum, a first-term Republican considered to be the most vulnerable member of the U.S. House.

Standing outside Blum's Cedar Rapids office, Vernon called FADA a 'far-reaching … a ridiculous piece of legislation - that's what I think it is.”

Blum campaign spokesman Jeff Patch thinks that 'Vernon seems to believe the old adage that if you repeat a lie often enough some people will believe it.”

Patch and Vernon campaign manager Michelle Gajewski offered contradictory fact-checks of FADA-related claims to back up their points.

PolitiFact and the Daily Signal rated her claims about FADA allowing employers to fire single women false, Patch said.

Gajewski cited a Des Moines Register editorial and the Huffington Post in defense of Vernon's claim that unwed mothers could be fired.

Vernon also called it a sign of Blum's 'blatant disregard” that he didn't have any staff at his office during the lunch-hour rally.

According to a sign on the office door, Blum's staff was attending the opening of the emergency department at the Iowa City Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Patch took the opportunity to press Vernon on campaign debates.

'If Mrs. Vernon actually wants to have a discussion about this issue and others, why does she continue to refuse Congressman Blum's offer to debate 10 times across the 1st District?” he said. 'Iowans deserve a substantive conversation, not just political stunts.”