Fact Checker: Vernon conducts her own ‘Fact Check’ of Blum

Introduction

'Congressman Blum's smear campaign ‘misleading' and ‘false.' The truth: Monica Vernon donated every pay raise to charity, and helped build a homeless shelter for women and children. But multimillionaire Blum promised he'd only take half of his salary ($174,000/year). Then in congress broke his word and kept all the pay. Now he wants to cut Social Security and raise the retirement age.”

Source of claim: The television ad, 'Fact Check,” by Monica Vernon for Congress.

Analysis

The 30-second ad is packed with at least seven claims defending the record of Democrat Monica Vernon and attacking the record of Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Rod Blum of Dubuque.

Vernon, a former Cedar Rapids City Council member, is challenging Blum for Iowa's 1st District U.S. House seat.

The first part of the ad refutes a previous attack ad against her entitled 'Surprised,” which was paid for by the National Republican Congressional Committee and uses a Fact Checker to do so.

The narrator in Vernon's latest ad says 'misleading” and 'false” as screen text flashes 'The Gazette Fact Checker” from Sept. 24.

That Fact Checker called the claim Vernon voted to give herself a pay raise while on the City Council technically accurate since she voted for the city budget. But the claim 'was misleading” because council salary increases are tied by city code to inflation, the Fact Checker reported.

'Surprised” included several other claims. Fact Checker gave it an overall score of 'B,” but never branded any of its claims as 'false.”

In Vernon's ad, the narrator claims she donated all the raises to charity. Her campaign provided a spreadsheet showing her annual salary increase ranged from $206.18 to $554.84 between 2012 and 2015, and in that time her annual charitable donations were far greater.

However, the spreadsheet did not offer any official record of the contributions, and her camp declined to identify the charities.

Vernon's camp next backed up her role in building a homeless shelter for women and children by pointing to her time as president of the Junior League of Cedar Rapids in the 1990s.

According to the Junior League, the organization raised $1.63 million and contributed 3,000 volunteer hours for Waypoint's Madge Phillips Center. The center provides 'secure housing and stabilizing resources” for homeless women and children since opening in 1995, according to its website.

Vernon was board president in 1994 and 1995, according to the Junior League. She championed the project, according to articles in The Gazette at the time.

Now lets look at the claims about Blum.

According to OpenSecrets.org, which is powered by the Center for Responsive Politics, Blum ranked as the 44th wealthiest member of the U.S. House with an estimated net worth of $14,127,029 as of 2013.

Did he promise to only take half his salary, and if so did he break that promise?

The Dubuque Telegraph Herald reported his campaign website stated as recently as April 2016 that 'I will lead by example and voluntarily cut my pay by returning half to charities and volunteer organizations in the First District of Iowa.”

The article reported Blum returned $102,419 of his $1.265 million 2015 office budget to the U.S. Treasury, but Blum was unsure when it came to his salary. Half of a congressman's salary is about $87,000.

Blum told The Telegraph Herald he believed the campaign promise was a holdover from his unsuccessful 2012 bid for Congress but not on his platform when he ran and won in 2014. He wasn't sure why it remained a pledge on his website, he said.

'I give a tremendous amount to charity, first of all,” Blum told the newspaper. 'Is it half my pay? I'm not sure. I think I said that when I ran the first time, not this most recent time.”

Blum added he 'didn't care” the pledge was on the website and didn't believe his constituents did, either.

Finally, the claim about Blum wanting to cut Social Security and raise the retirement age was previously verified and scored an 'A” by Fact Checker. At the time, Fact Checker reported Blum voted for the Republican plan that would have reduced Social Security spending, in part, by raising the retirement age.

Conclusion

Vernon took liberties in suggesting Fact Checker called claims from the 'Surprised” attack ad 'false.” We did not. However, she rightly pointed out Fact Checker found the claim she gave herself a pay raise was 'misleading,”

Overall, we back Vernon's portrayal of the Fact Checker article.

Since her campaign would not provide verifiable records of her charitable contributions - or, curiously, even identify the charities - Fact Checker has no way of knowing if the specific amounts recorded in the spreadsheets it was shown are accurate.

The record backs up that Vernon had a role helping build a homeless shelter.

As for the claims against Blum, he is a multimillionaire. He also promised to return half of his salary. While Blum may have honestly not realized the pledge remained on his website, it hardly matters to voters who go there for information. It's clear from his comments to The Telegraph Herald he did not intend to follow through on the pledge.

Vernon covers a lot of ground in the 'Fact Check” ad and it mostly checks out.

Still, her camp should disclose verifiable records of the charitable donations she says she made. And her ad implies that Fact Checker went farther than it actually did in challenging a claim from her rival. For those reasons, we cut her grade to a 'B.”

Criteria

The Fact Checker team checks statements made by an Iowa political candidate/office holder or a national candidate/office holder about Iowa, or in advertisements that appear in our market. Claims must be independently verifiable. We give statements grades from A to F based on accuracy and context.

If you spot a claim you think needs checking, email us at factchecker@thegazette.com.

' This Fact Checker was researched and written by B.A. Morelli.