Urbandale’s Zaun Says It’s Time for Sorenson to Go

Embattled state Sen. Kent Sorenson, R-Milo, should resign amid allegations that he violated Iowa Senate ethics rules by accepting payment to work for two presidential campaigns in 2011, a state senator from Urbandale said on WHO-TV’s “The Insiders”segment Sunday.

Republican Sen. Brad Zaun, the volunteer coordinator of Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s Iowa campaign, said Sorenson’s alleged “pay-for-play” scandal  has been “a major distraction to Senate Republicans” and he should resign as the investigation against him moves forward.”

Sorenson is accused of accepting payment to endorse Bachmann’s presidential campaign and then switching allegiances to support former Texas congressman Ron Paul. Iowa Senate ethics rules prohibit senators from being paid directly or indirectly for work they’ve done for presidential campaigns.
“I think when you take any kind of money, legal or not legal, it takes away the genuineness of the endorsement,” Zaun said on the news program.

Sorenson has repeatedly denied the allegations, calling the investigation “a witch hunt.”

The Senate Ethics Committee has appointed a special investigator to probe all of the allegations against Sorenson. He also had been accused of stealing an email list of families who homeschool their children from Barb Heki of Johnston on behalf of the Bachmann campaign, which has since settled a lawsuit with Heki.

Also Sunday, another Republican lawmaker said that it’s time for Sorenson to go during remarks before Adair County Republicans who gathered in Greenfield. Rep Clel Baudler, R-Greenfield, watched the WHO program earlier in the day and said he thought Zaun showed “a lot of leadership,” according to the Radio Iowa report.

He said the Sorenson is “a cancer within our party” and “you cut it out if you have a cancer in there.”