This week we dug into two big stories. First, the Des Moines Register’s new reporting on Derek Wulf’s farm finances: an active criminal investigation, a court-appointed receiver, and creditors who settled for less than they were owed. We talked about what real campaign due diligence looks like, and why this story hasn’t gotten the attention it probably deserves.
We also broke down a new Emerson College poll. Rob Sand leads Zach Lahn by 3 points in the governor’s race, with independents breaking hard his way. In the Senate race, Ashley Hinson leads Josh Turek 50-45, and we tried to make sense of Turek’s ad touting cooperation with Trump on immigration.
Plus, we’re pleased to welcome first-time guest Eric Woolson who has an extensive background in journalism and campaigns, closed things out with the Chuck Grassley vacuum cleaner bobblehead saga, and pondered whether Grassley might run again in 2028 at age 95.
Want to sharpen your writing and get the inside scoop on Iowa politics at the same time? Join us September 27-30 at the Okoboji Writers’ & Songwriters’ Retreat on beautiful West Lake Okoboji, featuring Iowa Down Ballot analysts Laura Belin and Kathie Obradovich. They’ll walk you through finding public information, getting your opinion pieces published, and plenty more. Spots are limited, so scan the QR code at the beginning and end of the video or head to okobojiwritersretreat.com to sign up. If you’d like to make a donation to help the Iowa Writer’s Collaborative which supports this show please click the button below. Thanks!
Auto-generated transcript below:
Dave Price: Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Iowa Down Ballot podcast. We have another new statewide poll, and it shows that, at least for some people, split-ticket voting is still a thing. We’ll talk about that. Plus, there’s new reporting on Republican lieutenant governor candidate Derek Wulf and his farm operations, legal situation, and finances. The Des Moines Register had a story out Friday that we want to discuss.
I’m Dave Price. This week we’re joined by Iowa Down Ballot regulars Kathie Obradovich and Laura Belin. Hello, ladies.
Kathie Obradovich: Hello! Good to be here.
Laura Belin: Good to be here.
Dave Price: And making his debut on the podcast, I was going to say “best known snake charmer” — that’s not really why he’s here, but he might be the most interesting man in the room if you really know his background. Eric Woolson, way back in the day, was a newspaper reporter. He may be the only person I know who’s worked for both a Democratic and a Republican presidential candidate. Is that true?
Eric Woolson: Well, that’s where the snake charming comes in handy, I suppose. I used to say I was one of the few people who’d worked for seven presidential campaigns. But I’m absolutely positive I’m the only person who’s been a spokesperson for both Joe Biden and Michele Bachmann.
Laura Belin: Narrow that down.
Eric Woolson: I’ll throw that down.
Dave Price: Well done — we strive for uniqueness on this show. Welcome, Eric, thanks for joining us.
Derek Wulf’s Financial and Legal Troubles
Dave Price: Let’s talk about this Des Moines Register story. Tyler Jett posted it Friday — and we’re recording this on Friday, so we may be talking about it as the news is still unfolding. This won’t drop until the weekend, so there could be twists and turns. Laura, I believe you were the first to report on Derek Wulf’s agricultural operations and financial challenges. Tyler Jett has picked up from there, and it shows there are still serious financial challenges for Representative Wulf, along with some strong allegations from people who’ve worked with him. What do you make of it?
Laura Belin: It was a really good piece by Tyler Jett — he clarified some things I wasn’t able to nail down back in June and July. First, WCF Financial, his bank, filed a foreclosure petition in May. As of this summer they were negotiating some kind of refinancing. Derek Wulf said at the Westside Conservative Club in July that they’d been able to refinance, but that clearly wasn’t complete, because last week the bank filed a motion to have a receiver appointed, which the court approved two days ago.
The bank’s filing said Wulf never presented a commitment letter — essentially proof that financing or additional collateral was lined up to support the refinancing. So we know negotiations broke down somewhere along the way.
Also important: Tyler Jett confirmed with the Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office that there is still an active criminal investigation into Wulf’s operations. That was hinted at in the May foreclosure filing, and seems related to livestock collateral belonging to the bank that may have been sold to third parties. There were also fraud allegations in an earlier filing from a separate case brought by Heartland Co-op, but I was never able to confirm an actual criminal investigation — Tyler Jett did. The Lahn campaign’s spokesperson denied any fraud occurred, but also apparently confirmed to the Register that Zach Lahn didn’t know about the criminal investigation when he picked Wulf as his running mate.
Dave Price: Eric, you’re the only one of us who’s worked on campaigns — what’s traditional due diligence like when choosing a running mate?
Eric Woolson: Going back to my reporting days in the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s, my first thought was: how did this happen? Clearly a due diligence question — somebody didn’t do their homework. Normally that process runs a couple of weeks: you dig into personal background, financial background, talk to people they’ve done business with, talk to the neighbors. A lot of times you’ve got a professional firm doing opposition research — including on your own candidate, so you know what the other side will say about you. Clearly none of that happened here.
The landscape’s changed too. Laura’s done terrific work, the Register has a news story, but for the most part it feels like a tree falling in the forest that nobody hears. There’s not as much media in this state as there used to be, reporters are shorthanded, there’s only so many hours in the day. Regardless of party, this isn’t as big a story as it should be — and that goes back to the central question of where the due diligence was. Obviously there wasn’t any.
Kathie Obradovich: To give the Lahn campaign a little grace — it’s possible that when Wulf first addressed these questions with Laura, he genuinely believed refinancing was in progress, and that kind of deal can fall apart at any point. That does happen. But this raises real questions: if this is how the Lahn campaign does due diligence on someone as important as a running mate, how can Iowa voters trust he’ll pick the right people if he becomes governor? The governor doesn’t do everything alone — you have to pick the right people for the job.
Even if this is damaging to Wulf, it doesn’t mean he can’t do a good job as lieutenant governor. It’s possible the campaign knew all this and decided his financial experience actually makes him a stronger advocate for farmers. Some of this comes down to how much voters really care about who the running mate is.
Laura Belin: Tyler Jett interviewed some of the creditors who sued Wulf — I’d reached out but never heard back. One of them, Chad Zoske, described something that goes well beyond normal farmer financial distress. The Lahn campaign had said all creditors were being repaid in full, but according to the Register story, Zoske ended up settling for less than he was owed because he figured something was better than nothing.
Eric Woolson: Part of this may be that Lahn really came out of nowhere as a surprise candidate, so he may have lacked connections within the party infrastructure. In years past you’d have five or six names floated — someone from eastern Iowa, someone from northwest Iowa, maybe a business person — generating buzz. This pick came out of left field. The question is how much internal discussion there really was among Senate, House, and party leadership before landing on him. Normally you’d have several names floated, and I don’t recall any being out there. Lahn was surprised to be the nominee, and so was everyone else.
Dave Price: He and Governor Kim Reynolds had never even met before the primary, so there wasn’t much happening behind the scenes there either. I should also note — I double-checked with the Secretary of State’s office — it’s too late to get Derek Wulf’s name off the ballot even if this became a bigger controversy.
I’m curious, Eric: how does a campaign decide how much to talk about something like this? Zach Lahn already has a complicated personal story — the Kansas connection, an ex-wife, his wife’s ex-husband, kids who live there, the farmhouse in Belle Plaine — and Rob Sanders has tried to capitalize on the “Kansas guy, not an Iowa guy” angle. Now there’s Wulf’s farm finances too. How does a campaign decide whether to get out in front of something like this — a press conference, addressing it directly — versus staying quiet or responding only in writing?
Eric Woolson: That’s always an internal calculation, and campaigns typically have people on both sides of it. Talk about it more and you risk drawing more attention; don’t talk about it and you risk looking like you’re hiding something. It depends on the circumstances — and as Laura’s and Tyler Jett’s reporting shows, this is out of the ordinary. You can talk about farmers facing financial difficulty in general, but this has been going on a long time and hasn’t been handled well. My guess is the campaign sticks with something like “this shows he understands what farmers are going through.” I’d have pushed hard for getting out in front of it. But first and foremost: don’t have the issue in the first place, and you won’t have to explain it.
Dave Price: We’ll see how the campaign handles this over the weekend and into next week.
New Statewide Poll — Governor’s Race
Dave Price: We have a new statewide poll from Emerson College. Starting with governor: Democrat Rob Sand is up three points over Zach Lahn , 49 to 46, with 6% undecided. Among independents, Sand leads 51 to 39. Kathie, this tracks with what we’ve been seeing, right?
Kathie Obradovich: I think so. Bottom line, it’s a close race — three points is within the margin of error. It’s good news for Sand that independents are breaking his way; there simply aren’t enough Democrats in Iowa to win statewide without a substantial number of independents, and probably some Republicans too. That explains Sand’s approach of framing this as a campaign about bipartisan problem-solving rather than partisanship — and right now that message seems to be resonating with a majority of independents.
Dave Price: Laura, I’ve talked to some Republicans who point out Sand’s been campaigning nonstop for eight years, touring every county, while people still don’t know Zach Lahn — and Lahn has a huge registered-voter advantage to lean on. What do you make of that?
Laura Belin: That’s a fair reading. I’d note that Sabato’s Crystal Ball just moved the governor’s race from toss-up to lean Democrat, following the Cook Political Report. Forecasters sometimes see internal polling beyond what’s public. Two things stand out to me: we haven’t seen a single poll showing Lahn ahead, and this particular sample actually leans more Republican than Democrat — it recalls a Trump plus-10 electorate from 2024. So if Sand is ahead in a sample that red, that says something.
On the other hand, some Republicans complained the sample skewed too young or too college-educated. It’s genuinely hard to know what the electorate will look like — this is why Ann Selzer historically avoided heavy weighting. We have some evidence college-educated voters turn out more in off-year elections than presidential years. I wouldn’t tell Democrats to get overconfident, but it’s fair to say the race leans toward Sand right now.
Dave Price: Eric, your take on the top lines?
Eric Woolson: It reminds me of Vilsack versus Jim Ross Lightfoot in 1998. It really comes down to how well voters already know a candidate. Lightfoot had just run against Harkin, so almost everyone knew him. Vilsack was on his fourth campaign manager — I remember running into John Kachator at the State House and asking why he’d take the job that late. He said everyone already knows Lightfoot, but nobody knows Vilsack yet — once people get to know him, they’ll like him. Vilsack ended up a two-term governor.
Could that happen with Lahn ? I’m not so sure — with the flood of ads from every direction these days, it’s harder to cut through. How well do voters already know Rob Sand, like him, dislike him — and how much time does Lahn have left to become known? Will he be the next Vilsack, or just a footnote? We don’t know yet.
Dave Price: We asked months ago whether Lahn had enough time in the primary — it felt like he had momentum even before the polling existed. He proved he did, helped along by Randy Feenstra’s presence in the race too. Now: which matters more heading into November — Republicans’ voter registration advantage, or the fact that Sand has been everywhere for years while Lahn hasn’t?
Eric Woolson: Sand’s been to all 99 counties, presenting himself as a small-town guy from Decorah who hunts, fishes, and puts his toes in the river mud. That’s made real connections — I’ve heard from Republicans for whom the fact that he’s a deer hunter is enough: a Democrat who understands guns. The question is whether Lahn has time to catch up. You can’t meet all 3.3 million Iowans, so it comes down to whether you win via TV ads or via organization. Right now Sand has the organizational edge, which puts pressure on county GOP organizations to make up ground — and on Lahn to energize the grassroots.
Kathie Obradovich: Part of Lahn’s challenge is that he’s not operating in a vacuum. His TV ads are all him talking straight to camera — unlike a lot of candidates who use surrogates. That’s probably meant to build basic recognition: what he looks like, sounds like, what he actually says. Not a bad strategy at this stage. But he’s also being defined by the other side as a “carpetbagger from Kansas.” It cuts both ways — Sand is being cast as an out-of-touch rich guy (not billionaire, that hasn’t been supported, but rich and out-of-touch). Lahn starts from a deficit of name recognition and has to fight that framing at the same time.
Senate Race — Hinson vs. Turek
Dave Price: The poll also covered the U.S. Senate race, and there’s a split-ticket wrinkle: 6% would back Republican Ashley Hinson for Senate while also backing Rob Sand for governor. Hinson leads Josh Turek 50 to 45, with Libertarian Thomas Laehn at 1% and 5% undecided. Independents split much tighter here — Turek up 46 to 44. That gap of five points is outside the margin of error, but it tracks with what I’ve been hearing anecdotally.
Kathie Obradovich: I think Thomas Laehn will end up with more than 1% — he polled around 3 to 4% before, though comparing polls is always risky. He probably pulls a bit more from Republicans than Democrats. As for the 6% ticket-splitting — that feels low to me. I still remember the Grassley/Harkin era, when plenty of Iowans voted for both at different points, and some may remember that fondly.
Oh, and before we go — there’s now a bobblehead of Chuck Grassley and his beloved, retired vacuum cleaner, Beth. I may need one for my shelf.
Dave Price: Kathie, that was supposed to be the end of the show!
Kathie Obradovich: Oh, sorry!
Dave Price: Eric wrote a book about Grassley — that would’ve been the perfect way to close it out. Laura, your read on the Senate race?
Laura Belin: We’ve seen this pattern in other red states — voters more willing to back a Democrat for governor than for Senate, and vice versa for Republicans in blue states like Maryland and Massachusetts. So it’s not surprising Hinson runs ahead of where Lahn is. Turek is less well-known than Hinson, which is the optimistic read for his side — he still has time to build recognition. Looking back at Hinson’s record, she was the only Iowa House Republican to win in 2018 in a district that also went for Hillary Clinton and Fred Hubbell, so she’s shown she can pull some crossover support. Encouraging poll for her — though again, this sample leans more Republican than Democrat, so Turek’s campaign needs the ground game to shift those numbers.
Dave Price: Eric, what do you make of Turek’s ad where he says he’d work with President Trump on immigration and the border? I’ve been trying to figure out who that’s aimed at.
Eric Woolson: Nothing to add on the polling — Laura covered that well. On the immigration ad: if anyone figures out the strategy, let me know. I’d have picked the economy, agriculture, almost anything else. Saying he’ll work with Trump on immigration specifically isn’t going to move Trump voters, and it’s not going to win over Democrats either — they’re likely sticking with him regardless, maybe with a little crossover. I genuinely don’t know the rationale, and I wouldn’t have chosen that issue.
Laura Belin: I share the puzzlement. I’ve heard from grassroots Democrats who didn’t like the ad. Recent polling shows Trump’s approval underwater, so it’s not obviously an asset to tout working with him. I understand the goal — countering Republican messaging that paints Turek as a radical liberal, the same playbook used against a lot of Democrats — but I’m not sure how effective it’ll be.
Closing — The Grassley Bobblehead
Dave Price: Did you hear there’s a bobblehead of Chuck Grassley and Beth, his 49-year-old, now-retired Hoover vacuum? Eric, is he really getting a replacement vacuum from a friend in northwest Iowa?
Eric Woolson: Only 17 years old, the replacement.
Dave Price: Why not just buy a new one?
Eric Woolson: Exactly. I wrote a book with him back in 1995 — 31 years ago — and I actually saw him vacuuming without realizing how attached he was to Beth. This is the same guy who, to save time mowing his lawn, rigged three mowers together on one riding mower so he could run them all at once. He’s got an affinity for machinery that just keeps running — long live Beth. But apparently it’s time for a new one, and I hope Kathie gets a bobblehead, because it’s going to be popular.
Kathie Obradovich: Even vacuum cleaners have term limits, apparently.
Laura Belin: The replacement’s pretty old too — it came from Representative Jack Bosman and it’s around 17 or 18 years old itself. Grassley said he had it lying around because his wife got a new vacuum. So this is Beth 2.0.
Eric Woolson: Keep in mind Grassley was first elected in 1958, the year I was born — Beth was pretty young at 49 by comparison. Term limits don’t always apply, I guess.
Kathie Obradovich: I’m expecting an announcement any day that Beth is running for office.
Laura Belin: There was actually a flurry of stories about this — I wrote about it last year after Steve Woodhouse asked Grassley if he’d run again in 2028, and he didn’t rule it out. Someone asked him again recently, and he said to ask him later — right now he’s focused on getting Ashley Hinson and others elected. So officially, he hasn’t ruled out running again at age 95.
Dave Price: That seems like a good question to close on, Eric.
Eric Woolson: Strom Thurmond was 99 when he passed away in the Senate, and Grassley served with him a long time — maybe he’s chasing that record.
Dave Price: And we just saw Ed Markey win his primary at what, 80?
Eric Woolson: Yeah, choice of young voters everywhere.
Dave Price: Right — Seth Moulton found that out the hard way. Thank you all, this was fun. Eric, thanks for joining us — hope to have you back on the show often. And Kathie, all prayers for your air conditioner.
Kathie Obradovich: Yes, please.
Dave Price: Thank you all for joining us on the Iowa Down Ballot podcast. Please like, subscribe, and share — send it to a gazillion of your closest friends and family. We appreciate watching the numbers grow week after week, and thanks to everyone who’s become a new paid subscriber to help pay the bills. Have a great week.
