§ Iowa Code § 68A.405ASelf-promotion with taxpayer funds prohibited

68A.405A Self-promotion with taxpayer funds prohibited.
1. a. Except as provided in sections 29C.3 and 29C.6, a statewide elected official or
member of the general assembly shall not permit the expenditure of public moneys under
the control of the statewide elected official or member of the general assembly, including
but not limited to moneys held in a private purpose trust fund as defined by section 8.2, for
the purpose of any paid advertisement or promotion bearing the written name, likeness, or
voice of the statewide elected official or member of the general assembly distributed through
any of the following means:
(1) A paid direct mass mailing.
(2) A paid radio advertisement or promotion.
(3) A paid newspaper advertisement or promotion.
(4) A paid television advertisement or promotion.
(5) A paid internet advertisement or promotion.
(6) A paid exhibit display at the Iowa state fair or a fairground or grounds as defined in
section 174.1.
b. Except as otherwise provided by law, paragraph “a” shall not apply to bona
fide ministerial or ceremonial records or ordinary, common, and frequent constituent
correspondence containing the name of the statewide elected official or member of the
general assembly.
2. A person who willfully violates this section shall be subject to a civil penalty of an
amount up to the amount of moneys withdrawn from a public account or private purpose trust
fund as defined in section 8.2 used to fund the communication found to be in violation of this
section by the board or, for members of the general assembly, by an appropriate legislative
ethics committee. A penalty imposed pursuant to this section shall be paid by the candidate’s
committee. Such penalty shall be determined and assessed by the board or, for a member of
the general assembly, the appropriate legislative ethics committee, and paid into the account
from which such moneys were withdrawn. Additional criminal or civil penalties available
under section 68A.701 or established by the board pursuant to section 68B.32A may also be
determined and assessed by the board for violations of this section. Nothing in this section
shall prevent the imposition of any penalty or sanction for a violation of this section by a
legislative ethics committee.
3. For the purposes of this section, “direct mass mailing” means a mailing, regardless of
whether the mailing was sent in response to a request or due to the recipient’s enrollment
in a program, that provides information to the recipient about a person, policy, product,
service, program, initiative, law, legislation, event, or activity promoted by the statewide
elected official that is all of the following:
a. Printed material delivered by the United States mail or other delivery service.
b. Sent to more than two hundred physical addresses.
c. Substantially similar or identical as regards each mailing.
d. Sent at the same time or within a thirty-day period.
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Iowa Code 2026, Chapter 68A (44, 0)
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CAMPAIGN FINANCE, §68A.406
4. Notwithstanding subsection 3, a mailing that is sent to any participant in a program or
the participant’s address within sixty days of an election in which an office listed in section
39.9 is to appear on the ballot shall be considered a direct mass mailing for the purposes
of subsection 1 if the purpose of the mailing is to provide a participant with information
relevant to the participant’s existing account with a program sponsored and administered by
the statewide elected official who sent the mailing.