He could’ve probably gotten away with tap-dancing his way through the abortion issue, but I somehow don’t think any campaign — R or D — could weather this:
OLIN–Last weekend Deb and Jerry VonSprecken of Olin received a call from former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s campaign office asking them if they would be interested in holding a campaign rally on May 4, after she had donated to his campaign.
“We thought it would be an honor and agreed,” said Jerry.
After agreeing to host Rudy’s rally, Deb and Jerry Von Sprecken then set about doing a bunch of work to organize the event. They underwent a security check and called a bunch of local friends and acquaintances — and even the local sheriff and fire department — and proudly put the pieces in place for their rally.
But then…
On Tuesday Deb received a call from Giuliani’s Des Moines office and was asked to call New York.
“They wanted to know our assets,” she revealed, and added that she and Jerry have a modest 80 acre farm and raise cattle.
Later she received a call from Tony Delgado at the Des Monies location.
“Tony said, ‘I’m sorry, you aren’t worth a million dollars and he is campaigning on the Death Tax right now.’ then he said they weren’t going to be able to come,” Deb continued.
The Death Tax is a federal version of the Iowa Inheritance Tax.
The VonSpreckens then called Delgado back and told him how upset they were that the event had been cancelled, how much work they had done and that they had been expecting 75-100 people at their farm.
“I invited him into my home,” Deb said of Giuliani, fighting back tears.
The local paper with the original story has been overloaded, but Greg Sargent (again!) has the goods.
UPDATE: The editor of the Anamosa Eureka-Journal says the original piece is back up and she stands behind it:
I am Michelle Phillips, the editor of the Anamosa Journal-Eureka. I want to add that the story was written exactly as it was told to me by the VonSpreckens and is posted on our website.
I have spoken to our webmaster and she has increased the bandwith so it can be viewed at anamosaje.com
I am sure that neither Mr. Giuliani or his spin doctors thought that this would go beyond Jones County. I myself am overwhelmed by the number of sites that have picked this up.
I also want to say that Anamosa is the county seat and very politically charged. We have already had several presidential hopefuls come through town, and I am grateful that they have taken the time to include Anamosa ontheir campaign stops.