Kent Sorenson

Kent Sorenson
Member of the Iowa Senate from the 37th district
In office January 10, 2011 – October 2, 2013
Preceded by	Staci Appel
Member of the Iowa House of Representatives from the 74th district
In office January 12, 2009 – January 9, 2011
Preceded by	Mark Davitt
Succeeded by	Glen Massie
Personal details
Born	(1972-03-29) March 29, 1972 Des Moines, Iowa
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Shawnee
Children	6
Residence	Indianola, Iowa
Religion	Christian
Website	Sorenson's legislative webpage

Kent Sorenson (born March 29, 1972) was an Iowa state legislator. A Republican, he served in the Iowa House of Representatives from 2009 to 2011, representing District 74 and then represented District 37 in the Iowa Senate.

As of October 2011, Sorenson was a member of the Judiciary, Natural Resources and Environment, and State Government committees of the Iowa Senate. He was also the ranking member of both the Senate and Joint Oversight Committees and a member of the Advisory Council for Agricultural Education, the Family Development and Self-Sufficiency Council, and the Human Rights Board.

Sorenson resigned from office October 2, 2013 after it was found he violated ethics guidelines related to campaign contributions to Michele Bachmann.^[1]

Electoral history

Sorenson graduated from Indianola High School in 1990. He is the owner and operator of Pro-Kleen Maintenance.

Sorenson was first elected to the Iowa House in 2008, defeating incumbent Democrat Mark Davitt. He then ran for the Senate in 2010, defeating incumbent Democrat Staci Appel.

*incumbent

2012 Republican presidential caucus and ethics controversy

On December 28, 2011, Sorenson resigned as Michele Bachmann's Iowa campaign chairman and endorsed Ron Paul as his choice in the 2012 Iowa caucus and the presidency of the United States.^[4]

In July 2012, Barb Heki, a Johnston, Iowa woman who once worked for Bachmann began legal proceedings against the former Bachmann campaign and her senior campaign aides, claiming Sorenson took an e-mail list from her private computer to promote Bachmann's candidacy among Christian homeschooling advocates before the Iowa caucuses, and that she was unjustly blamed for its use. (Court papers said she had told Sorenson that she would not provide the list to the campaign.) On September 11, Heki filed a police report stating that a private email list was stolen from her office at Bachmann's Iowa campaign office in Urbandale, Iowa sometime between November 1 and November 10, 2011. The police report lists the suspect as a 40-year-old man from Milo who is a state senator, but does not give the legislator's name. Sorenson, 40 at the time of the incident, is the only state senator from Milo.^[5]

The lawsuit also claims that Sorenson and Bachmann defamed her. Sorenson's lawyer said his client did not "make any defamatory or disparaging comments against Barb Heki. We'll present evidence that Senator Sorenson never said anything that could be construed as defamatory."^[6]

In August 2013, conservative activist Dennis Fusaro claimed that Sorenson backed Ron Paul in the 2012 presidential campaign after demanding money from the Paul campaign. State senate rules prohibit campaigns from paying senators directly or indirectly. The Iowa Senate Ethics Committee assigned a state special investigator, who reported “probable cause” that Sorenson had broken Senate rules by accepting money for presidential campaign work. The 566-page report stated that Sorenson had in fact received the alleged payments from a $25,000 check from a top official of Paul’s presidential campaign, as well as from a political action committee connected to the Bachmann campaign.^{[7][8][9][10]} Sorenson switched from Bachmann’s campaign to Paul’s in the closing days of the GOP caucuses. Bachmann claimed at the time that he defected to her competitor’s team because they were paying him to do so. Sorenson had long denied being paid by any of the presidential campaigns. The investigator’s report said Sorenson’s denials may have violated state law – a class D felony for felonious misconduct by a public official.

The U.S. Justice Department has since subpoenaed records in connection with possible illegal campaign coordination between Bachmann’s campaign and another PAC, but is at present unclear which federal law(s) the Department believes may have been broken. The New York Times has reported on a grand jury investigation which began after Heki filed her complaints with the Federal Election Commission. The Federal Bureau of Investigation executed a search warrant in mid-November of 2013 at Sorenson's home, confiscating computers and other materials relating to communications. The Des Moines Register reported that the search was related to investigations of Sorenson's actions in the Bachmann and Paul campaigns.^[11]

2013 resignation

Sorenson resigned from office October 2, 2013, after a special investigator appointed by the Iowa Supreme Court, Mark Weinhardt, found he likely violated ethics rules by taking money from political entities connected to former presidential candidates Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul then denied he’d done so (Iowa Senate Ethics Report ^[12][13]). According to the report, Sorenson received a $25,000 check and a $73,000 electronic banking transfer from the Ron Paul campaign. Iowa Attorney General’s Office spokesman Geoff Greenwood stated October 3, 2013, that Sorenson could be charged with a crime and prosecuted. Further, Polk County Attorney John P. Sarcone stated that his office would review the report and consider filing charges if the facts warrant any action.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kent Sorenson.

• Senator Kent Sorenson at Iowa General Assembly site
• Kent Sorenson for State Senate
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart