SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) — Four Iowa candidates, three Democrats and one Republican, have failed to file personal financial disclosure reports with the U.S. Senate.

Formal complaints have been filed against Republican State Senator Jim Carlin and Democrat Dr. Glen Hurst for their failure to file their personal financial disclosure statements, according to Iowa Field Report.

Iowa Field Report managed to get a copy of the full complaints against Carlin and Hurst. They can be read on the links below:

• Carlin
• Hurst

Federal officeholders, candidates for national office, and other federal government officials are required to file personal financial disclosure statements under the Federal Ethics in Government Act (FEGA).

An investigation by Iowa Field Report found that four of seven announced candidates for Iowa’s U.S. Senate race have not filed the required reports. Candidates are supposed to file by May 15 of each year or within 40 days of becoming a candidate, whichever comes first.

Both Carlin and Hurst haven’t filed their personal financial disclosures while having disclosed campaign expenditures to the Federal Elections Commission.

Carlin spoke with KCAU 9, saying that his campaign uses professional bookkeeping.

“They said it was no big deal at all just to get the form on file. They sent me a link, and it’s an easy problem to remedy,” Carlin said. “It’s interesting that the Grassley campaign would get that out there because it has recently come to light. They actually, Chuck Grassley’s Hawkeye PAC donated $925,000 to House Republican candidates who would decide whether or not his grandson was the Speaker of the House. So he has some ethical questions to answer about that.”

Carlin said that the form is easy to fill out and that it is not that big of a deal. Carlin also said that people have tried to use this sort of incident on him before.

“You know, I’ve had people try to use that gambit on me before,” said Carlin. “It’s just, it’s a dirty, little, political theater, is what it is. I mean it’s much to do about nothing but you want to make it look like the other guy is guilty of some big ethical violation. Well, we need to have some ethic hearings on Senator Grassley’s Hawkeye Pack making close to a million dollars in donations to house Republican candidates who voted his grandson into the speakership. That’s where the attention really should be.”

KCAU 9 has reached out to Hurst for a statement but did not receive are reply at the time of publication.

Democrat candidates Abby Finkenauer and Michael Franken and incumbent Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) all filed the required reports on a timely basis, and the information is available for public inspection.

According to Iowa Field Report, Democrat candidate and former state representative Robert Krause announced in October and has been actively campaigning since then with a strong presence on social media, a campaign web page, and a score of long campaign videos. Krause has not filed his personal financial disclosure, nor has he made any filing with the FEC. He is required to have filed both if he has raised or spent more than $5,000 total in his campaign.

Democrat candidate Robert Krause announced his run in October 2021. Iowa Field Report states that Krause, a former state representative, has been actively campaigning, but has not filed his personal financial disclosure nor any other filing with the FEC.

The Des Moines Register reported in November of last year that Democrat Dave Muhlbauer had dropped out of the race following the death of his nephew, Iowa Field Report stated. Muhlbauer dropped out of the race five months after he missed the deadline for filing his personal financial disclosure. Federal Law, found in the publically available Senate Ethics Manual, stipulates that dropping out after the due date does not relieve the candidate of the obligation to file. However, public records show Muhlbauer did file multiple campaign spending reports with the Federal Elections Commission.