Iowa Congressman Tom Latham is offering a reward to anyone who can prove a t-v ad run by his opponent is true. Latham, a republican, is running against democrat John Norris in the fourth district. Latham is making the challenge over an ad in which Norris claims Latham voted to privatize social security. He says the vote cited by Norris had nothing to do with privatizing social security, so he’s offering Norris, or anyone else, 10-thousand dollars if they can prove he voted to privatize social security. Latham says the vote cited was to establish a commission to evaluate the Social Security system, and came several months before the commission even came up with a report.He says basing the ad on that vote is “absolutely being dishonest with people, and just trying to scare seniors” and very, very, unfortunate. Latham says the ad goes against his stand on the issue.Norris says Latham’s pulling a stunt is “yet another attempt by Latham to distort the truth about his position on Social Security.” Norris says Latham has been on record in multiple places for supporting the principle of allowing people take money out of Social Security and put those funds in private investment accounts. Norris says Latham may not want to call it “privatization” but Norris says that’s what it is. Norris says if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, Latham can’t call it a chicken. Norris is sending Latham the address of the Norris campaign headquarters in Ames so Latham can mail the 10-thousand dollars there, but Latham still denies he supports the concept of “privatization.”Norris says Latham’s own ads distort Norris’ record, attributing things to Norris that Norris never said.
