Ganske campaign calls on Harkin to come clean in taping scandal

Republican U-S Senate candidate Greg Ganske’s campaign has given prosecutors the transcript and e-mail message of a private strategy session they say was bugged. After repeated denials, Senator Tom Harkin’s campaign manager Jeff Link now admits a Harkin press operative gave a newspaper reporter the transcript of Ganske’s private meeting with 24 financial backers. During a statehouse news conference, Iowa Republican Party chairman Chuck Larson wondered aloud whether evidence of wrongdoing was being destroyed, and he asked prosecutors to step in. Larson says all parties involved should be instructed to refrain from deleting any documents.Larson says Harkin and his staff have some questions to answer.Larson says Harkin should ‘fess up as to how the information was obtained and Larson says Harkin needs to answer for his staff, who initially denied any knowledge and blamed the leak on Ganske’s campaign. Larson says Link only decided to tell the truth when he was forced to do so. Larson says Harkin should disclose the name of the person responsible for the unauthorized taping. Ganske campaign manager Bill Armistead says all Iowans deserve answers. Armistead says this is not even in the realm of acceptable campaign tactics. The Ganske campaign is turning over to prosecutors the names of the 24 people who attended the private meeting, but say they won’t make the names public to prevent the Harkin campaign from “tampering” with a potential witness or culprit.