Ganske campaign may file civil suit against Harkin in "Tapegate"

Republican U-S Senate candidate Greg Ganske’s campaign has hired a lawyer and may pursue its own lawsuit against rival Democrat Tom Harkin if criminal charges aren’t filed. The new line Republicans are pressing is that Polk County Attorney John Sarcone should recuse himself from the case and let some other County Attorney’s office handle the investigation of the Harkin campaign’s secret taping of a Ganske fundraiser. The federal prosecutor who got the case in Des Moines has ties to Ganske and the Republican Party and has passed the federal investigation off to a U-S Attorney in Illinois. Becky Knutson, the attorney Ganske’s hired, is raising questions about the Polk County Attorney’s connections to Harkin. If the Polk County Attorney stays on the case, and doesn’t file criminal charges, the Ganske camp will consider filing its own civil lawsuit. She says if someone willfully intercepts or procures someone to intercept an oral communication, it’s a violation of Iowa law.Ganske campaign manager Bill Armistead says a civil lawsuit is “certainly a possibility.” He says they believe a crime was committed.The Polk County Attorney said earlier this week that he expected to quickly make a decision about whether charges would be filed, but has since backed away from suggesting that decision might be made public today. On Tuesday, Knutson talked with one of the assistant county attorneys working on the case. Knutson says at this point it appears the Polk County Attorney’s office is getting started with the investigation, so it’s too early to tell if they’re conducting a thorough investigation.