State Auditor Mary Mosiman has repaid money she used from an old campaign account to cover personal expenses and the Iowa Ethics Board has dismissed a complaint about the matter.
Mosiman left her job as Story County Auditor in 2011 to become deputy secretary of state, then this past May Governor Branstad named her state auditor.
The Iowa Democratic Party filed an ethics complaint 24 hours later, saying Mosiman — a Republican — should not have used about a thousand dollars from her old Story County Auditor’s campaign account to cover travel expenses and pay for training to retain her status as a certified public accountant.
The Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board dismissed the complaint during its meeting on Thursday. John Walsh of Dubuque, a member of the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board, said Iowa law is “ambiguous” in this area.
“I think she’s embarrassed by what happened. I think she’s corrected the situation,” Walsh said. “I don’t think there’s any reason to proceed any further.”
James Albert, the chairman of the Iowa Ethics Board, agreed.
“I was persuaded because of the ambiguity in the law, she did nothing wrong here,” Albert said.
Mosiman was Story County’s Auditor for 10 years and she intends to seek reelection as state auditor in 2014. Democrats have argued Mosiman’s actions with her old campaign money show she “can’t be trusted with tax dollars.”
In other action on Thursday the Iowa Ethics Board voted to investigate the National Organization for Marriage’s involvement in campaigns to unseat Iowa Supreme Court justices who joined the court’s 2009 ruling that legalized same-sex marriage.