Des Moines, Iowa — A new national political action committee is calling on Iowa lawmakers to set up a commission that would investigate and discipline county attorneys who refuse to enforce certain laws.
Republican presidential candidate Larry Elder spoke on behalf of the PAC at a Des Moines news conference and began by criticizing local prosecutors in Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Baltimore, and Philadelphia.
Elder and the group, though, are starting their national campaign for a crackdown on local prosecutors in Iowa, which hosts the kickoff event of the GOP presidential campaign, and Elder criticized Polk County Attorney Kimberly Graham. Graham said as she campaigned for the job last year that she wants to end prosecution for first-time offenders caught with a small amount of marijuana.
Neither Graham nor an official with the Iowa County Attorneys Association was available for comment on the idea of a new commission in Iowa to police local prosecutors. Elder’s next appearance for the Enforce the Law PAC will be in New Hampshire, which hosts the first presidential primary. The group’s initial proposal is patterned after a Georgia law.
A spokesman for the group said the draft of their proposal for the 2024 Iowa legislature is not yet ready and the commission concept will be adjusted to fit the legal framework in each state. The spokesman also said Elder is not a paid spokesman for the PAC, which has not yet filed a report with the Federal Election Commission.
