Iowa Senate Candidate Bob Quast Promises to Raffle Off Car to Voters

Iowa politics have been interesting this year. Democratic Senator Tom Harkin will not be running for a sixth term this midterm, and candidates are already vying for his vacant seat. Bruce Braley, who is currently a U.S. representative for Iowa's First District, is running as the Democratic candidate. But things are a bit more amusing on the Republican side of the race. First, there was the "Squeal" ad from Joni Ernst, who promised she was qualified "cut pork" in Washington based on her experience castrating hogs on an Iowa farm.

Then there was the #GotBalls ad from Bob Quast, who promised to vote for term limits, and to shoot the testicles off of the man who murdered his sister if that man ever bothered Quast's family. Quast seems to be running as a write-on candidate, and it is not clear what party he is affiliated with -- although his strong Second Amendment stance and ridicule of "Braleycare" seems to put him closer to the Republican side of the aisle.

Wanting to know more about Quast, I visited his website, where I was confronted with this video which began playing automatically:



While not as shocking as Quast's first ad, I was taken aback by Quast's promise to give away a car to voters. I looked further into Quast's website and found a list of questions and answers where he went into more detail on the car giveaway:

Q2: Is Bob really serious about giving away his 2014 Chevy Spark campaign car?
A2: As a heart attack, so long as doing so doesn't violate any existing law, rule, regulation, or other work of the nation's busy attorneys and lawmakers. If Mr. Braley or his attorney friends/financial donors pass a new law prohibiting Bob from making a campaign promise that he intends to make real (giving away his campaign car on Nov. 5, 2014, if Bob wins the general election for US Senate), then there can be no free car, as Bob doesn't want to occupy the prison cell vacated by his sister's killer.

Q3: Who is eligible to win Bob's 2014 Chevy Spark?
A3: Any Iowan who is registered to vote by Nov. 4, 2014, who goes to www.BobQ2014.com and submits the requested personal info (like your email so we may annoy you with more funny videos and occasional requests for $6 or $10 investments to pay for even more funny stuff that also educates you on all of Bob's serious platform issues). You see, Bob thinks differently and doesn't plan to ever raise the multi-millions of legal bribes going to other "professional" career politicians. When Bob goes to Washington, DC, he shall owe no favors to any big donors nor the senior management of either party. Bob plans to spend six years working hard, solving problems others created, reporting directly to the awesome Iowans who elected him, and then coming home at age 50 to his family and friends. There's also this little cause called the Lynnette Quast Craft Charity he'd like to run for the rest of his life. Sadly, there are a limitless number of "clients" who need Bob's help!

The Daily Beast reports on Quast's promise here, noting that while buying votes is illegal, it is a surprisingly common practice for politicians to raffle off prizes in exchange for website signups. The Daily Beast links to this New York Times article on how gun raffles are an increasingly popular tool among republican candidates.

At the Election Law Blog, Rick Hasen remarks that Quast'spromise is probably legal, since there is "no payment for turnout or voting." I am certainly no expert on the subject, so I'll take Hasen's word for it. Whatever the case may be, Iowa's midterm election is shaping up to be chaotic and humorous, and I look forward to seeing how the race unfolds.