Absolutely Terrible Mistake

Rudy Giuliani's campaign made an absolutely terrible move in Iowa that will not sit well with the voters. After asking a farming couple from Eastern Iowa to host an event, his staff suddenly decided that they would go elsewhere. Allegedly after finding out that the couple did not have sufficient assets.

Deborah VonSprecken had looked forward to having former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani photographed with Jack of Diamonds, one of the Texas Longhorns on her family's 80-acre farm near the eastern Iowa town of Olin.

Instead VonSprecken and her husband, Jerry, feel they received a bum steer from the Republican presidential candidate.

The couple was asked by Giuliani's campaign staff to host an event on May 4 at their farm. They began feverishly making preparations, then learned a few days later that the Republican candidate was not going to come after all.

Giuliani did speak at a rally in Cedar Rapids that day, stressing his record as a tax cutter and urging permanent repeal of the federal estate tax.

Deborah VonSprecken said Giuliani's campaign backed out of the event at her home after deciding she and her husband did not fill the bill for the candidate's talk about the so-called "death tax."

"They checked our assets, and since we're not considered millionaires, they canceled," she said.

VonSprecken told her local newspaper, "Why would Rudy Giuliani not come speak to the average Americans that live in eastern Iowa, instead of qualifying you as a millionaire before he will show up to your place?"

The couple had told the Giuliani campaign staff from the beginning, "We're just poor farmers," she said.

Maria Comella, a spokeswoman for Giuliani's campaign, called the matter an unfortunate misunderstanding without directly addressing why the location of the event was changed.

"We certainly apologize for any inconvenience that occurred," Comella said.

This was a serious mistake. The decision was bad enough, the stonewall from the campaign is even worse (note - it would have made a world of difference if Giuliani himself had made an apology to the couple before they went to the media. The story probably would never have been reported at all had that been done). It will be interesting to see how Giuliani polls in Iowa after this. The vast majority of Iowans are not millionaires, after all. Those are the people candidates need to convince to vote for them. And they have just been dissed.