Vilsack Camp Calls Out King Over Pay Raises

Christie Vilsack, a Democrat seeking the newly redrawn District 4 seat for the U.S. House, is slamming her opponent for getting pay increases while voting against bonuses for service members.

The Vilsack camp released a statement saying King voted to accept five pay raises, increasing his pay by nearly $20,000, to $174,000 a year. 

"Anyone who looks at his record will see that he doesn’t deserve five pay raises,” Vilsack for Iowa Campaign Manager Jessica Vanden Berg said in the statement.

King's campaign did not return a message from Patch seeking comment, but King’s campaign spokesman told Radio Iowa that "King has never voted to increase his pay in a “stand-alone” vote when congressional salaries were the sole subject matter being voted upon. King voted to freeze his pay earlier this year and, in 2010, King voted against a pay raise for members of congress. 

Here is what Christie Vilsack told Radio Iowa:

“A service member in Iowa makes about $48,000 a year,” Vilsack says. “I’m a public school teacher. If I were still teaching I’d be making about $50,000 and Steve King makes $178,000 (actually $174,000) a year and for people struggling in the fourth district, I think that’s a considerable sum... At the same time he has not voted for bonus pay for our service members; $1500 is all they asked for."

“To decide that you should vote yourself a pay raise and then actually say that you deserve it is not right,” Vilsack says, “so I think he should give it back.”

The Vilsack campaign said Vilsack has "promised to vote against and give back any pay increase until the federal budget is balanced."

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