XPost: alt.mountain-bike, rec.outdoors.national-parks, chi.general   
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   From: criminally-complicit@sfchronicle.com   
      
   IOWA CITY, Iowa -- A top Republican fundraiser whose firm works   
   for several prominent immigration hardliners is the partial   
   owner of the land where the Mexican man accused of killing Iowa   
   college student Mollie Tibbetts lived rent-free, a farm   
   spokeswoman said Friday.   
      
   Nicole Schlinger has long been a key fundraiser and campaign   
   contractor for GOP politicians in Iowa and beyond, including   
   this cycle for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Virginia Senate candidate   
   Corey Stewart.   
      
   Schlinger is the president of Campaign Headquarters, a call   
   center that makes fundraising calls, identifies supporters and   
   helps turn out voters for conservative candidates and groups.   
   Her business is one of the largest in Brooklyn, the central Iowa   
   town where Tibbetts disappeared while out for a run on July 18.   
      
   Schlinger is married to Eric Lang, the president of the family-   
   owned dairy that has acknowledged providing employment and   
   housing for the last four years to Cristhian Bahena Rivera, the   
   man charged with murder in Tibbetts' death.   
      
   The couple - along with her husband's brother Craig Lang and his   
   wife - own farmland outside Brooklyn that includes trailers   
   where some of the dairy's employees live for free as a benefit   
   of their employment, farm spokeswoman Eileen Wixted confirmed.   
      
   She said Rivera lived there for the duration of his employment,   
   and about half of the farm's other 10 workers do so as well.   
   Under the arrangement, the farming company pays the couples to   
   rent the land but workers do not have to pay, she said.   
      
   In an email Friday, Schlinger said that she was "shocked and   
   deeply saddened" by Tibbetts' death and had never met Rivera.   
   "The perpetrator should be punished to the fullest extent of the   
   law, and when he meets his maker, suffer the consequences he   
   deserves," she wrote.   
      
   She said that she was gifted an ownership interest in the land   
   many years ago from her husband's family and that she has no   
   role in the farming operation.   
      
   Still, the fact that one of its own operatives has indirect ties   
   to the case could complicate GOP efforts to highlight the   
   gruesome slaying in its political messaging ahead of the   
   November midterm election. Dairy co-owner Craig Lang also was a   
   Republican candidate for Iowa agriculture secretary, finishing   
   third in a five-way race in the June primary.   
      
   Republicans such as President Donald Trump and Iowa Gov. Kim   
   Reynolds called for stricter immigration laws and enforcement   
   almost immediately after Rivera, who is suspected of being in   
   the country illegally, was charged Tuesday. Some have blamed   
   Democratic policies for the slaying, even though studies have   
   disputed the notion that those in the country illegally are more   
   likely to commit violent crime.   
      
   "Every victim below would be alive today if we enforced our   
   immigration laws," U.S. Rep. Steve King of Iowa tweeted Friday,   
   above a picture of Tibbetts and other victims. "Leftists   
   sacrificed thousands, including their own, on the altar of   
   Political Correctness."   
      
   Schlinger's business calls itself "the best conservative call   
   center in America." Her biography claims she is the most   
   prolific fundraiser in Iowa GOP history, having brought in more   
   than $50 million for politicians and causes. She has said her   
   business has made millions of phone calls for candidates seeking   
   offices ranging from president to city council since its   
   founding in 1999. Her firm's client list includes several   
   politicians who routinely call for stricter immigration   
   enforcement.   
      
   Federal Election Commission records show that Cruz's re-election   
   campaign has paid CampaignHQ nearly $1.7 million since the   
   beginning of 2017. A Cruz campaign spokeswoman had no immediate   
   comment.   
      
   Stewart, who has made stepping up deportations of immigrants in   
   the country illegally a major campaign theme, has also employed   
   the firm, along with the campaigns of Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and   
   Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina. The now-defunct Stop   
   Sanctuary Cities PAC paid the firm $3,449 for its services in   
   March.   
      
   In an interview Friday, Stewart said he had no problem with   
   Schlinger's property ties to the suspect, saying her firm does a   
   "great job" raising money.   
      
   "I hire people for their ability to do the work for my   
   campaign," he said. "Whatever she does in her personal life is   
   her business."   
      
   After Rivera was charged, Reynolds denounced an immigration   
   system that "allowed a predator like this to live in our   
   community." CampaignHQ was a top vendor for the campaigns of   
   former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, who selected Reynolds as his   
   running mate in 2010, and has also done some work directly for   
   Reynolds' campaigns, state records show.   
      
   Investigators say that Rivera came to the country from Mexico   
   illegally several years ago when he was in the late teens. He is   
   accused of stalking Tibbetts while she was out for a run a few   
   miles from his home, killing her after she threatened to call   
   police on him, and dumping her body in a cornfield. Preliminary   
   autopsy results show that Tibbetts died from multiple "sharp   
   force injuries."   
      
   Schlinger and her husband have managed to largely avoid the   
   intense media spotlight that has followed the case. They did not   
   speak at a press conference Wednesday when farm manager Dane   
   Lang said Rivera presented an out-of-state identification and   
   Social Security number with a different name when he was hired   
   in 2014. Dane Lang said he was shocked to learn to that Rivera's   
   allegedly not in the country legally.   
      
   But others around town, including Rivera's defense lawyer,   
   question whether the family had to have had suspicions, if not   
   known, about Rivera's immigration status.   
      
   "They are taking a blind eye to what's going on," said defense   
   lawyer Allan Richards. "At some point a reasonable person would   
   have been more diligent in determining whether or not these   
   folks are legal."   
      
   https://abc7chicago.com/tibbetts-murder-suspect-lived-on-land-   
   owned-by-gop-fundraiser/4044323/   
                                   
      
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