Aides to Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., have been accused of planting questions for question-and-answer sessions at least two campaign stops in Iowa this year. The most recent incident occurred during Clinton’s Nov. 6 campaign speech in Newton.

“The problem for Hillary Clinton is the whole spin that’s going to happen – that she and her campaign are manipulative and scheming and that she is essentially trying to bend the rules to maintain her lead in the polls,” said Steffen Schmidt, university professor of political science.

Schmidt said the tactic is not illegal or immoral, and all campaigns are carefully scripted and run by highly priced professionals.

Clinton told the New York Daily News she was unaware that her aides had planted questions.

“It was news to me,” Clinton said. “And neither I nor my campaign approve of that, and it will certainly not be tolerated.”

According to CNN.com, Muriel Gallo-Chasanoff, a Grinnell College student, was told what question to ask at one of Clinton’s campaign events.

Mo Elleithee, a Clinton spokesman, denied that Clinton was aware of the planted question or that she was directed to call on Gallo-Chasanoff. But he confirmed that the campaign aide did plant the question.

“It’s not something we do – it’s not an official campaign policy,” Elleithee said. “But it is now an official campaign policy that we will not do this moving forward.”

Chasanoff told reporters “voters have the right to know what happened,” and she wasn’t the only one who was planted.

Bothered by the fact that she was propositioned to ask a specific question, Chasanoff went to her college newspaper, Scarlet and Black.

In the Nov. 9 article, Chasanoff said she noticed that staffers prompted Clinton to call on her and another person who had been approached before the event, although Clinton used her discretion to select questions and called on people who had not been prepared beforehand.

In an interview with CNN, Chasanoff said a senior Clinton staffer asked her if she’d like to ask Clinton a question after her speech on energy that the Democratic presidential hopeful gave in Newton on Nov. 6.

According to CNN.com, Chasanoff said, “I sort of thought about it, and I said ‘Yeah, can I ask how her energy plan compares to the other candidates’ energy plans?'”

Gallo-Chasanoff said the Clinton staffer told her, “‘I don’t think that’s a good idea, because I don’t know how familiar she is with their plans.'”

The staffer then opened a binder with about eight questions in it, each specifying what type of person should ask it, and selected a question for Gallo-Chasanoff.

Gallo-Chasanoff did not return phone calls seeking comment.