Last week, a bombshell was dropped as The Des Moines Register released a series of articles about the taping of a Sept. 3 meeting held by Rep. Greg Ganske, R-Iowa, who is challenging Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, for his Senate seat in Washington. In the aftermath, Harkin has lost a campaign manager (resigned) and a 21-year-old research assistant (resigned).

Brian Conley, of Des Moines, is suspected of taping the meeting, then passing it on to Rafael Ruthchild, the research assistant, according to the Harkin campaign. The Harkin campaign then turned the tape and a transcript of the tape over to Kathie Obradovich, a Lee Enterprises newspaper reporter. The rest is history.

The problem is with Conley, a seemingly loose cannon, an ISU alumnus. He worked for Harkin in the mid-1970s as a low-level congressional aide and has voiced his support for Harkin during the years since. On Feb. 7, Conley wrote a letter to the editor for the Register’s opinion page saying that Ganske lacked ideas and that Harkin was an effective leader. But on June 4 he switched party lines to coincide with the primary elections and later made a $50 contribution to Ganske’s campaign. In July, he switched back to the Democratic Party. Harkin said he hasn’t spoken to Conley in years. Conley claimed that he taped the meeting of his own free will, and then turned it over to the Harkin campaign out of disgust for what Ganske said: “You’ve never seen a campaign where anyone will attack [Harkin] like we’re going to attack him, with a smile on our face.”

The Polk County attorney’s office said it will decide by the end of the week as to whether there is enough evidence to proceed with an investigation. Open records experts claim that the taping is in accordance with the law, as long as it’s not used maliciously.

Ganske is saying that the taping is comparable to Watergate. At Harkin and Ganske’s first debate, Ganske said: “You know what a string of lies is? It’s a cover-up. … What did Harkin know and when did he know it?”

But Harkin has been doing the right thing since the story broke. He has distanced himself from the people who seem to be connected with the controversy. And Harkin has not lost credibility with his voters. According to a Register poll which was conducted during the initial reports of controversy, the senator has a 20-percentage-point lead over Ganske. There was only a 9 point gap in June.

Ganske should stop playing off the controversy. Is the taping the next Watergate? Not a chance. A heck of a mess? Oh yeah. But the two congressional leaders should pick up where they left off and repair the tarnished image of Iowa politics.

Editor Board: Cavan Reagan, Amber Billings, Rachel Faber Machacha, Charlie Weaver, Zach Calef, Ayrel Clark.