Why would anyone want to vote for Jeff Lamberti?

Most of the time I'm razzing The Political Forecast because he's such an arch Democrat, but today he poses a really good question:

Why would anyone want to vote for Jeff Lamberti? It’s just more of the same Republican shit. He won’t come into Congress and change things. He’s part of the Republican establishment, meaning he loves his Republican values of cronyism, corruption, deficit, and debt.

He's right.

And whatever happened to the Rock In Prevention scandal that Register reporter Clark Kauffman had been writing about last summer? That story died right about the time Lamberti decided to challenge Boswell for his congressional seat.

A refresher:

During the 2004 and 2005 legislative sessions, state lawmakers appropriated $600,000 for the charity through sole-source, no-compete contracts. Rock In Prevention doesn't appear to have had a registered lobbyist working on its behalf during that time.

Minutes from Rock In Prevention's April 2004 board meeting state that Executive Director Pat McManus "is continuing to work with legislators to receive the $300,000" the group was then seeking. Eight months later, in the charity's annual report, McManus boasted of "an exciting new relationship with the Iowa Legislature" that had resulted in a $350,000 appropriation of state money.

For the 2003 legislative session, McManus was registered with the state as a lobbyist for Rock In Prevention...

The Des Moines Register in July [2005] reported that more than a third of the money spent by Rock In Prevention last year went to its executive director, McManus, and his Mission From God Records. The money paid to Mission From God purchased compact discs of music written and performed by McManus. The CDs were then distributed to Iowa schoolchildren as part of Rock In Prevention's mission to reduce drug and alcohol abuse through music.

According to Rock In Prevention officials, about 77 percent of the money paid to Mission From God goes toward McManus' actual expense in producing the CDs.

One of the charity's biggest supporters in the Legislature is Sen. Jeff Lamberti, an Ankeny Republican. His father, Don Lamberti, serves as an honorary board member at Rock In Prevention and has contributed $227,462 to the organization.

There's been no followup story since August 17, 2005. What's with that?