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Who on the Des Moines City Council, Polk County Board of Supervisors and Police Department have received campaign donations and dollars from Crow Tow?

Crow Tow is a towing service company in Des Moines that has come under scrutiny over the years for alleged predatory towing practices. The towing company once had a contract with Polk County for vehicle impound services but was dropped, reportedly due to complaints. As of July of this year, however, the Polk County Board of Supervisors will be contracting with Crow Tow for its services until June 2028. The Des Moines Register found that Crow Tow lobbyist and lawyer Marc Beltrame had made significant contributions to several individuals, Dawn Thorton, Randy Crow’s wife, who runs Crow’s Auto Service with him also made several contributions. We looked at the donations on the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosures Board database. Here are the donations these three made related to the above question.  

Randy Crow has only made a few contributions in recent years. In 2019, he donated a total of $2,000 to Frank Cownie’s mayoral campaign. He also donated $20 in 2021 to Carl Voss for his city council campaign.

His wife, Dawn, has been more generous. She made contributions of $4,000, $2,500, two $1,000 donations and $400 to Linda Westergaard for city council, totaling $8,900. She also made two separate $2,500 contributions and another $1,000 to Mayor Connie Boesen. In addition, she donated several times to City Councilmember Joe Gatto — $2,500 to Citizens for Joe Gatto in 2024, $2,500 in 2022, $2,500 in 2021, $2,500 in 2019, $1,000 in 2023 and $500 in 2015 — totaling $11,500 since 2015. She donated $1,000 to Polk County Supervisor Mark Holm and a total of $1,500 to Polk County Supervisor Jill Altringer as well. In 2023, she donated $2,500 to City Councilmember Chris Coleman. In 2021, she donated $1,000 to City Councilmember Carl Voss, as well. In 2019 and 2020, she donated a total of $750 to Polk County Sheriff Kevin J. Schneider. 

Beltrame has been generous as well. His two largest donations, one in 2024, was $10,000 to Mark Holm, and another $10,000 to another Polk County Supervisor Matt McCoy. He donated another $2,983 to Holm and $2,000 to Altringer, also in 2024. Back in 2019, he donated a total of $750 to Schneider, too. 

The other lobbyist listed under Crow’s Auto Service on the Iowa Legislature’s website is David Peck, who has made no contributions to any of the previously mentioned supervisors, councilmembers or sheriff. ♦