I saw an article on my local news station (KWWL) that states Rod Blum is being "investigated" by the House Ethics Committee to see if he broke any rules related to an unusual business he founded. Anyone know anything more about this issue?

The gist of the actual "ethics violation", if there was one, was that he didn't report being on the board of, and compensated by, the business you mentioned in his ethics disclosure.  His top aide figures into it (he may have been the one who founded the company), somehow, and there's something about endorsements by aide on behalf of this company - I've struggled to get the relevance of that aspect, unless it has something to do with whether he should've known to disclose his (Blum's) involvement with the company.  He said he would amend the disclosure - so far no word on whether he did - my lay opinion, but he's playing this one too close to the vest if there's nothing to it.  This is a must-win race in for a seat that was a huge pickup in the first place.  His opponent is of the Bernie Sanders/Ocasio-Cortez political persuasion.

He sure comes off a sleaze-bag in this one all around.

From what I gathered (from a bias news media, I get it). He owns/owns a portion of, a media company that's job online is to help companies who have committed some sort of (FDA?) violation get their bad press swept under the rug online.

That in itself seems insider-y and a bit sleazy, but so be it. The part he's in trouble for is simply not reporting it, which he claims is an oversight... and maybe it is, but intentionally distancing yourself from a business in a seeming sleazy line of work sure seems like a calculated, intentional move. Trying to fix it with a "whoops" in forgetting to mention you own a business is an annoyance in one of two ways: Either it was an intentional move to hide something from his constituency OR he's so detached from said constituency that the fact that he has a large chunk of ownership in a business is so dismiss-able as to be forgettable.

His aide is involved b/c he/she posted a fake positive review of the business. Again, a sleazy move, but not world-shaking. Instead of owning up to his mistake (benefit of the doubt here), he immediately lambasted the Dems for creating this non-story. If there's nothing to see and it was an honest pencil-whip mistake, why not just comply? I want to see the same accountability from politicians in general, left or right.

Timing is likely not unintentional, I get that, but his response to the situation, honest or otherwise, is not what I want to see from someone who represents Iowans. I don't want a vote for him to be seen as permission/acceptance, but I also don't want that vote to go to the Dems.

So in essence: Yet another political turd sandwich.