Looks like the chickens are coming home to roost for Joni Ernst (R. IA):
http://www.politico.com/...
Iowa GOP Senate candidate Joni Ernst has been hammering Democrat Bruce Braley for missing votes and committee hearings on Capitol Hill while he was out campaigning.
Yet Ernst missed nearly 40 percent of the votes in the Iowa state Senate during 2014, as well as large number of committee meetings for the panels she serves on, state records show.
Ernst has also attended only a fraction of the meetings of the Iowa boards and commissions she has been appointed to since taking office in 2010.
Ernst is seeking the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin. The 44-year-old Ernst, a lieutenant colonel in the Iowa Army National Guard, is locked in a tough contest with Braley, with Ernst having a small lead in most polls. A GOP win in Iowa could help cement a Republican takeover of the Senate, so everything to do with the race is under a national microscope.
Ernst has repeatedly slammed Braley for missing some Veterans’ Affairs committee hearings in 2011-12, an attack that Braley has been forced to counter. Concerned Veterans for America, a Koch Brothers-affiliated group, has run a TV ad in Iowa pounding Braley over the issue.
Braley’s campaign has said he was attending other committee hearings or did attend key Veterans' Affairs subcommittee hearings.
Ernst’s challengers in the GOP primary hit her repeatedly for missing votes and committee meetings this year, but it wasn’t enough to derail her successful drive for the Republican nomination.
But her failure to take part in the state boards and commissions — after seeking these appointments to buttress her political resume — could hurt Ernst.
For instance, Ernst was appointed to the Iowa Council on Educator Development in August 2013. She missed two of the council’s sessions in October and November, and, by January, was no longer listed as a member of the organization.
The Iowa Republican was named to the Governmental Public Health Advisory Council in early 2011. However, Ernst has apparently not attended any of the group’s 18 meetings since then, according to its attendance records.
Similarly, Ernst was tabbed for the Mental Health and Disability Services Commission in January 2013. However, she not attended any of the 20 commission meetings since that time.
And Ernst took part in only two of the 32 sessions of the Statewide Interoperable Communications System Board since 2011. - Politico, 10/8/14
That's not the only bad press Ernst received:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
A new super PAC launching a $1 million TV campaign against Democratic Senate hopeful Bruce Braley in Iowa this week is run out of the Des Moines consulting firm of a strategist for Braley’s GOP opponent -- the latest example of how campaigns and their outside allies are operating in close proximity.
The super PAC, Priorities for Iowa Political Fund, is headed by Sara Craig, a consultant for Redwave Communications. Last year, Craig and Redwave founder David Kochel together started a similarly named tax-exempt group, Priorities for Iowa, which ran an ad hammering Braley after he was caught on tape dismissively referring to GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley as “a farmer.”
More recently, Kochel has served as an outside strategist for Braley’s opponent, GOP Senate candidate Joni Ernst. Her campaign has paid Kochel's firm more than $25,000 for direct mail services this year, according to Federal Election Commission reports.
Craig said in a statement that Kochel has no involvement with the super PAC, which she registered with the FEC on Sept. 5.
"Redwave implemented a firewall policy before Priorities for Iowa Political Fund was even formed, walling off personnel so that we can service our clients within the confines of established law," she said.
According to FEC filings, the pro-Ernst super PAC recently spent more than $1 million on a TV ad against Braley that is expected to go on the air shortly.
Unlike federal candidates, super PACs can accept unlimited contributions, but they are not permitted to coordinate their strategy with candidates or party committees. - Washington Post, 10/7/14
And here's some more GOP stupidity for you:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/...
A new attack ad by the Karl Rove-founded group American Crossroads included a curious citation: a widely panned Heritage Foundation study on immigration reform which was co-written by a scholar who once argued against letting immigrants with low IQs into the country.
The ad attacks Rep. Bruce Braley, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Iowa, on Obamacare before pivoting to immigration reform. At 0:21 into the ad text reads "Bruce Braley: Giving Lawbreakers Food Stamps and Medicare"; at the bottom is a citation to "The Heritage Foundation, 5/6/13."
When reached for comment American Crossroads communications director Paul Lindsay confirmed that the citation was referring to the Heritage study that caused such controversy.
In a followup email Lindsay said that the Heritage Foundation didn't "debunk" the immigration study itself, the think tank instead disavowed the 2009 work by Richwine. Lindsay stressed that the ad was citing the Heritage study, not the 2009 work by Richwine. - TPM, 10/7/14
Here's a little more info:
http://www.msnbc.com/...
At first blush, it looks like just another lazy, generic attack ad, aired by a group that clearly doesn’t think highly of voters’ intelligence. It even includes, for the third consecutive cycle, ridiculous claims that the Affordable Care Act “cuts” Medicare – a claim that’s been discredited countless times, and given the Republican agenda, a claim that doesn’t even make sense.
But just below the surface, Crossroads is playing an even more bizarre game. For one thing, it’s citing research from Jason Richwine, who gained national notoriety after arguing that white people are inherently smarter than people of color.
For another, the anti-immigration message is itself hard to take seriously. Under comprehensive immigration reform, undocumented immigrants can eventually become citizens, making them eligible to receive the same benefits of citizenship as everyone else. By this reasoning, Iowa’s Bruce Braley supports “giving lawbreakers food stamps,” but so too does John McCain, Marco Robio, and plenty of other Republicans.
Indeed, let’s not overlook the inconvenient detail that Karl Rove’s group is attacking the Iowa Democrat for agreeing with Karl Rove. - MSNBC, 10/8/14
But this is what Rove has to resort to now:
https://www.bloomberg.com/...
It's just a little jarring to see this message coming from American Crossroads. Karl Rove, who raises funds for the group, has spent more than a decade telling Republicans that they need to be careful about how they discuss immigration if they want to win Hispanic votes. "It is...important that Republicans avoid calling a pathway to citizenship 'amnesty,' Rove wrote a year ago." And here's Crossroads, telling Iowans that any pathway to citizenship is amnesty. It's a long, long way from the Bush presidential campaigns.
"Seems to me that, if there's a story here, it's that Rove and American Crossroads supported the same amnesty that they're hitting Braley for supporting in that ad," Richwine told me in an email. "That makes me wonder why Rove et al. keep telling Republicans it's in their political interest to back amnesty." - Bloomberg, 10/8/14
Ernst may have Rove to do her bidding but Braley will be having a big name campaigning for him on Friday:
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/...
First Lady Michelle Obama is coming to Des Moines on Friday to campaign for Bruce Braley, a Democrat facing a tough race for the U.S. Senate against Republican Joni Ernst.
The Braley campaign announced the first lady's visit in a press release issued Sunday night. The "Iowa Votes" rally will be held at the Drake University Fieldhouse at 2701 Forest Ave. The doors will be open from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., and arrivals past 2 p.m. will not be guaranteed entrance, organizers said.
Michelle Obama will speak about her support for Bruce Braley and the importance of voting in this year's crucial mid-term election, the Braley campaign said.. She and Braley will also encourage all Iowans to vote early by mail or in person because it is the simplest and easiest way to cast a ballot, campaign officials said. - Des Moines Register, 10/7/14
Click here to donate and get involved with Braley's camoaing so he can defeat Ernst:
http://www.brucebraley.com/