The Des Moines Register
October 13, 2014
Democrat Bruce Braley came to Saturday night’s debate to fight, and he took it to Republican Joni Ernst hard
, schooling his rival that she had to be willing to explain or defend controversial comments she’d made during the GOP primary.
“Sound bites have consequences,” Braley, an eight-year congressman, told Ernst in the second of three debates in Iowa’s fiercely competitive U.S. Senate race.
Later, he said: “Senator Ernst is fond of saying things that sound good, but when you look at what they mean to Iowans, they don’t make Iowans better off.”
That opened the door for Ernst, a four-year state senator, to get the biggest applause line of the night.
“When you talk about your words, behind closed doors at a fundraiser in Texas, you poked fun at Senator Grassley for being just a farmer from Iowa without a law degree,” she said, as some members of the crowd at St. Ambrose University in Davenport roared with approval.
Iowa politics watchers observed that Ernst wasn’t as dominant at the beginning of the Quad-City Times/KWQC-TV6 debate, which highlighted how well she did in the first debate two weeks ago at Simpson College.
“It seemed that Braley was a bit more relaxed at the start this time than in the first debate, and that Ernst was a little more tentative,” said Timothy Hagle, a political scientist at the University of Iowa.
Hagle pointed out that the first debate followed the release of a Des Moines Register Iowa Poll that showed Ernst in the lead by 6 percentage points. Two hours before Saturday night’s debate began, a second Iowa Poll showed that the race has tightened, and Ernst now leads by 1 point.
“It might be the kind of thing that could affect one’s debate performance to some extent,” Hagle said. “Regardless, Ernst seemed to warm up once things got going.”
“A better result for Braley tonight than in the first debate,” agreed Democratic strategist Jerry Crawford.
The pair sparred over Social Security, national security and health care.
Braley prefaced several of his comebacks with an attack line: “Senator Ernst knows that isn’t true.”
“Which seems to be a polite way of saying she’s lying,” Hagle said. “Ernst didn’t seem to take the bait.”
A moderator asked Braley about a TV attack ad by the NRA Political Victory Fund that ties Braley to Michael Bloomberg and says Braley will take away people’s Second Amendment Rights.
“The answer is, I’ve never met Michael Bloomberg,” Braley said with a laugh. “I have no idea what these ads are based upon.”
Republican operatives immediately jumped on Braley for that, noting that a news release on Braley’s congressional website describes how he and Bloomberg both spoke at a December 2010 event by No Labels, a nonpartisan issue advocacy group.
Ernst was asked about another TV attack ad that insinuates she had signed a written commitment to the Koch brothers, two billionaire businessmen who are influential in conservative politics.
“No, I have not signed a pledge with the Koch brothers,” Ernst said, laughing.
Hagle tweeted: “So @BruceBraley isn’t pals w/Bloomberg and @joniernst hasn’t signed pledge with Kochs. … glad that’s settled.”
State Rep. Mary Wolfe, D-Clinton, tweeted: “Twitter feed summary: ‘liar liar pants on fire.’ New low in IA political discourse.”
