MEMO FROM THE BRUCE BRALEY CAMPAIGN: JONI ERNST STRUGGLES AS FOCUS TURNS TO HER TEA PARTY IDEAS It’s easy to see why Joni Ernst had a bad week. As the focus of the US Senate race has turned to the issues, Ernst has struggled under the spotlight to explain her fringe, Tea Party views that hurt working Iowans and trouble middle-of-the-road Iowa voters. Just this week: A new Braley for Iowa television ad highlighted Ernst’s opposition to a federal minimum wage and her belief that a $7.25 per hour minimum wage is sufficient for hard-working families in Iowa. Ernst stood by her position, even though an individual working full time on the minimum wage makes just $15,000 per year. The fact-checkers at KCRG-TV rated the ad“100% true.” Ernst struggled to explain her “philosophical opposition” to the job-creating Renewable Fuel Standard as she traveled to Washington, DC to attend a fundraiser thrown by Big Oil special interests that are working overtime to gut the RFS, even though 75,000 Iowa jobs are tied to renewable energy. When pressed, Ernst’s spokesperson admitted “in a perfect world… she would support doing away with (the RFS)”.And Ernst has faced a wave of headlines about her apparent support of so-called “nullification” – the fringe idea that states can overturn federal laws they don’t like. As the Daily Beast reported, “In embracing the concept of nullification, Ernst harkens back to a discredited theory that the Constitution is a compact and states are free to void federal laws that they dislike. This view was widely promoted by John Calhoun, the great Southern advocate of slavery, prior to the Civil War and was touted by segregationists in the 1950s and 1960s. In recent years, the idea was purged of its most racist overtones and fringe elements of the right adopted it as an argument against Obamacare, gun control, and other federal regulations.” Iowans want a Senator who will work across the party divide to advance their economic interests — not another Tea Party ideologue who will further contribute to the dysfunction in Washington. As Braley for Iowa Campaign Manager Sarah Benzing noted in a memo earlier this week, “Ernst staked out these unequivocal positions during her contentious primary, and now they are coming back to haunt her.”
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 15:27:24 +0000
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