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Iowa Democrats and Bruce Braley’s campaign are drawing attention to comments Republican U.S. Senate candidate Joni Ernst made during an ABC interview late last week. “What we see going on in Iraq right now, if this current administration had followed guidance from military leaders many years ago, we would not be in this situation,” Ernst said. Jeff Zeleny, ABC’s Senior Washington correspondent, asked: “Do you support the limited airstrikes that were started this morning?” Ernst replied: “I can say is what I would have supported is leaving additional troops in Iraq longer and perhaps we wouldn’t have this situation today.”...

Will she or won’t she? The race to replace Iowa Democratic Senator Tom Harkin couldn’t be any closer. The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Iowa Voters finds Republican Joni Ernst and Democrat Bruce Braley tied with 43% support each. Six percent (6%) like some other candidate and eight percent (8%) are undecided.

Iowa Democratic Senate hopeful Bruce Braley has shaken up his campaign, parting ways with admaker Larry Grisolano and pollster Diane Feldman after Republican Joni Ernst emerged from the primary with more momentum than anticipated, three sources confirmed to POLITICO. The mid-summer move by Braley quietly took place roughly a month ago, according to two of the sources, who asked to remain anonymous in order to speak about internal campaign maneuvers. The pair were replaced sometime in June by admaker Saul Shorr and pollster Geoff Garin, both of whom have worked on a number of Democratic Senate campaigns. The race is...

Republicans are seizing on a video that appears to show Iowa Democratic Senate candidate Bruce Braley claiming to be a farmer -- even though he's an attorney and U.S. congressman. The web video was flagged by the conservative America Rising PAC, and later by The Des Moines Register. It comes after the same candidate got in a bit of trouble earlier this year for making remarks seen as disparaging to farmers. In the latest video, Braley is seen walking along an Independence Day parade route when he approaches two kids and gives one a high-five. Someone can be heard saying:...

Des Moines – Iowa Republicans forged a unified plan of attack Saturday to seize opportunities in Iowa’s fall election and begin assessing their choices looking ahead to the first-in-the-nation presidential nominating process in 2016. Nearly 1,450 delegates to the Iowa GOP state convention heard rallying cries from U.S. Senate candidate Joni Ernst, Gov. Terry Branstad and three presidential hopefuls before finalizing a conservative platform and nominating Kim Reynolds as lieutenant governor, Sam Clovis as their state treasurer candidate and Adam Gregg for his attorney general bid. “I think we’re going to have a very strong and unified party and the...

Just three days after her victory in Iowa’s Republican primary, Senate candidate Joni Ernst has taken a big lead over Democrat Bruce Braley in a poll conducted by the state’s Loras College. The poll, which surveyed 600 likely Iowa voters, found 48 percent of voters backing Ernst and 41.7 percent backing Braley, with 10.3 percent undecided. That’s a swing of nearly 14 points from Braley’s peak. That poll, by far the best Ernst has yet seen in the race, was balanced by a larger one published by Rasmussen Reports on the same day which showed the race as a dead...

It appears that the barnyard theme in the U.S. Senate race will continue into the general election.  Braley found himself in hot water on Wednesday after releasing an ad that referred to Republican U.S. Senate candidate Joni Ernst as a “chick.” It actually got worse for Braley on Thursday when Democrat State Senator Steve Sodders said that the common practice of castrating hogs is equated to “mutilating animals” at a Braley press conference.Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey quickly released a statement on the issue. Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey today issued the following statement after Bruce Braley’s campaign...

The last time Rick Santorum was in Iowa, political reporters suspected that an endorsement in the Republican U.S. Senate contests was eminent. Santorum endorsed his longtime friend Secretary of State Matt Schultz, who is running for congress in Iowa’s third Congressional District on his trip to Iowa in back in March, but he refused to endorse U.S. Senate candidate Sam Clovis at the time. Clovis was an early and influential supporter of Santorum in the 2012 presidential race. This morning Santorum got of the sidelines and officially backed Clovis in Iowa’s U.S. Senate race, but in doing so called out...

Iowa Democrat and Senate candidate Bruce Braley urged the IRS to investigate social welfare organizations before it was revealed that the agency singled out tea party and conservative groups for scrutiny, Iowa Watchdog reports.Braley, currently a representative for Iowa’s first congressional district, was one of 30 Democrats who asked IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman in a March 2012 letter to investigate whether any organizations were “improperly engaged in political campaign activity.” Social welfare organizations receive tax exemptions under section 501(c)(4) of the federal tax code: The House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee published the letter, included in a group of documents released as...

The Loras College Poll released its inaugural results Monday showing a U.S. Senate GOP primary that is deadlocked at the top, with nearly half of likely voters undecided with less than two months to go.   “The Iowa GOP Senate Primary race looks to be in for an exciting finish with Mark Jacobs and Joni Ernst competing aggressively for the heart of the Republican Party,” said Christopher Budzisz, Ph.D., associate professor of politics and director of the Loras College Poll. “With nearly half of the voters surveyed saying they were undecided, there is still a lot of work to be...

After more than a year of running a textbook campaign for U.S. Senate with an emphasis on fundraising and a gradual introduction to voters, Braley was suddenly hamstrung by comments seen as insulting to farmers and Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa). The result of Braley's gaffe is a sped-up campaign in which he has been thrust into the spotlight sooner than his team expected. "I think it will accelerate the competitiveness" of the race, acknowledged Braley campaign adviser Jeff Link. For months, the combination of a weak Republican field without a standard bearer and Braley's steady hand made a GOP...

Last week, Democratic Senate candidate Bruce Braley questioned whether a “farmer who never went to law school” had the chops to take on a leadership role in Washington D.C.Well, let me tell you something. Washington would be a lot better off if we had more farmers in Congress and a lot fewer trial lawyers.I’m a constitutional lawyer who serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and in my opinion Chuck Grassley – that Iowa farmer whom Braley was denigrating – would make an outstanding chairman of that committee.Sen. Grassley is a champion for the American people, and his work holding the...

Braley camp: He knew he was being recorded when he disparaged Iowa farmers and Grassley POSTED AT 9:21 AM ON APRIL 1, 2014 BY GUY BENSON Many of us assumed this recording was made surreptitiously. It must have been. There’s no way a statewide office-seeker from Iowa would knowingly demean farmers and a beloved state political figure on tape, right? Wrong, says the Braley campaign, via the Des Moines Register: Braley’s campaign strategists say the candidate knew he was being videotaped at the private fundraiser when he made the remark that has the political world buzzing, describing Chuck Grassley as...

We recently published a forecast that described the GOP as more likely than not to win the U.S. Senate in November. But our analysis was less bullish on Republicans’ prospects of flipping the seat in Iowa currently held by Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin, who is retiring. There, Democrats appeared to have a strong candidate in Rep. Bruce Braley, who has cleared his primary field. Republicans, meanwhile, face a contentious primary with a number of candidates who have never won races for statewide or federal office. After we published our forecast, the Republican PAC America Rising released a video of Braley,...

LOGANSPORT, Ind. - A fast-moving virus that has infected hogs across half of the nation since it was first detected in the U.S. less than a year ago has become rampant in Indiana, agriculture officials say. Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, or PED, has infected farms in 43 of Indiana's 92 counties, according to March 14 data from the Indiana State Board of Animal Health. Twenty-six other states have reported cases of the virus as of March 12, the National Animal Health Laboratory Network indicates. While the flu-like sickness doesn't affect people and is not a food safety concern, it can...

The political action committee America Rising took that concept and applied it to an attack ad on Iowa Democrat Rep. Bruce Braley whose remarks earlier this week before a group of trial lawyers in Texas about Iowa farmers hit a nerve: If you help me win this race you may have someone with your background, your experience, your voice, someone who’s been literally fighting tort reform for thirty years, in a visible or public way, on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Or, you might have a farmer from Iowa who never went to law school, never practiced law, serving as the...

Iowa Democrats are worried Rep. Bruce Braley’s remark that Sen. Chuck Grassley (R) is a “farmer from Iowa who never went to law school” could come back to haunt him. Braley’s Senate campaign is in damage control mode following the release of a video in which the Democrat tells Texas trial lawyers at a fundraiser that he’s better equipped to serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee than his state’s senior senator. “If you help me win this race, you may have someone with your background, your experience, your voice, someone who’s been literally fighting tort reform for 30 years, in...

Democratic Congressman Bruce Braley holds a slight lead over his three top Republican challengers in Rasmussen Reports’ first look at the 2014 U.S. Senate race in Iowa. A new statewide telephone survey of Likely Iowa Voters finds Braley with a 41% to 38% lead over businessman Mark Jacobs. He leads State Senator Joni Ernst 40% to 37% and runs four points ahead – 40% to 36% – of former U.S. Attorney Matt Whitaker. Braley posts a 13-point lead – 44% to 31% – over another GOP contender, conservative talk show host Sam Clovis. The survey of 750 Likely Voters in...

U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley is likely sweating it after a remark about the lack of towel service at an exclusive gym that has remained open to lawmakers during the government shutdown. The Iowa congressman defended the backlash for the gym's continued operation, while thousands of government employees are furloughed, including workers at the fitness center. He said on the "Bill Press Show:" "There's hardly anybody working down there. There's no towel service. So we're doing our own laundry down there. And we pay a fee to belong to the House gym. So this is no different than if you're working...

Iowa Rep. Bruce Braley, a Democrat running for Senate, was caught on videotape disparaging fellow Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley as “a farmer from Iowa who never went to law school” — comments that later drew an apology from the candidate. The video, posted online Tuesday afternoon by GOP opposition research firm America Rising, shows Braley speaking to what the group described as a group of lawyers at a fundraiser in Texas. “If you help me win this race, you may have someone with your background, your experience, your voice — someone who’s been literally fighting tort reform for 30 years...