IOWA CITY, Iowa — The first task for Joni Ernst’s Senate campaign was about getting Iowa voters to know her. Now, it’s about getting them to like her too.
Faced with millions of dollars Democratic ads painting her as an extremist, the Iowa Republican has launched a charm offensive designed to soften her image.
On a recent sun-splashed Saturday in Iowa City, she hugged her way through a crowd of tailgaters before the annual Iowa-Iowa St. rivalry football game. One day prior, a camera crew had followed her at another event, with explicit instructions to get the hugs on tape.
“We have a phenomenal candidate,” said Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad as he schmoozed alongside Ernst at the tailgate. “The biggest challenge is, in this short period of time, for her to meet as many people as she can.”
One year ago, few political operatives would have named Iowa, a purplish-blue state, among the key battleground contests. Now, the Senate race is suddenly at the epicenter of the 2014 midterm elections, and Ernst’s success is pivotal to the GOP’s hopes of recapturing a Senate majority.
The conventional wisdom in the race is that Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley faces a likability problem, rooted in a disparaging remark about farmers he made earlier in the campaign. But Ernst now finds herself in a similar bind.
This week, Ernst announced that she will travel to each of Iowa’s 99 counties by Election Day — a “full Grassley,” in Iowa parlance, referring to Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, known for making a similar cross-state pilgrimage.
Ernst and her campaign hope the retail politics, anchored by her broad perma-smile, will act as a counterweight to Democratic attacks that have shaded her as relentlessly partisan.
A current radio ad by the group NextGen Climate Action, funded by the billionaire Tom Steyer, includes a clip of Ernst saying, “I have not seen proven, you know, proof” of climate change.
It’s no coincidence then that Ernst’s rhetoric on the campaign trail hasn’t fit neatly with national Republican trends. Ernst, an active officer in the Iowa National Guard, memorably clashed with the party’s approach to addressing sexual assaults in the military. And in spite of some harsh remarks about the president during her Republican primary, Ernst does not often criticize President Obama.
“I don’t talk a lot about him,” Ernst told the Washington Examiner. “I am critical of him when it comes to foreign policy, because I have a unique perspective in this race, and I don’t think he has been the leader that he should be.”
But one Republican strategist who has kept tabs on the race conceded that Democratic characterizations of Ernst as an extreme partisan have “taken a toll” on her standing, in spite of her campaign’s efforts to counter them.
“I think it’s difficult to say she’s going to get this huge groundswell of support in the next two months or so,” the Republican strategist said. “What is more important is making sure everyone knows who Braley is.”
Millions of dollars have already been spent toward that goal.
The Karl Rove-backed super PAC American Crossroads and its nonprofit arm Crossroads GPS will pour a combined $5 million into the race attacking Braley. The Koch network of outside groups, under the Freedom Partners umbrella, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have also spent millions to boost Ernst.
But Braley has also received millions of dollars-worth of support on the airwaves from the Democratic Senate Majority PAC, and NextGen Climate Action, the group funded by the billionaire Tom Steyer. Both groups have endeavored to portray Ernst as an extremist.
“Everybody’s negatives are high on both sides right now, but [Ernst’s] are a little more polarizing,” said one Democratic strategist. “The warmth that voters felt for her initially has eroded quite a bit.”
Braley, meanwhile, appears to have rebounded somewhat from the low point of his campaign, when he was caught on tape dismissing Grassley as “a farmer from Iowa who never went to law school.”
For one, Braley has benefited greatly from the Democratic ad blitz in Iowa. The other part of Democrats’ comeback strategy has involved putting the candidate on lockdown.
On Sept. 12, singer-songwriter Carole King traveled to Iowa to meet with some of Braley’s volunteers and to host a fundraiser on his behalf. Braley did not attend the public events where she stumped for him; an event with both Braley and King was not open to the public or the press.
The next day, Braley was a no-show at the tailgate prior to the University of Iowa and Iowa State football game, although he attended both schools.
Braley finally emerged that Sunday for a 10-minute speech at Sen. Tom Harkin’s annual steak fry, where he made the familiar charge that Ernst “embraces reckless Tea Party ideas that are bad for Iowa.”
“Iowans say, ‘We can,’” Braley said. “Sen. Ernst says, ‘We can’t.’”
Braley received a polite response from the crowd, which had assembled mostly to see Harkin and his headlining guests, Bill and Hillary Clinton.
A polite response was all Braley needed. Unlike Ernst, Braley isn’t trying to win with popularity or an infectious personality, but brute political endurance.
“[Braley] is tried and true, kind of boring,” the Democratic strategist said. “But boring’s not bad.”
