Campaigning Dems careful not to overplay shutdown

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Outside a state-of-the-art grain elevator, Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley talks of how Republicans and Democrats in Congress need to overcome differences that scuttled farm legislation last summer. A day later, he tells veterans at a rec center in his blue-collar, northern Iowa district that both parties should work together to help them.

“The issues surrounding our veterans should be issues that bring us together, not issues that drive us apart,” Braley says in a bipartisan pitch that lacks direct criticism of Republicans over the 16-day partial government shutdown.