‘Peeps,’ pork are campaign fodder for Iowa U.S. Senate candidates

MARION - It's 'game on” in the race for an open U.S. Senate seat and, for the most part, it so far has been a war of words.

The campaigns of Republican state Sen. Joni Ernst and Democratic U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley traded charges Thursday in a flurry of emails about pork and peeps.

'They're already coming after me,” Ernst told about 60 people at a Republican rally in a Marion. 'That's great. It shows they're scared and I look forward to the challenge.”

She was referring to a 30-second TV spot the Braley campaign pushed out the day after she captured 56 percent of the vote in the five-way GOP primary. Drawing on her farm background, Ernst said she knows how to 'cut the pork” and, referring to Washington big spenders, said she will 'make 'em squeal” when she gets to the U.S. Senate.

Braley's ad, 'Peeps,” featuring a young chicken, exposes Ernst's record as a 'typical politician who says one thing, but does the exact opposite,” his campaign said.

According to the ad, Ernst campaigns as a budget-cutter, but when she had the chance to cut state spending 'we didn't hear a peep.”

At a Cedar Rapids news conference later, Iowa Senate colleague Sen. Liz Mathis, D-Cedar Rapids, sought to 'dispel any myths” Ernst is spreading 'as a part of some slick marketing.”

'You need some truth in marketing,” Mathis said. 'Not once did I see any legislation from her, developed by her, that I had worked with her on cutting pork.”

Instead, Ernst had a record of voting 'no” on proposals, Mathis said.

'So it was more of an obstructionist view rather than a collaborative view,” she said.

According to the Ernst campaign, the second-term senator co-sponsored Senate File 223, a bill to impose a hiring freeze in state government, Senate Joint Resolution 12 to limit the amount of spending by the state government and Senate Joint Resolution 8 calling for a constitutional amendment to limit government spending and limit the ability to raise taxes.

Overall, Mathis countered, Ernst didn't show a 'good balance of cutting spending and also progressive policy.”