Braley, Ernst focus on smaller events

DES MOINES - Iowa voters are getting a heaping helping of Bruce Braley and Joni Ernst on their television sets.

The high-stakes battle for the state's open U.S. Senate seat has produced a litany of campaign advertisements, from the candidates themselves as well as special interest groups.

But are the two U.S. Senate candidates making themselves available to voters with personal face time on the campaign trail?

According to schedules provided by each candidate's campaign covering Aug. 1 to Sept. 14, Braley and Ernst averaged roughly five to seven public campaign events per week.

Many of those events, however, while technically public, were held in conjunction with small business groups or organizations or with party supporters, leaving little or no opportunity for the average voter to attend or observe.

The Gazette-Lee Des Moines bureau counted as public events only those for which the public was invited or the media was allowed to cover. Private fundraisers were not included in the count.

Braley, on the strength of a vigorous August schedule featuring a few issue-driven, multiple-city tours, held 39 events in the 40 days he was available. Braley represents northeast Iowa in the U.S. House, and there were five days in which Congress was in session.

Ernst, who has significantly picked up her pace in September, held 28 events in the 41 days she was available. Ernst, a commander in the U.S. Army Iowa National Guard, was not available for three days of drilling.

Using only their available time, Braley averaged roughly an event per day, and Ernst was only slightly behind at roughly five events per week.

At least one political observer thought the candidates would be more active.

'As a political scientist, I'm a little surprised we haven't seen these folks out there more,” said Kelly Shaw, a political science lecturer at Iowa State University and the mayor of Indianola. 'It might just be that I work at Iowa State and live in a small town, and they don't tend to come there. … For now, it seems kind of quiet given the importance of the race.”

The Ernst-Braley campaign has garnered national attention in the race for control of the U.S. Senate. Democrats hold a slim advantage in the upper chamber, and polls have shown Iowa is one of the few, true tossup Senate races in the country.

Both candidates began the race needing to introduce themselves to voters statewide.

Braley was well-known in Eastern Iowa, which he has represented in Congress since 2007. But he was not nearly as well-known in the rest of the state.

Ernst, a state senator from Red Oak, needed to establish herself outside of the capital city of Des Moines and the western area she represented.

Both candidates have used television advertising to introduce themselves in a positive light while ads from outside groups have painted less flattering pictures of each. And there have been plenty of both types of ads.

And the candidates have been on the road, campaigning with Iowans, at various public events.

The vast majority of both candidates' public events fell into two categories: meetings and tours with organizations and businesses and party events.

Both candidates also appeared in a handful of parades and fairs. Neither appeared at many public forums.

Braley held round-table discussions on the minimum wage on Aug. 5 in Mason City and Aug. 23 in Waterloo, and he participated in a round-table discussion on Latino issues on Labor Day in Council Bluffs.

Ernst held round-table discussions on senior issues on Sept. 2 in Waterloo and Sept. 3 in Des Moines.

Those roundtables provide the rare opportunity for the public to engage the candidates one-on-one. The other events typically are limited to small numbers of certain individuals, such as a business' or an organization's top officials.

Or they allow for larger crowds but not an opportunity to interact with the candidate.

Both campaigns defended their candidate's public schedule.

'Joni is the grassroots candidate with the farm girl work ethic to outwork Congressman Braley in taking her message to Iowans,” Ernst spokeswoman Gretchen Hamel said in a statement. 'Congressman Braley is a Washington politician who has sold out Iowans and says one thing on the campaign trail and does another in Washington.”

Said Braley spokesman Sam Lau, also in a statement: 'Bruce Braley has traveled extensively throughout Iowa to talk with Iowans about his plans to increase the minimum wage, protect and strengthen Social Security and Medicare, keep college affordable, and maintain a strong Renewable Fuel Standard, and he is excited to continue discussing his plans to move Iowa forward with voters all across the state from now until Election Day.”

Those issue-focused tours bulked up Braley's August schedule. For example, he held nine events on nine college campuses over four days talking with students about college affordability.

But those events regularly were attended by small numbers of students. Media was allowed to cover the events.

Braley also held multiple events specifically about the Renewable Fuel Standard and the minimum wage.

Ernst's campaign schedule appears to be ramping up. She has held 11 events in September; two have been public forums and many others have featured Ernst mingling with voters, whether by visiting businesses in Manchester, walking among the crowd at the Iowa State Fair or tailgating at the Iowa-Iowa State football game.

Arthur Sanders, a political science professor at Drake University, said it is not uncommon in the current political and media climate for candidates to ration public campaign appearances, especially in a competitive race.

Most polls have shown the Braley-Ernst race very close, usually within the margin of error.

'These days, I think more and more candidates are moving in that direction because of the risks involved in spontaneity,” Sanders said. 'All you have to do is see over the past few elections the number of candidates who have gotten into trouble by spontaneously responding to some kind of question and then having to defend what they said, backtrack or whatever. …

'The current media environment, with instant access for everyone with Twitter, with Facebook, with all this means that it's much riskier to engage in more spontaneous, unscripted situations. You're better off trying to keep control.”

Early voting starts this week, and Election Day is just more than six weeks away.

Will Iowa's U.S. Senate candidates, down the home stretch, put themselves out in front of the public more often? Or will they campaign closer to the vest and withdraw from the public eye?

Sanders thinks that as long as the race remains close, the candidates will remain cautious.

'If you're in a close, competitive race, and by any measure we have a close, competitive race, you want to be more controlled about the message you're getting out there,” Sanders said.