Braley brings in Ag chair to attack Ernst on renewable fuels

SPRINGVILLE - Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Bruce Braley continued to hammer his Republican opponent, claiming she doesn't support for the Farm Bill and renewable fuels.

'That's one of the biggest contrasts in this Senate race between me and my opponent,” Braley said at a Monday news conference at the Linn Co-op in Springville. 'I was proud to vote for the Farm Bill and she said she would vote against it.”

Senate Ag Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Michigan, who was campaigning for Braley, found that surprising.

'Frankly, when I was preparing to come I was shocked to read Bruce Braley was running against someone who said she would vote against the Farm Bill and who is philosophically opposed to the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS),” Stabenow said at the co-op's grain elevator in Springville, a Linn County community east of Cedar Rapids. 'I thought that was a misprint.”

Her attack, according to the Ernst campaign, is yet another attempt by Braley 'to mislead and confuse Iowans, but the facts are the facts.”

The facts, according to Ernst spokeswoman Gretchen Hamel, are that like Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Ag Committee member, 'Joni Ernst believes the current Farm Bill doesn't do enough to help Iowa farmers who need it most.”

As far as the RFS, Hamel said Ernst 'has always been a supporter and advocate for RFS, and has a voting record in the Iowa Senate to prove it.” That includes voting for legislation to provide tax credits for biofuels and renewable fuels, and resolutions urging Congress, the USDA and Environmental Protection Agency to maximize the use of renewable fuel use.

For his part, Stabenow said, Braley 'is leading the charge to write the RFS that Iowa families need.” She and Braley are calling for the EPA to proceed with the 2014 RFS levels rather than reducing renewable fuel use levels.

Braley, who said he led an effort to get the U.S. House to adopt the Senate version of the Farm Bill, explained that the grain industry 'is a huge part of what our state economy is built upon” and the renewable fuel industry supports about 73,000 jobs.

Pointing at the bipartisan support for maintaining a robust RFS, Iowa Republicans charged Braley and Stabenow with trying to politicizing the issue. Iowa's congressional delegation - three Democrats and three Republicans - as well as GOP Gov. Terry Branstad and majorities of both parties in the Iowa Legislature have gone on record supporting renewable fuels and the RFS.

'People can go back and look at my record in the state Senate and see I do stand for the RFS, I do stand for an agricultural economy,” Ernst said in a statement issued Monday. She voted with state Senate colleagues in calling on the EPA to maintain the RFS without any reductions.

For her, Ernst said, the issue is personal because 'these are my family, my friends and my neighbors. Lots of jobs in Iowa depend on the RFS. I will continue to stand for the RFS.”

Later, Stabenow attended a fundraiser for Braley hosted by Nan Riley of Cedar Rapids.