Campaign Almanac: Chuck Grassley, Mike Franken trade jabs about new ad

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, a Republican, released a digital ad this week accusing Democratic opponent Mike Franken, a retired Navy admiral, of lying to superior officers while in the military.

The 30-second spot says Franken “intentionally (gave) his superior officers false information.”

The ad shows a short video of Franken talking about being asked for a cost estimate of a military operation.

“Admittedly, I inflated the cost of that. Quite a bit inflated,” he says.

In a longer clip of the remarks linked by Grassley campaign spokesperson Michaela Sundermann before the ad aired, Franken is shown speaking about military operations in the African country of Burundi during a time of internal conflict. He said he was told, “Franken, you got to do something in Burundi.” Franken didn’t say whether this request came from a commanding officer.

He said he proposed providing troops to secure the airport in the country’s capital and the U.S. embassy for 30 days. He then said he inflated the estimate because he feared that the U.S. would not be able to pull the troops out after that timeframe.

“Because I feared that once we got in, we would never get out,” Franken said in the video. “And I’ll go to my grave in saying, indeed, had we put 5,000 troops in Burundi today, we would be talking about whether 12,000 was enough.”

"Sen. Grassley’s ridiculous attacks on Mike Franken give away the game: He's running scared,” Franken campaign spokesperson C.J. Petersen said in an emailed statement. “While Mike Franken was serving as captain of the USS Winston Churchill, Chuck Grassley was fighting to keep Medicare from lowering prescription drug prices."

The video provided says the remarks came in September 2019 when Franken ran his first campaign in Iowa’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate.

HINSON, MATHIS TO DEBATE: Iowa PBS will host a statewide televised debate between candidates running for Eastern Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District U.S. House seat.

The “Iowa Press” debate between Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson of Marion and Democratic challenger Liz Mathis, a state senator from Hiawatha, will be televised live at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 18, according to Iowa PBS.

The hourlong debate will air live on statewide Iowa PBS and be streamed on iowapbs.org, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

Kay Henderson, host of “Iowa Press,” will moderate the debate with a panel of Iowa political journalists asking the candidates questions, according to a news release. There will be no studio audience during the debate.

FARM BUREAU ENDORSES: The Iowa Farm Bureau Political Action Committee has designated Iowa U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, Gov. Kim Reynolds, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig and Iowa U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson as a “Friend of Agriculture” for the 2022 general election.

The Republican incumbents seeking re-election Nov. 8 were endorsed based on support of Farm Bureau policies and their “commitment to Iowa’s farm families and agricultural economy,” according to a news release.

“With one in every five Iowans employed in agriculture and ag-related industries, we must elect Friend of Agriculture candidates who will continue to be champions for agriculture and the hard-working Iowa families who make their living feeding and fueling the world,” Boone County farmer and Farm Bureau PAC Chairman Kriss Haglund said in a statement.