Sierra Club, Crossroad ads target Braley, Ernst on environment

CEDAR RAPIDS - The environment is taking center stage in the battle for an open U.S. Senate seat in Iowa.

The Sierra Club launched an ad Tuesday targeting Republican U.S. Senate candidate Joni Ernst's plan to shutter federal agencies while American Crossroads hit Democratic U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley for flip-flopping on whether the Keystone pipeline should be built.

The Sierra Club Political Committee released a 30-second spot using Ernst's own words to highlight her plans to close the Environmental Protection Agency.

'First, Ernst pledged to make it easier for big polluters to dump toxins into our air and water,” said the Sierra Club's Melissa Williams. 'Then, she plotted to shutter the Department of Education.”

The ad follows a familiar theme, according to Ernst campaign spokeswoman Gretchen Hamel.

'I'm not surprised that a week after Congressman Bruce Braley sold out Iowa farmers to his radical environmentalist friends, they placed yet another false and misleading attack against Joni Ernst,” Hamel said. 'How can Iowans trust Congressman Braley who puts the EPA over Iowa farmers any chance he gets?”

She was referring to Braley's vote last week against legislation to restrict the EPA's regulatory authority on Iowa farms.

American Crossroads used Braley's words to attack his position on the Keystone pipeline, which two years ago Braley called it 'an opportunity to create thousands of jobs in Iowa.”

Last year, he voted against the construction of the pipeline and 'now a California billionaire who stands to profit by blocking Keystone is spending big to help Bruce Braley's campaign,” according to American Crossroads. That's a reference to Tom Steyer, who is bankrolling the campaign by NextGen Climate to attack Ernst and help Braley.

Braley, American Crossroads said, is 'on the side of billionaire special interests not Iowa workers.”

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee weighed in, too, claiming Ernst's call for closing the federal Department of Education would eliminate federal student loans and 'cost Iowa critical funding for schools.”

The Ernst campaign called that 'another desperate attempt to mislead Iowans.”

'I trust Joni to do what's right for Iowans,” Dixie Belluchi-Water of Des Moines said in a statement released by the Ernst campaign. Her son attended Saydel High School. 'Joni went to public school, sends her daughter to public school and believes our parents and teachers know what's best, rather than Washington bureaucrats.”

Like a lot of Iowans, Belluchi-Water said she's 'tired of these false and misleading attacks.”

The new Sierra Club ad will run for one week in the Cedar Rapids, Des Moines and Quad Cities markets.