Battling to take on Braley

CEDAR RAPIDS - Two Republicans seeking the nomination for a northeast Iowa congressional seat stuck to their talking points last night, emphasizing their conservative credentials and their ability to defeat a three-term incumbent.

Dubuque businessman Rod Blum and Independence attorney Ben Lange squared off in a live, televised debate at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids just two weeks before the June 5 primary election to determine the party's nominee in Iowa's new 1st District. The winner will face Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley, a Waterloo attorney who will be seeking his fourth term in the U.S. House.

If the candidates appeared to agree on many policy issues, they tried to offer contrasts between each other and Braley.

“Who's going to beat Bruce Braley?” Blum asked. “Bruce Braley is a 57-year-old career politician and trial lawyer. I'm a job creator. I started a business. I've created over 400 jobs ... met a payroll every week for 21 straight years.”

Blum said a 57-year-old “job creator” is in a stonger position against Braley, whom he called a trial lawyer and career politician, than “a 32-year-old lawyer who wants to be a career politician.”

For the record, Braley is 54 and Lange is 33 and has never held elected office. However, as a first-time candidate in 2010, Lange gained national attention when he was outspent by a five-to-one margin but lost by less than 2 percentage points.

That makes him better prepared than Blum to run and win, Lange said.

“Who is more likely to win? Someone who has united an entire coalition of not just an older generation, but a younger generation,” Lange said.

He said he's motivated to provide a new generation of leadership because sending the “same old, same old” to Washington has only resulted in more debt for his three young daughters to pay.

“We are looking at one of the most profound moral failures and social injustices in America's history in our national debt,” Lange said. “It's time we sent a new generation of leaders to Washington.”

As a result of reapportionment, Iowa has lost one of its five congressional seats. The redrawn 1st District covers 20 counties, including Linn and 10 others that weren't in the district two years ago. The winner of the November election also will represent the residents of Worth, Mitchell, Howard, Winneshiek, Allamakee, Bremer, Fayette, Clayton, Black Hawk, Buchanan, Delaware, Dubuque, Marshall, Tama, Benton, Jones, Jackson, Poweshiek and Iowa counties.

The debate was held by the Five Seasons Republican Women of Cedar Rapids in partnership with Kirkwood and SourceMedia Group, the parent company of KCRG-TV9 and The Gazette.