Environmental groups fund ad critical of Ernst

A coalition of environmental groups said Tuesday it will spend $1 million this campaign season to try to defeat Republican Senate hopeful Joni Ernst.

The announcement raises even further the profile of environmental issues in the state's race for the Senate seat opened up by the impending retirement of Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin. Already, Tom Steyer, a billionaire environmentalist and founder of a San Francisco-based hedge fund, has said he'll invest heavily in the race through the NextGen Climate super PAC.

The new coalition is composed of the League of Conservation, Sierra Club and Environmental Defense Action Fund.

The group is kicking off its campaign with a new television ad highlighting Ernst's call to eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as the federal education department. The ad also prominently features Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate who endorsed Ernst.

The ad will begin running this week in Cedar Rapids and Des Moines, the coalition said.

'Extremists like Sarah Palin and the Koch brothers are backing Joni Ernst because they know she would do their bidding in Washington. Her plan to abolish the EPA and threaten our air and water is just too extreme for Iowa,” Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters, said in a statement.

Gretchen Hamel, a spokeswoman for the Ernst, campaign responded in an email: 'The people behind this ad are the same Washington liberal extremists trying to force Iowans to submit to a cap and trade energy tax. Joni is standing in their way and that's why they're attacking her.”

Ernst is facing U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, in the fall general election, and already outside interests have begun pouring money into the race.

Earlier this month, the Senate Majority PAC spent $376,000 on a media buy opposing Ernst.

Americans for Prosperity, which has ties to the billionaire industrialist Koch brothers, also made a significant advertising buy in Iowa to oppose Braley earlier this month. The Braley camp says, thus far in the campaign, $1.3 million outside money has been spent criticizing him.

Ernst, a state senator from Red Oak, was herself the beneficiary of outside advertising during the Republican primary, with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other groups weighing in with advertising to help her.