Well, it is a candidate’s worst nightmare to be caught on camera sounding like an elitist and trashing everyday Americans, particularly when you elevate the profession of lawyer over farmer — in Iowa! — and you imply farmers are stupid because they never finished law school. That’s the nightmare scenario facing Democrat Bruce Braley right now if, that is, the GOP can get the message out effectively.
Representative Bruce Braley will most-assuredly be the party’s nominee for the Iowa Senate race in 2014. He will run against whomever eventually prevails out of the very-crowded Republican primary field, which is not a certainty.
While many pundits have been citing the potential disastrous primary for Republicans as a reason for keeping the race Democrat-favored — though we at PeoplesPunditDaily.com rate the race a “Toss-Up” — they have had little to say about a potential disaster scenario occurring on the Democrat side. Because Democrats did what Democrats do and settled on a party Establishment-picked candidate early, there is simply no time to reverse course in the event a candidate makes a terrible campaign trail mistake.
Or, in the case of Bruce Braley, let is slip just how out-of-touch he really is with Iowans after spending time in Washington, D.C. Make no mistake, this is exactly what Americans — in Iowa and many other states — completely despise about Washington, and government. Now, more so than usual periods of anti-incumbent fervor, Iowans are willing to punish a politician whose values holds a lawyer more valuable than a farmer. Most Iowans, and Americans for that matter, will tell you they ally their political beliefs more with Main Street than K Street.
We have always viewed this race to be more favorable to Republicans than otherwise portrayed in the media and by other election pundits. And for good reason.
“As it stands on the issues now, Iowa voters are firmly on the side of the Republican Party,” I wrote back in December in my first data analysis of the Iowa Senate race, and not much has changed since then. Name recognition was Braley’s best asset in polling surveys, but as I identified in my second data analysis, Iowans were displaying a concerning pattern. The more they get to know Braley, the more disproportionately they decide they aren’t too keen on him. A widely viewed revelation such as this, particularly and necessarily accompanied by a smart messaging campaign defining him in a further negative light, is a game-changer.
The Democrats were already in peril of losing control of the Senate in the 2014 midterm elections, even without Iowa. However, this is one seat that is far from safe for Bruce Braley and the Democrats. Not that it ever was, as some pretended, but now this race is even more difficult for the Democrats to hold on to.
Here are Braley’s comments from the video above:
To put this in stark contrast, if you help me win this race, you may have someone with your background, your experience, your voice, someone’s who’s been literally fighting tort reform for 30 years in a visible and public way on the Senate Judiciary Committee or you might have a farmer from Iowa who never went to law school, never practiced law, serving as the next chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Because if Democrats lose the majority, Chuck Grassley will be the next chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
