This week, on the 20th and 21st, the two large postcard mailings from the Marc Mark Jacob’s campaign appeared in our mailbox. They are shown below front and back. The designs and content are intended as pure attack pieces on Joni Ernst, nothing about Jacobs at all, no contrast in positions is owned up to. Jacobs is so proud of them that in order to meet minimal disclosure requirements, all his identifiers are set in the smallest of type or almost screened out.
Earlier in the week we reported on the Republican Senate candidate forum. We mentioned the fireworks between Ernst and Jacobs. The other candidates were content to lean back and let them go at it with little cage rattling on their part. Why produce negatives for your self when your rivals are in the process of loosing support? Which is what we think happened Monday night to Ernst and Jacobs.
Ernst might have held her own (however convenient now) when she apologized for voting for a gas tax increase. And perhaps she played the audience’s lack of knowledge about the internet tax she voted for. She described it as closing a loophole, but it was a “loophole” that benefited consumers. Retail sales taxes are a pass through. They are collected by the business but originally paid by the consumer. But that may have slipped by people.
We think she lost ground when Jacobs repeated his charge that she missed forty percent of the votes as a state senator this session while seeking promotion. Her response was that her average attendance over three years was ninety percent. It was a lame excuse by any standard. As others have pointed out, what boss would accept the equivalent excuse . . . “hey boss, I showed up the first two or three years but I have been distracted and decided to cut way back . . . you understand.” By the way we believe she still gets paid her Senate salary in spite of the bulk of the absences being for what amounts to extraneous business.
It might have been better for Ernst to counter Jacobs attack, something to the effect: “at least I have been present in Iowa over the last 30 years.”
The problem for Jacobs was that however true the absenteeism charge, it was ungentlmanly to be on the attack “all night” picking on her. He got the negative swipes in, and the punches may have landed, but we are not sure it helped him. It probably helped the others in a “pox on both your houses” sort of way.
While Ernst apologized for voting for a gas tax increases, Jacobs has made lame even weaselly excuses for supporting even greater taxes on the economy then he could ever accuse Ernst of supporting — cap and trade. But no admission of fault. Nor has there been any apology from him for supporting the likes of Corzine or Specter or the other Democrats he helped as Chairman of an energy PAC.
But maybe the polls are accurate as regards Ernst’s front runner status and all Jacobs can hope to do with his attack ads is deny Ernst a 35% plurality and an outright win, thereby throwing the nomination to the convention. We now think Jacobs will/would lose there as well, but so it goes.
Such seemingly ungentlemanly attacks are better left to ads by outside groups, such as are being used against him. Not that Ernst isn’t attacking on her own as well, but she gets to, she’s a “girl” . . . oh the outrageous fortunes of politics and political correctness. It is not like those groups are supporting Ernst, they may prefer someone else, they are just trying to point out facts about Jacobs, and the truth hurts.
Apparently Jacobs doesn’t have any friends to muster in the organized conservative community. He must rely on putting out attack ads with much of his own money with his own name on them. Bummer.
The backfire potential is then increased when Jacobs is the direct attacker and the attack is a woman and it is revealed that his manly ego required a departure from the meet and greet with the common folks before the forum for a hair and make-up session. We would have loved to originally report that little tidbit but the information came from the QC Times. We did note that Jacobs was the last to mount the stage after an unbecoming interlude. It was bad form.
By the way, regarding Ernst’s gas tax apology, The Iowa Republican did an analysis of what Ernst floated as a possibly “better” way to finance road and bridge repairs. It is still a tax route. No talk of cuts and prioritization and growth in the economy creating a greater tax base, or “repatriating” Iowan’s tax dollars that now go to the federal government. The federal grab should be cut back so states can do what needs to be done without federal restrictions and inefficiencies. Read the full story titled: Ernst’s Answer on Gas Tax Leads to More Questions About Where She Actually Stands
With regards to the negative campaign going on between Ernst and Jacobs, what we would play up as another worrisome marker is Ernst’s endorsement by the Chamber of Commerce. We would play that up because more and more Republicans have come to understand that the Chamber of Commerce is just another rent seeking organization, including its push to inflict the costs of amnesty for illegal immigration on the rest of the nation. But of course we have no doubt Jacobs coveted their endorsement, and to denigrate it now would seem to be perfidy to elements of Jacob’s moderate Republican establishment support.
Speaking of perfidy, that brings us to Steve Grubbs and Victory Enterprise’s involvement as prime consultants to the Jacobs campaign. We presume they produced the attack pieces set forth above. They have some truth in them so they represent a departure from other shameful efforts. But back then he was doing the bidding of establishment types and “gold dome” lobbyists. No conflicts. Now two establishment favorites are beating each other up and Grubbs is on one side (as predictable the most monied side).
With eleven days to go it is hard to guess how desperate and sensational Grubbs and company will go to eeech eek out their goal. Jacobs* probably has more discretion than the likes of pathetic Roby Smith however, so maybe Grubbs Victory Enterprises will be constrained. But one does wonder, how will elements of the Republican establishment view Grubbs and company sullying one of their favorites, Joni Ernst, not to mention the denigration of a gas tax increase? Can he work for that other half again? Inquiring minds want to know!
Political consulting can be such a den of vipers and opportunists we have no idea. No doubt the establishment types can all understand going with deep pockets or upfront money. And, it is not like that operation has not helped protect tax increases in the past. A pox on all such houses. R Mall
* Read more about our take on Jacobs here.
