Posted on 06/05/2014 8:30:16 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The Iowa Republican Senate primary is over and the results were stunning.
The winner is state Senator and National Guard Lt. Col. Joni Ernst with an astonishing 56.2 percent of the vote in a five-candidate primary. Conservative talk show host and professor Sam Clovis came in second with 18 percent.
Analysts agree that what’s most amazing is the third-place finish of Mark Jacobs with 16.8 percent.
Jacobs was born in Iowa but lived in Texas most of his life. In Texas he took over a troubled energy company and “fixed” it.
When he was done, most employees had been fired and the company stock was worth very little. But Jacobs made a bundle and decided to move to Iowa and run for the GOP’s Senate nomination.
Iowa has an open Senate race with the retirement of liberal Democrat Tom Harkin so this was an attractive contest for the five Republican contenders to enter.
Jacobs shoveled a ton of money into his campaign outspending his four opponents by at least three to one.
I have written about the risk of self-funded campaigns, which is basically that when you fund your own contest you have only one vote.
If you have several thousand people give you $5 they will vote for you because they have “invested” in your candidacy.
Jacobs also made a point of the fact that he was not a politician and would bring private business experience to government. Apparently that did not sell.
Moving to Iowa was seen as “carpetbagging.” Although his opponents were fairly gentle in their attacks on him, many, MANY Republicans with whom I spoke and had coffee felt that way about him. One of them asked me, “What was the last Iowa election that Jacobs voted in? Who did he vote for in the last Iowa caucuses?” The answer, of course, was that he was living in Texas. That hurt.
Jacobs also was devastated by two very clever, edgy, controversial ads by Joni Ernst. The first ad, which immediately went viral, starts, “I’m Joni Ernst. I grew up castrating hogs on an Iowa farm, so when I get to Washington I’ll know how to cut pork.” In the second ad, “The candidate, wearing a leather jacket, rumbles up to a shooting range on a Harley.” She then proceeds to shoot Obamacare.
She also harvested some endorsements that ranged from Sarah Palin to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Mitt Romney to the NRA. Those endorsements showed she had very broad support across the GOP spectrum. These ads were dynamite. They propelled Ernst to visibility and name recognition and showed an attractive, confident candidate and made the case for her.
Jacobs’ ads were uneven and some downright lame. He had a “cutsie” ad in which his kids write his policy positions on a chalkboard and it ends with them slipping in that he will give them a raise. It was pretty lame and did not ad to his stature, his “gravitas” as policy wonks like to call it.
Actually, carpetbagging sometimes works. Hillary Clinton moved to New York and got elected to the U.S. Senate.
But it can be a burden and Jacobs never closed the deal that Iowans needed to go to Texas to find a suitable candidate for the Senate. Iowans don’t like Texas much anyway so watch out Gov. Rick Perry if you plan to run for president.
I am amazed that paid writers still make mistakes like that. Ad should be add in this line.
They also do the reverse, a lot.
lol.
Add-vertisement?
I see a lot of “for sell” these days. What do they do in schools, watch TV?
A lot of TV when teachers want quiet time.
The media was sure, or at least wanted us all to be sure, that was the nail in her coffin, her self destruction, and the end of her.
And a short day and three months off with pay? I want that job!
Now they act like they knew all along she’d win... LOL
In Illinois there is a law that affects school funding. It demands so many school days. So Chicago schools, which were closed so much due to cold and snow, are open through next week. The kids are just watching television and hanging out. If you go home early or don’t show you will be punished. So in Chicago, at least, the kids are literally watching television the last two weeks of school.
This nugget will certainly recede into obscurity, but Jacobs was the original GOPe candidate in this race. But Joni Ernst came out with guns blazing so quickly (before the time in the campaign most endorsements would be given) that she quickly shot up the polls. Sarah Palin and the Senate Conservatives Fund proudly endorsed her and she continued to climb the polls. She became such a favorite so quickly that organizations that would normally go with the “GOPe designee” Jacobs went instead to Joni. Duplicitous organizations such as the Chamber of Commerce got onto “the bandwagon” so they wouldn’t be left behind. Jacobs faded into a well deserved distant third place.
Joni has, and will continue to, made us proud.
Expect the GOPe to try to co-opt Joni Ernst—I don’t think they will succeed.
I just wish Sarah Palin’s endorsed candidate Sarah Steelman had won the 2012 primary instead of the nitwit Akin. If she had she would be Missouri’s Senator now instead of McCaskill being reelected. And Sarah would have been helping Ted Cruz carry the load there.
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