Sadly, Iowa returns Trump ally and former good guy Joni Ernst to Washington
I made many phone calls six years ago for Joni Ernst. Then, the Orange One turned up to ruin everything. A bright, thoughtful Senate candidate turned into a Trump sycophant and lost both my support and my respect.
I had high hopes for this woman. She has disappointed me in about every way she could have. She's sort of the Republican Party reduced to one person. All it took was the advent of an incompetent demagogue at the head of the party to which both of us once belonged, and suddenly Sen. Ernst became somebody completely different from the person I thought she was.
Yesterday, with a heavy heart, I voted for her opponent, Theresa Greenfield. Nevertheless, Joni was handily re-elected by the people of Iowa. Apparently, her acquired Trumpiness played well with my fellow Iowans, even though I didn't particularly appreciate it. A combat veteran, the first woman with that distinction to serve in the Senate, she amazingly was also the first woman Iowa had ever sent to Congress. She seems to have liked being there more, perhaps, than was healthy. Our unstable and radically unfit president compromised Sen. Ernst just as he compromised so many Republicans I once admired and supported. Though Trump is likely to be gone come January, trusting Ernst and the others again will be difficult, if not impossible.
I had high hopes for this woman. She has disappointed me in about every way she could have. She's sort of the Republican Party reduced to one person. All it took was the advent of an incompetent demagogue at the head of the party to which both of us once belonged, and suddenly Sen. Ernst became somebody completely different from the person I thought she was.
Yesterday, with a heavy heart, I voted for her opponent, Theresa Greenfield. Nevertheless, Joni was handily re-elected by the people of Iowa. Apparently, her acquired Trumpiness played well with my fellow Iowans, even though I didn't particularly appreciate it. A combat veteran, the first woman with that distinction to serve in the Senate, she amazingly was also the first woman Iowa had ever sent to Congress. She seems to have liked being there more, perhaps, than was healthy. Our unstable and radically unfit president compromised Sen. Ernst just as he compromised so many Republicans I once admired and supported. Though Trump is likely to be gone come January, trusting Ernst and the others again will be difficult, if not impossible.
Ernst ran a rather dirty campaign against Greenfield, demonizing her for having signed eviction notices for small businesses occupying a property being developed for a facility to be occupied by a large company and for allegedly mistreating her employees. The employees themselves indignantly defended Greenfield. Ironically, Sen. Ernst herself was the victim of less than straightforward tactics when a PAC supporting her opponent six years ago. U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley ran ads suggesting that she had signed on to some sort of corrupt bargain to help corporations avoid higher taxes. The agreement actually was simply a pledge to oppose tax increases for anyone.
Greenfield struck Ernst on the record fines she'd paid for violations of campaign finance laws, but at the end of the day, she rode her Republican identity in a Republican year here in Iowa to a second term.
A pity. She would have made a fine ex-senator.
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