(Des Moines, IA) State Senator Joni Ernst (R-Red Oak) took aim at Mark Jacobs in an email sent by her campaign earlier today. You can read the entire email below:
The driving issue of the 2014 election cycle continues to be job killing, tax increasing Obamacare legislation. However, in the race for Iowa’s open U.S. Senate seat, a clear division has been exposed even amongst the leading Republican primary opponents. While Republican State Senator Joni Ernst has remained resolute in her opposition to Obamacare (and has a proven conservative voting record in the state senate to back it up), fellow Republican candidate Mark Jacobs has taken a different approach – raising the white flag of concession in the fight over Obamacare and instead confusingly calling for the repeal and reform of this historically devastating policy. In fact, he has even been spending considerable campaign resources promoting his reform-driven position.
To win this important senate race this November – moving Republicans one critical step closer to a majority in the United States Senate – Iowa Republicans cannot afford to nominate someone as ill-suited for this fight as Mark Jacobs. In stark contrast, Joni Ernst is the only Republican in this primary with a proven record of fighting against Obamacare as an Iowa state senator…and her supporters already know that she will effectively and credibly take the fight to Bruce Braley on Obamacare, and every other issue of importance, each and every day throughout the fall.
On the issue of Obamacare, the contrasts in Iowa could hardly be more obvious. Joni Ernst wants to repeal and replace Obamacare with common sense, market-driven solutions. Mark Jacobs curiously wants to reform Obamacare. And Bruce Braley, who has been one of Obamacare’s staunchest supporters, has misled Iowans by promising they could keep their private insurance if they so chose. Mark Jacobs’ vulnerabilities on Obamacare don’t end with his belief that we must reform the failed law. In 2007 Jacobs endorsed and financed liberal Democrat U.S. Senator Arlen Specter – months after Specter defected from the Republican Party and mere weeks before Specter served as the 60th and deciding vote in passing Obamacare. Yet another example of why Jacobs will be unable to credibly wage a general election fight on an issue that may very well define this race…and the balance of the U.S. Senate.
"When it comes to the fight against Bruce Braley’s Obamacare, Iowa Republicans cannot afford to settle for Mark Jacobs who rallied behind U.S. Senate Democrats when Obamacare was being debated. And now when the law has proven even more flawed than expected, Jacobs’ response is to merely reform it? It is time to rally around a Republican who Iowans can trust to repeal AND replace Bruce Braley’s Obamacare – mother, soldier and proven conservative, Joni Ernst," said Ernst campaign spokesman Derek Flowers.
