Tom Harkin: Don’t Care If Joni Ernst Is Attractive or Really Nice

Outgoing U.S. Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) made an unusual statement for somebody who is quite seasoned in politics.  He remarked on a female candidate’s looks.  He was speaking at the Story County Democrats BBQ last week when he made the statement about the Republican candidate vying for his seat, Joni Ernst, below:

In this Senate race, I’ve been watching some of these ads. And there’s sort of this sense that, ‘Well, I hear so much about Joni Ernst. She is really attractive, and she sounds nice.

Well I got to thinking about that. I don’t care if she’s as good looking as Taylor Swift or as nice as Mr. Rogers, but if she votes like Michele Bachmann, she’s wrong for the state of Iowa.

Buzzfeed has the video. This of course got a lot of applause from those in attendance, but this is simply a place where a politician should not go and I’m surprised that Harkin went there.  How this could be interpreted by undecided voters is uncertain, but it is doubtful that it will help Bruce Braley.  This is certainly not the story Braley would want to dominate the day before election day.

Ernst said she was greatly offended by these remarks.

“I was very offended that Sen. Harkin would say that, I think it’s unfortunate that he and many in their party believe that you can’t be a real woman if you’re conservative and female,” Ernst said on Fox & Friends Monday morning.  ”I believe if my name had been Jon Ernst attached to my résumé, Sen. Harkin would not have said those things.”

You can watch the entire segment below.

Quinnipiac also released their final U.S. Senate poll today that shows that the race is tied at 47%.  One item in the poll jumped out at me “Braley leads 56 – 36 percent among those who already have voted.”  Considering, as of today, Democrats only a 7,801 ballot advantage with early voting that is skewed and that consisted of 40% of those polled.  Also their poll is weighted improperly with 34% of those polled being Democrat, 32% being independent, and 31% being Republican.  Republicans currently hold an 18,000 voter registration advantage.  On top of all of that they show the race tied among independents at 44%.  That goes against the grain of almost every poll I’ve seen.

So based on all of this and Quinnipiac shows the race is tied tells me that Bruce Braley is in trouble and the Des Moines Register’s poll isn’t the outlier that Democrats would have you believe.